The Gulf to the Alamo (Well, Kinda')

DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO, TX, 6:00 p.m. CDT

Miles Yesterday: 473
Miles Today: 538

Greetings from the "YEE-HAH" state. As y'all know, I'm on my way down to Laredo for a delivery tomorrow morning, after making one this morning in Morgan City, LA. I must apologize for not blogging last night, but when I finished driving for the day I was exhausted and decided to take a nap first. I intended to nap for an hour or so, then get up and get online. However, I wound up sleeping through the night. Or, most of the night; I woke up just before 3:00 a.m. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and truck drivers...

I don't have much to recap about yesterday, anyway. It was just a long drive. I did have to take the long way around to Morgan City, though. I wanted to take I-10 through New Orleans on the way there, but highway restrictions for certain loads meant I'd have to bypass the city. So I wound up taking the "northern route" around the city all the way to Lafayette, then backtracking to Morgan City via US-90. I didn't get all the way to Morgan City yesterday, though; I stopped at a truck stop in the town of Broussard, about 60 miles from Morgan City. I was just too tired to go farther safely.

This morning I was on the road by 5:00 and arrived at my delivery site around 6:15. Now this was a challenging delivery; a small company with no actual loading dock, a small driveway (small for putting an 18-wheeler into it and backing to the gate in their delivery area), and the need to back in from a fairly busy road. AND, since I was early, doing it in the dark. (Did I mention the site was poorly lit?) But with assistance from their staff, I eventually got backed in and lined up properly with the loading area gate. Whew! That was fun.

Unloading was fairly quick; I was back on the road about 45 minutes after they started. After that it was another case of just putting miles under my wheels. After my delivery this morning I had 9-3/4 hours remaining to drive today, and I used 9 of 'em to get here. I'm at a TA on the east side of the city, and this one's got one B-I-G parking lot. (I guess some things ARE bigger in Texas.) It's no Iowa 80 (the world's biggest truck stop), but it is definitely bigger'n most. 'Tis a lengthy walk up to the building from where I'm parked, and it'll be a challenge if I wake up in the middle of the night (or in the morning) with a "digestive emergency", if you get my drift.

I figure it'll take me about 3 hours to get to Laredo from here in the morning. With my delivery scheduled for 8:00, getting rolling at 5:00 ought to do the trick. (Plus, that'll get me through this big city before rush hour.) I've been to the Laredo delivery site once before and, as I recall, they don't even open their gates 'til 8:30. (I wrote about that before--I arrived way early and had to park in the street and nap 'til they opened. See my update entitled, "A Long One" in March of this year.) 8:30, eh? Perhaps I'll sleep in another 1/2 hour in the morning.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE...
- In most states in which I drive, the mile markers on the interstate highways get as high as somewhere in the 300's, and sometimes 400's. When I crossed into the eastern end of I-10 in Texas today, the first mile marker read "881". Big state.
- I've seen some pretty amusing place names during my travels down the highways and byways this year, but today I saw the most amusing so far. The sign gave the name of a small waterway just east of San Antonio: "Woman Hollering Creek". My windows were up and I didn't hear her.

So how's that for today's update? Feeling up-to-date? Thanks for checking in once more, and keep right on truckin'.