Murfreesboro,TN

After getting unloaded at Dole up in Bessemer City,NC on Thursday morning, I drove around to the shipping side of the facility and got checked in. It was about 1000 hrs local and my appointment wasn't until 1300 but she went ahead and had me back up to a dock. Around 1330 we were finally loaded and ready to go. I checked the bills and sure enough, just like the qualcomm said we had two stops. The first one at 2100 hrs in Birmingham,AL and the last one at 0800 the next morning in Indianola,MS. I called in for our depart call and informed John that we would get there as fast as we could, but with the rain and the tight schedule to get 350 miles in 7 hours that we may be a little late. He called and they said not a problem, just get there when we could. At that point, I headed to bed.

Around 0230 J is waking me up letting me know it is my turn to drive. The only problem is that we were STILL in Birmingham. C&S Allied (AKA Birmingham Consolidated) is a cluster of a place to deliver at. When he gets there, he finds out that we have to pay $290 for the lumper service. WTF??? He finally gets it squared away that we will be reimbursed for that, cuts them a check, and he gets back to a dock. They come get his paperwork and say that they will bring it back out when they are done. He sat there for about 2 hours and could feel them moving the product out of the truck periodically so he knew they were still working. Of course at this place once they get it off the truck, they break it down to smaller pallets to be distributed to the stores. So another 2 hours goes by and he doesn't feel anything. During this time he is thinking they are breaking the pallets down. Finally, after being there for about 4 hours, he goes in to find an EMPTY warehouse. He sees two guys standing around by the timeclock waiting to clock in and asks where everyone is, like the ones that were unloading our truck. They tell him that those guys already went home. After a few choice words to them about how the place is run, of which they laugh and agree, he finds out that our paperwork is back at the front and to pick it up around there. He pulls around, gets it, gave them and earfull I am sure, then drives back around back to wake me up and take Smokey for a walk.

Once up, I get ready and hit the road. Not happy with the situation because now I have 5 hours to go 250 miles. Not gonna happen if I make even one stop. And of course I have to get off the interstate and traverse the backroads of Mississippi to get to destination. I let dispatch know, and all in all, I did fairly well. I was only 45 minutes late, but they were advised of it, so it was all cool. When I checked in at the gate, there was an older black woman working the gate who was just a sweetheart. She couldn't believe "a little 'ol thing like me" was driving a truck. She was absolutely delightful. After we talked for a few minutes and she got my information, she told me where to head. I get backed in to the dock and head in with my paperwork. They tell me to see the man in the red jacket behind me about a lumper. I do and he informs me that it will be $187 for them to unload. Again, I am like, WTF is with these expensive lumpers. But everyone at this location was extremely nice, so I just cut the check because I knew we would get it back. I was there for about three hours when they finally got me unloaded.

When I got done, the first thing I did was to send off my depart. I wanted them to know right away that I was empty so that while I was shutting the doors and getting ready to leave they would have time to send me our next load. During this time, J got up and we sat there for a few minutes waiting. I decided to send in a message and ask if I had time to head towards a shower. A few minutes later they responed that we had time. The closest place was about 55 miles back at a Pilot which was on I-55. I sent a message that we would be heading to that Pilot that is in Winona,MS and to let us know when we got a load.

We found a good place to park when we got there and I like that. I got out and took Smokey for a walk then got in and got our stuff ready so we could go grab a shower. We first decided to eat because we were hungry, so we grabbed something from the only fast food they had there, Taco Hell. UGH! Not my favorite, but oh well. After the shower we headed back to the truck and still no load. He said that he was working on something out of TN but there was too much time on it. After getting with sales, he found out we could drop it early, so he went ahead and assigned us the load. At this time it was around 1500 hours. And we had until 1500 hrs today to pick it up and only 350 miles to get to the pickup in Murfreesboro,TN. Since it was mid afternoon, we knew that if we took off that we wouldn't find a place to park later on, so we decided to just hang out there for the night and then I would take off in the morning. We stayed up for a while watching the trucks back in and out, but after a while, I had to head to bed. 0230 that morning when J woke me up was a LONG time ago and I was worn out. I hit the sack and J stayed up till around 0100 or so trying to stay on his schedule.

My alarm went off at 0300 of the intention of me being on the road by 0400. I hit the snooze until 0345. Oops! I guess I was more tired than I thought. I finally drug my ass out of bed and farted around and made it out of there around 0500. I pulled into the shipper at about 1315 hours. As I was walking in a Stevens Transport was walking in. We were talking and he said the plant was running 24 hours behind. He was there the day before and was told to come back today. Great, I thought to myself. I get in there and I luck out. They only have two loads ready and mine is one of them. YES!!! Another Prime came in behind me and I saw him drop his empty and pick up a loaded so the other load must have been his. After a quick scale at the Pilot we hit the road. Now I am hauling 42K of yogurt across the country.

We figure we will drop this there in Carson on Monday afternoon and then hopefully get a load back out that night or first thing on Tuesday morning. We have time at home scheduled on the 18th so when we drop this on Monday the 15th, they should get us a load headed back to Dallas. Planning on spending the first part of our time off with the kids then heading to Lubbock to see my family and make the rounds there.

Happy Holiday's everyone and watch all those crazy travelers that are out there on the roads!