Heading For Little Rock! Maverick

I was able to secure and tarp inside the building. I ended up needing a lumber tarp for the front and a steel tarp for the back. Just barely!
They had some roll up ladders that I was able to carry the lumber tarp up and set it on the front so that was not too big of a deal.
I ended up parking on their driveway in the back rather than pull out in the front. I was pretty tired so I did not want to spend too much time trying to find a place to park.
I rolled out of there around three in the morning as I had to be in Baltimore for delivery by 6. There were as many trucks on the road as when I went in.
They told me they were running steel out of this plant as well as the one that was in Alabama before it got destroyed by the storms. I made it to breezewood Pa with about 30 minutes left on my clock. I dropped the trailer and took the truck over and got it washed. I left out about 0230 the next morning.
I got to Baltimore by about 5:15 and asked another driver there where to check in. He said they did not open until 7. I said I hope not, because I had a 6 appointment. I parked the truck and walked around until I found the office and walked in. There was no one there but I heard voices.
I finally found a glass door and saw someone sitting in there. I knocked on the door and he looked up so I walked in. "How did you get in there?" The door was open I said. He says, "You are not supposed to be in there"
I am sorry, this is my first time here. I start to go back out the door and he tells me no, come on in. Just then this fat slob comes charging into the room from another office..."Maverick, go out and wait with everyone else, we will get to you when you can! I said I have an appointment. He said yea, at 8 and it is only 5:30. I calmly say no sir, my appointment is at 0600. He says, oh well then pull around back, we will probably pull you in first. What a jerk!
All the unloaders were very friendly, just this idiot was a mess...lol
Got unloaded and got a wo to go to the port of Wilmington Delaware and pick up a coil at the port....finally get to use my twic card.
I got there no problem and got into the port easy as pie.
Go over and get my paperwork and head over to get my coil.
As I am heading over, I see another Mav coming back empty.
I give the guy on the fork lift my paperwork and he tells me where to go.
As I am coming around the bend, a pick up truck comes racing over towards me and the guy is waving a piece of paper out the window.
He tells me, : We are out of these coils and I just sent the other guy away, why are they sending you over here?" I said I do not know sir, we only go where they tell us...no big deal as I am smiling. He smiles too and laughs as he speeds off.
So I call my fm and tell him and I then get a load to go to Fredrick Maryland to pick up shingles and take them to Grove city Oh, 40 miles from my house...so I am thinking great!
I turned in my paperwork(stuck it through the window as she was on the phone) and head out to the gate. I just had to show my twic card to get in. I explain to the guard what happened. He says, where is your gate pass? I said what gate pass? He says you need a gate pass. I say no one told me anything about a gate pass. He says, do you have a twic card. I said yes and I hand it to him, thinking I will be let out. He takes my card and tells me to do a u turn and he will give it to me when I come back in. This really ticked me off because he was making sure I would not leave.
So I go and make a u turn and go back in and I get my card. I had a couple of comments to the guard...which I will not put on here. I go back over and park my truck and walk in and get my gate pass and head on out.
It would have been so easy if they had told me that when I went in to "MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR GATE PASS WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED, OR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE"! But that is the Government.
I make it to fredrick and of course my radio will not communicate with the guard shack so I walk over and check in.
Get backed in and finally get loaded.
The bol says no tarp if no bad weather. It was windy and my straps were blowing all over the place. I checked the weather and it looked good, so I did not tarp it.
I headed out and made it back to Breezewood with about 40 minutes left on my clock.
Left out very early the next morning because I wanted to get unloaded as early as I could and hopefully get a mittal load right there in columbus and go 40 miles up the road to home.
On the way I get a preplan to pick up in Wilder Ky with a load going to Comanche IA.
As you can imagine I am not very happy about this.
I called in to talk to my fm but he was not in and I got someone else who I will not mention.
This guy in my opinion was a real smart ### and obviously could not detect my mood.
I said that I was only 40 miles from home and was delivering only 10 miles from two steel places that we haul out of.
He says, It would not matter is you were one mile from them if they do not have any freight, you can not pick up there....REALLY! I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT! I said I know that, but we are always hauling freight out of there...he says not on this csr's board..
So I ask him if this load can be taken home...he says, I have not figured one of these up in a long time. I suggested that I could call back and talk to my fm and he says no he will figure it out. he did and said that it was close enough that I could take it home.
What they have done with me in the past when I have delivered there near columbus is either send me over to Mittal right then or have me pick up on Sunday evening.
If I were a betting man, I bet there was a coil out of there that I got have picked up either later that day or on Sunday....but such is life.
So I head to Wilder Ky and it is all going to have to work out perfect for me to make it back home within my 14.
I get there and they tell me that I am going to have to wait at least an hour or more. and that they would call me on my cb.
After an hour of hearing no traffic on the radio, I decide to walk up and give them my telephone number just in case.
Two other trucks had pulled in and were also waiting.
As I walk in the door, they tell me you can head on back. As I am walking back to my truck, they call the other two and tell them they can head back but did not give them the order to head back. So it was like a LaMans start and they are rolling before I can even get back to my truck, so now I am behind two trucks that I should have been in front of.
So after they load them and I pull up to the station, it is time for a 20 to 30 minute break...so there I stew!
Finally got loaded and heading down the road towards home.
Get hung up around Columbus and run out of clock on my 14. Still had 1.5 hrs on my 11.
Turned the volumn off since I did not want to hear her say Jim Menk has a violation.(she always says my name wrong)
So I got home and went over 23 minutes thanks to the guards who were too stupid and inconsiderate to tell us to go in the order that we have been waiting, and in my opinion, poor dispatching who gave me a load that was cutting it way to close for me to have everything fall into place and be able to make it back home on time to get my 34 hr reset.

Now you can argue this point and we will never know if there was a better load for me to have but for the past three weeks I have been running my butt off to make it to appointments and then be in a position to get another load to get on down the road.
I have always felt that the CSR's do not do enough research as to how much time you have left on your clock, where they are sending you, and your realistic chances of being successful to get home or to your destination. Fortunately, I do not mind running early. If I had not done this for the past weeks, I would have not made some of the appointments.

So to say I was frustrated this week would be an understatement. But I am home and have all day today as I work on my taxes to get over it.

Hopefully I can either find a flying J close to where I am going tomorrow or near a city so I can watch the Super Bowl!

Have a great weekend!

 

From I have read from the beginning of this adventure, the community colleges usually have excellent schools.