The Texas load delivered on time and I was dispatched to Haltom City, Texas to pick up a load of Sara Lee products heading to the Walmart DC in Clarksville, Arkansas. The timing was a bit odd, with me delivering my previous load in the morning and picking up the Clarksville one at 2000, but it worked out in the end. I woke up in Colbert, Oklahoma at the Loves, and I shut down last night at the rest area heading north, also in Colbert, Oklahoma.

Today should have been a hop, skip and jump to Clarksville to exchange trailers. This plan went to shit when I attempted to leave with an empty trailer. When I went to swing the right door shut, the chain holding it open didn't want to budge off of the hook that it was hooked to. I spent a good 30 minutes with a hammer, vice grips, Extra-Strength Tylenol, screwdriver, and anything else I could think of until finally I just took the damn hook off the side of the trailer and beat the crap out of the link until it gave up. Sometimes, you just gotta hit something.

The rest of the day went better. I got the new empty washed out in Russellville and exchanged it for a heavily-laden trailer bound for the same Manchester, Pennsylvania stop that I had last week. 1,150 miles and I don't deliver until Monday at 2000, which gives me plenty of time to fiddle and fart around on the way northeast.

A driver chatted me up when I went to fuel up the reefer yesterday in Arlington, Texas. He leases a truck from England and simply isn't getting the miles to pay for much more than the lease itself. We compared settlements and he saw that my plan for $1,500 net per week was utterly reasonable, and was amazed how little I drove to get it.

Now the weird thing. After we were chatting for a while I introduced myself and so did he... it turns out his name is Ken as well! The other two drivers I've referred to Hill Bros were also named Ken. Odd, very odd.

Anyway, if you're out there Ken, I hope you get in touch with the recruiters at Hill Bros and everything turns up roses for you.