Hayti, Missouri: Pilot

It doesn't sound like I traveled far, but I really did. This morning I drove down to Southaven, Mississippi, and delivered the load I had. Then I drove back here to wait for a load that will be relayed for me to deliver tomorrow in Shreveport, Louisiana, about 422 miles away. Since most of my time will be spent in states that allow trucks to do 65 or 70 MPH, using an average speed of 60 will make it a trip of about seven hours. The load is due there at 12:30 PM tomorrow, and I want to get there about an hour early so I will likely leave here at around 3AM. Which gives me plenty of time to sleep between now and then, as long as I can fall asleep after sleeping well last night.

Looks like it is time to try out the Netflix account via my Sprint broadband card. I have managed to view other video just fine with it, so Netflix should just be expanding my options in viewing.

Matthews, Missouri: Flying J

Tonight I find myself spending the night at a Flying J in Matthews, Missouri. I picked up a load in Decatur, Indiana, this morning and will be delivering it in Southaven, Mississippi, in the morning. The fun thing about this load is that it weighs almost nothing. If I didn't watch them put the six crates in, I would have never noticed the three thousand pounds they added to the trailer.

I am not as close as I would like to be right now, but with only an hour left to drive tonight, this was the best place to stop. Getting closer would not have changed the arrival time at all either, since with my ten hour break included, the soonest I can get there is around nine tomorrow morning.

Right now I don't have another load for Tuesday, but hopefully I won't be stuck sitting like I do on the East coast, where I went in December and January most of time. At least I will be well rested and clean for the morning.

GM: Spring Hill Assembly Plant

Well it looks like I am going to be wandering the country again, I just found out that there will be no runs for us the next two weeks. Apparently they are going to idle the plant for the first two weeks of March. Despite the great reviews it appears that the Traverse is just not selling well enough to keep the plant running at a constant pace. When I was there Tuesday for my delivery, I could see that they were running the plant a lot leaner than they used to. There weren't nearly as many parts as they were keeping on hand prior to the December shut down. If I had to guess, they had maybe two to three truck loads of engines on hand, when they used to keep five to six. Now this is something they should have been doing all along, especially with us bringing in a delivery every two hours. That would have saved them a ton of inventory costs last year.

Now next week I might actually be able to stay in the area, we have a new account with a beer company that recently started up. The disadvantage is that these aren't regular runs, and they aren't that long a run either, from what I have heard. The major advantage is that it is still freight moving, and you get paid to do that. You will know more when I do.

Regular Run, sort of

In the past two weeks I have only made two engine runs down to Spring Hill. Last week I was able to get a parts run as well so it wasn't too bad, but this week it has only been the one run. So it seems my bail out isn't working out to great, but at least with one run I can get a decent pay check and not be stuck on the road somewhere waiting for my next trip. Monday's run hasn't cancelled yet, so I am crossing my fingers.

The last two runs I made were not in my truck, it was over at Cummins getting the engine worked on. So Friday last week and Tuesday this week were each in a different truck than my usual one. So both nights I grabbed a hotel room, paid for by the company, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is just easier than trying to either move enough stuff to be able to sleep comfortably in a strangers truck, or to clean it up enough to want to. I am still staying at the Red Roof Inn down there, and last week got my first certificate for a free stay. The rewards card is going to save me big time when it comes time to take a vacation of some sort this year.

I got my Portion of the Bail Out

My dedicated GM run started up again last week. So once again I am going to be traveling between Perrysburg, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, with frequent overnights in Glendale, Kentucky. This run is just long enough to keep it interesting, and short enough to get me home on a regular basis, so it is just about perfect for me right now. Now how long it will last is another question entirely. It takes a little over eight hours of driving to get to the delivery point, and I have figured out pretty much how to get there with no problems and be a little early without wasting a lot of time.

