Baton Rouge,LA

Some things never work out the way you think, no matter how hard you try or you plan. This load is a perfect example of that.

As you know, we picked up this load from another driver there in Heyburn,ID. I wasn't sure how they expected us to get it down to Louisiana by 0500 on Friday, and actually knew it was impossible. But after J woke up, we headed out with the intention of getting it there as soon as possible. This was on Wednesday evening and J made it as far as Rawlins,WY. Considering he hit snow and rain again, he did great!

When I got up I took off and made it a whopping 58 miles before I had to pull over and wait for the sun to come up. You know how I detest driving across Wyoming in the winter and of course the part of the state that I needed to drive through had roads that were completely ice covered. I messaged in and let them know that I would be taking off again once the sun came up. It isn't so much that I mind driving on the icy roads, but I refuse to do that at night when I can't tell if the road is wet or icy.

Around 0700 I see that the sun is coming up so I take off. As luck would have it, I manage to make it about 10 miles down the road and the roads are clear. Now I start thinking I should have toughed it out and kept going so I could make more miles for the day since we were short on time to get this load delivered. But I figure it is always better to be safe than sorry!

After a quick stop in Laramie,WY for fuel I am off again. In Cheyenne I headed south on I-25 and that is where things got worse again. I passed no fewer than 4 of the big DOT signs stating "HIGH WIND ADVISORY. HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES USE CAUTION." I knew this was going to be bad when I started passing exit/entrance ramps that were lined with trucks. Like a dumbass I decided to keep going but at a much slower speed. So I made the trek all the way down into Denver doing between 40-45 mph. And I was still getting blown all over the road. Luckily I was at 79,100 lbs so I knew that unless the winds were up close to 100 mph that I really wasn't going to get blown over. I just had to take my time. I can't even tell you how happy I was when I finally got to I-70 and started heading east again so that I had a tail wind! After all of this I decide I am calling it a day in Limon,CO where I had only made a little over 300 miles. Not good for a 12 hour shift!!

From there J takes over and does and outstanding job of getting us into Wichita Falls,TX where he gets me up for my shift on Friday morning. We had told dispatch from the moment that J started driving in Heyburn that we should make it by 1500 hrs on Friday. So, with me taking off in Wichita Falls, I had about 620 miles to go by 1500. Since the weather was good, I went ahead and kicked the speed up. Normally we only do between 55-60 to get good fuel mileage. But since this load was already late seeing as how one of the shippers made us wait a day because they didn't have the product yet, I figured better haul ass and try to make that 1500 appt time. So most of the day Friday I did between 65-70. It felt like I was flying! But I was actually just doing the speed limit for once. LOL

By 1100 hrs I had made 500 miles and knew that I would make the appt on time. I made a stop around 1200 in Breaux Bridge,LA to get fuel. (Thank you Michelle for letting me know which direction to go!!) J had woke up at that point since I-10 completely SUCKS and is super bumpy. After grabbing Arby's to go when I got the fuel receipt, we were off again.

About 45 miles down the road we get a message about our appointment time. I figured it was just letting us know that it was at 1500. Duh! I knew that. I had J check the message and it was a new appointment time of MAR 3 at 0500. WTF?? I have been telling them for 2 days that we would be there by 1500 and they wait until I am 75 miles away to tell me that they can't get me that day and that I have to wait until the 3rd???? I wouldn't have haulled ass and thrown my mpg out the window if I had known that!!

First thing we do is pull into a truck stop to call and find out what is going on. Our poor FM. Joe gets on the phone and the first thing out of our FM's mouth is "I know! I am working on it. I'm going to see if we can drop or have another solo sit on the load." It isn't fair to another solo to sit on the load when we have ran the money out of the load getting it this far. As of 1800 last night, John still hadn't come up with anything so we tell him we are going to bed and let us know when he finds out something.

This morning I get up around 0630 and I waited until about 0720 to send in a message asking what he found out. Turns out that John isn't in today, and he normally is, so I end up gettin Eric whom is covering his board. I explain the situation to Eric. J and I talked about things and decided that we didn't mind sitting on the load until Tuesday morning. Would we rather be somewhere else sitting for three days, yes. But we are in New Orleans and the weather is really nice compared to being stuck up in the north. Heck, it was 81 outside here yesterday when we pulled in. We have been running hard since right after Christmas and the only time we have had off was the one night in Victorville and the 2 or 3 days that we were down in Springfield when we were getting the windshield fixed. So we are pretty worn out and ready to get out of the truck. We figure we will only make enough this week to break even to cover our fuel and truck payment, but that is ok with us. We have had a good January and February so far, even when we were in the hole that one week.

So you know what, an unexpected mini-vacation isn't all that bad. You have to make the most of things and go with the flow. Maybe we will see if we can rent a car and go check out New Orleans while we are here. Too bad Mardi Gras was last week and not this week. But it would be fun to go check out the French Quarter and Burbon Street and all that stuff. On the other hand, we may be completely lazy and not leave the hotel at all!