Back to Familiar Territory

DATELINE: OAK GROVE, KY, 9:15 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 406

I did go to bed last night without knowing my next load assignment. As I guessed, nobody was shipping anything on Sunday night. And, somehow, I didn't get awakened by an assignment message in the middle of the night. I actually woke up on my own--albeit around 5:30, earlier than I would have wanted to--and still had to wait a while for my assignment. It finally came in around 8:00: head east across the border into Illinois (just northeast of St. Louis, MO) and grab a load headed for the Spartanburg, South Carolina area.

Since the pickup time was 1:00 p.m., I had plenty of time for a nice, easy drive over there. I still made it plenty early; around 11:30, in fact. And I had little to no waiting this time, either. They assigned me a dock right away, I backed into it, and they started loading almost immediately. By 12:45 I was loaded, had picked up my paperwork, closed up the trailer, and was on my way.

I just can't seem to stay away from the I-40 corridor of Tennessee on this tour of duty. I'm headed back that way and will be driving it tomorrow on my way to SC. I'm about 45 miles northwest of Nashville right now at a Pilot "Travel Center." I stopped here for the night at around 6:00 'cuz it was getting on in the evening and the truck stop choices between here and where my driving hours would run out are rather slim (and would be filling up by the time I got there). I'll have plenty of time tomorrow to get to my delivery appointment at 5:30 p.m. I expect I'll be up and on my way early so I can make that delivery early, too. (And my load is fairly light, too, so it won't slow me down much in the TN and NC mountains.)

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It's time for your humble correspondent to hit the sack and rest up for tomorrow's assault on the roads. Thanks for taking a peek, and keep on truckin'.