Learning to bake in Phoenix

Today's drive from Moriarty, New Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona was routine. I started long before sunrise and arrived at the PetSmart distribution center at 1400 Arizona time. There wasn't a preplan on me so I simply dropped the trailer and bobtailed over to the nearby Flying J to roast along with the rest of the truckers.

And roast we have. It was about 104 degrees when I showed up and the parking lot of the J was at about 120 when I arrived. Thank goodness both the truck AC and my TriPac are recently-serviced and working properly.

When I was in Omaha a few days ago I had our tire shop look at my right rear tire. The other five tires on my tractor have performed like champs so far, needing to be aired once or twice each in just over a year's time. That last one though drops from 105 to 80 overnight sometimes and had already been looked at by folks from TA and Bosselman and they couldn't fix it. I explained all of this to Will in our tire shop and he performed his magic on it.

Result: one small, thin nail that went through, which he patched. New valve stem, new core, new double-tip valve stem cover dealie that keeps the stem clear but lets you check the air pressure just as fast. Heck, I would have settled for some chicken bones tossed into a sack and a magic spell, but he seems to think this will work at least as well.

Got a weird brokered preplan late in the afternoon for a load leaving Phoenix tomorrow and heading to Mesquite, Texas that can't deliver until Monday. Something like 1,000 miles and three full days to loaf along. I declined the laod so we'll see what pops up tomorrow morning. I might need those chicken bones and spell after all.