Carlisle, PA

DATELINE: CARLISLE, PA, 10:00 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 390-something

Nothing much out of the ordinary today, which makes the whole day out of the ordinary. I was up early (5:00 a.m.) and on my way to my delivery by 5:30, and reached the company at about 7:15. It was a live unload, so it took a little more than an hour, but not unreasonably long. Then I had about an hour wait for my next assignment.

The next pickup was at 1:00 p.m. in Clifton, NJ, fairly near where I had started out the day. So I boogied on over there, making a quick stop for a bite to eat en route. I also hit a lot of traffic slowdowns on the way, so it took most of 3 hours to go the 90 miles. But I got there about right on time.

That company has a fairly tight lot...at least the gates into the lot are a bit tricky to get lined up to and through. But I negotiated the space and got in there and docked. The loading took, again, just a bit more than an hour, and I was back on my way with just about 4-1/2 hours left available to drive.

I made it here to the Flying J in Carlisle. I've been here a number of times before, so it's familiar territory. (I've stopped here for fuel many more times than I've stayed the night, though.) I was hoping to get a bit farther, such as Hagerstown, MD, another 60-ish miles down the road, but slow traffic did not permit me to get that far within my allotted hours. Oh well, I just have another 300-ish miles to go tomorrow to get to my delivery just west of Charlestown, WV by 1:00 p.m. So I'll need to get rolling early (but not mega-early) in the morning. So I'll need to wrap this up and get to bed quite soon.

But first let me answer reader dennis the accompanist's queries: "Every so often, I see pieces of a big tire along a freeway--I'm guessing these were some truck tire that shredded. Has this ever happened to you? Any idea what causes it? And why do some trailers seem to have 36 wheels on them? (or some large number, anyway...)"

Those tire shreds are (for the most part) from blown truck tires. I haven't had any shred on my on the highway, but one time at a pickup I wound up with two flat trailer tires (on the same side of the same axle), so I had to drive to a tire shop a few miles away, but not on the highway. On that drive, the flats did shred themselves apart real good, so there wasn't much rubber left by the time I got to the shop.

Regarding trailers with lots of tires (or more correctly, extra axles), they're there to distribute the load's weight. All states have weight restrictions per axle, so if a load is extra-heavy, the extra axles are necessary to keep any of them from carrying too much weight.

And now it's bed time. Thanks for looking in today, and keep on truckin'.