STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21257: Albuquerque Again

September 23, 2005 on 10:29 pm | In On The Road |

After ‘vegging out’ the rest of yesterday, I ‘vegged out’ some more today, the 21st. The skies were too threatening to work in the storage shed. Lots of thunder and lightening. Although I have a good connection, the WiFi is SLOW today. I don’t know if it’s my computer or the BLOG or the overcast skies, but it’s driving me bonkers. I ran SpyBot and Norton Anti-Virus, but it didn’t help. I ate all my meals (mediocre at best) here @ the Flying J because I didn’t want to drive the 8 miles down to the Wild Wild West to get my car.
On the 22nd, the planner offered me a load which picked up in North Las Vegas, NV and delivered in Dallas, TX (14 miles empty and 1228 miles loaded). I accepted it and drove to the Shipper. I arrived right on time at 1100. They took an hour to load me and then I drove back to the Flying J to fuel, weigh my load, and have lunch. Full of fuel (both for me and my truck), load legal, and MMM exercised, I left NLV at 1430. I drove to Kingman, AZ. I took a 15 minute break there, then drove to the Little America in Flagstaff, AZ. I had dinner here and walked the MMM again. There are many trees here from which they can choose, so it takes a little time for them to ‘do their thing(s)’. I left here at 2030 and drove to Jamestown, NM (I-40 exit 39). It’s not really a town, just an oil refinery and a truckstop, but it has it’s own Post Office. I stopped here for the night as it was almost midnight and I was weary. I worked 9 hours today of which I spent 7.75 hours driving 471 miles.
Today, the 23rd, I left Jamestown at 1000, the earliest time that I could legally drive. Along the way, it dawned on me that this load delivers in Dallas, TX on Monday afternoon. Even if I dawdle, I’ll be there by mid-morning tomorrow. That would leave me idle for 2 full days. Also, Hurricane Rita is scheduled to begin wreaking havoc in the wee hours tomorrow AM. “Experts” are forcasting the possibility of 70 to 80 mph winds and a good possibility of Tornado activity in the Dallas Metroplex as a result. NO THANKS. When I arrived at our Terminal in Albuquerque, I called my DM to ask if I could T-Call the load (in Albuquerque) and pick up something else. If you think that makes me a “chicken” well “cluck you”. She made the arrangements for the T-Call. That changed the loaded miles from 1228 to 596 on this trip. It took them 2 hours to send me a PrePlan. It picks up at the Terminal and delivers on Tuesday in Sumner, WA (0 miles empty and 1422 miles loaded). Originally, the PrePlan indicated that the load picked up in El Paso, TX (263 miles empty). I accepted it despite the 18% deadhead because I didn’t want a repeat of my last visit here. Just before I was ready to depart, I called my DM to dispatch the load so I could get through Secutity. She informed me that the load was being picked up in El Paso by another driver and was to be T-Called at the Terminal here. I re-spotted the empty trailer I had scrounged and went to Dispatch for an ETA on the loads’ arrival. They told me that it would arrive at about 1800. Cool, that reduced my deadhead percentage to 0%. I drove the 3 miles to the Flying J for lunch and some computer time. At 1800, I was messaged via QualCom that the new ETA was 2000. I decided to just stay here for the night since I’m already “settled in” with good WiFi reception, near a ‘grassy knoll’ for the MMM. I’ll pick up the load in the AM. I have plenty of time to make the Tuesday afternoon delivery. I drove 114 miles in 2 hours and worked total 2.5 hours for the day.