The Southwest Round-Up
My trip to Nogales, AZ took me through some new territory as far as my truck driving career goes. I'd not been in the southern parts of both NM and AZ with Trucky since I've started this adventure. So it was a pleasant experience. I had yet to traverse the I-10 corridor from Las Cruces, NM to Tuscon, AZ. I'd done it years ago when I lived in Alamogordo, NM when I went to visit friends who had gotten transferred to Davis Montham AFB.
The route I took ran me down through my old neighborhood in Alamogordo, NM, although they'd built a bypass since I lived there, which I took instead of going through downtown. I could tell there's been a bit of growth since I lived there, but overall it's still the same ol' Alamogordo. It was actually quite an emotional drive-thru for me and I bet that if I'd gone through downtown, I'd have had to pull over and pull it together.
I have a lot of fond memories of the time I spent there and they flooded my brain as I drove through. I lived there just shy of two years, but they were two wonderful years of new experiences, new friendships, new every thing's that I will always reflect on with a hearty smile.
I totally had to stop at a truck stop before moving on my westward journey to buy some locally grown pistachios... YUM YUM! And then of course I got to see a few more stomping spots like a bar we went to a few times that was near the military base where we lived and White Sands National Monument, a place I wish I would have spent more time exploring. Then it was a slow trip over the San Augustin Pass and down the mountain into Las Cruces.
That was a trip I made many times while living in NM. It was always a sight to see, like a whole other world on the other side of that mountain range, spread out before you like a painting. You pass through the small town of Organ first, which always made me laugh, and still did.
Eventually I made it to my planned breaking point in Lordsburg, NM for the night and shut down and passed out from exhaustion. The next morning I got up and running early... heck even earlier than I thought! I always forget that the state of AZ doesn't participate in Daylight Savings and that this time of year they are on Pacific time instead of Mountain time. So when I thought I was on the road at 4 am it was actually 3 am. Which meant that I was going to be way too early to see "The Thing" at exit 322 in AZ by the time I actually got there. It's a shame really... but that's the way it goes.
I made the rest of the trip without issue, well at least until I got into Nogales. The directions I was given by my company had me going the wrong way, which isn't unusual. So I had the pleasure of the scenic tour of town before I ended up back on the interstate headed north and made my way to the Pilot truck stop to call the receiver for REAL directions. Once I had what I needed I headed out again and found the place with no problemo!
Unloading took a little longer than anticipated, but it gave me time to work a trip plan for my next load. But my dummy self didn't really pay attention to the times on my work assignment before making what I thought was a solid and super trip plan, which included a stop to see "The Thing" finally. As I was double checking myself I realized that the load I was to pick up next wasn't even going to be ready until late evening... the trip plan I'd created was based on picking up the load after I was done being unloaded.
BAH! Go figure. So after reworking things, I realized that not only was my trip plan pretty much trash, but I was also going to have less than 10 minutes left on my 14 hour work day by the time I sat and waited, then drove to get my next load. Which is exactly what happened. I hung out at the Pilot after I was done delivering my Nogales load. Then I headed north to Tuscon, which was about an hour and ten minute drive. I got to the shipper at 5pm local time, dropped my empty trailer, hooked up to the preloaded trailer and had 9 minutes left on my work day. Thankfully there was a large gravel lot across the way that they granted me permission to park in for my 10 hour break. Plus, the guard was nice enough to grant me access to the building so I could use the loo when needed.
I slept pretty good, after battling an insane nose bleed-thanks to my screwed up sinuses, desert dry air, and medications I'm on. I woke up minutes before my alarm was set to go off and then decided I wasn't ready to get up and rolled back over, resetting my alarm for an hour and a half later.
After snoozing happily I finally got up and got motivated. My load is headed to east Texas and is due by midnight Sunday. So I figured I'd knock out somewhere around 550 miles for the day and have about the same left for Sunday. But being the badass truckin' mama I am... I knocked out 600 miles and have about 450 for tomorrow. Yay.
The thing that sucks most about this load, if anything can suck about having a load with a good bit of miles to start the work week off right, is that once I deliver I have to head to the nearest truck stop and take a 34 hr restart. I won't gain back any hours on my work week recap until after midnight on Tuesday. After I've delivered this load tomorrow I will only have about 2 hours left on the day, with zero to gain back at the end of the day. So I will be forced to do a restart. (this probably only makes sense to other truck drivers who run logbooks so I'm sorry if this confuses those of you not in the industry) I'm not trilled about the prospect of sitting for 34 hours in a crummy truck stop in the horrid Texas heat (it was 101 today!) attempting not to over idle so I can still hopefully score a quarterly bonus.
I had asked my dispatcher Friday if we could relay the load at our terminal in Dallas, as it's on the way... but he said no. Apparently that marker is (or was yesterday) oversold which means that there was more freight than drivers, so if we had relayed my load that would be one more load with no available drivers. My hope was that I would get to relay it at the terminal where I could take my restart in a place of comfort. But alas, my luck isn't that good! ha!
