A long day... Then.. mountains!

I did not get to write last night as I wound up in a pretty tough day. The day started off well enough. I arrived at my customer on time and unloaded pretty quickly. I sent in my empty message and waited for the new load to be sent. Lucky me the next load delivered from the customer I was sitting at. Very easy to keep appointments that day. With only two hours of drive time down from the drive to the customer that morning, it seemed like an ample oppurtunity to make good miles fast. That is where the good things for that day.

After I pulled into the loading bay, I staged my trailer for the load. Simple enoigh, just five peices of dunnage spread over a 40 - foot area of the trailer. I was told I would be getting 26 prices of steel. My appointment was for 8 AM, but since I was already there, they went ahead and accepted me at 7 30. I wwas loaded with three prices of steel in the first 10 minutes, I was excited to have the chance to be able move pretty quickly. Then, for no known reason, it all stopped. I watched truck after truck continue to get loaded and unloaded as I sat there until 8 45 rolled around.

At 8 45 every worker left. First break I guess. One other truck and myself waited there for approximately half an hour. At this time, I had already been here just get loaded for a little under 2 hours. I knew I still needed quite a bit more steel, and harping of the load still needed to be done.at 9 30, when I became the only truck in the building, loading continued. By 10, all of the prices I was told I would be getting, were on my truck. I threw my straps over the load, ensured they were in the proper position, and was beginning to tighten them when one of the loaders approached me.

I was informed that two of the bundles of steel were the wrong number and needed to be changed out. They were relatively small bundles and only required me to take off two of the six straps I had used. Once I did that, I tightened down Tue other four then threw the last two again once the new bundles were placed. I quickly tightened those down, and I hustled to my truck to go stage in the tarping area. I made it about as far as placeing my key into the ignition as I was appraoched, yet again, by the loader.

So, one of the bigger pieces, placed on my truck nearly 5 hours ago, had also been mistkenly placed, and needed to be switched put with another piece of steel  this one, however, required me to take off ALL my straps, and then wait as they took four other pieces of steel to work their way to the problem area. After all of this was done, I restrapped the load, ran my truck outside and tarped it. My part was completed very quickly, buy with little enjoyment as my day had been eaten away by operators who seemed to have problems doing their job.

My load delivers on the morning of the 20 th. I drove for a little while, then called it an early night somewhere in Missouri. I couldn't tell you where if you showed my a map. I know it was off of US Highway 412, and that's all I know.

Today has been much better. Beautiful driving weather and made it all the way through Tennessee. Drove through some amazing mountains while doing so. The scenery was very nice. The temperature at the time made some awesome, window down, driving weather.

Now I have managed to stop on just the other side of the border in North Carolina. A lonely mountainside Pilot. It was a good ride today, getting me in under 5 hours of my destination tomorrow morning, which I will easily make.

I have finished the second and third installments of the 'Wool' series of books. Very good reads, I will have to say again to anyone looking for a new read to start.

Hopefully, sometime soon, this will grab at least one persons attention and help me get rid of the feeling that I am talking to myself.

Tomorrow will hopefull be a nice smooth day, being able to be told in a single entry. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the read, all of the no one that is reading it.