Another Southern Swing

DATELINE: COMMERCE, GA, 7:00 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 336

Not quite as long a work day today, but I have the luxury of extra time with my new load to stop early today for some rest. Here's how my day went.

I got up at 5:00 this morning, got ready for the work day, and hit the road by 5:30. As you recall, my first task was to drop my Michigan-bound loaded trailer at a drop yard in Hickory, NC. My drive there took a little under an hour, and I found the place pretty easy (a good set of directions!). I parked, unhooked the trailer, sent in my "empty call" message, and waited for my next assignment.

That came in about 30 minutes later: head down to Shelby, NC to pick up a load bound for Ennis, TX. Yes, the town I where I just was a week ago, though this load is for a different customer. Anyway, the pickup was scheduled for 2:30 p.m., it was just about 7:00 or so, and Shelby was only about 45 miles away. I obviously wasn't going to wait all that time, so I hooked up an empty trailer at the yard and set out to get there early.

But I did have plenty of time for a side trip over to a Pilot truck stop in Charlotte to fuel up the truck. My tanks were getting low, so the detour was necessary because that was the nearest one of USA's network fuel stops.

Fuel situation taken care of, I headed west from Charlotte over to Shelby. A little while later I found the shipper and drove in. I checked in with the guard at the gate, who directed me to the Shipping Office towards the back of the complex (big company, big property). I dove over and checked in over there, and the guy there gave me directions and sent me to one of their warehouses a couple miles away. I just love it when they do that. So I made that drive.

Once at the proper facility, I checked in and found out they were loading the trailer I was to pick up right then. They had me back my empty trailer to one door, unhook that one, the move over and hook up to the one they were loading. 30 minutes later they finished up, gave me my paperwork, and I was on my way.

As I mentioned, I'm taking this load to Ennis, which is 20-ish miles southeast of Dallas. Delivery is set for 2:00 Monday afternoon, so I have plenty of time to get there. Hence my decision to stop somewhat early today. I pulled into the TA here in Commerce (I've been here before--it's another company network fuel stop) around 3:30, bought some more diesel (remember, I've been having trouble with my cab being heavy, so I don't fill my tanks all the way; I only get 50 or 60 gallons at a time--the tanks hold over 100 gallons), and parked. Though it was a "short" work day, I still recorded 9 work hours: 7-1/2 hours of driving, 1-1/2 hours of other "on duty, not driving" time.

A note on this load's Bill of Lading says not to arrive more than 30 minutes before the delivery appointment, so I'll have to start my work day kind of late on Monday. But I'll worry about that when the time comes. For now I have a couple of long days of driving over the weekend. I figure I'll drive into Louisiana tomorrow, after crossing GA, AL, and MS, before stopping for the night. Maybe if all goes well I can get to Shreveport and check out our terminal there--I haven't been there yet, but I have seen it from the highway on my way past on a couple other trips. Then Sunday I'll drive to the Ennis area, poised for Monday's delivery. By the way, I'm following I-85 to Atlanta, and from there I'll take I-20 all the way to Dallas, in case you want to follow my route on a map.

Another reason I stopped early today is 'cuz I'm tired. When I get fatigued my eyes find it hard to focus, so stopping was pretty necessary. So I'm going to wrap up now and get ready for bed. I'll answer reader nancyr's and jim's questions tomorrow when I'm not so tired. Thanks for your readership. Drop me a line, and keep on truckin'.