Wichita Falls,TX

Ok, let me catch you up. After I last posted with trekked across I-80 with a stop in Ogalalla,NE to have dinner with friends. Took off and made it about 30 miles down the road before pulling over to stop for about an hour because a big rain storm was passing through and there was some really high wind. It passed and we head out again. I go ahead and head to bed knowing that J should get me to somewhere in Utah. Or at least close to the UT/WY border. Around 2330 he wakes me up and tells me he is stopping for the night. Apparently winter decided to make an appearance and it was a white out blizzard outside. No problemo, got a good nights sleep with the truck stopped.

Got up the next morning, had breakfast and headed out. Roads still a little icy but the further west I went the cleared they got. Stopped at a rest area about 45 miles west of Laramie when I got a message from our FM. There is a team about 70 miles behind us with a FedEx load that they can't make on time and he is asking us to take it over. What the hell, the pay is about the same, a little less actually. But the load is about 20K lbs lighter. Sweet. They meet us at the rest area where we swap and I am off. Driving, driving, driving and we make it to somewhere in Nevada around 0300. I get up and with 398 miles to go before noon, I am off. I make it to the FedEx facility in Sacramento with 45 minutes to spare. Find out it is a drop and hook (YES!) so we drop it, grab and empty and send in our depart macro and sit there and wait.

I sent our FM a message asking if we had time for a shower and laundry but he said to hang tight because he thought he had a load for us. About 10 minutes later he asks if we are ok with multi-stop flower loads and as I am replying we get our work assignment. Go to Salinas and pick up a produce load going to Arcadia,FL. Mmmm Ok, what happened to the flower load? He said that is what we will likely get coming out of Florida. Okey dokey, I am tracking now. J takes over and gets us to Salinas where we decide we will pick up the load and then go park and get laundry and showers. Nope, looks like sales dropped the ball and forgot to make an appointment after they got the load. They gave us an appointment when I got there, but for 2200 hrs that night. And the truck stops were already full so that meant no showers and no laundry. ARGH! I head to bed and J waits to get loaded. After he gets loaded, he just pulls back in their parking lot and waits for the time to wake me up. He is a sweetheart and lets me sleep until 0400. Once I am able to pry my eyes open, I head to the Pilot to scale the load and I head out. I made it to Barstow and we decided to stop there to do laundry and get a much needed shower. With this load going to Florida, we have 3 full days, that is six shifts with 3 shifts each and only 2780 miles to go. That means it is at most a 500 mile shift and we have extra time.

So now we are driving through North Texas on US 287 headed towards Dallas. We will hit I-20 down there and then I think it is I-49 through Louisiana and then pick up I-10. I am curious to see what flower load we end up with. I really wasn't fond of that 14 stop one we had last time. However, it paid damn good, and I guess I wouldn't mind it again since now I would know the stops and where I was going. Plus, I fully intend to take the night off after we do the flower load because they wear you out!