Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lazy Weekend Trip

Yesterday I drove to Walton, Kentucky to pick up 18 tons of Macy's advertisements headed to USPS processing centers in Kansas City (both in Kansas and Missouri). The folks at the printing plant were agreeable and it didn't take long... and they actually knew how much their load weighed. Always a plus.


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My goal was to drive to the western side of St Louis then park it for the night but the dreaded lazies hit at exit 95 on I-64 in Illinois at a town called Mt Vernon. Further analysis reveals that a contributing factor was the local T/A truckstop and its Popeye's restaurant and the box of chicken strips that somehow made it on my truck. After that, it was game over!

I got up this morning without the help of an alarm and headed off again. Everything was fine until I got to the greater St Louis area when all heck broke loose. Rain was coming down in buckets and huge gusts of wind were pushing my truck around from the north. I wrestled the storm for an hour or so but when the first small truckstop presented itself, I pulled it over and told dispatch I'd be a bit late. No big deal, as I'm just dropping the trailer in our Kansas City lot for a local driver to handle in the morning.

I made it to KC with nearly empty tanks and I'm waiting for my next dispatch.