Woke up again in the motel room in Laredo, Texas while waiting for a load out. I called dispatch and found I was assigned a load of toys to Fort Worth. At least I will be moving again. I finished off the munchies and junk food I had bought last night and then went to the terminal. My trailer came across the border and into the yard about 12:30 PM. I quickly hooked up, updated my logbook, did a vehicle inspection and headed for Fort Worth, Texas. I was at the “Just A Truckstop” in San Antonio(Texas) by 3:30 PM, where I had lunch, filled my tanks( took 54 gallons-last filled here going to Laredo), and decided to watch a movie in the movie room. Took off for Forth Worth at 6:30 PM. Traveled up I-35 until I-35 split into I-35E and I-35W. Since this warehouse is in a small piece of Fort Worth off of Hwy 360 and Trinity Road, I can take either I-35 E or I-35 W. I decided to take I-35E this time. As my calender days ended, I found myself getting ready to leave a small truckstop/convenient store in Italy, Texas, a short distance north of the I-35E/I-35W split.
SECOND 5 YEARS: (dispatch/computer screwups...)
In my ten years of trucking, I very rarely had trouble with dispatch or the computers “screwing” me up. The screwups I liked were the ones that got me a lot of miles empty, which I got full pay for. One such screwup was the one that put me into the west end of Bainbridge, Georgia for a delivery I was rushed to make from West Memphis, Arkansas. I pushed it all night and legally got the load to the customer on time in the morning. They unloaded me and I called dispatch and was gaven another pickup. I told dispatch that I needed an eight hour sleep break before pickup. He then asked if I could just go pick the load up first as he only had me about 35 miles from the pick up site. I said OK and went bad to my tractor to make the logbook additions. What? My pickup was about 155 miles away by my calculations. I re-called dispatch to find they had me picking the load up in Thomasville(Georgia) instead of Thomaston(Georgia). They corrected the problem and I got my sleep before I went to Thomaston, Georgia for my load of toilet seats. I was loaded after dark when I got there.
