The 800

Pardon me, I'm still gasping a bit. I just finished putting 800 dollars worth of diesel into my truck tanks and reefer.

That load of Taco Bell tortillas was cursed. I showed up at midnight only to be told no one will be around to unload it until 0400. At least they let me in the gate this time, as no one else was there.

I set my alarm for 0400 and after about 30 minutes of waiting one of the yard dog drivers comes by and tells me which slot I can back in to once he grabs the empty from it. I take about a dozen pullups but manage to get it backed in one piece, then I wait. Finally, about 0645 I feel the unloading begin and I'm done and gone by about 0730. What a pain in the bunions over a 350 mile load.

My next pre-plan had me run across town to a Sara Lee plant in Haltom City, Texas. I've never heard of it either: it is a section of Fort Worth. Anyway, I managed to go in the wrong gate marked "Shipping" -- very clever, those pastry people -- but eventually got it sorted out.

This load was marked as a drop and hook with a preloaded trailer waiting for me, which turned out to be incorrect. Naturally, the only person in the group of (Sara Lee's people, Hill Brothers people, and the driver) that is out of that loop was, of course, the driver. They assigned me a door and the wait began again.

I was done after almost exactly two hours and left. My usually-smart Garmin took me over Texas route 121 north out to the north of Dallas which was a real cluster. It is ripped up for over 20 miles with traffic forced on to the frontage road with lights galore. Naturally, they are replacing a free state highway with a toll road. Hope you longhorn types enjoy that.

I stopped inside Oklahoma at a fairly new Wal-Mart supercenter to restock and almost couldn't fit all the frozen stuff into my fridge's freezer. Guess that means I'll have to start eating it.

Anyway, finished the day in Joplin, Missouri at a truck stop. Tomorrow's journey is about 550 miles up to my destination, and I'll be a day early so I've already notified my dispatcher that I'll be taking 34 hours off and resuming work on Wednesday morning, which I would have done if I had run this load their way anyway.


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