So I hustle some stuff down to Athens, GA. I swing by the Marietta terminal to fuel up and do some laundry (but now I've got clean clothes and stinky body). I hate parking in that place. Oh, and sorry that I almost (but didn't!) hit that reefer, but I'm f*****g trying. And instead of being rude and making faces, maybe you could have lent a hand? Seriously, there are some asses working at this company.
But also some cool people. When I walked up to the terminal with my laundry, I saw a guy I met back in Macungie. At the time, he was just getting back in the truck after some medical leave. We spoke a bit then, since we were both stuck there for a few days. And we caught up a bit. He asked me how training was, etc.
Wake up early enough on Monday to get to consignee before I285 traffic gets bad.
Did anyone know that the loop around Athens isn't a complete circle, but more like a horseshoe? And the consignee was near the open end? Even with three different sets of directions, I still had to fudge it. As usual, the load had an appointment time associated with it, but when I showed up, receiving says "Oh, yeah, drop it in that dock over there. Get an MT" Sigh. Well, hook up to an empty, send my mt call in (sorry evertruckerr, I can't bring myself to send an MT early
And get sent to a town near Marietta. It's scheduled for 8:00 AM. It was already a quarter till. And I've got to go around ATL. Sigh. No breakfast for me.
I show up (directions actually good for a change) and... Find a mountain of crap. Okay, paper. This was a paper recycling plant. While not as foul smelling as a virgin paper mill, this wasn't anything great. Directions included a warning to slide tandems up as it's tight to get around. Yeah, no kidding. At some point, I had to drive through a storage building to get to the loading area. While cruising this funky facility, I notice a nice Pete behind me; one of the people leased on with Crete. Huh, two of us.
I get to the shipping area, and see three more Crete trucks ahead of me. Turns out at least six of us are here. We all got the bogus "8:00 load time" and we are all sitting, waiting in line. It's pretty windy, and I'm parked near an effluent pond. Downwind. Sigh. So the truck has to stay closed.
Eventually get loaded. Heavy. Fortunately, there's a scale on the way out. I eyeball the tandems and head for the scale. Which really only works in one direction with limited turn around space for multiple attempts. Fortunately, my guess was right, and I was on my way.
Minor direction problems slow me down a fair bit (trying to avoid 285. In retrospect, it may have been worth it) and I don't get as far as I wanted. I had hoped to make Kentucky, but only made it to Monteagle, TN.
What a skeevy little truckstop.
There should just barely be enough time to get the load today delivered. I wake up bright and early and bust my ass. All day. Take two breaks (these early days are killing me. I prefer starting a little later) and show up about 25 minutes late. Heck, all that work for nothing. Not so, they can fit me in, it'll just be a wait. Turned out not to be a long one.
Got my load offer. Awesome, picks up in this town tomorrow, and can be made to go through my home. I accept in a hurry. Error message. The offer was pulled off. I get a 2 load offer. Both pick up tonight, but I'm OOH for the day (well, I had one left, but that doesn't help) and tell dispatch. They give me back the original load offer. Hooray.
Now I just need to figure out if it's worth it to bust my butt to spend Wednesday night in my own bed.
Hell yeah it is.
