Farther Than Pharr

DATELINE: HUTCHINS, TX, 10:15 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 517
Miles Yesterday: 227

Quick update tonight 'cuz I have an early morning (6:00) delivery and need to get back to sleep. I say, "back to sleep" 'cuz I had a long nap after I stopped here this afternoon (I was just wiped out). I then got up around 7:45 p.m. after being rudely awakened by a call from Mrs. R.T. (just kidding about the "rudely" part), grabbed some dinner, went through my e-mail, and played a quick poker tourney. But since I neglected my blogging duties yesterday, I'll make the time to fill you in on my latest goings on.

I gave myself the luxury of sleeping in 'til 6:00 yesterday morning before heading to my delivery in Brownsville, TX. The drive down took a couple of hours, and the delivery went without a hitch. Then I had a wait. After an hour or so I sent in a message asking how soon my next load assignment might come in. The reply: I was "#82 on the board, with 15 more behind you". That meant a goodly wait to come, so I had plenty of time to heat up some lunch (I was parked at a "Parking Area" along the highway through Brownsville, so nowhere to buy grub) and catch a few Zs. Finally, after 4 or 4-1/2 hours, I had a new assignment: Pick up a load in Hidalgo, TX, bound for Garland, TX.

About a week and a half ago, you may remember that I had an assignment to pick up a load in Eufala, AL that was to go to Pharr, TX, but that load fell through. (See my posting entitled "Stuck" dated Sunday, September 28.) For this pickup I had to go through Pharr on my way to Hidalgo. So I actually had to go farther than Pharr. Anyway, I bustled on over to Hidalgo (about 50 miles west of Brownsville) and picked up the load. I only had 6 work hours available for the whole day, so I didn't have much time to drive very far after the pickup.

I stopped at a Love's in Edinburg, TX, which is just north of the that Hidalgo/Pharr/McAllen vicinity and is the lone fuel stop on our company's fuel network in extreme southern Texas. That was handy 'cuz I was getting low on fuel, so I filled up first thing this morning when I got started.

Speaking--er, writing--of which, I got up at 4:00 this morning to make the drive up to Garland, which is a suburb on the northeast corner of Dallas. That was about a 500-mile trip, and I only had 9-3/4 hours available to complete it. Nobody had ever confirmed a delivery appointment for this load--in fact, they told me one hadn't been set yet when I asked--so I figured I'd just head there and drop on in. Provided, of course, that I could get there within my available hours.

Along the way, I sent in another message asking if a delivery time had been set yet, and mentioned that my ETA would be 3:00 p.m. The only reply I got a little while later was, "Can't deliver early." OK, that was helpful. Earlier than when? I had to ask that question again. In the meantime, I was approaching the Dallas area and my time was running short, so I headed over to the Love's here in Hutchins, where I've stayed a few times before. (This one has a Carl's Jr. fast food outlet inside, one of my favorites. I've written about that before. Looking forward to a Steak 'n Egg Burrito for breakfast in the morning--one of the things I really look forward to when I get assignments into Texas--and I had a Guacamole Bacon Burger for dinner tonight. YUM!) Once here I finally got an answer to my delivery appointment; it's 6:00 tomorrow morning.

So I'll be getting up at 4:30 to shower up and shave before starting my workday (and getting that burrito). And now that it's after 11:00, I need to wrap this up and get back to bed. Thanks for looking in today, and keep on truckin'.