I'm writing Tuesday's events in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. I did manage to deliver the load with literally a few minutes to spare. I don't like playing it that close, but hey--a little excitement never hurt anyone!
My dispatcher tried to get another driver to take the load and relay it in there was no one else to do so (that would mean driving to Atlanta instead of Rincon, GA). I honestly thought I would not be able to deliver the load on time but traffic and the weather cooperated to complete the mission. I think he was resigned to the fact that I probably wouldn't make the delivery time. If only my repair work yesterday hadn't taken so long. He didn't even give me a new delivery ETA. Who knows, perhaps he thought I would make it after all.
At my destination shortly after midnight (EST), I traveled around their yard to the location where I would drop the trailer. In route, I stopped for another driver backing his trailer into a dock area. Then I heard (and felt) a strange jarring sound that lasted for almost 3-seconds. With a sinking feeling I glanced in the side-mirrors. There seemed to be something blocking the passenger-side view. I got out and sure enough, one of the yard dogs (guy/gal who shuttles empty/loaded trailers around the yard) had nailed me. Actually, since my trailer was full and his was empty, and I was stopped and he was moving, his trailer took the brunt of the damage. There was bits and pieces of orange aluminum trailer scattered below the damaged trailer. My trailer suffered some minor cosmetic scrapes. Apparently, the guy was going around me to get on the scale adjacent to the accident scene and didn't see me come to a full stop. I guess he figured that I was still moving forward so his trailer would clear mine without a problem. Well, a problem happened.
Oh the fun of filling out accident reports. Thankfully no one was injured (I did not suffer a "delayed" whiplash and have zero plans for suing the offending company, driver, etc., later on). But you still need to record all the pertinent information. Sigh. After taking pictures, talking with the boss of the worker as well as a security guard, I finally made it to where I would drop the trailer. On the way out, I noticed a bunch of fellow drivers in their cabs (sans trailers) in an area of the yard. They had delivered their loads and were on their 10-hour break. Seemed like a good idea to me; so instead of going to the truck stop around 12-miles away, I joined them.
Well I just finished a delicious bowl of noodles and now I'm off to slumber-land.
OK, now I'm awake again. It's mid-morning and time to get going. I pick up an empty trailer and I'm on my way to Alabama for my next load. It's a beautiful, sunny day and a portion of the driving is on two-lane roads with little traffic. Sweet! After arriving at the shipping destination, I drop my empty trailer, hook onto my loaded trailer and then fuel up close by. The truck stop was having some problems with the fuel card I carry (as were other drivers). Once that was straightened out, I drove through Atlanta, Chattanooga and just outside of Nashville, TN where I parked for the night (or should I say morning?).
Well it's nearly 1:30 AM so it's time to sleep. Oh, there were no parking spots available in the truck stop where I settled down. So, since I was out of hours, I decided to carefully make up my own. I left just enough room for trucks to maneuver around me. If everything goes as planned, there will be no scratches on the truck when I awake and no one will have woken me up in the middle of the night to give me a piece of their mind about parking where I parked. I'll be glad when I'm on a schedule again that allows me to choose my parking spots rather than creating them.
miles driven = 644 (previous day)
miles driven = 613 (today)
1:09:00 AM
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