Everybody's Keeping Me Waiting

DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 9:00 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 549

OY! What a long day. I'll tell you all about it, but first I'll answer reader hrr's questions, "What is your favorite stretch of highway so far? What is the worst?"

Those are good questions. The worst is the easier to pin down: That stretch of US-35 in West Virginia that I railed about some months back. It's a narrow, two-lane, winding, shoulder-free, 55-MPH blacktop snaking around the base of the mountains through the countryside. Fortunately it doesn't rise and fall much in elevation, so it doesn't have any gravity consequences to add to the turmoil of driving it. But at night with its blind and near-blind tight curves facing oncoming traffic, much of it other big rigs, it is an attention-grabber. And it's probably 30 or more miles long (I don't know exactly how long a stretch it is, but it's not a short jaunt), so staying focused for that long is mentally draining.

You know, a close second worst would probably be I-75 through the length of Ohio. It's just dreadfully flat and boring, much of it is only 2 lanes in each direction and heavy with traffic, making passing (or dodging merging traffic) difficult.

As for my favorite stretch of highway, well, I don't know if I can name one. Perhaps I-40 on either side of the TN-NC border. The mountain scenery is stunning, even if driving a heavily-loaded semi up and down the steep grades can be a chore. Now back to how today went.

L-O-N-G. I woke up at 4:00 so I could be on the road at 4:30. The Pilot truck stop where I spent the night has a McDonald's, and to my delight they were open and serving breakfast at that hour. So I indulged my weakness once more and had a Steak, Egg, & Cheese Bagel meal. (Put the hash browns on the sandwich, too...DEE-lish! Try it!) Once on the road, the drive to my delivery (in a small town just east of Evansville, IN) went without a hitch--except for the rest area stop I tried to make but found the parking lot completely full. Oh well, I could make it to the delivery and use facilities there.

I reached the delivery company early and had to wait a little while for their gate to open. I waited behind a few other trucks also waiting for entry. After checking in at the gate, I proceeded to the Receiving Department at the building to which the guard directed me. (This was a large complex of a major company.) I negotiated the narrow roads and turns within the complex and easily found the specified destination, then went in to check in at that department. When signing the sign-in sheet, I noticed the clock--they are on Central Daylight Time! I hadn't realized that part of Indiana was not on Eastern time, so I was there 35 minutes before my appointment. But that was OK; no other trucks were there so I assumed they could unload me right quick.

Nope. The receiving staff were filing into an office for a department meeting. That didn't break up 'til I had been there for 50 minutes. Then they directed me to yet another building where I would actually dock and get unloaded. That meant squeezing around another couple of tight corners and narrow roads. And the dock I had to back into was one of those inside docks with a narrow door to fit the trailer through. PLUS I had to make my initial backing approach from the blind side, angled towards the passenger side instead of the more visibility-friendly driver's side. But I kept things slow and all went well and I managed it without incident.

Once I was finally docked, the unloading went pretty quickly, and I was soon on my way out of there--after winding my way back through the maze. It was now around 9:00 a.m. CDT, and I had first arrived there just before 6:00 CDT. Not long after I left, my next assignment came in: Pick up a load in Evansville, IN at 10:00.

Now, the load assignment messages always include directions to the pickup site. In this message, the directions said, "No directions available." It did have the address of the customer, so I consulted my Motor Carriers' Road Atlas. The Indiana map page has a close-up map of Evansville, and the address turned out to be on a major road that was shown in the close-up. So I didn't have to call the company for directions.

I arrived right on time for the pickup appointment, found the shipping office, and was directed to a dock door. The docking area was relatively wide open, compared to the previous site, and backing up to this dock was a breeze. After parking, I went in to the dock to check on how long it'd take. It's not a good sign when the loading clerk suggests you climb into the truck and take a nap. It turns out they still had to "pick" the order, or pull the necessary items from their various hiding places in the warehouse. Places that have their act together will have the orders ready and staged at the dock when the trucks arrive for them. Anyway, to shorten the story, it was nearly noon before they started loading my trailer, and they finished up at 12:20.

Next consideration: This load is destined for Fort Smith, Arkansas, about a 600 -mile trip from Evansville. Delivery time is 6:00 a.m., 17-1/2 hours after I was setting out with the load. I had known when I got the assignment that there was no way I could make the whole trip legally, including the mandatory 10-hour break along with the 12-hour drive. So I had sent my fleet manager a message asking if I should just make the whole trip and be late, or relay it to another driver somewhere so it could arrive on time. The most logical place was the West Memphis terminal, and my FM set it up for me to drop it there.

So I spent the rest of the day hauling asterisk to get to West Memphis. Unfortunately I somehow missed one highway junction as I was heading south through Kentucky and added probably an extra hour to my trip to get back on track. Anyway, with the long waits at both customers today and the extra mileage, I wound up arriving at West Memphis about 16-1/2 hours after first hitting the road this morning. Yikes! Please don't tell the DOT. At least I still only drove for 11 hours total.

And that's the end of my long day, except for reporting on it to y'all. I get a break of sorts tomorrow: my next assignment is to grab a loaded trailer here at 2:00 p.m. and haul it to Marietta, Oklahoma for delivery Saturday evening. So I'll get to sleep in a bit and relax before starting work tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in today. Be a dear and submit a comment or question, and be sure to keep on truckin'.