Stuck

DATELINE: SPARTANBURG, SC, 9:15 a.m. EDT

Miles Friday: 492
Miles Saturday: 428

And things had started out so well on Thursday, as I reported that night. Since then, well, I just keep facing "challenge" after "challenge".

On Friday, as I drove southward, nearing Atlanta, I was getting some honks and points from other drivers, and I could see a light smoke trailing behind me. So I pulled over on the shoulder to check it out. I couldn't find anything obvious, and no smoke was coming from anywhere, so I hopped back in the cab and continued on.

A bit further on, a guy in a pickup with "Mobile Truck Service" painted on its side waved me over, so once more I pulled onto the shoulder. He found the source right away: a clamp holding two parts of the exhaust system was broken. That allowed exhaust to escape from there, beneath my cab, instead of heading up the stack. Not a huge deal, but it also caused the exhaust components to run hot. I called in to Breakdown, and they just advised me to continue on to my delivery, then they'd probably send me to an International (my truck's brand) dealer for repairs. However, it being Friday afternoon, it looked like I'd probably be shut down for the weekend. Terrific. But I did finish up the drive (another 90 minutes or so) to my delivery in Midland, GA. But I was about an hour behind schedule by then. (Remember Thursday's update when I mentioned that my schedule had no "wiggle room" in it?)

At the delivery I got to dock right away, and while they were unloading I got a chance to get a good look at the "broken" clamp. Now, I'm not a mechanic, but I was able to determine that the clamp wasn't broken; instead it had just come loose. With some careful reaching around hot parts and through small areas, I managed to wiggle the clamp back into place and tighten it down. Problem (hopefully) solved, so instead of sitting around waiting for repairs, I'd get another load and rack up more paying miles.

My next assignment came in pretty quickly after I completed the delivery. I was to drive over to Eufala, AL, and grab a load bound for Pharr, TX. Pickup time was set for 3:00 p.m, but I didn't get the assignment 'til after 2:30 and Eufala was over 60 miles away. PLUS I'd need to stop and get an empty weight for my truck (an instruction fr this pickup). So off I went.

I arrived at the shipper at about 4:15--to find their gate closed and chained. Uh-oh. Yep, turns out they closed at 4:00 for the weekend. I eventually found one guy locking up as he was leaving, and found out from him that the load I was supposed to pick up wasn't even supposed to be ready for pickup 'til Monday afternoon. Chalk another one up for the office gang at USA Truck.

Now, Eufala is another one of those towns in the middle of nowhere--that is, it's a long way from any interstates, with no truck stops for miles and miles and miles around. So I couldn't just "bop over" to a convenient place to park. Since it was late in my work day and I had no idea yet which way Dispatch would send me next, I had to just stay in the shipper's parking lot for my 10-hour break. Yippee! Actually, it wasn't all that bad--quiet, in the back of an industrial park, well off the beaten path--and I was too tired to do anything (like blogging) anyway, so I just went to bed.

Around midnight my next assignment message came in and woke me up. They gave me a pickup in Cartersville, GA, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. The load's destination is Spartanburg, SC. Pickup time was 9:00 a.m., so I could grab a few more hours of shut-eye before hitting the road. The interesting part of the assignment was the delivery time was 8:00 a.m. THE SAME DAY! With the governor they put on my truck when I had it in for maintenance in Vandalia, that just wasn't going to be possible.

A stipulation for this pickup was that my trailer had to be swept out. I've been to numerous sites that asked the same thing, and they have ALWAYS had brooms and stations available to do that. But to be safe, I stopped at a couple truck stops on the way to see if I could buy a push broom. Neither had any for sale. So I showed up at the shipper right on time with a dirty trailer, ready to sweep it out there. Nope. No brooms there. I'd have to head over to a nearby truck stop (there are a Pilot and TA at the highway exit I used to get to the company) to either buy or borrow a broom there.

So I stopped over at the TA. (I've stayed there a couple of times in the past, coincidentally.) No push brooms for sale, but I managed to borrow one from their shop and got the trailer all cleaned out. After all that I arrived back at the shipper one hour behind schedule. Not too bad, all things considered.

