Friday, August 15, 2008

Of Wal-Mart and Cow Paths

I shut down last night a few miles north of Kansas City, MO at the last rest area before crossing into Kansas. I had a few hours I could have used to go further, but it was around 5 PM and who wants to fight the traffic for no good reason?


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There was a lot of fog this morning but I drove safely and eventually it burned off.

Around 2 PM I arrived in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma and made another trucker "boo boo". The DC I was heading for was a quick right off of the freeway and for some reason I took a left. Now, the smart thing would have been to immediately cross over the freeway, get on the northbound ramp and just go up a couple miles to the next exit and get turned around. But noooo, Mister Big Rig decided to do a little country driving just for kicks.

After about ten minutes I found myself on a dirt cow path with a tight corner that I thought I could get my trailer back around and thus to reverse course. This is out in the boonies, but one of the locals decided to come out and watch me run over a stop sign or something. It took a bit of effort, and there was a scare when I thought my right front tire was going to end up in the ditch next to the road, but I got it squared away and headed back over to the Wal-Mart.

Unfortunately, I was almost two hours early and they are strict about letting drivers in ahead of time so I had to park at a nearby lot for a while. Finally it was my turn and I went in, getting unloaded in about two hours or so.

After I punched in my unload code I get a plan sending me down to Texas to get a load of Russell Stover candy to bring up to Independence, Missouri for a Monday noon appointment. It is only 750 miles or so for the weekend which sucks, so I put in to see if I could drop it off at our Kansas City lot on Sunday and get something else to keep me moving.

Oh, and I think it is headed to the underground place I've been to before which is never a good thing in my book.

On the plus side, some friends in Joplin, Missouri are having a party tomorrow and I'm invited! Unless I get a serious case of the lazies I should be up there in the evening and we'll see what that is all about.