South of Atlanta, Georgia

I delivered my load of Hungry Man frozen dinners yesterday afternoon to the distribution center in McDonough, Georgia but the appointment wasn't until 0100 this morning and they didn't take it early. While I snoozed they were offloading the product and once complete I started my new day's run up to Chattanooga, Tennessee, then over to Batesville, Arkansas.

For some reason, night dispatch decided to come to life around 0200 this morning and ask why I wasn't running already. Seems they had received a phone call from the plant in Chattanooga and they needed trailers up there ASAP. Why said night dispatcher didn't read the messages I had exchanged with my dispatcher the day before that covered the situation is beyond me. Since I had my alarm set to go off shortly anyway, I didn't scream too loudly at him.

The run up to Atlanta is very smooth around 0300 I find. By sunrise, I've been shown to a door at the plant in Chattanooga and twenty pallets with "combos" have been shoved aboard. Think cardboard crates with the top open, industrial-strength garbage pail liners and a ton of chicken parts sitting inside. Better yet, they are marinating in some sort of clear goop which burbles up and over the top and on to the floor of the trailer then out the back vent holes as I go down the street. That vaguely chicken smell your nose comes across while on your way to work? Could have been me.

A quick scale and I'm off to Memphis then the wilds of Arkansas. I'm right at the end of my legal hours when I arrive, get offloaded, then find a place to park it for the night.

My dispatcher and his offer of a Saturday trip over to lovely Green Forest, Arkansas via state highways was turned down. He sounded almost apologetic when he told me that there wasn't anything else available on Saturday. I sounded almost apologetic when I said it sounds like a great time for a 34-hour reset.