Saturday, October 25, 2008

The weekend trip cometh

Around 0900 on Friday the satellite unit went off with a hot-hot-hot run from our yard in Omaha out to Minooka, Illinois. It seems a trailer we've been holding for at least 10 days was due to deliver that very afternoon. I told my dispatcher that I couldn't get rolling for an hour because my clothes were in the dryer but that was fine. Meanwhile, I got the bills, found the trailer, fueled my truck and got my 5th wheel greased.

Given my late departure, I gave an ETA of 1800 and that was when I rolled up to the gates of the Kellogg's facility in Minooka. The one poor gate guard was overwhelmed with eight or ten trucks trying to get in or out simultaneously so it took a while to get that sorted out.

Good news though: on the way to deliver I was sent a (rare) preplan. First, after I dropped the trailer I was to bobtail over to the Petsmart DC in Ottawa, Illinois then take a load from there down to west Texas for Monday morning. Better, I got to restock at the super Walmart just down the street from Petsmart and head through the house to pick up mail and such.