Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

I finally got loaded at 4pm yesterday. I left the house at 7am, went and had breakfast with my wife, gave her the most important thing I do every time I leave, a big hug and kiss, then drove the 118 miles to my pick up, only to take 4 hours to get loaded. All day and it was a struggle just to get out of Florida. I made it to the Pilot at exit 1 in Georgia, fueled and went to bed. It's 540 miles from there to the terminal so I planned it so I would get to Richmond at 3:30.

My 10 was up at 6am, at 4:15 there was a knock on my drivers door. It wasn't a light lot lizard knock, it felt more like a dude knocking. I always don't even bother to get up when a hooker knocks, but this dude kept knocking and knocking. I finally got up to see some jerk-off standing at my drivers door with a beer in his hand and wobbling from side to side. I yelled through the window that I was sleeping and to leave me alone. He left, I went back to sleep and about 5:15 here comes the knocking again. This time, I put my shoes on, picked up my teddy bear I sleep with (tire thumper) then jumped out of the truck screaming at this S.O.B. at the top of my lungs. I told him that because he couldn't understand what I told him earlier, that now I was going to beat it into his head. Luckily for him, actually me, the driver in the Covenant truck parked next to me saw and heard what was going on, jumped out and got my attention, which I'm sure was a good thing, for both of us. I calmed down, the drunk was literally falling over drunk. I walked him into the fuel desk with the promise of a beer, and turned him over to the manager. I was now wide awake, I PC'd the truck over the other side of the interstate to the Wilco, washed up, got a coffee then left. What a way to start a day. Let me tell you, these last few weeks are what books are written about.

I got to Richmond at 3pm today, dropped my loaded trailer, fueled up then went inside to see Jonathan. He asked me to do a load that no one wanted to do, a 5 dropper in Ohio that starts in Youngstown and ends up in Akron, all getting done Monday evening. I told him absolutely, got the trailer off the yard and drove to the 104mm to the J. I get to sleep in in the morning. My first drop is off the same exit as the Petro in Girard, only 3 miles from the truck stop. With the 4 extra drops, and the extra pay for Maryland and Pa, this will be good $$$ with little work.

 

There you are. How has things been going? Did you have a talk to anyone?

95n-17n-66w-81n-37n-522n-70w-76w-680n-exit 2, left 1.2 miles to Pilot on left. 372 miles, done.

Yes, 4 extra drops x $25 each, along with an extra .10 per mile for the states of Maryland, and Pa. which comes to 205 miles.

 

Well I'm sitting in Girard Oh, 3.5 miles to my first drop, then 4 miles from there to my 2nd drop. From there it's 66 miles to my 3rd drop, then 17 miles to my 4th drop, then 2 miles to my last drop. I'm scheduled to be done at 5pm tomorrow. The nice thing about doing these coolers is that it takes me about 15 minutes to unstrap and remove the chock blocks on each one and that's it. Sometimes it takes longer getting backed in than the actual time it takes to deliver.

I slept in this morning, I got up right at dawn, took a shower, ate then drove the 372 miles nonstop in the pouring rain.

 

Good. I'm sure something was said. I also believe that if you said nothing, then nothing would have been done. Their job is to dispatch freight, not look at an individual drivers mileage, or lack of, that's why it's important to bring it to someone's attention when need be.