Today was a rather good day, surprisingly. I woke up just before my alarm went off and got lunch before I started driving. I found my empty trailer without problem, coupled to it, and arrived at the customer to pick up the load. Since I was almost two hours early, they didn't have the trailer pre-loaded, but it took them less than an hour to load the one I brought in. As an added bonus, they were giving away free bottled water, so I received two free cases of it just for picking up a load.
The only real problem of the evening was my weight. Specifically, being overweight by 60 pounds on the drive tandems and being only 140 pounds under on the trailer, forcing me to put that weight onto my steer tires by sliding the fifth wheel. I've never had to do that before; the trainers all kinda skipped over that. So, by getting out the textbook, I found the procedure and managed to slide it one notch forward. I was trying for two, such that I'd never have to worry about sliding it again, but I think I've jammed it in place. It should be fine, but when I'm due for the next round of maintenance, I'll probably ask them to look at it.
When I arrived here in West Memphis, I found out that my trailer was due for maintenance. Specifically, the annual inspection sticker expires next month and they like to avoid those things expiring when at all possible. I had to go to the shop anyway: one of the splash guards (mud flaps) on the tractor was damaged from the blowout I had a week or so ago, one of my tires was just about flat, and three others were a little low on air. It took much longer than I'd like for the work to get done - nearly two and a half hours - but at least I'm cleared to go as soon as I want to leave in the morning.
So, my current plan is something like this. Soon as I post this, I'm going to bed and setting my alarm for 3PM. I don't plan on sleeping 11 or 12 hours, but I'm completely exhausted right now and I think I'm getting sick, so I just might. When I wake up, I'll just go inside to talk to my manager; since West Memphis is my "home" OC, I may as well save a phone call. I'll also take care of my laundry, get a shower, and eat before I hit the road, probably around 7PM or so. I have just under 500 miles to drive before I drop this off, so it'll be a long (profitable) night of driving. I like those long drives. :)
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