An "Easy" Day

DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 6:00 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 461

A bit of an easier day today than I've had lately. I could have driven a couple more hours today, but I stopped here at the company terminal in case they want/need me to drop my current load here. You see, I only have 6-1/4 hours of my 70-in-8-days left for the next 2 days, so I don't have enough to finish the drive and make the deliveries (this load has product for 2 destinations) in northern IL on Monday. So I expect they'd like me to drop the trailer here for someone else to complete the run. I'm still waiting to hear about that. Anyway, back to a recap of my day.

I was planning to get up at 5:00 a.m., but I woke up a little after 4:30 anyway and decided I might as well get up and going. The Van Buren, AR terminal where I was has showers, so I took advantage of that before hitting the road, which I did just after 5:30. My route to my pickup was straight down US 71 along the western side of the state to a small town just north of Texarkana. Not long after I got onto 71, I encountered some nice, thick fog, which hung around for quite a while. That made the drive along that winding, mostly 2-lane undivided highway that much more fun. But the sun eventually broke through and I encountered no mishaps along the way.

The drive to the pickup took just under 4 hours. Then I proceeded to the company's trailer inspection station (by the way, I had been there once before, so I was familiar with their procedures) to sweep out the trailer. Last time I was there I had to sit through a live load. Today I just needed to do a drop-and-hook. So I parked my empty, found the specified loaded trailer, and was on my way an hour after arrival. (I did have to fight with another set of tandems that wouldn't slide...I had to find a big rock to wedge under a trailer tire to keep it from rolling while I backed up to slide them.)

Then I hit the road east, my goal to get here. I knew I had plenty of time; the drive across the state from Texarkana to West Memphis usually takes 4-1/2 hours of driving. And it did today, too. I did make a couple of stops: one for lunch, and one at a rest area for an hour-long nap. It felt good to have the luxury of extra time to take that nap, because I haven't had any extra time all week. It's just been rush, rush, rush (or wait, wait, wait in Wednesday's case).

So that's today's story. Hope it didn't bore you. Thanks for checking up on me, and keep on truckin' and commentin'.