On My Way Out of the South

DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, 9:45 p.m. CST

Miles Yesterday: 364
Miles Today: 474

Well I guess I'd better get y'all an update here, since I missed yesterday. Wasn't much to write about yesterday; I just drove to Lubbock and spent the night at the Flying J there. Although that was all a new part of the country for me, it was still a pretty dull drive, just mainly the prairie. But I can now say I've been to Amarillo and Lubbock. Woo-hoo!

This morning I arose early--intentionally this time--and headed out at 6:00 towards my delivery. This was an unusual delivery, because it was to a construction site--I'm guessing some sort of oil plant. It was west of the small town of Sundown, TX, in the middle of tabletop-flat land sprouting nothing but scrub brush and oil pumps--lots of both. In fact, the only address I had was, "4 Miles West of FM301". (It actually should have said, "4 Miles West of Sundown on FM301.) "FM301" is the name of the road. But dispatch had gotten the directions ahead of time and provided them to me, so I found it with no trouble. The drive over took just about exactly one hour.

The delivery was also unusual because there wasn't a building nor any loading docks. I had to park alongside a materials staging area at the construction site and they had to unload with a fork lift built for reaching into the trailer from the ground, rather than driving into the back of the trailer. My load was 12 big, industrial ventilation fans. But all went well, although slow. It took over 2 hours from my arrival 'til my departure. But, as you regular readers know, I've spent much more time than that at many other sites, so it wasn't too bad.

After completing the delivery, I drove the hour back to the Lubbock Flying J. I expected that anywhere I'd have to go to make my next pickup, I'd have to go from there since it was the middle of nowhere. And I was right. My next assignment message came in soon after I arrived at "the J": drive 250 miles (300+ if you include the mileage from Sundown to Lubbock) to Lawton, OK to pick up a load bound for northern Ohio.

The route from Lubbock to Lawton was US-82 east to Wichita Falls, TX, then I-44 to Lawton. I gotta say that (most of) the drive along 82 was fascinating, topographically. It started out as flat prairie and farmland--mostly cotton fields. LOTS of cotton fields. (I expect that satellite photos of the area look like the ground is pure white because of all the cotton.) After a while of flatlands, all of a sudden the road descended into a canyon. Nothing like the Grand Canyon, of course, but obviously a gouge in the ground caused by water erosion. It must have been at least 10 miles across before the road came up on the other side to yet more flatlands. Not too long after that, though, the terrain became more rolling, showing that it had been carved by more erosion, rather than from uplifting of the earth's crust. Add the huge, unbroken sky and it all made for some pretty spectacular views for a Michigan boy. I highly recommend the drive for anyone who hasn't seen that part of the country yet. Anyway, back to my workday.

The Lubbock-to-Lawton transit took me 5 hours. My pickup was at a site I've been to on 3 or 4 previous occasions now, so I know the routine well. It was a drop-and-hook pickup, and I was in and out of there fairly quickly. Then I made my way up here to Oklahoma City yet again. This time I've stopped for the night at my "usual" OKC haunt, the Flying J with the Sonic across the street. (I'm sure I'll grab breakfast over there in the morning.) I had another couple hours available to drive, but I'd been on the go for almost 12 hours since starting this morning, and I was getting a bit tired. Besides, there wouldn't be any good places to stop around where my hours would run out. And, this load isn't due for delivery 'til Wednesday morning, so I'm in no rush.

I plan to reach Effingham, IL tomorrow, then on to our Vandalia, OH terminal on Monday. Since the load doesn't deliver 'til Wednesday, I plan to lobby my Fleet Manager to let me drop it in Vandalia so I can get another load to get some more miles before I head home on Wednesday. (Home. Sigh! I haven't been there for almost 4 weeks now. In fact, I haven't been north of Vandalia since, either. This tour of duty has been all across the south, including 4 trips into Texas.)

Well, it's been a long day now and I'm good 'n tired. Thanks for taking a peek at today's update. Send in a question and/or comment, and keep on truckin.