What a day. I set my alarm to wake up this morning at 4:30 AM because I needed to be at Dick's Sporting Goods for a 5:30 delivery. Well I guess the anxiety of making sure I was awake caused me to wake up around 3:00 and I couldn't fall back to sleep. And as usual, I started dozing off around 4:25 just in time for the alarm to wake me back up!
By 5:00 I'm off down the road. Dick's Sporting Goods in Davenport, Iowa was just 7.5 miles from the Flying J truck stop I spent the weekend at. So it only took a few minutes to get there. Their dock was pretty easy to get to also. Some of these shopping centers make it difficult for the big trucks to get in and out of. I got there about 5:15 and lined myself up ready to back in. They came out right at 5:30 to break the seal, and I backed into the door.
While they were unloading, I logged all those Geocaches I found yesterday into their website. I was also thinking about getting something to eat too. There was an IHOP located in the shopping center and their Harvest Grain Pancakes sounded really good then. But it was still kinda early and I thought I'd wait until I got the next store.
OH, this was a double load. Half the trailer went to the Dick's Sporting Goods in Davenport and the other half went to Cedar Rapids.
It took Davenport about 2 hours to unload, so at 7:30 I was on my way to the other store. I arrived in Cedar Rapids at 9:00. They had a storage trailer backed into their dock. Therefore I had to drop my trailer, hook up to theirs and pull it out. Then drop their trailer, hook back up to mine, and then back into the dock. Of course after they finished unloading, I had to do that all over again putting their storage trailer back in place.
While waiting for them to unload, I went looking for a place to eat. This shopping center had a lot of good restaurants to choose from. Unfortunately NONE of them served anything for breakfast and were therefore closed! Arrgh! By the time they even opened, I couldn't get something because they could be finished unloading at any minute. And Dick's doesn't allow the drivers back inside so I couldn't know for sure.
Well, because they took 2 1/2 hours to unload, I was already running late to pick up my next load. By the time I shuffled the trailers back into place, I had barely enough time to make my rescheduled pickup time for the next shipper. I rushed down the road 72 miles to Muscatine, IA arriving there at 1:00 PM. Fortunately I was picking up a preloaded trailer so all I had to do was drop and hook. Get my paperwork, setup my GPS maps, and by 1:45 I am heading to Missouri.
Heading south on US-61, I FINALLY come across a small truck stop in Newport, Iowa that had a Godfather's Pizza in it. So after almost 12 hours from when I woke up this morning, I finally get to eat. I quickly ate a mini sausage pizza and a sweet tea and continued on south.
By 5:45 PM, my clock was nearing the end and I pulled over at another small truck stop along US61 in Bowling Green, Missouri. This load has 5 deliveries on it and the next stop is in St Louis, but it's not due until 11:00 AM. So here is where I'll stay for tonight.
I walk over to the Dairy Queen for an ice cream before calling it quits for the day. That's a truckers day for today. Thanks for stopping by.
