Dallas Doin's

DATELINE: ROCKWALL, TX, 9:50 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 356

Yesterday I reported a celebrity sighting. Today I'll start by talking--er, typing--about sightings of a different sort of celebrity.

Those of you who know me well probably already know that I'm a big sports fan, and like to see famous sports venues. In this job I get to pass by such places as I roll on down the nation's highways. 'Twould be nice if I could stop and get a good look, but time and the question of what to do with a 70-foot truck make that impossible. On today's drives I caught glimpses of 2 stadiums (stadia?) I've seen from the road before, and 1 first-timer. The repeats: The Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA, and Dallas' Texas Stadium, where the Cowboys play. ("Why does Texas Stadium have a hole in its roof? So God can watch his team play." I've always hated that joke, but it is funny.) The newbie: The Cotton Bowl, also in Dallas. But enough about the fun stuff. On to today's work journal.

This morning I actually slept 'til my alarm sounded. True, it was still early, 4:30, and my night's sleep was again shorter than I'd have liked, but I didn't feel too worse for the wear. Since I had to be in Dallas, 300 miles away, by 11:30, I was up and on the road by 5:00. The drive went well, and with a breakfast stop en route I still reached my delivery site at 10:45. However, when I checked in, they told me to wait 'til my appointment time. Fortunately, they have ample room in their lot, so I (and a couple other trucks early for their appointments as well) parked and waited. At the appointed hour I checked back in and got my dock assignment. I backed to the door with no problems, then waited some more. Apparently they all went to lunch at that time, and nothing happened with my load 'til after 12:30. Remind me to send a thank-you card to their receiving scheduling department for that appointment time.

Once they started unloading, the process went quickly and was complete by 1:15. I took the next 15 minutes to take care of my paperwork and log entry, send in my "empty call" message to dispatch, and pull away from the dock, and shut the trailer doors. Soon my next assignment came in: pick up a load from a metal recycling company that I'd been to once previously.

The pickup site wasn't very far away, so I headed right over there, even though I would get there more than an hour before the scheduled pickup time. The time I'd been there before, I had quite a wait as well as some tricky maneuvering through their tight yard to park my empty trailer. This time the pre-loaded trailer I was to pick up was already full, and I just needed to wait only a few minutes for them to bring it out. They also had me drop my empty trailer on the shoulder of the street out front, instead of pulling it into their empties lot. All in all it went much better and quicker than last time, but it's still not a lot of fun going to that place. It's in an economically-challenged part of the city and on a wide, busy street. There's a lot of activity going on at and immediately surrounding the place, what with lots of trucks going in and out, people in cars and pickups dropping off metal for recycling. And we truckers need to make U-turns across that busy street to park and drop trailers and to head back towards the highway when we're done there. However, on Mondays and Fridays they have a big grill set up by their office and give away free hot dogs, so I got to take advantage of that perk.

Anyway, the stop at that site took around 45 minutes, and I was back underway. By this time I was getting quite tired, and a couple of traffic jams on the highway didn't help matters. I set my sights on a Love's truck stop just east of Dallas for a late lunch at their Carl's Jr. fast food joint. When I got there, I found an open spot in the small lot and parked, rather than pulling into the fuel island and running in and grabbing something to go. I had intended to continue on to the Texarkana area, but my fatigue was getting the better of me. So I decided to just stay here, since I'm in no particular rush with this load. (The load is headed to a Monday afternoon delivery in Tennessee. I'm due home on Monday.) It is better not to drive when you're eyes just want to be closed, especially when you're operating a 75,000-pound gross weight (truck + load) vehicle. Anyway, I had a Chipotle Chicken Salad--yum!--then returned to my truck. I hit the bunk, called home, then went to sleep by 5:00. Man was I tired.

I woke up from my nap after 9:00. A little bit hungry, I went inside for a snack. Then it was back to the truck to pull out my laptop and tell you all about it. And that's how my day went. I drove through a few small showers in the morning, but it's been dry since. And warm, though not blazingly hot. And now it's time to wrap up the day by signing off, heading back inside to brush my teeth, and getting back to sleep. I'll be getting up early again to drive this load to our West Memphis, AR terminal, so another driver can pick it up and take it to its final destination. I'm sure I'll be assigned to pick up another loaded trailer from the West Memphis lot that's headed my way home. I'll drive to the Vandalia, OH terminal on Sunday, where I have an appointment Monday morning for regular service on my truck. Once that's done, it'll be time to head home for a few much-needed days off. I won't have had any days off during this 3-week deployment, so I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for looking in again, and keep on truckin'.