An SC Day

DATELINE: TROUTMAN, NC, 8:00 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 402

Whew! Another long day (almost my full 14 hours), although somehow the mileage seems kinda' short. Well, here's how it al went.

Up at 4:30 for a shower and back to work at 5:00. As expected, the drive to my delivery in Columbia, SC took about 3 hours (a little longer with a rest stop en route), so I arrived nearly an hour early. I checked in at the Receiving Office and was assigned a dock right away.

This was another site with a tremendously tight (front-to-back) dock area, so there wasn't enough room to pull up far enough to straighten up the trailer to the dock platform. (Not to mention a few of those yellow metal, concrete-filled safety pylons on either side of the dock, making it tight from side-to-side, too.) But I got it close enough to straight for them to be able to unload the trailer.

For once the unloading went really quickly, and I was done there by 9:00. I then hightailed it to a Flying J on the other side of Columbia to get some fuel in the tanks and wait for my next assignment. After pumping in 60 gallons of diesel, I parked and got ready to exit my cab when the assignment message came in. My next pickup was at noon in Summerville, SC, about 95 miles southeast along I-26. Since it was just 9:30, I took the time to do what I was getting ready to exit my cab for: walk to the Hardee's across the street to get some breakfast.

Now that my own tank was filled, I hit the road to the southeast. I found the company just before noon and headed inside to check in. So much for everything going smoothly today. The one guy they had there who loads and unloads trucks had just gone to lunch; he'd be out for 30 minutes.

I took that time to back my truck to one of their docks, complete some paperwork, and read a bit. When the hi-lo (forklift) driver returned, he of course had one or two other things to do first, so I had to wait just a bit longer. In the meantime, I received a message from my Fleet Manager that I'd be dropping this load at a drop yard in Hickory, NC, instead of taking it to its final destination. Which was? Yup, in Michigan. Alma, to be precise. The problem was that the load doesn't delivery until Monday, so the 800-some miles would not be enough for the 4 days 'til delivery. Since I need as many miles (and the pay that goes with them) as I can get, I'm more than happy to drop this load and get another with more miles.

Meanwhile, back to the pickup, it was finally my turn and the load was complete and I was on my way around 2:15. Now I had to get to Hickory, around 220 miles away. I had just enough hours for today to get there...if all went well. However, my course took me through Charlotte, NC right at 5:00, aka rush hour. It was slow going through the city, but the big slowdown was north of town where the highway narrows to 2 northbound lanes. After a while it became clear that I wouldn't make Hickory within my allotted hours, so I pulled into a truck stop here in Troutman for the night. I've stopped here--a Hess Wilco Travel Plaza--a couple of times before on my way by on previous trips, so I knew it has a good-sized lot. Besides, it wasn't quite 7:00 p.m. yet, so it wasn't likely to be filled up just yet.

I'm going to let myself sleep in 'til 5:00 tomorrow morning, then I'll get going as soon as I can after that. The drop yard in Hickory is, by my quick calculation, about 45 miles away, so I'll get there good and early. Once I drop the trailer and let dispatch know I've done that, I'll have to wait for my next load assignment. I assume they'll have one there they'll want me to grab and go with, but I won't know 'til then. So you'll have to check back tomorrow to find out where I'm headed next.

Thanks for following along. Please do supply a comment; it's pretty depressing to see, "0 comments" after the previous day's update when I sign on each day. :-( And do, as always, keep on truckin'.