10/09/07
I got dispatched to Mexia, TX to pick up a load at 12noon and take it to Norborne, MO. Total miles is only 850 or so but at least I got the wheels moving again. Besides, with all the good miles and paychecks I have been getting, I was due for something like this. The bummer part of it is that I can not deliver before Thursday as per the customer’s instructions.
I left my house about 4pm local time on Monday even and shut down in Waco, TX. I did this so I would not have to fight traffic in Austin on Tuesday morning. Since I could not load until noon and Mexia was only about 50 miles away, I slept in and took my sweet time getting there.
Once I arrived and checked in, they said the load would be ready at 11am. I am thinking great, an hour early. Well it was not ready and I did not get out of there until almost 2:30 local time. This load is nice and low on the deck but heavy at over 45,000lbs. I scaled the truck at the closest CAT scale and I am grossing 76,000lbs with ¾ of a tank of fuel.
Between the hot sun beating down on me as I strapped and tarped and the late start, I did not get very far before I found myself a little tuckered. I shut down in a ‘blink of an eye” place called Stringtown, OK with less than 300 miles behind me. It’s really no big deal as it leaves me just over 400 miles to go and all day tomorrow to do it.