So I got checked in with Security there, got directions where to drop my empty trailer and which loaded trailer I'd be picking up, and how to use their scales to make sure my new trailer was street legal before checking out. And there was the next snag.

This company (a well-known adult beverage producer) likes to get as much product onto their loads as possible. So the trailer I picked up was extremely heavy. It took me several "weigh-adjust the tandems-reweigh" cycles to get the weight distributed among the axles as closely as possible. However, because I had a full load of fuel in my tanks (I had filled up on my way over), I actually was just a tad overweight on a couple of the axles. But I figured after burning a few gallons off, I'd be fine. (What was I supposed to do, refuse the load? Sure, in truck driver class they said that'd be the thing to do, but in the real world try getting that one past a dispatcher.) So I took my heavy (46,000+ pounds) load
and hit the road.

First I stopped at the Pilot to use the rest room and grab some grub. I had gotten a message that the actual delivery time was 3:00 that afternoon, so I also had to alert Dispatch that, based on the distance--200+ miles--and the current time--now 11:30--that I'd never make it on time. I'd be 30 to 60 minutes late. After getting some food to go (I opted for Taco Bell in the TA across the street) and returning to my truck, I had a message that the delivery customer closes at 3:00, and that if I couldn't get there on time I'd probably have to drop the load at our Spartanburg, SC terminal. But nothing definite yet.

The drive to Spartanburg was uneventful, except for the hoards of Georgia and Alabama fans that passed me driving to the game to be played in Athens, GA that night. But it was obvious that I wasn't gonna get to the delivery on time. I did luck out in that the weigh stations in GA and SC on my route were closed. I knew I'd be in trouble if I'd have to cross their scales with my current load.

And I do say "current load" because I still have it. I drove by the company when I reached Spartanburg yesterday, and their gate was closed and chained. They have a sign that reads, "DELIVERIES TUES - SAT, 7 am - 3 pm". So I figured I'd just be dropping the load at our terminal in town. Nuh-uh. One idiot dispatcher sent me message to go ahead and deliver:
1) Last night. I was out of hours and couldn't do it then (legally), then
2) Today. So I did get up and head back over there at 7 this morning. Closed. Locked. Nobody around.

Back at the terminal I let messaged Dispatch to let them know that delivery was not possible. They replied that they'd have the Account Managers try to reach the company to see if they could arrange anything. Yada yada, long story short, nobody could reach anybody and I'm still stuck here with the load, at least 'til tomorrow (and my guess is probably Tuesday). Apparently I can't just drop it here either because this is not a secure location and this load requires one for a drop. Hence my free time for blogging for y'all.

At least one thing brightened my mood a bit. When I got here to the terminal yesterday, I eventually found my way to the drivers' lounge (they have a good one here--big, LOTS of soft, leather recliners, big screen TV) and found the Michigan-Wisconsin game on ESPN. (Nobody else was in the lounge, so I could channel surf freely.) Now, it was still in the 1st quarter when I turned it on, and the Wolverines were already down 6-0, and the rest of the 1st half did nothing to improve my state of mind. But the 2nd half sure did! Way to go, Blue!

But that's been dampened a bit by my "black hole" situation here today. Guess I'll have to decide how I want to spend my time today. Options:
1. Watch NFL games in the lounge
2. Poker online (for some unknown reason I'm lacking motivation for that right now)
3. Walk around and see if anything's in the area
4. Go for a run sometime. (There are showers here, so I can clean up afterwards.)
5. Mindlessly surf the 'net.

At this point, I just don't know what I want to do. Suggestions?

And now on to this question from reader andy, "What do you listen to while driving? Do they give you Sirius or XM, or do you have to twiddle the radio dial constantly? CD player? Books on tape?"

Well, I usually try to have some audiobooks with me. I borrow them from my father-in-law who has a large collection. However, these last couple of times out I haven't had time to run over to his house to replenish my stock, so I've just been listening to some music CDs I have along with me and/or "twiddling the radio dial" when the repetition of those CDs has lost its charm.

And that's today's report. Wish I coulda' gotten that load to TX; it woulda' saved a lot of grief (and added 1000+ paying miles) for this weekend. I guess somehow I displeased the gods of the road, so this is my penance. But thanks for looking in today, and keep on truckin'.