Texas Turn-Around

DATELINE: MT. VERNON, IL, 6:15 p.m. CDT

Miles Friday: 454
Miles Yesterday: 435
Miles Today: 539 (so far; I may hit the road again before midnight tonight)

Well, I have some catching up to do, don't I? I hope you'll pardon my lack of updates the last 2 days, but I was either busy, exhausted, or out of range of a connection. But here's what I've been up to.

FRIDAY
When I left off on Thursday, I had stopped in southern KY on my way to a Friday noon pickup in Evansville, IN. I went to bed early that night, and woke up before 6:00 Friday morning. Knowing I wasn't going to fall back asleep, I actually got up and went for a run. (In reality, a better description of that activity would be a "slog", or slow jog.) Because of my limited (usually nonexistent) exercise time on this job, I've really gotten badly out of shape. That's a huge downside to this job. But I digress; back to the narrative.

I "ran" for 10 minutes--much of it uphill--before my stamina gave out and I turned around and walked back the way I'd come. Back at my truck, I stretched out my legs, had a bite to eat, then dressed and drove 3 miles up the highway to a Flying J truck stop. I had a shower credit on my Flying J account, so I used that to freshen up for the day.

Eventually, it was time to start my workday and hit the road. I was on track to be a bit early, but being Friday the 13th, I missed a turn in Evansville and wound up 10-ish miles out of my way before I found a place to stop and consult my map. I quickly discovered the error of my ways and found my way back to the pickup site. I was only 15-20 minutes late, but it wouldn't have mattered had I been on time, because their loading docks were full when I checked in. In fact, another USA truck was just getting ready to leave, and I took his spot after he pulled out. The loading went quickly, and I was soon on my way to Texas.

I reached the West Memphis, AR terminal a few hours later, totally beat. It was past 7:00 p.m., and if I had gone farther, parking spots at truck stops would have been hard to come by. So I stayed at West Memphis for the night, planning to get back underway at 6:00 the next morning in order to reach my delivery by noon.

SATURDAY
Since I was so tired--too tired to blog for you--getting to sleep wasn't a problem. However, inexplicably I woke up around 2:15 a.m. and, even though I was dead tired, I could not fall back asleep. So I figured I'd go in to the drivers' lounge and try getting comfy in one of the big, leather recliners in front of the TV. Sleep wouldn't come there, either, and it was eventually time to get back to work. Walking back to my truck, I noticed a patchy fog hanging over the parking lot. It was just after 5:00 a.m., and the sky was starting to lighten as dawn neared (it sure does do that early in the eastern end of the time zones). I decided to set out a bit earlier than I had planned just in case the fog slowed traffic down.

The fog was indeed thick in some spots in my drive across AR, but it didn't impede my progress much. It was pretty much gone by the time I reached Little Rock 2 hours later. It was replaced by patchy drizzle, which persisted for most of the rest of the morning.

I reached my destination in Mt. Vernon, TX right on time, a few minutes before noon. (Funny, that delivery was in Mt. Vernon, TX, and now I'm in an IL city of the same name.) The delivery was a quick drop-and-hook (though it took a little time to find my new empty trailer--this was a large place). I sent in my "empty call" message to dispatch before hooking up the new trailer, and had my new assignment before I left the place around 12:45. Next up: pick up a load at a place in Ashdown, AR, (15 miles north of Texarkana) that I'd been to twice before. However, the pickup time was midnight. That meant I'd have to stop for a 10-hour break before making the pickup, which I did at a rest area along I-30 in eastern TX.

I was tired enough to sleep because of my early awakening in the morning, but I only managed a couple hours of sleep. Also, I could not get a Verizon connection for my laptop, so I couldn't get online to blog about the day. I wound up spending the interim reading, walking around the rest area (it was a scenic site set in a full canopy of trees), and lying in my bunk trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. Eventually it was time to get up and back to work.

SUNDAY
I finished the drive to Ashdown, arriving a few minutes early. Despite the pickup being a live load, it went remarkably quickly, and I was underway by 12:30. I forgot to mention earlier that this load is headed for Port Huron, MI, due for a Tuesday morning delivery. That means that if I make serious tracks over the 1000-mile-plus trip, I can spend Monday night at my "home" truck stop and see Mrs. R.T. and the kids. This will be my first trip back to the ol' home state since I started this tour of duty 3-1/2 weeks ago, and I'm scheduled to start my next time off on Thursday.

So I spent the night and morning hours wending my way back across AR to West Memphis, then north from there into MO and then IL. I had to stop at a rest area in southern MO for a fatigue break after sunup and took a nap for 1-1/2 hours or so before continuing my drive. I just about used up my available hours when I reached the TA truck stop in this town, just as I had calculated. So I'm here for my 10-hour break before continuing my journey homeward. I've already had about 4 hours of sleep, but again I woke up knowing it'd be fruitless to try to get back to sleep right away. Right now, besides catching you up on my saga, I'm trying to decide if I want to hit the road again right away when I reach 10 hours on my break (which would be around 10:30 p.m.) in order to get home sooner, or get a bit more sleep and set out around 4:00. Tough call, though I may opt for the sleep before driving.

Right now (7:20 p.m.) I'll wrap this up and work on some sleep, whether it be for only a couple hours or a bit more. Thanks for checking up on me, and pardon me again for missing a couple days of updates. Let me know your comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.