After we delivered in Ft. Campbell Ky, we drove to Richmond, Ky to pick up our next load. We didn't have to pick up till the next day so we got a good nights rest. Went there the next morning and got loaded. This load had a lot of extra time on it so we just stayed at the shipper to kill off several hours before heading out to Charleston, Sc. This would be our first delivery to Charleston AFB.
I always hate going to a military base for the first time because you never know what you are going to run into. Some of them have multiple gates and depending on what you are hauling, there may be a specific gate that you have to enter through. Of course, nobody lets us know in advance. We have to find out the hard way. We got there and found what we thought was the correct gate. Wrong. The guard wouldn't let us in and directed us to a different gate. It was about a 10 mile drive to the next gate in bumper to bumper traffic. We got there and the guard let us in and told us how to get to the building our paperwork showed as our delivery point. We drove to it, went in to check in and were informed that we were not supposed to be allowed in that area with the freight that we were hauling. That guard called someone and informed them that the guard at the gate had mistakenly let us in and now we needed a police escort to get us to where we needed to be. I pointed out to him that our paperwork showed this building that we were at as where we were supposed to be and suggested that whoever sets these loads up should be informed to use a different address or include specific directions on where they want the drivers to go. I guess they think we're psychic or something. The police came along and escorted us across the flight line to where we were to get unloaded. About an hour and a half later we were out of there. Now in the future we will know where to go. Unless they change the rules before our return.
At this point, we were out of legal hours to work so we headed to a truck stop to spend a couple of days and get some much needed rest. We ate, showered, and I think I slept for about 15 hours straight. I slept most of the next day too. I didn't know how tired I was until I got there. I guess your mind knows when you need to keep going and when you can rest and you don't even realize it. We met a nice couple at the truck stop who was asking questions about the company we are leased on with. These people had just gotten back into driving after 2 and a half years away from driving. The husband had fallen off the flat bed he drove while tarping a load and got some serious injuries. They ended up losing their truck, their house, pretty much everything. I hate to see things like that happen to people who are just trying to work and make a living. Their goal is to save up enough to buy their own truck again. I hope they make it and I think they will.
After our break was over, we got a load picking up in Weaverville, NC delivering in Livonia, Mi. Non government, no special requirements. The only difficult thing about this one was driving through the freaking mountains. We can't seem to get away from them. We delivered that load, went to Meijers and stocked up the truck and drove to the truck stop. We were fueling up when our phone started ringing off the hook. Our qc started going crazy with messages also. Load offers from about 3 or 4 different dispatchers at the same time. The one we ended up taking was picking up in Jackson, Mi in a couple of hours and driving straight through to Maxton, Nc. Yep, back the way we came, more mountains!!
On the trip down, John noticed one of our steer tires had a cut on the outside edge. We knew we could complete the delivery, but after that, we were going to need to get it changed. We delivered the load, drove about a hundred miles up to Kenly, NC and got a new set of steer tires and an alignment done. While changing the steers, they noticed that one of our tie rod ends was bad, so we had them change both of those while they were at it. The next day we went to the Speedco and had the maintenance done and then went to the Blue Beacon for a truck wash. Now she's riding smooth and looking mighty shiny!
Dispatch called us the next morning before we were even out of bed with a load offer picking up on Friday delivering on Monday. It's a whopping 15 pounds. So we are hauling our 15 pounder 2300 miles across the country. We are on that load now, having to take our time on it because we can't deliver till Monday, but that's okay. We don't mind not having to push it. We will end up in the Northwest so we will see what happens from there. We have decided to stay out on the road instead of going home right now. We are enjoying the weather, the freight seems to be running strong right now, so we are hoping to get the bank account built up and take off later in the year. We will see how long we can stay out here!
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