DATELINE: WEST MEMPHIS, AR, 11:30 a.m. CST
Miles Yesterday: 482
I guess my shift has shifted now. My work day yesterday was from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. this morning. Today I pick up a load here at 6:00 p.m. and take it all the way over to Memphis, TN to deliver at 8:00 p.m. After that I'll probably get another load to haul somewhere overnight. Sheesh! Just what I don't want. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you 'bout yesterday.
Being used to waking up early, my body did it to me again. I woke up around 5:30 a.m., even though I could have slept in a good, long while yet. Since I was unable to get back to sleep, I just got up, got dressed, then headed into the truck stop building to grab a Steak and Egg Burrito breakfast at their Carl's Jr. Tasty! After that, I returned to my truck and headed back to the virtual felt.
Flush from the previous day's online poker success, I first--well, this is a truck driving blog, not a poker one, so I'll gloss over the details. Suffice to say that I played a couple of 6-handed cash games and a couple of 6-handed sit-n-go tournaments. By the time I was done, I was $9.45 ahead, having won one of the sit-n-gos and hit a big hand at the cash table. Not a bad start to the day.
Next it was time for work. I hit the road in plenty of time to reach my 2:00 delivery early--in fact, I had to stop at another Love's truck stop near the customer to avoid getting there too early (they don't want drivers showing up more than 30 minutes early). So I arrived just after 1:30. Less than an hour later I was done there and back on the road.
I just headed to another nearby truck stop to await my next assignment. (The same truck stop where I waited after my last delivery in Ennis, just over a week earlier.) Again I had a long wait. At one point I sent a message to dispatch asking for an ETA of my next assignment. My Fleet Manager replied back that I was, "like 85th on the board." That wasn't a good sign. So I stretched out on my bunk to rest awhile.
Eventually (just before 5:00) the assignment came in: just deadhead (drive empty) back to the West Memphis terminal, a 459-mile drive. Good enough for me; I get paid for those empty miles just as much as the loaded ones. Coincidentally, the driving time to West Memphis would be just about exactly the amount of time I had left in my 14-hour window for this shift. Unfortunately, that meant driving deep into the night--until 1:30 a.m. Which is when I arrived and parked. I finished up some paperwork, then went right to bed, too tired to blog.
Again this morning my body wouldn't let me sleep. I woke up at 6:22 (that's when I looked at my watch) after getting to sleep at 2:00. But again I couldn't get back to sleep. This time I did some reading and 'net surfing before heading into the terminal to eat and take a shower. After that I returned to my truck. I still hadn't received a new assignment, so I sent in a "back to work" message to stimulate the system to send me one. It came in shortly thereafter, the West Memphis-to-Memphis route. Since it's an evening run, I'll likely need to grab a nap this afternoon, but for now I'm playing in a $1 entry tournament that just started. This one attracted 451 entrants, so we'll see how I do. I plan on getting deep into it.
That's the news for now. Thanks for taking a look, and keep on truckin'.
1 comment:
Have you had any encounters of the deer kind? I had one last Sunday--on the freeway south of Brighton, the cars in front of me suddenly jammed on their brakes, so of course I did too. What I didn't see in time was a deer carcass (and a Big One!) in the middle of the lane. So I bumped over it--like hitting a big pothole at 40 miles an hour. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt at all, and it appears that there was no damage to my car. I would assume that in a semi/deer encounter, the semi would always win--you've got size and weight on your side. But I don't know if other states have deer/vehicle problems like Michigan does.
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