A New Road For Me To Travel On

Hello again. Today was an early day. I was up and going at 5AM and headed east on I-20 out of Shreveport, LA to Simsboro, LA about 72 miles away. There I picked up a load of empty glass jars that looked to be about 10-12 oz size. Because they were empty, I was expecting a lite load. However once I received my paperwork and saw the 44,000 lbs, it hit me that they were glass! And glass is heavy!

Anyway, they finished loading me around 8AM so I head back down I-20, only now I'm going westbound. I stopped at the first truck stop, a Love's 20 miles down for the CAT Scales. I was 30,000 on the drives and 33,000 on the tandems; with the tandems about half-way back. Then again back at the Petro in Shreveport where I stopped for breakfast.

Before leaving there I checked on line at Geocaching.com, and sure enough there was a cache hidden there about 400' from where I parked the truck. So of course I had to find it and sign the log before I left.

After that, I continued west on I-20 and crossed over into Texas. I decided to take a new route down to San Antonio today since I don't have to deliver until tomorrow. It's a more direct route, but could be slower since I'm heavy and will be passing through some small towns with 35mph speed limits. So instead of taking I-20 west to I-35 south, I decided to turn south in Longview, TX on US259 a little ways until I pickup US79 southbound. Although US79 goes more southwest than south.

I've never traveled down US79 before, so this was all new to me. It's good to see something new every once in a while. It was a pretty nice drive, not too bad through the small towns. (not too many stop lights) I saw a few restaurants that looked like they may have been good to eat at, but I wasn't hungry at the time. I continued US79 all the way to I-35, just north of Austin. Also, just in time for rush hour in Austin!

By now I'm hungry but wouldn't you know it that I can't spot any BBQ with truck parking available! So finally, just before I arrive in San Antonio, I pull into a Pilot Travel Center with a McDonald's. It may not be BBQ, but at least I get my sweet tea!

After eating I finally arrive at the receiver, Bay Valley Foods, around 7:15 PM. They have parking available here, so here is where I'm sleeping tonight. They said the third shift may be able to unload me tonight, so we'll see. If not I'll just have to wait until morning.

That's "A Truckers' Day" for me anyways. Thanks for dropping by. I'll see ya tomorrow.

Where'd You Learn to Load a Trailer?

Hello all! Woke up this morning around 7:30 and walked down to Hardee's for breakfast again. I'm still sitting at the Pilot truck stop in Atlanta on the southeast side of the loop.

My appointment time to pick up my load this morning was at 11:00, but sometimes they're ready early. So I drive over at 9:00 AM and the trailer is loaded and they were getting my paperwork together. It was a Con-Way Freight load consisting of misc smaller loads all put together on one trailer headed to Shreveport, LA to the Con-Way Freight location there. Con-Way Freight handles what's called LTL (lessthan-truck-load). You may have seen the smaller Con-Way trailers running single or doubles. I drive for Con-Way Truckload which handles full 53' trailer orders.

Anyway, so I get my paperwork and review the items. There's like a dozen different orders on here with the total weight of 41,000 lbs. I look at the last order loaded; 7 pallets with a combined weight of 20,000 lbs. I knew right then that this wasn't going to be legal!

I hook up to the trailer and take it around the building to their scales. (all C-W Freight terminals have scales on sight) The weight on the drive axles = 26,400 lbs. The weight on the tandem (trailer) axles = 35,800 lbs!! That's 1400 lbs overweight and about a $160 fine! And the axles are already slid all the way to the back! So I had to haul the trailer back around to the dock where they had to either re-load the trailer putting the heavier pallets in the middle or remove some off the tail end. They elected to just remove one of those 7 pallets off the back. DARN! That's what I'd figure they'd do because it's easier and quicker. But it also means that I have to drive with the tandems ALL the way to the rear. Which means EXTRA-WIDE turns! Oh well.

But first, I drive a couple miles in the opposite direction back to that Pilot to get a more accurate CAT scale weight. The Con-Way scales don't get calibrated as often and are not always correct. Plus going to the Pilot's CAT scales will give me a printed copy in case I get stuck at a weigh station.

So, now I'm off around the I-285 loop over to I-20 westbound. My first stop was in Flowood, MS for fuel. Back on I-20 westbound, I arrived in Shreveport, LA at 9:30 PM. I dropped the trailer at the Con-Way Freight there and hooked up to an empty. It's a mess inside and needs to be swept out, but I'm too hungry to do it tonight. A mile back to the I-20 exit where there was a Petro truck stop. Petro's restaurant is called the Iron Skillet because the use small iron skillets instead of plates. I order up a bacon cheese burger, fries, and a sweet tea.

Now it's time for bed. We're headed to San Antonio tomorrow, so I hope you can return to join me. Till then, see ya on the road...