Dallas Downtime

DATELINE: HUTCHINS, TX, 9:35 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 344

The alarm on my watch sounded at 5:15 this morning as expected. I dutifully got up to get my day started. It was raining, but not terribly hard, so I didn't get soaked on my way to or from the building to freshen up. When I got back to my truck and started filling out my work log, I glanced at the clock on the radio--which I always keep on Central Time because I log all of my hours per that zone--and it was only 4:30. Zounds! I had forgotten to set my watch to the local time when I crossed the time zone boundary on Saturday! Oh well, that just meant I had an extra hour to get to my noon delivery in Dallas (I was starting out in North Little Rock, AR, remember?). Therefore I had enough time to stop for a shower and shave en route.

I hit the road to still more rain, and some fog here and there. 45 minutes later I stopped to fill up my tanks at a Pilot truck stop that's on the company's fuel network list, then continued on. Another 80-ish miles down the road I pulled into the TA in Prescott, AR for the aforementioned shower & shave. (I have some shower credits at TA, none at Petro, the place I spent last night, hence no shower there...unless I wanted to pay $10 for one.) All clean and refreshed, it was time to make tracks to the delivery.

Through more rain and fog, and some light shows in the sky, I only made a couple more short stops on the trip. The second was for a quick bite at a Carl's Jr. inside a Love's truck stop just east of Dallas, as I was getting quite hungry and was still ahead of schedule. (I highly recommend Carl Jr.'s Teriyaki Burger.) Then it was into the big city to drop my load.

The delivery site was actually within the city, not far from downtown, so I had to wind through some smaller city streets. Happily, being Sunday morning, those streets were all but deserted, so I had no difficulties with traffic impeding my progress.

It was a drop-and-hook delivery, so it went quickly. Afterwards, I headed down I-45 to another Love's that I'm familiar with (and also having a Carl's Jr.), less than 10 miles from where I was. I was down to 3 hours left of my 70-in-8-days limit, so I sent a message to Dispatch (remember, I'm dealing with the weekend crew today) asking if they were going to assign me a load to pick up, or just let me start counting down a 34-hour break to reset my 70 hour counter to zero. Their reply: Yes, and send a Mac 15 ("back-to-work" message) when ready for a load.

I called Mrs. R.T. to let her know where I was and that I'd be here for that break, and to say, "Howdy-do" as married couples do. Then, feeling fatigued from several long days of work, I settled in for a nap. Before I even got comfortable, my Qualcomm box sounded 3 short beeps, the signal that a load assignment message had arrived. (Naturally.)

I checked it out, and the assignment was to pick up a load in Lawton, OK (a pickup I've made numerous times before), 189 miles away, at 11:00 tonight. The 11:00 p.m. pickup wasn't likely a problem, because the load--it'd be a drop-and-hook--would likely be ready early if I went over right away. Being down to 3 hours available for work, and Lawton being more than a 3-hour drive away, the math didn't compute. So I had an hour of stress as I tried to communicate back and forth with Dispatch whether they wanted me to keep the assignment and pick up the load after my break (it wouldn't be due for delivery 'til Thursday in Ohio, so there'd be plenty of time to make the drive after picking it up Tuesday morning), or if they'd just take me off the load. Finally they let me know that I was off the load.

So now here I sit reporting it all to you. After getting let off the hook, I gave in to my fatigue (exacerbated by that stressful hour) and hit my bunk for a nap. That was just after 3:00, and I stayed asleep 'til after 7:30. I guess I really was tired. So I then got up and headed in for some dinner.

My dietitian is gonna kill me--well, s/he would if I had one--but I gave in to the siren song of the "Guacamole Bacon Six-Dollar Burger" (and fries). No. it doesn't actually cost $6, but it's a BIG burger; 1/2 pound of beef if I recollect correct. After eating that, I needed to work it off (or at least some of it), so I walked some laps around the truck stop's property for an hour. Then it was back into the truck to haul down my laptop and write y'all about it. So how was that for a Sunday? Wanna trade?

Tomorrow, as noted, will be a day off for me, my first while on the road for a while (none on at least my last couple of tours of duty, as I recall). The Weather Channel says this area may have some severe thunderstorms, so I guess I'd better batten down my hatches. But it won't be as bad as up in Oklahoma, so I'm glad I didn't get headed that-a-way with my remaining hours today to go get that load. I'll be online all day, finishing up my tax returns then, if that leaves any time, finally returning to the virtual felt of the online poker tables. Time to get back to working on that second income. ;-)

Thanks for checking in today; I hope I'm keeping you entertained. Let me know how I'm doing, and keep on truckin'.