Anyway, I did indeed get up early-early to pick up a load of soft drinks headed to Kansas City. I was moving out of the Chicago area by 0500 or so and I'm sure glad I wasn't headed the other direction. I had a couple short slow ups but nothing to worry about, and an hour later I was full steam headed west. Well, as much as 55 mph is "full steam" of course.
I stopped off for a shower and a bite to eat as soon as I crossed into Iowa and when I got back to my truck I asked my dispatcher if it would be possible to "T-call" the load in Kansas City. That is trucker talk for transferring the load to another unit, in this case a local driver. See, I would arrive around 1500 today and the load doesn't deliver until tomorrow morning. Shortly thereafter I got approval to drop the trailer at our yard in KC then not one but two pre-plans show up over the satellite unit.
There was some disagreement over when I was going to do what to whom and where but eventually it got sorted out. I picked up a load at every truck driver's favorite underground storage facility in Independence, Missouri which I visited once before when I worked at CFI (details here). The test of my driving skills didn't disappoint, but I managed to get in and out without a scratch.
The ominous entrance, this time from inside my wide-cab Volvo 780:
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There are seemingly endless corridors with stone pillars as you can see here through which we (very carefully) maneuver our big rigs:
Finally, I got it backed into a dock and here is the beauty pic:
Here is today's run. Tomorrow's I'll get to tomorrow.
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