STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22307: Laconic in Laredo

August 8, 2008 on 12:25 pm | In On The Road |

Laconic means to be brief or succinct, and that is my intention in this post. But, you know me…………

I am currently sitting at our terminal in Laredo, TX waiting for a PrePlan. I delivered the load in Dolores earlier this morning about 0800. I was surprised to find that it was just a drop/hook. I hope that the Planner finds me a load soon because the 14 hour clock is ticking away fast.

Now for your edification I present a brief synopsis of my recent travels:
On Tuesday, I waited around until about noon for my Contract to be e-mailed so that I could sign it. It never arrived so the decision was made to have me to proceed with the load and worry about it later. I drove to Jamestown, NM where I called it a day.
On Wednesday, I drove to El Paso, TX. I was “sweating bullets” for the last 200 miles. My “low fuel” light illuminated, and I decided to take my chances and proceed on. I was worried about running out of fuel on I-10 during rush-hour. The most I’ve ever “pushed it” before was about 100 miles. On those occasions, when I did fuel, I only took between 180 and 190 gallons. The fuel capacity of my truck is around 280 gallons, with about 240 gallons of that usable, so I felt reasonably confident that I would make it, and in fact did. I arrived at about 1715. When I fueled, I took 201 gallons, a new record for this truck. The plan was to have my contract sent here for my signature, but it still hadn’t arrived. I decided to call it a day, and drove to the Flying J truck stop to spend the night after walking the MMM and grabbing a shower. There is not much room at the terminal to walk the MMM as these pictures indicate, but it is still better than the Flying J, which has nothing but dirt and stickers.

I took the pictures below of the flowers in the doggie walking area because I liked them.

On Thursday, I left El Paso about 1000. I drove to Sanderson, TX and took a little break. I then proceeded toward Laredo via US-90, US-277, and US-83. There is a short-cut to Dolores via a toll road (TX-255). I decided to take this because it cuts off about 15 miles, and you by-pass Laredo. Here, I encountered one of the most ASININE things I have ever encountered in my 20+ year driving career. A toll road that, after 2200, won’t take MONEY!! The only sign indicating this absurdity is on the toll road itself about 4 miles from the toll booth, after you are 10+ miles onto the road with no place to turn around except the toll plaza. There are even two people on duty there to inform you that the toll road won’t take MONEY after 2200. GEEEEEZE!!! The bottom line is that I had to turn around and backtrack the 14 miles to US-83 and go through Laredo anyway. I arrived, frustrated, in Dolores about 2300 and went to bed.