Now there is a chance that Monday morning my dispatcher will have me deadhead to the terminal to take a restart there where there will likely be ample freight to choose from once my restart is over. But the chances of that are 51/49... not in my favor.
Anywho... that's it for now. I'm beat and wanna get some rest before tomorrow. Toodles
The route I took ran me down through my old neighborhood in Alamogordo, NM, although they'd built a bypass since I lived there, which I took instead of going through downtown. I could tell there's been a bit of growth since I lived there, but overall it's still the same ol' Alamogordo. It was actually quite an emotional drive-thru for me and I bet that if I'd gone through downtown, I'd have had to pull over and pull it together.
I have a lot of fond memories of the time I spent there and they flooded my brain as I drove through. I lived there just shy of two years, but they were two wonderful years of new experiences, new friendships, new every thing's that I will always reflect on with a hearty smile.
I totally had to stop at a truck stop before moving on my westward journey to buy some locally grown pistachios... YUM YUM! And then of course I got to see a few more stomping spots like a bar we went to a few times that was near the military base where we lived and White Sands National Monument, a place I wish I would have spent more time exploring. Then it was a slow trip over the San Augustin Pass and down the mountain into Las Cruces.
That was a trip I made many times while living in NM. It was always a sight to see, like a whole other world on the other side of that mountain range, spread out before you like a painting. You pass through the small town of Organ first, which always made me laugh, and still did.
Eventually I made it to my planned breaking point in Lordsburg, NM for the night and shut down and passed out from exhaustion. The next morning I got up and running early... heck even earlier than I thought! I always forget that the state of AZ doesn't participate in Daylight Savings and that this time of year they are on Pacific time instead of Mountain time. So when I thought I was on the road at 4 am it was actually 3 am. Which meant that I was going to be way too early to see "The Thing" at exit 322 in AZ by the time I actually got there. It's a shame really... but that's the way it goes.
I made the rest of the trip without issue, well at least until I got into Nogales. The directions I was given by my company had me going the wrong way, which isn't unusual. So I had the pleasure of the scenic tour of town before I ended up back on the interstate headed north and made my way to the Pilot truck stop to call the receiver for REAL directions. Once I had what I needed I headed out again and found the place with no problemo!
Unloading took a little longer than anticipated, but it gave me time to work a trip plan for my next load. But my dummy self didn't really pay attention to the times on my work assignment before making what I thought was a solid and super trip plan, which included a stop to see "The Thing" finally. As I was double checking myself I realized that the load I was to pick up next wasn't even going to be ready until late evening... the trip plan I'd created was based on picking up the load after I was done being unloaded.
BAH! Go figure. So after reworking things, I realized that not only was my trip plan pretty much trash, but I was also going to have less than 10 minutes left on my 14 hour work day by the time I sat and waited, then drove to get my next load. Which is exactly what happened. I hung out at the Pilot after I was done delivering my Nogales load. Then I headed north to Tuscon, which was about an hour and ten minute drive. I got to the shipper at 5pm local time, dropped my empty trailer, hooked up to the preloaded trailer and had 9 minutes left on my work day. Thankfully there was a large gravel lot across the way that they granted me permission to park in for my 10 hour break. Plus, the guard was nice enough to grant me access to the building so I could use the loo when needed.
I slept pretty good, after battling an insane nose bleed-thanks to my screwed up sinuses, desert dry air, and medications I'm on. I woke up minutes before my alarm was set to go off and then decided I wasn't ready to get up and rolled back over, resetting my alarm for an hour and a half later.
After snoozing happily I finally got up and got motivated. My load is headed to east Texas and is due by midnight Sunday. So I figured I'd knock out somewhere around 550 miles for the day and have about the same left for Sunday. But being the badass truckin' mama I am... I knocked out 600 miles and have about 450 for tomorrow. Yay.
The thing that sucks most about this load, if anything can suck about having a load with a good bit of miles to start the work week off right, is that once I deliver I have to head to the nearest truck stop and take a 34 hr restart. I won't gain back any hours on my work week recap until after midnight on Tuesday. After I've delivered this load tomorrow I will only have about 2 hours left on the day, with zero to gain back at the end of the day. So I will be forced to do a restart. (this probably only makes sense to other truck drivers who run logbooks so I'm sorry if this confuses those of you not in the industry) I'm not trilled about the prospect of sitting for 34 hours in a crummy truck stop in the horrid Texas heat (it was 101 today!) attempting not to over idle so I can still hopefully score a quarterly bonus.
I had asked my dispatcher Friday if we could relay the load at our terminal in Dallas, as it's on the way... but he said no. Apparently that marker is (or was yesterday) oversold which means that there was more freight than drivers, so if we had relayed my load that would be one more load with no available drivers. My hope was that I would get to relay it at the terminal where I could take my restart in a place of comfort. But alas, my luck isn't that good! ha!
Now there is a chance that Monday morning my dispatcher will have me deadhead to the terminal to take a restart there where there will likely be ample freight to choose from once my restart is over. But the chances of that are 51/49... not in my favor.
Anywho... that's it for now. I'm beat and wanna get some rest before tomorrow. Toodles
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