Our company is keeping us busy and not just us, all the Fedex drivers say that they have been working really good for the past several weeks now. That is good. I hope that it means that our economy is picking up and things will get better for everyone. But it has been good for us at least compared to July and August. We wondered back then if it was time to look for other work.
Anyway we had a layover in Memphis which usually we don’t mind because it’s pretty easy to get a load from there, but this was the weekend and we needed our 34 hour restart to drive. We chose a truckstop in West Memphis which is inside Arkansas and got showers and did 4 loads of laundry!!! That cost us $16 bucks. Laundry is a pet peeve of mine because it is expensive and we don’t get any kind of receipt or proof that it was done to turn in for taxes. Someone needs to remedy that. But while we were there I discovered that because of the fall season, the pilot and flying J truckstops was offering Pumpkin Cappuccino. So I had one. And then later I had another one. They are good.
That evening as we were getting settled in and ready for bed, we had a visitor. She caught Pops in his boxer shorts too. Around the truckstops she would have been called a “lot lizard,” but I thought she looked more like the “brown sugar woman” that Pops’ brother, Juan is so fond of. Anyway, Pops shooed her away.
I read a lot that weekend, as a matter of fact I finished 2 books. I am glad that I brought a lot of books with me. I like to read so I never get bored.
The next morning, because of our late night visitor, we moved to the other side of Memphis to a different truckstop. Well, this was a bad choice because the place was dirty and stinky and even more of those kinds of “ladies” and I use that term very loosely, were wondering around. And dirty, ragged men with few teeth, too, asking for money or food. I know it was fishy because I watched all of these people being dropped off behind us by the same white van. It had to be some kind of scam going on, so I tried to not see what was going on and was very grateful for our load to Alamo, TN.
We were picking up in Alamo, which isn’t too far from Memphis and then it was going to Edinburg, TX. We found our way to Alamo by following Gypsy’s directions. It was a very rural place. And then I was driving and I realized that I knew how to get us from there the whole way to San Antonio without Gypsy or any directions! We have been spending so much time in Texas that we both are learning our way around pretty well. And that is good considering that Texas is the size of a nation all by itself.
So I drove while Pops tried to sleep and I was enjoying the passing scenery. It is fall everywhere now and the colors are so pretty and the fields are for the most part cut and in some cases re-planted. We saw huge bales of cotton ready to go wherever it goes to be processed. But it was windy, really windy, again. We have felt a lot of windy weather lately. And in the flatlands, you would be surprised how strong that wind can feel. At one point just north of Dallas we actually saw a tractor trailer rolled onto its side.
Our air conditioner quit working on the way to Edinburg. And believe me, even though it is fall, you still need air conditioner in Texas. So we sweated our way there. It was 94 degrees there that morning. It is very near the most southern point of Texas. Thank goodness we weren’t staying there, we moved right back up to San Antonio as soon as we got unloaded.
It was a neat trip though, we saw a lot of Mexican eagles. I had to call Shirley, our truck owner (who is a Texas native) to find out what they were. We also saw a lot of oranges and other produce. That area of Texas is well known for its produce.
We spent the rest of that day in San Antonio. I got some groceries and we showered and settled in for the night. We had plans to meet and have breakfast with Tate and Shirley in the morning.
We did get a predispatch so we knew that after breakfast we would be driving to Austin, Tx for our next load.
We had a really nice breakfast and visit with Tate and Shirley at the IHOP. I really enjoy getting to spend time with them. They are such nice people and good to work for too. But our visit was short because we needed to get moving.
I drove us up to Austin which is all a straight shot from San Antonio. Austin is the capital of Texas and it is a pretty city, especially at night. They have such great architecture and they light up their buildings at night. The capital building is the prettiest building and it stands out from all the others.
But we were picking up in an industrial park and we found our location easily. But that was all that was going to be easy about this pickup. We had 17 pallets of product. And each one was 45 x 48 x30. It was going to be a very tight fit and they would have to double stack all the pallet except one. So Pops came and got me and together we got the pallets all loaded onto the truck but our two pallet jacks were not going to fit in. So we unloaded all the pallets again and gave it some thought and tried again. This time we did get everything on the truck except one of the pallet jacks and we had a little room but not quite enough unless we stood it on its handle and strapped it to the wall and that is exactly what we done.
Wow, now we were hot and sweaty and tired and sore, and we had to drive the whole way to Louisville, KY. We made it there by the next morning and it was slightly easier to unload. And we had another pickup immediately following this delivery.
Louisville, and most of Kentucky, is so pretty. I love all the horse ranches with the wooden fences surrounding them and hundreds of beautiful horses everywhere you look. But we picked up our other load and away we went. We are heading east now.
No comments:
Post a Comment