The Overnighter

DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 11:45 a.m.

Miles Yesterday: 66
Miles Today: 338

I made my delivery last night with no difficulties. I arrived a bit early, checked in at the guard shack, got a dock assignment, proceeded to the dock, waited just a few minutes for the truck occupying the specified dock to leave, backed into the dock, unhooked the trailer, drove over to and parked in the driver/cab waiting area, checked in at the receiving office, walked back to my truck, and waited for them to unload the trailer. (I did some reading while waiting, so it wasn't all just "dead" time.) This was at a distribution center for a national retailer--the same company I had delivered to a DC in Louisiana last week--so they had lots of trucks at lots of dock doors to unload. An hour and a half after I had checked in, they finally finished. I retrieved my paperwork from the office, sent in my "empty call" message to dispatch, hooked up my now empty trailer, and headed back out.

Across the street from the site is a truck stop I had encountered once before when I made a delivery to another company further along the small highway this site is on. I parked there to await my next assignment, which came after only a few minutes of waiting. As I had suspected in yesterday's blog, I was to return to the Van Buren terminal and pick up a loaded trailer there. This one is headed for a late Monday morning delivery in Tennessee, a bit south of Nashville.

The round trip between Van Buren and the delivery used 2 of my 11 driving hours for this shift, so I could take the new load 9 hours down the road toward its destination. So just before 3:00 a.m I set out. I had planned on heading for a truck stop in Jackson, TN, which would have been only about 6 hours away. However, by 4:15 I was feeling quite a bit of fatigue. My body just wasn't ready for the sudden shift from daytime to overnight shift. So I--amazingly, considering the time of night--found a spot to park in a rest area along the road (I-40, by the way) and settled down for a one-hour nap. Which actually turned into a two-hour nap.

Yada, yada, long story short 'cuz I'm still tired, I resumed my drive after my nap, took several attempts to find a functioning scale to weigh my truck, and wound up running out of time on my 14-hour driving window as I reached West Memphis. So I've stopped here to regenerate and sleep out my required 10-hour break. I'll actually be here longer than that, as I won't need to leave 'til early tomorrow morning to reach my delivery on time. But I am very tired now and need to catch up on my Zs.

Thanks for looking in, and keep on truckin'.