Winchester,VA

What a day! I am completely worn out. We have hauled ass the past few day to make it to our first delivery on time and we made it with 20 minutes to spare. So far the weather has held out and the roads have been clear. Oh, there have been some snow flurries, but nothing that made the roads wet.

J woke me up this morning in Lima,OH where I had a short 89 miles to go to our first drop. I came in from a different direction than how the Qualcomm directions were written so I was a little confused. Once I finally pulled over and got the map out and got my bearings I was ok. Once I got off the interstate though onto the state road, I found my turn off of the Qualcomm directions, but the GPS was telling me I had something like 14 more miles to go. Hmm That isn't making sense. Trusting the Qualcomm I took the right turn and realized it was the right road but also realizing why the GPS was trying to take me a different direction. Straight ahead of me is a weight restricted bridge. Ah-ha!! Maximum on 30 tons and 40 tons if a combination. Well, after pulling out the rusty math skills, I realized that we were a little less than 60,000 when we weighed so I figured I should be good. I made it across the bridge without it collapsing, always a good sign, and then realized things were looing familiar. We had been to this place the last time we had a hazmat load out of Pittsburg. Except last time J drove us in and I was just awake once we arrived.

As I pull in, people are just getting in to work since I arrived about 20 minutes till 0700 local. I knew which area I needed to be in so I just parked there until I started seeing people come out, meaning night shift was leaving and day shift had arrived, and then I headed in with my paperwork. The guy told me to go ahead and back on it so I gave him my paperwork and went to it. After fighting the padlock which was cold, ice covered and covered in a layer of salt, I finally got it open and backed in. With only two pallets being dropped off here, I was in and out in no time. By 0745 I was back in the drivers seat punching in the address for my next stop.

My next stop was in Winchester which was only 158 miles away and I had an appointment at 1400. Here I go again, down the road. Now, the directions they sent us were I-70 East to us 522 south. Well, I have news for you, if you have a hazmat load, YOU CAN'T GO THAT WAY!! You would think they would send me correct directions. But I guess it is just a machine, and not a person, so it probably didn't know I was hauling hazmat. Thankfully I was paying attention and saw the sigh that said HAZMAT EXIT NOW. After getting completely turned around in a one horse town, even though I was following the GPS (I think it was confused too) I finally make my way north to US30. Well, THAT was an experience! Beautiful drive, in a CAR!!! Nothing like seeing a sign that says "TRUCKS 20 MPH 9% GRADE NEXT 6 MILES USE LOWER GEAR". Oh crap. I had heard people talking about this road but we have thus far managed to avoid it. But with the hazmat load, I didn't have a choice. Small little two lane road, maybe 2 passing areas for 30 miles. I know the people behind me weren't happy. I was dropping down to 6th gear for some of those hills, going up AND down. I'm talking 18-20 mph. After what seemed like an eternity I finally reached Breezewood,PA where I was to connect up with I-70 again. Thank you Lord!! After a much needed restroom stop at the Petro, I was once again on the road and able to do the speed limit! YES!!

It was so nice to see the exit sign that I needed off of I-81 for my stop in Winchester. Of course to get to this place I go down teeny weeny roads, old town roads I should say, and I make my way to our drop in Winchester. Problem was, I couldn't figure out where I needed to pull in. Luckily there was a huge parking lot across the street with a few other trucks in it so I pulled in and called. He told me where to enter from and once I got back there I ended up doing about a 20 point turn to get in the dock because the place is small. They got me unloaded faster than I was able to back in. I was in and out of there in less that 30 minutes. Now, if just every single stop I were to ever have from this day forward could go that fast, minus the difficult back, then I would be one happy girl.

Upon finishing there, we headed down to grab a shower and a sit down meal at the Flying J and now we are on our way to our first drop in the morning. That is Wilmington,MA and we don't have to be there until 1000 local. Sweet! I get to sleep in. After that we are headed to Portland,ME and then we are taking a day off. We will deliver at our last stop on Tuesday at 1400 and we are gonna come back out on Thursday morning. We are going to head back down to Middletown,CT and drop the trailer at a customers while we are off so we can bobtail around. It is about 200 miles south from where we are delivering, but our FM said that we probably wouldn't get anything out of Maine so we should be safe to head south. We don't know anyone there, and don't have anything planned, other than to get out of the truck for Tuesday night and Wednesday night. That will give us both a restart on our hours. And I think Smokey is getting cabin fever so it will be good to get him out of the truck for a while. But come Thursday morning, who knows where our next adventure will take us!