Dream weekend with a nightmare twist

The drop and hook in Shelby went as planned, though the clerks at Menards didn't understand why our people needed copies of 31 pages of documents for this load. I shrugged and they dutifully sent them through the copier and away I went with the copies and an empty van trailer.

Before I had arrived my satellite unit beeped to tell me that I had yet another preplan -- pick up a preloaded trailer from Aurora, Nebraska and take it down to Phoenix, Arizona to deliver any time Monday. Yes! A solid weekend trip to keep me busy (and to take my miles this week to 3,100 with a couple days left to run even). Nothing can possibly stop me now!

Of course, the weather might have a say in all of that. I was surprised to find a snow forecast for the Omaha area overnight but the temps barely below freezing. Nothing much to worry over, I'm sure...

Meanwhile, my hours ran out about 30 miles east of Aurora at the rest area near York, Nebraska where I am hunkered down tonight. Its c-c-c-cold out and the bunk heater is humming away, making a new feline friend.

Preplanned

I forgot to mention that yesterday I received a second preplan after the first. Once I unloaded in Columbus, Ohio this morning I drove across town and reloaded for Shelby, Iowa. The city streets were very narrow and I was a bit distressed to see a "Trucks must back in from the street" sign at the shipper but it turned out the product I was there for used a separate but tight dock around the rear of the plant.

For some reason this particular shipment involves a master BOL (Bill of Lading) and no fewer than twenty-nine (29!) sub bills. My instructions require me to get a signed copy of every single one so my next trip pack is going to be the size of War and Peace. Even better, I had to write "Hill Bros" and sign my name on every single one. People wonder why my signature looks like a squiggly line.

At least the load is light, in the neighborhood of 25,000 pounds. Leaving the city streets of Columbus was a bit of a challenge but a bunch of kids in a school bus I pulled up next to while I was preparing to make a left turn had a fun time waving at the cat.

I made it to Oakwood, Illinois for the night and I'll drop and hook at Shelby tomorrow afternoon. It is only about 35 miles from there to our HQ so I'll probably get ordered there afterwards, or perhaps to Council Bluffs for a ConAgra load.

Laziest. Driver. Ever... Again.

It took several hours for the planners at HQ to get me a new load, but I was too far away to pick up and deliver it on time so that got taken off me. Another hour or so and I was told to head up to Indianapolis to scale my truck and empty reefer, then call a certain number for my next load.

Now, the only reason a shipper would ever ask for this is when they are expecting to load you to capacity. In this case, the folks who ship the prepackaged soups for Panera stores wanted every last drop they could fit aboard, and when I left my truck weighed in at 79,600 lbs. On a side note, my dispatcher asked how much my truck and trailer weighed before I went in to scale and I estimated 35,000. The actual weight was 35,200 so I was fairly close.

I was dispatched around noon and loaded right at 1700 so Indy was all atizzy with the evening rush. The delivery time is tomorrow at 1100 so yeah, mister lazy driver packed it in at the local Pilot and saved the trip for tomorrow to finish.

The LONG road out to Indiana

My new dispatcher finally beeped me with a trip late in the morning. A nice 170 mile deadhead back up to Kansas City to our yard then east about 500 miles for two drops ending in Bloomington, Indiana.

I take pains to avoid rush hours near big cities like KC so I left immediately with the hope of being on the eastbound I-70 before 1500. I made it to the yard around 1430 and was in the process of swapping my empty trailer for the loaded one when a shout from the front of my truck got my attention.

It turns out a lady driver for ProFleet, a Hill Bros subsidiary, that I've been corresponding with for a short time happened to be there and saw my truck roll in.

As I was finishing up unhooking from my empty I basked in a wealth of compliments, from how young I looked to how sleek and slim I appeared, my brilliant green eyes... and lovely white fur.

"Now wait a damn minute!" I was about to protest. My eyes are blue after all. I look up only to find she was showering compliments on the cat. Ah well.

We had a good chat for twenty minutes or so but my traffic Spidey Sense was tickling real bad so I had to complete the swap and get rolling. Snowie sure looked pleased with herself though.

I managed to beat most of the traffic out of KC and by the time I rumbled through St Louis it was rolling just fine. Late, late in the night I finished my first delivery and ended in Bloomington, Indiana waiting on the second.


View Larger Map

Dang

Wow Joe -- how 'bout them tigers eh?

Back in the saddle... again

Four days off. Perfect weather and mild temperatures. Barely any rain or wind.

Of course, this morning it is thunderstorms up the wazoo, raining like it is going for a record and the cat isn't being cooperative.

I called in last night to see if there was a preplanned trip waiting for me but no such luck. I'm here in the truck waiting for the planners to get me something while putting away clothes, supplies and a recalcitrant feline.

Four, count 'em, FOUR days off

You may recall my last time through the house was almost exactly 34 hours, just long enough to reset my logbook. Not, unfortunately, much of a break from the routine.

This time I'm off until Tuesday morning with the whole big enchilada of a weekend staring me in the face. Aside from a few matters at the house I plan on just relaxing, eating good food, playing some games and maybe watching a movie or two.

As far as my trips went, I was up yesterday at 0100 to finish out the run to Omaha and once I got that out of the way I grabbed a shower and headed to the company yard. A preplan came through with a trip leaving any time yesterday or today and delivering today by 1700 in Carthage, Missouri then off for home. I spent the night in Omaha then did it all in one long stretch of driving this morning and afternoon.

This is my 895th post between this blog and my previous one (linked in the sidebar). I may just hit 1,000 by year's end.