03/24-25/2010

I thought I posted yesterday I guess I didn't. To catch you up. I got there a bit before 11am and about 11:30 got backed in the door. The unloader told me they were about to go to lunch and not to kill myself untarping the load. That was nice I thought. Once they got back from lunch he started unloading me and got interrupted to do and then to do that. It definitely extended the unload time. Roughly about 2 pm I pulled out of the door. Once the empty call went out I settled back and returned a few calls that occurred while I was unloading.

Twenty minutes or so I get a deadhead move to Laurinburg. Figuring that would be the call I had picked out a few places along the way down for tonights stop. But five minutes later that all went out the window. Scratch the move to Laurinburg. Go to Mount Holly instead. Now I am not all that familiar with I-78 and not being sure how traffic would be in New York City I decided to pull up short in Connecticut. I figured to tackle NYC in the morning and to check out I78 in case I get to go through there in the future.

I originally set my eta to mt Holly for 7am, but not getting a work assignment before the close of business today I figured actually get there about 9am would be better. Typically work assignments don't start popping until 9am edt anyway no sense in sitting unnecessarily.

I arrived there at 9:30 and 20 minutes later the work assignment came through. I was to pick up a piece of equipment in Mcconnellsburg, PA. I sent for the directions and what I got back sounded like the shipper was right off I81. In fact the shipper was 25 miles off I81 and quite the scenic drive it was. I had determined this prior to heading to the shipper so it wasn't a problem.

If all our loads were this easy I would be sitting in hog heaven. But then they wouldn't feel the need to pay me as much as they do. 30 whole minutes after arriving at the shipper I was pulling out. A mere 4 chains and 1 strap and I was on my way. The loader was quick as well.

Now when I got directions for leaving (because you don't go out the same gate your came in). They sounded a bit like “Go down to the red house with the white trim and make a right. Then you goto the center of town and make another right”. I always somehow always miss seeing the red house. You can imagine how that usually turns out. But today after looking at my gps and studying the map it made a bit of sense so no problems. So after crawling back over the mountain at 25 mph despite only hauling 35,000. and then going down the other side at 20mph. 8% grade don't ye know. And going through a couple of towns with a lot of character. I am back on I81 heading south.

The main problem for today was I was going to hit DC at the wrong time. Now while I have had a better time going through DC it's also been a lot worse. I only made it to Rutherglen, VA before the 14 hour clock was going to be a problem so I called it a day there. Whipped it in to the local Flying J and called it a day.

That leaves me a 3 hour drive into the customer tomorrow. From there it will be a couple hour drive to Laurinburg. But we will just have to wait and see how that plays out.

For tonight have a good day

Bookerz out