After unloading in Memphis, we had a few different opportunities for our next load and when I saw one going to Florida, I jumped at it. Sounds like a great place to be in January, I thought. So we drove about forty miles south to a shipper in Mississippi and picked up our first hazmat load since we added that endorsement to our CDL licenses a couple months ago. It was a load of roofing materials but the gallons of adhesive needed for it were a flammable liquid - so hence the hazmat label. It adds a bit more responsibility to our load to pull this product. First of all, we have to stop at every railroad track and look before crossing. We also, by law, must stop to check our tires every 100 miles. The other thing we must do is stop at every open weigh scale. We didn't have any problems with our load but just going thru all the scales opens us up for a good look from the authorities. We've heard horror stories from other drivers but in our nearly eight years of driving, we've never had any problems ourselves during inspections.
After unloading in Brooksville, Florida - about an hour north of Tampa, we spent the day waiting for our next load. There were some going to Seattle, to Portland, and even one going to the middle of nowhere Montana. All these are places we would love to avoid until spring. We ended up accepting one of the loads that was coming out of Savannah, Georgia going to Los Angeles. This will keep us south for the next week as we inch our way closer to the end of January.
We discovered a couple issues with the truck along the way to Savannah. We'd noticed a little coolant leak about a week ago. When I saw a little puddle under the truck a couple days ago, we decided it must be getting worse and we had better stop and get it checked out. We called a few different shops and nobody could look it for a couple days. I found one guy who was willing to look at it and sure enough, his assessment was a new radiator as the cure. On top of that, our cruise control quit working for no apparent reason so we'll need to get that fixed too. If it's not one thing, it's another! Our truck has just over 600,000 miles on it now though so breakdowns are not unexpected. Thankfully it's still drivable. Good thing we will have plenty of time to deliver this one so we can make the necessary stops for repairs along the way.