Messed up weekend

I arrived in Russellville, Arkansas Saturday afternoon and dropped off my trailer at the cosnignee, then bobtailed over to a local truckstop. It turns out I didn't have enough hours to pick up my next load and run it by the house, and the pickup was "any time" so no point in rushing.

The following morning I waited until sunup to depart, as it was very windy and I would be taking an empty north into the Ozark wilderness for over a hundred miles to exchange for a loaded trailer at the next shipper. I took this load blindly, and it turns out I should have done more research: Green Forest, Arkansas is at the drop-dead center of NOWHERE. Worse, the road from Russellville was a twisty, two-lane death slog of a "highway" with lots of climbing and descending. You know it isn't going to be a good drive when you see a sign proclaiming "Curvy and Steep roads next 53 miles, drive carefully". Only the fact that I was unloaded made it tolerable. There aren't many places in the lower 48 where you are on a 55 MPH stretch of road with 15 and 20 MPH corners.

When I picked up there was an argument over the satellite unit about which trailer I was picking up. The paperwork I got matched the trailer number I hooked to, but it didn't match the number in the system. Guess what, I was right, and so was the paperwork.

Then I ran back up US-65 past Branson, Missouri enjoying steep grade after steep grade all the way to Springfield, where I stopped for a few hours at the house. I was originally going to have the weekend off, but in order to deliver this load on time I had to get back on the road and finish the last five hours so I could have a full day to run today. So much for time at home this go around.

I arrived in Trenton, Missouri in the early evening only to find no cellphone coverage or internet access. Sorry I couldn't call you for Mother's day Mom.