I left out of the house on the afternoon of the 27th and headed back over to the TA in Baytown, TX as I had to load 9 pieces of coated pipe first thing in the morning in Channelview heading to Elk Grove, CA. Funny thing about going back there was that I parked in the exact spot I did when I left there a week earlier, guess they knew I was returning and saved it for me
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Anyways, the agent with whom I booked the load had sent me directions to the shipper which were pretty straight forward, get off exit such and such, head south 1 1/2 miles and the customer is on the right side. He also stated that they open at 6am and start shipping by 6:30. I leave out of the TA right at 6am and bounce the whole 6 miles or so to the shipper. When I got there, there were 2 other LS trucks waiting. So I get out and we all shoot the B.S. One of the drivers has loaded here before and he tells me that they don't even open until 8am and usually don't start loading until 8:30ish.
Freaking agent!
This was a decent paying load except 3 things.....
1) it's going to Cali
2) They won't allow us to deliver before Monday giving us a ton of time to get it there
3) Did I mention its going to Cali?
I get loaded and since there is a ton of time to get it there I decide to stop at the house for the night. The next day I lazily roll on out and head to Las Cruces, NM for the night. Again the next morning I lazily head on down the road and end up stopping in Coachella, CA. Talk about a piece of $hi* TA!
By now it's Saturday morning and I am only 500 miles away from the customer. I know I am going to reset my log but haven't decided where to do so. I get up on Hwy 99 north and stop at a TA in Livingston, CA for fuel. As you may know by now I usually stop at TA's mainly because I get a decent discount on fuel with LS (cost +). This was the first time I stopped at this particular TA and I must admit I was impressed. Not only was it clean both inside and out, but the staff was friendly!!
The only thing I can think is that it must be faily new and the employee's haven't been poisoned yet by rude drivers.
Since I was now only about 80 miles from my customer and this place was so nice, I decided to go ahead and shut her down there and reset my log. While I am there, I watch an employee come out and check/clean the parking lot and empty the trash cans about every 2 hours or so. Again, hence why it was so clean. If you're ever rolling through the area and need a decent place to shut down I would recommend stopping there.
Got up early Monday morning and head the 80 miles up the road to the customer. They start receiving at 7am and I was there at 6:30. The 2 other drivers that I was B.S.ing with back in TX were already there as well as 2 other drivers that must have loaded after me. So I have 4 trucks in front of me but I think no big deal as we all have the same 9 pieces of coated pipe on deck and it shouldn't take too long. How wrong I was!!
They had one crane and unloaded one piece of pipe at a time :hellno: . By the time I got emtied, it was 1pm and my log was shot. So I headed about 50 miles up the road and over to Dunnigan, CA off I-5. I am sitting at the Pilot here waiting to find a decent load and by the looks of it, I am gonna be here a while.