Unfortunately this morning the schedule got shot all to heck. I was planning on leaving the yard at three-thirty this morning, but because I had to wait for a tow truck, I didn't leave until shortly after five. The reason I had to wait was because my trailer loaded with twenty thousand pounds of engines and twenty thousand pounds of racks to hold the engines, had been dropped in a soft spot. This is not a new spot in the yard and most people avoid putting anything there, more due to the fact that it is part of where we usually drive than any other reason.

So this loaded trailer sat over the weekend, and when the sun was up and warmed the ground it settled, then the water and muck refroze around the landing gear. Which is how I found it this morning, not only was it frozen in place, it had suck to low for me to get my truck underneath it to pick it up. So I got to see Hammer Towing's big truck in action and it was impressive. The ease with which the truck picked up the trailer was something to see. When he set the trailer back down on timbers, one cracked in half with a sound like a gun shot.

Rockwall, Texas: Super 8, not so super

At first glance this is a typical motel with a fairly generous truck parking area, one that is fairly easy to get in and out of, with plenty of room to turn around. You just have to watch out for the exposed rebar in the front drive as you enter and leave the lot.

The leak in the bathroom ceiling looks like an old one from the size of the rust stains. That is until you take a closer look and get to watch the water droplets come down. This is especially fun after the person upstairs takes a shower. I was just glad that it wasn't bulging like this over the toilet. When I noticed this Saturday I thought about insisting on a room change due to it, but was feeling lazy and decided to endure it for one more night. It wasn't dripping on me, or touching anything of mine, so had little effect on my being here.

The poorly fitting door was one problem I noticed fairly quickly, but did not recognize as a real problem until this morning. That was when my camping senses kicked in, I didn't realize at first why I was awake, just knew that something had woken me up. A noise from somewhere, there near my milk crate of food. As I sat up something fairly large and furry scurried out of the room and through the crack under the door. I doubt it was a mouse, even if this is Texas, no way a mouse silhouettes against the wall, above the carpet kick plate. From the looks of the bent down portion of the door, this sort of in and out has been going on for a long time. What makes it more scary is the question, was this done by the rats?

I plan on complaining about this when I check out today, see if they give me a discount for sharing a room. Either way I think the health department will find it all very interesting, but that is for later as I need to get dressed and loaded up, and it is raining. It started just as I looked out the door to see if the creature was still hanging around.

Rockwall, Texas: Super 8

This is basically on the other side of I-30 from the TA I stayed at last night. While I can understand their limit on hotel rooms during the week, there are times it seems like they are just wasting money. When one adds up the IdleAire for almost twenty-four hours plus a ten dollar shower, it would have been cheaper for me to spend the night in the hotel instead. It would have saved only about $20, but that can add up over time and with a lot of drivers.

It is interesting how different the food can be when one goes from a national chain to a local restaurant. Last night after looking at the prices at the Burger King in the TA I decided to eat at a TGI Fridays. When a meal is going to cost almost nine dollars anyway, might as well add a little and make it a good one. While the food was really good the drinks just weren't. Apparently the water is just bad around here. I started with my usual, iced tea, which had a funny taste to it. So I switched to water, which was even worse. Even the coke I had didn't taste exactly right to me, of course by then drinking anything just tasted wrong.

Tonight I ate at a small Thai place, Koung Thai Restaurant. This was where I experienced a real difference in food. Not only was the food delicious, but the presentation was something that had me wishing I had my camera with me. While some restaurants try to present a plate, they made a show piece out of my dinner. If I go back tomorrow I will definitely take my camera to take a few pictures of my meal. The food was as good as it looked, I literally stuffed myself between my entree and my sushi. Even with all that, I spent less than twenty dollars.

This was where I spent Thursday night, everything behind my truck has been razed and cleared to dirt. Removed are the pool and two buildings, as well as a great deal of parking. The employees have no idea what is going to happen to the space. Personally I am thinking it will be an updated hotel, since the part that is left of the Super 8 has more rooms than parking spots.