Woke up this morning after a great nights sleep. I was so tired by the time I was able to lay down. I stayed overnight at one of our company terminals in West Memphis. Before leaving this morning to cross the Mississippi River and deliver my load to the receiver, I checked in with the local dispatch to try and get an idea what was next for me. I still had a couple of hours before my delivery was due.
Anyway, because I am highlighted to go home this weekend she looked up the available loads headed to Florida. After I unload this morning in Memphis, TN, I go just a few miles away to pickup my next load at 3:00 PM. It's a short 212 mile run down to Jackson, MS. After that she sets me up with another pre-planned load going from Jackson to Marianna, FL. WOHOO! Closer to home! Normally I wouldn't be too happy with the back to back short trips (remember I get paid by the mile), but when I'm trying to get home it's to be expected.
So I leave the terminal and head out. I stop at the McDonald's there in West Memphis for you guessed it; a # 2 combo sausage egg and cheese McMuffin with a large sweet tea! Then I crossed the river, looped around the I-240 south and deliver my load. Here I was able to drop my loaded trailer and hook up to an empty. This is always a lot quicker. I send in my empty message over the Qualcomm (kinda like an onboard computer that most trucks have) and get back the info for my next load. I program the addresses into my laptop, send a copy of the map to my lovely wife via email, and drive the couple of miles around the corner to the next shipper.
While waiting there for a few hours, I look up some geocaches but there's nothing close. The nearest was 2.7 miles away and that's in a straight line! Using the roads, probably more like 3.5-4 miles away. I didn't want to ride my bike this time because it may be tomorrow before I get to a shower again. But at that shipper, I was able to drop my trailer upon arrival. So I checked the satellite image and it looks as though there could be parking nearby. So I bobtailed over there and found the cache. Hmmm. I didn't know there was a government earthquake research center in Tennessee. But that's where this cache was hidden. That's one of the things that make geocaching fun, finding interesting places. Anyway, back to the shipper.
They get my load ready at 3:00 PM. I hook up to the new trailer and head south on I-55. A straight shot on down to Jackson, MS 212 miles away. I arrived here about 6:30 PM. I dropped the trailer and went inside to turn in the paperwork. I'll be picking up my next load here also at 5:00 AM tomorrow so this is where I'll be sleeping.
First I go about a mile back up the road where there was a Flying J Travel Center. Order me an ice cream sundae to eat and drive back after I finish. That's about it for me today. See ya tomorrow over in Florida!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Made it to Memphis
Well I finally finished my Tuesday on Wednesday. As you can see by the date of this post, it is real early on Wednesday morning. Another looooong day for me.
It started out pretty good. I had plenty of time to make my pickup at the shipper and plenty of time to make the delivery. When I woke up it was a cool morning, around 72 degrees. I didn't have to pick up my load at the shipper until 5:00 PM. So I got the bike down to go for a ride along the Mississippi River walk here in Muscatine, IA and do some geocaching. Kind of a gloomy morning actually. Low overcast clouds, I thought it might rain on me. So I left my camera behind just in case. The round trip was 11.8 miles and I found 9 caches.
After getting back to the truck and hanging the bike up it was almost noon. So I went inside to Blimpies and ate a Philly cheesesteak sub.
Started driving down to the shipper about 12:30, just in case they may have it ready early. Just as I was pulling into the city of Burlington, about 3 miles from the shipper, I get a message that the load has been unassigned and I'm given a new load. So I find a place to pull over and see what was going on. Further messages now have me going 40 miles further to Keokuk, IA with a pickup time of 3:00 PM. And it delivers in Memphis on Wednesday morning instead of Thursday. OK. So I program my GPS for Keokuk and keep heading south on US61 to the southeast tip where Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois all come together.
The shipper finished loading around 5:00 PM and I continue south. I'm still on US61, so I occassionally hit some towns and stop lights. Normally I don't mind except when I'm heavy. And this load is heavy! I've got 44,000 lbs of some kind of food product used in processed foods. Not exactly sure what it is. Probably all those ingredients on the label that you really don't know what they are. Not until I reach St Louis where I get on I-55 do I not have to worry about stop lights.
A quick stop in Pevely, MO for a McD's burger and sweet tea to go around 8PM and I'm again on my way. I also encountered some serious rain, lightning, wind, and a little hail for about 50 miles in the southern part of Missouri. Watching the lightning from a distance was pretty cool. I used to enjoy that as a boy growing up in Florida. But once I got into the middle of the storm, the lightning was striking all around me. A couple of times hitting lights posts on the overpasses within a hundred yards from me. The flashes were so bright at times, it was light driving at night with a bright strobe light mounted on your hood causing brief moments of blindness.
But just before I hit the Arkansas state line, the rain cleared up and was all in my rearview mirrors. Now just 70 miles to West Memphis were I'll be parking for the night. I pulled into our terminal here about 12:30 central time. Went inside for a shower and now I'm writing this to you. Time for bed.
Good night and see ya tomorrow.
It started out pretty good. I had plenty of time to make my pickup at the shipper and plenty of time to make the delivery. When I woke up it was a cool morning, around 72 degrees. I didn't have to pick up my load at the shipper until 5:00 PM. So I got the bike down to go for a ride along the Mississippi River walk here in Muscatine, IA and do some geocaching. Kind of a gloomy morning actually. Low overcast clouds, I thought it might rain on me. So I left my camera behind just in case. The round trip was 11.8 miles and I found 9 caches.
After getting back to the truck and hanging the bike up it was almost noon. So I went inside to Blimpies and ate a Philly cheesesteak sub.
Started driving down to the shipper about 12:30, just in case they may have it ready early. Just as I was pulling into the city of Burlington, about 3 miles from the shipper, I get a message that the load has been unassigned and I'm given a new load. So I find a place to pull over and see what was going on. Further messages now have me going 40 miles further to Keokuk, IA with a pickup time of 3:00 PM. And it delivers in Memphis on Wednesday morning instead of Thursday. OK. So I program my GPS for Keokuk and keep heading south on US61 to the southeast tip where Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois all come together.
The shipper finished loading around 5:00 PM and I continue south. I'm still on US61, so I occassionally hit some towns and stop lights. Normally I don't mind except when I'm heavy. And this load is heavy! I've got 44,000 lbs of some kind of food product used in processed foods. Not exactly sure what it is. Probably all those ingredients on the label that you really don't know what they are. Not until I reach St Louis where I get on I-55 do I not have to worry about stop lights.
A quick stop in Pevely, MO for a McD's burger and sweet tea to go around 8PM and I'm again on my way. I also encountered some serious rain, lightning, wind, and a little hail for about 50 miles in the southern part of Missouri. Watching the lightning from a distance was pretty cool. I used to enjoy that as a boy growing up in Florida. But once I got into the middle of the storm, the lightning was striking all around me. A couple of times hitting lights posts on the overpasses within a hundred yards from me. The flashes were so bright at times, it was light driving at night with a bright strobe light mounted on your hood causing brief moments of blindness.
But just before I hit the Arkansas state line, the rain cleared up and was all in my rearview mirrors. Now just 70 miles to West Memphis were I'll be parking for the night. I pulled into our terminal here about 12:30 central time. Went inside for a shower and now I'm writing this to you. Time for bed.
Good night and see ya tomorrow.
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