2 More Long-uns

DATELINE: OAK GROVE, MO, 9:22 p.m. CST

Miles Yesterday: 462
Miles Today: 425

Whew! A couple of long days, despite the relatively "few" miles. Both included lengthy waits that caused me to work nearly my entire 14-hour driving window. I was too tired last night to record it for you in this space, but I'll make the effort to catch you up in tonight's episode.

Yesterday I started out by completing the drive to my delivery in Roanoke, TX. It took about 3-1/2 hours of driving to get there from Oklahoma City. The delivery was a drop-and-hook, so it went fairly quickly--30 minutes from entry to exit at the guard shack at the gate. Fortunately, the rain let up a bit while I was out of my cab to unhook and hook the trailers. Did I mention the whole day was gloomy and rainy, sometimes heavily rainy? After the delivery I scooted down the road to a Pilot truck stop to wait for my next assignment. While there the rain did not let up, so I got a bit wet when walking to and from the building. Good thing I found a fairly close parking spot there.

It was over an hour before my assignment came in. In the interim I sat in my cab working on puzzles in a puzzle book put out by the publishers of Games magazine, so I had something to help pass the time. When the load assignment came in, it was just a bit confusing. The pickup was set for 2:00 that afternoon in Grand Prairie, TX (just north of Arlington, between Dallas and Ft. Worth) and delivery was scheduled for 2 hours later--in Tulsa, OK, 270-ish miles away. I sent in a message asking about that; after a while (while I was on my way to the pickup) my fleet manager called to 'splain. Apparently the pickup had been delayed by the weather situation in the area, so the load was behind schedule. And it was a HOT load: generators headed to a store in Tulsa, where the power was out to many residents. So I needed to get there with the load as quickly as I could.

That, however, was another problem. If traffic was completely clear all the way, I had perhaps just enough time to get to Tulsa within the remaining portion of my 14 hours for the day, which was 5 hours by the time I left from the pickup. However, a LOT of people live--and drive--in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, and with the heavy rain at the early part of rush hour, I couldn't make tracks as I needed to. It became clear early on that I wasn't going to get all the way to Tulsa. I pulled into a rest area and sent in a message stating that fact, and that I was shooting to make it to the Oklahoma City Flying J (from whence I had started the day). They could arrange a load swap there if they wanted to in order to get that load to its destination ASAP. I continued on my way to OKC and made it there just in time to avoid violating any hours of service regulations for the day.

I hadn't gotten any word from dispatch about a possible swap, so I sent in another message stating where I was and asking if a swap was in the works, or if I would just keep the load and head there first thing in the morning. This was around 8:00 p.m., and I was way tired, so I hit my bunk and went to sleep. 1-1/2 hours later I got a message, its "beep" alert waking me up. The message asked what time I'd be able to get there in the morning, and why I was in OKC. They (she, actually, on this occasion) said OKC was "out of route".

OK, there is another route that is more direct, but it's mainly along a couple of US highways, with many portions not being limited-access highway, snaking through towns and encountering stoplights and lower speed limits. Besides, I would have spent another goodly amount of time while circling Dallas in heavy, slow traffic just to get to that highway. However, I went the way I did because I wanted to stay on the interstates (something they tell us in training AND USA Truck orientation is preferred), and replied as such. Besides, the OKC route isn't really very much out of the way.

The "chewing out" about my route choice irked me, and it took me a good while to fall back asleep, despite my strong fatigue. Eventually I did resume sawing logs, and was sleeping soundly when another message came in and woke me up. This time is was between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., and the message asked if I was on my way to the delivery. Sheesh! For one thing, these trucks have GPS units on them, and dispatch can find out just where we are. For another, I hadn't even completed my required 10-hour break yet. Sometimes I think the night-time dispatchers don't have enough to do in the middle of their shifts, so they send messages to interrupt their drivers' sleep. I messaged back that I would hit the road as soon as I completed my break. I was too polite to make a fuss about waking me up, but I was again irked and had trouble falling back asleep.

Eventually my watch's alarm woke me up when it was time to get back to work. I got up, freshened up, and hit the road pretty quickly. 2-1/4 hours later I was in Tulsa, arriving at the delivery site. After making the tricky docking maneuvers (off of a narrow side street, not a lot of extra room for pulling up to straighten out), I had a bit of a wait in my cab while they unloaded the trailer. As I mentioned earlier, this was a load of generators. The delivery was to a store that was selling a LOT of them--there was a steady stream of pickup trucks and SUVs to the loading dock next to me, customers picking up the goods they'd paid for in the front of the store.

It took 2 hours for them to finish unloading my trailer and to find the copy of the load's paperwork I had turned in on my arrival. (I need a copy to turn in to USA.) But they did find it, then I headed over to the local Flying J for fuel, a quick bite to eat (it was about lunchtime, after all), and to wait for my next load.

This next load was pre-planned for me, and my fleet manager had let me know while I was waiting at the delivery where the pickup would be--at least the city: Spring Hill, Kansas. I found the town in my atlas; it's just south of Kansas City, KS. I also had plenty of time to plan my route there, too. There wasn't a convenient interstate route between Tulsa and KC, so I decided to go north on US169 and US75 to I-35 (pull out your US atlas and check it out), then east on 35 to the exit for Spring Hill. (That was also along US169, but I decided to go the way I did because, 1. pickup wasn't scheduled 'til 5:00 p.m., and the load assignment mentioned not arriving prior to 15 minutes before the appointment, so I had plenty of time since it was still well before noon, and 2. at the intersection of US75 and I-35 is a TA, and I figured I could stop there for a quick break. Anyway, I made the drive and arrived around 4:30.

There's another story here about having to check in twice and being interrupted while following the instructions I'd been given at the first check-in, (then getting the same instructions the second time) but I'm getting tired and this entry is getting long, so I'll leave it out. Suffice to say that for a drop-and-hook pickup, 1-1/2 hours is way too long. After completing the pickup, I made for this town about 20 miles east of KC, MO. I'm at the TA here, where I've spent the night once before.

My new load is headed for an early Monday morning delivery in Tewksbury, Mass. I don't know yet if I'll take it the whole way or not. For one thing, I have requested to get home for a day on Sunday for the annual holiday concert by the men's chorus of which I am a founding member (and one of the things I miss most because of this job). For another, I don't know if I have enough hours to make the whole drive. I only have 28 left (of my 70-hours-in-8-days limit) through Monday, and it's over 1400 miles the Tewksbury. I'd kinda' like to give it a go, because I do need the paying miles, and I haven't had a chance to drive in MA yet on this job. I'd like to add that state to my fridge. (I collect the state-shaped magnets for each state I've trucked in, and I haven't added a new one for a while now.)

OK, I know I've run on a bit here, but it has been a busy, eventful 2 days. Thanks for checking in, and keep on truckin'.