Short Saturday

DATELINE: MORTON'S GAP, KY, 9:00 p.m. CST

Miles Today: 258

Today turned out to be a short work day, though I hadn't intended that when I started out. Well, it was going to be shorter than usual because I only had 9 work hours available (of my DOT-mandated 70-hours-in-8-days limit). But I wound up working only 6-1/4 hours. Here's the story.

I started the day outside of Florence, KY, right about where southbound I-71 splits off from I-75, if you want to consult a road atlas for the particulars. I woke up at 7:30 (EST) and pretty much got going right away. About hour later I stopped in Pendleton, KY for breakfast at a McDonald's inside a Pilot Travel Center there. Then it was back to the road to complete my journey to my delivery in Evansville, IN.

The delivery was scheduled for noon (CST--the time zone line runs down the middle of IN), and I arrived just before 11:00. It was a drop-and-hook delivery, so I was done there within 30 minutes. I took my time leaving after hooking up my new trailer to see if my next assignment would come in quickly. You recall me mentioning in yesterday's update about the other USA driver who had picked up a load from the same place in NJ and was delivering to this same site in Evansville? I came across him at the delivery--he was leaving as I was entering the site. He said his next assignment already came in, and it was to pick up a load at a big company just up the road. So I guessed that my next assignment could be a pickup there, too. And I was right.

I made the short drive over to the company's warehouse, where the pickup was another drop-and-hook. (As I was driving up the road to the warehouse, the other USA driver was heading out from there.) That took me 15 minutes to complete, then another 15 minutes to plan my route to the delivery and complete some paperwork. This load is headed to Fort Worth, TX, and I have to get it there Monday morning. (I didn't find out if the other guy is headed to Ft. Worth or not.)

Actually, the load assignment gave the pickup date as 1/11/08 and the delivery date as 1/13/08. Well, since I got the assignment on the 12th, ain't no way I can get it there on the 13th (Sunday). So I conferred with dispatch, and they confirmed that delivering on Monday will be fine.

After leaving the pickup, I headed south from Evansville on Kentucky's Pennyrile Parkway. My route takes me down that Parkway and along another Parkway across western KY before dipping into TN. Then I cross over to I-55, which I'll take down to West Memphis, AR before heading across that state as I have done many times now. Anyway, I tell you that because it factors in why my work day was shorter than planned.

There are few truck stop options between Evansville and West Memphis along that route, and I didn't have enough hours to drive all the way to West Memphis. So I stopped at a Pilot in this town for the night. The hours I had available for today that I didn't use will carry into tomorrow, so I'll have 9-1/2 hours to get as far as I can towards Fort Worth. I expect I should be able to make it to Texarkana. From there I'll get up REAL early Monday morning to get to my destination for a planned 6:00 a.m. delivery.

Since I've been here (at the Pilot, arriving at 1:00, CST), I've had some lunch (a sandwich from the Subway they have here), did some online stuff, played a couple of freeroll poker tournaments with lousy results (completely card-dead the whole time), heated up a pre-packaged meal (noodles with peanut sauce) in my little oven for dinner, and now blogged. I think I'll be putting myself to bed pretty soon so I can get up and rolling early tomorrow.

Thanks for checking up on me. Drop me a line, and keep on truckin'.