Good Night From II

My home tonight ...

 

We're Ping-Pong balls, bouncing from place to place.
Tonight I'm in Morris, IL at TA.

I picked up a Costco load at around 1600, but didn't want to deal with eastbound traffic at that time of day on a holiday Friday.
Much better to go through there at 0600 on a Saturday.

 

Just missed you again Mr Moose. I was at that T/A an hour ago getting fuel after picking up a Costco across the street that was loaded on a new trailer for a change.

Now I'm sitting on a desolate and quiet on ramp off of I-39 north of I-80. Ran my 14 down to just a few mins. Heading to Minneapolis with this load from Morris, swap trailers, then hoof over to Arcadia WI for a nice light load from Ashley down to their DC in Ecru MS. Will keep me rolling over the holiday.

I dropped my load from SC at the Kohls DC in Ottawa around lunch but as usual no mty to take. The rest of my day went south after that. Took some Manteno planner 2 hours to come up with a real sucking solution. Bobtail 90 miles into the heart of Chicago for an mty during Friday rush hour then come back out to Morris. I'm running recaps and really needed to use those hours to get close to Minneapolis tonight..not spend 4 hrs in gridlocked city freeways chasing a trailer. The planner said that was the only mty in the region!! I think that was a bold faced lie.

 

It's times like that when I flat refuse to chase MTs.

Last Saturday Jurupa Valley wanted me to "swap" the 14' MT I had before they would dispatch me on my next load. Problem is had I gone to JV for the "swap" I would have ended up WITHOUT an MT. So I messaged my DM (works Saturday) asking her to dispatch me as the shipper had no restrictions against 14' trailers.

 

Paw Paw, MI at a little dive truck stop.

I picked up the Coke load and had 23 minutes left on my 8 and only 1 hour left on my 70.
This was the nearest place, so... I shut down before 1400 and only have 7 hours each for the next 2 days.
At least my load is making use of every minute I have rolling back in.

 

Still at the hotel in Goodyear. Truck out of KW and so nice to listen to XM again. Sent a pplan. Load of Chips t-calling in Edwardsville on the 26th. What started as a 1200 mile load turned into a 1600 mile load. Right in the pplan says must be routed from PHX to El Paso and then Abilene. It also definitely changed the t-call date and time. Plus 1 was basing it on 1200 miles.

 

Plus-1 made a mistake?
Say it isn't so.

I rely on Plus-1 for reliable times - just like that stupid program that tells me the exact times to run and shut down.

 

At a Kwik Trip in Arcadia WI.

Today went much better than yesterday. Made it to the Costco on the west side of Minneapolis an hour early. They gave me a dock for my trailer and I yanked a nice clean brand new trailer off the other dock and was back on the road in 20 minutes heading for Arcadia to pick up a preloaded for Ashley's Ecru MS DC.

On the way here I got a ppln from Memphis planners to pick up a preloaded in Olive Branch MS for a live unload Wednesday morning in central KS. Was the perfect load to end the week at 3200 miles...but they wanted me to pick it up 8hrs before I deliver the one I'm on. Uh, ok. Mac9'd the pickup and lost the load. WTF!! Called my ECT in Houston and asked them get it put back on me since I could still easily deliver on time even picking it up late. I wasn't letting this fish get away.

He called the planner and I got the load back. Now I'm all warm and fuzzy again.

 

Loves ten miles east of Lawton, Oklahoma. Fortunately this is where I planned to shut down, the highway is closed in both directions due to four feet of water covering it.

 

Finishing up our 34 at my codriver's home. We are heading to the Laredo terminal tonight for the inspection before delivery to the broker that's taking it into Mexico Monday morning.

Then a pickup Monday afternoon for a Wednesday delivery in Phoenix. There are a few small things to get done with the truck (CPAP inverter) that will get done on Tuesday.

Has anyone done the Mexican transfer thing? This is our first run at this, and I'd like a bit of a heads up on what to expect.