To the South

DATELINE: KENLY, NC, 9:30 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 491

Gonna keep this short tonight, 'cuz I'm a bit tired after a longish day. Not too bad a day though, mostly drivin'. But my pickup this morning had a couple of anomalies.

First of all, I arrived at the company and went to their Shipping & Receiving door. However, the guy there told me that pickups are handled at their other facility about a mile away. He said that I was the 3rd or 4th driver who showed up there this morning for a pickup. He and I both don't know why our pickup assignments can't have the right address on them. So I cruised on over to the proper facility.

I checked in there and was assigned a dock door right away. So I drove around the back of the building where my door was and...another trailer was already in the door. (Just the trailer, no cab.) So I had to circle back to the office and ask for a new door assignment. No biggie, but I'm just waiting for any pickup or delivery to be completely anomaly-free. But once docked, loading went mucho pronto. So all in all it wasn't bad at all.

Once underway south (this load is going to Maxton, NC), the drive went just fine, though long and tedious (as always). Just the normal stops for weighing the truck, fuel, and leg-stretching. I stopped for the night at a TA here in Kenly. It's at the Truck Stop Road exit off of I-95, and there are 3 truck stops at this exit. A Flying J across the highway, and the TA and a Wilco Hess across the street. I've stopped here a few times before on my way past, though not always overnight. (This TA used to be an approved fuel stop.)

So I have a bit more than 100 miles to go tomorrow morning to reach my delivery. That appointment's at 9:30, so I'll probably get rolling sometime during the 6:00 hour. Which means I need to get to bed shortly. I am currently fighting my way through another Texas Hold 'Em tournament, getting close to the "bubble" (the point at which the remaining players make the money). My stack is getting short and the dealer's not giving me very good cards, so I may be done with that very soon.

Anyway, thanks for checking up on me today. I look forward to your comments and questions, so keep on truckin'.