Orange, Texas

After updating our blog I went out to the truck. Ms. Teresa wasn't really complaining but it was getting pretty noisy out there. When you pull in at 1700 you might figure things were settled for awhile and you can get a feel for your daily neighbors. Sometimes that's true and sometimes not. NOT Tuesday. When we backed in noone was running. When I came back everyone had left to be replaced by runners.

I walked around and found a McDonald's that has truck parking. Sign says "no extended or overnight parking." There was one truck there and I walked over and asked him about it. He said he stops in occasionally and is never hassled. Whoopee, I do my best power walk back to the truck and head out. We were set...

Headed out Wednesday morning a bit early to make our 1000 delivery in SC. I HAD figured the used tires were going to be used for some other process. Turns out the Canadian tread laws are much stricter because of snow and other weather than in SC so they resell them to the open market. The don't even check for tire tread there. They only profit about $5 per tire, but we hauled 1,800 down there and they were doing a brisk business as we left.

While unloading we got our next w/a. I can tell right off this is going to be a tough one. We're to head up to Spartanburg to pick up a trailer, then back up to Asheville to be loaded. Looks like the insides of diapers. The load is to be unloaded in Laredo, TX by 1500 on Friday.

We were loaded by 1300 and had already spent 7 hours of our 14. I figured if we covered 300 yesterday and 600 today and 400 tomorrow we will be there by the delivery deadline.

Yesterday we only got 250 down - big hills in NC 8% grades, and Atlanta afternoon commute traffic. We made it to the Georgia/Alabama border. Today we scratched out 606 miles.

I figure if we leave by 0600 and are lucky getting through Houston we should be there by 1400 - 1430.

If I use my best manly persuasion - we might leave closer to 0500. The proof is in the pudding. We'll see.

I called the consignee and they are closed for the weekend, so if we miss our delivery we're stuck with the load for the weekend. On the other hand loads are often slow to come in Laredo, so we could be there for the weekend any way. Either way, I'm planning for a hotel in Laredo for tomorrow night. I figure we've both earned it.

Showered and got our walk in. Pooped out again.