Another Shift Flip-Flop

DATELINE: ANTIOCH, TN, 3:30 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 331

I was up (4:15 a.m.) and on the road (5:00 a.m.) early today, on my way from West Memphis to deliver my load south of Nashville. The trip took 5-1/2 hours with a couple of rest stops, one including breakfast (just the one--no 2nd breakfast today), so I reached my destination 1/2-hour early. Fortunately they didn't make me wait.

When I checked in at their guard shack, the young lady there directed me to my assigned dock door, to which I promptly drove and backed in. I did wait then, as they took a little while before starting to unload the trailer. All in all I was done there at 12:15.

I headed up the road to this truck stop where I am now to get some lunch and plot my route for my next load. That assignment message had come in while I was driving this way, and I saw the pickup is right near here anyway. However, I also noticed that the pickup time is 21:00, or 9:00 p.m. for you civilians. ;-) That is beyond my 14-hour driving window for today, so I sent a message to dispatch about that. They replied that I should just head over there--they'd have the load ready early. Hedging my bet, I called the shipper. The guy there told me that "We usually don't have that load ready 'til 8:30 or 9:00." However, they didn't have an empty USA trailer on hand to put the load into, so I took mine over there. It turns out the company is only 2 miles or less from this truck stop, and easy to get to from here.

I dropped the trailer there, and they'll load it when they can get to it. In the meantime, I'm back here at the truck stop--it's a TA--and I'm taking my 10-hour break now. When that's over at 1:00 a.m., I'll bop back over to the shipper, pick up the loaded trailer, then hit the road. This load is headed for Tulsa, OK, and due for delivery tomorrow night, so I'm gonna have to make tracks. It's only 615 miles. And, of course, once again I'm flip-flopping back to the overnight shift. GRRRRR!

So now I need to attempt sleep. I had a very short night's sleep last night, so I am tired. But it's fully daylight outside and I'm not a good daytime sleeper, so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for checking in. Comment away, and keep on truckin'.