Carolina Swing

DATELINE: BISHOPVILLE, SC, Saturday, 8/25/07, 6:00 p.m. EDT

Miles Yesterday: 347
Miles Today: 296

Once again, my apologies for missing yesterday evening's promised update. Once again I finished my work day all tuckered out. 'Twas getting late in the evening and darkness had fallen, so I chose to stop for the night at a rest area in Virginia, rather than go another 20-30 miles to a truck stop. But I'm getting ahead of the day's story.

As you know, I had posted a long-overdue update Friday morning from Vandalia. After completing that, I went inside the terminal building to partake--briefly--in USA's Driver Appreciation Weekend festivities. Which meant I grabbed some free grub--they were grilling burgers and dogs, and had pans of meatballs (2 kinds: BBQ and, I think, Swedish), potato salad, and pork 'n beans. They also had cans of soft drinks, bags of chips, and cookies. Hey, free food is free food, right? But the burger and BBQ meatballs were tasty. I almost felt appreciated, but it didn't make up for how they gypped me out of a day off last weekend. But I digress.

After lunch, I headed back to my truck to get going to my pickup. This was just before noon, and if I left then, I'd get to the pickup about an hour early. Then, if the shipper could load me up early, I could get an hour farther down the road before dark. Anyway, when I got in the truck, I had a message on my Qualcomm: See the terminal manager for a fuel review. Sheesh! So much for making plans.

Our trucks communicate various telemetrics to the company, and once a quarter we drivers get to sit down with a terminal manager to go over our fuel use statistics. The point is for them to make suggestions how we can use less fuel, of course. So I went into the offices, and it took a few minutes to find anyone, this being lunch hour, after all. But the whole process delayed me by about 30-40 minutes, and I was back in the truck, drove over to the fuel island, filled up the tanks, and headed out.

I needed to head south on I-75 for about 3 miles from the terminal before hopping on eastbound I-70 to make towards Columbus. When I hit the ramp for I-70, it was backed up and crawling. As it was on 70. So I crawled along in the traffic jam for a few miles before breaking free. But, despite the slowdowns, I arrived at the shipper right on time.

The rest of the day's story is unremarkable; easy load, hit the road, drive 'til tired, as I wrote about above.

This morning, after a good night's sleep, I first drove to the Fort Chiswell, VA Flying J to fuel up again and catch a shower. I was way ahead of schedule en route to my delivery this afternoon in Charlotte, NC, so after Fort Chiswell I went to a Love's truck stop just a couple miles out of my way.

On a previous stop at a Love's, I had noticed they were having a sale this month on some mini-fridges. My previous one had bit the dust (cheap piece of...er...manufacture), so I needed a replacement if I want to save money on feeding myself. Anyway, this Love's didn't have the one I really wanted, a 40-quart model, which normally sells for $99.99 but was $10 off this month. But that would have been quite an extravagance, considering I don't want to continue as an over-the-road driver beyond my required year with USA. So I settled on an 18-quart cooler/warmer (it has a switch to let you choose if you want to cool or warm what you're keeping in it), which was also $10 off this month. It won't hold as much, but it'll serve my purposes.

After making that purchase, it was time to get back on track to my delivery site, and I got there about 30 minutes early. The unloading there went OK, but took 2 hours. With check-in and check-out procedures I was there for 2-1/2 hours. And my next assignment came in before I even left there, in the time it took me to close my trailer doors. Next up: Pick up a load in northeastern South Carolina at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Then drive it to western PA for a Monday afternoon (4:00) delivery.

I made the drive to this spot, a truck stop at exit 116 along I-20 in eastern SC. The truck stop is a chain that I've only encountered here in the southeast, Hess/Wilco. It's a pretty good chain; this one has a Dairy Queen and a Wendy's, along with the usual convenience store, truckers' supplies store, showers, and rest rooms. I won't need to leave 'til about noon tomorrow--actually later, but I'd just as soon be a bit early if I can. So I have a lot of time this evening for extra resting and blogging. After I complete the pickup tomorrow, I'll have to drive hard again. But because of my long days this week, I think I'll have just enough work hours (13-1/4) available for the next 2 days to make the drive to PA. Hopefully the roads'll be clear. But I will have a very heavy load and will be going through some goodly mountains, so some of the going may be kinda' slow.

So that's how things stand now. Thanks for taking a look-see at my report. Drop me a comment, and keep on truckin'.