Back After the Respite

DATELINE: NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, 6:00 p.m. CST

Miles Today: 386

The mileage is down, but boy was it a long day today. I woke up at 2:00 a.m. and hit the road before 3:00 in order to make my delivery appointment 220+ miles away at 8:00 a.m. I made it and was, in fact, a little early. So it was a good start to the day. Then things bogged down.

I got my next load assignment soon after leaving my delivery, and headed right there, about an hour's drive away. (Well, after a quick stop for a bite to eat.) I arrived at the new shipper just after 10:30 a.m., then waited. I waited about an hour in their first lot, waiting to be sent back to their shipping docks. Once directed back there, I waited over an hour for a dock slot to open up (musta' been lunch time for the dock workers). Once I finally got into a dock, I waited for more than an hour again to get loaded. All in all, I was at that site for 4-1/2 hours. That really dug into my work day, because I only had 1 hour remaining of my 14-hour driving window for the day. That was just enough time to get here, at an exit with a choice of 3 truck stops. I chose the one with the biggest parking lot (Petro) to get the best chance to find a pull-through parking space--and I found one. Hallelujah! (I hate having to back into a space when there's lots of traffic waiting to do the same.)

With the delay at this shipper, I'll be hard pressed to make the delivery on time, because it's going to Maryland and it's due on Wednesday morning. I still have over 1000 miles to go to get there, I have a very heavy load, and I'll be going through the mountains of Tennessee and Virginia, which will slow me down quite a bit. Hopefully that delivery appointment can be extended a bit.

As I mentioned at the top, it's been a long day (after a short night of sleep) and I am very tired. Time to pop off to Dreamland, so I'll cut your entertainment off here. Thanks as ever for your patronage and entertaining comments, and keep on truckin'.