A Long One

DATELINE: US-77, SOMEWHERE NORTH OF RAYMONDVILLE, TX, 8:00 a.m. CST

Miles Yesterday: 367

Pardon the lack of update last night, but 'twas a L-O-O-O-N-G day, and in this instance I really was too tired to blog when I finished my work day, which started with one BIG glitch. Here's the recap:

I woke up at 1:30 a.m. so I could get underway at 2:00 to make my first delivery in Laredo, then get to McAllen (150-ish miles away by U.S. highway) for my last stop on this load by the 7:00 a.m. appointment. I reached that first stop at 2:30, and promptly found out that they don't even open 'til 8:30. Sheesh! That'd be good information for dispatch to pass along to the drivers, eh? I haven't been to any distribution centers that weren't round-the-clock operations before. So that was a surprise, and I had to park in the street out front of the place for 6 hours before I could make that delivery. At least that gave me the chance to get bit more sleep.

When I got up the next time (at 6:45, still a bit early, but I had had enough sleep and wasn't going to fall back asleep), the street was full of trucks waiting to get into businesses not yet open. It had been empty when I first arrived. Fortunately, they weren't all waiting for the place I was going; this was in the middle of an industrial park. Anyway, to finish up this part of the story, I finally got in at 8:45, backed into the dock at 9:00, then waitied a LONG time for them to even start unloading, then longer for them to let me know they were done, which they did just before 11:00.

Away from that place at long last, I needed to fuel up my truck before heading into deepest, darkest Texas. One of USA's approved fuel stops is at the north end of Laredo, so I headed that way. Of course, the exit I needed to take from the highway was closed for construction, so I had to take the next one, 5 miles further up the road, and double back. Then when I got to the truck stop, the place and street out front were a zoo! LOTS of trucks and other sundry traffic made for an hour-long fuel stop and battle to get back on the road. Please note that I had previously let dispatch know that I was going to be late for that 7:00 a.m. delivery in McAllen. They had informed me that I really had a window in which to get there, so all was still cool.

The drive to McAllen was mainly dull. It was along a US highway (US 83), which meant no rest areas or truck stops, and many towns to drive through with lower speed limits and stop lights. Although it was only about 150 miles, it took 3-1/2 hours. I found the delivery site easily (for once USA's directions were spot-on)and took care of the docking-and-wait-for-unloading process. Once done with that, I sent in my "empty call" to dispatch so they could send my next pickup assignment.

One of my biggest problems with this job is what to do while waiting for the next assignment. It usually takes over an hour for them to come through. We can't wait at the customer's site at which we've just finished up. If there's a truck stop nearby, I usually head there. But that was not the case here. So I just drove around the city, circling from the industrial park where this customer is to the highway service drive and back. I didn't want to get on the highway headed in either direction because I would surely get a pickup assignment in the other direction. Finally the assignment came (at about 6:30 p.m.): pick up a load in Brownsville at 8:00 p.m. for delivery to some town in Ohio 3 days hence.

Brownsville is the city I had been to several times with my trainer on his regular route. It's about 60 miles southeast of McAllen, so I knew how to get there well enough. My main concern during the drive--and indeed for the whole day--was, "Where will I spend the night?" Having been to deepest darkest Texas regularly with my trainer, I knew that it had very few good, large truck stops and rest areas along my route.

To make this increasingly lengthy post come to a quick conclusion, after my pickup I headed up my familiar route, US-77 north. About an hour into the drive, I--thankfully, as I was getting quite weary by this point, which was 10:00 p.m.--came across a "parking area" alongside the highway. AND it was wide open! No struggling to fit the truck into a tight parking space. I just pulled in, parked, finished my paperwork for the day, and climbed into my bed. OY, what a day!

So now I've had a really good night's sleep, feel good and refreshed, and had an hour to fill you in on yesterday's travails. It's just about time to hit the road again, so I'll leave you with the usual: Thanks for reading, keep those cards and letters (in the form of comments to the blog) coming, and keep on truckin'.