Well, we always try to make a plan but often times it doesn't come to fruition. Had everything fallen into place this week, we wouldn't be as exhausted as we are tonight. Everything was fine on Monday as we made our delivery according to schedule near Ontario, California. The next thing on our agenda was to pick up a container the same day at the Long Beach port and cart it back to the Atlanta, Georgia area. What are the chances that the day we'd be receiving a load from the port, the 'Occupy the Port' protesters were down there doing their best to shut it down? Thankfully that was short-lived and the trucks were once again able to get inside. But then there was yet another problem. This time it was with the paperwork and the port would not release the container. Some 36 hours later... we were still sitting there discussing maybe we should just head back to Las Vegas for Christmas now and forget about this load completely, when lo and behold, it was finally released to us and we were on our way to Georgia at midnight on Tuesday. We came close to our record for miles covered in a day when doing our logbooks on Wednesday showed we had driven 1450 miles that day alone. We stopped only for fuel and to let Rocky out and delivered the container to its destination on schedule on early Thursday afternoon. I got to thinking about the path of this one container that made its way from China via ship, was loaded onto our trailer and moved 2000 miles across the country by truck, and then delivered to a container yard with thousands of others just like it that were getting loaded onto the train to who knows where. How do they keep all that straight? It's no wonder the paperwork is messed up from time to time!
Our next load from Panama City, Florida back to southern California cancelled. So much for the best laid plans as that was going to get us back to Las Vegas easily in time for Christmas. We found another load to California but this one was almost 500 miles away in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We don't ever drive that far for a load but it would keep us on track for our Christmas plans so we agreed to do it. So tonight we are tearing down the highway westbound once again. We have a load of three big metal pipes that when assembled, will be a huge pole for electrical wires. We deliver this to San Luis Obispo on Tuesday morning. We thought that would be our last job before Christmas but our dispatcher called us today to tell us of another load picking up the same day in the same town that pays us $3.50 a mile to take a cargo truck for the military 200 miles up the road. Sure, why not? We agreed to do that then work our way back to Vegas where we'll stay until after New Year's Day.
I finally accomplished my mission to get to a post office and mailed out Christmas presents today. Our busy schedule didn't allow us much time to look for a place to ship all the packages we'd been carrying around with us. Thank goodness for internet shopping! Who would have ever thought one could sit in the back of a semi truck, watching satellite tv, while zooming down the highway and Christmas shopping online- all at the same time? We have it so easy these days, don't we? Thank God for all our blessings! That's our story this week. The saga continues...
My pictures this week are all from the beautiful southwest. We ran into alot of rain in the east so I never even got my camera out
Our next load from Panama City, Florida back to southern California cancelled. So much for the best laid plans as that was going to get us back to Las Vegas easily in time for Christmas. We found another load to California but this one was almost 500 miles away in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We don't ever drive that far for a load but it would keep us on track for our Christmas plans so we agreed to do it. So tonight we are tearing down the highway westbound once again. We have a load of three big metal pipes that when assembled, will be a huge pole for electrical wires. We deliver this to San Luis Obispo on Tuesday morning. We thought that would be our last job before Christmas but our dispatcher called us today to tell us of another load picking up the same day in the same town that pays us $3.50 a mile to take a cargo truck for the military 200 miles up the road. Sure, why not? We agreed to do that then work our way back to Vegas where we'll stay until after New Year's Day.
I finally accomplished my mission to get to a post office and mailed out Christmas presents today. Our busy schedule didn't allow us much time to look for a place to ship all the packages we'd been carrying around with us. Thank goodness for internet shopping! Who would have ever thought one could sit in the back of a semi truck, watching satellite tv, while zooming down the highway and Christmas shopping online- all at the same time? We have it so easy these days, don't we? Thank God for all our blessings! That's our story this week. The saga continues...
My pictures this week are all from the beautiful southwest. We ran into alot of rain in the east so I never even got my camera out