Easy Run?

An easy run, New Lenox to Jacksonville, right? Uh, not quite. Started off pretty good, but as we got on into Kentucky, started hitting all the winter weather. North of Louisville, we got into the snow, and by the time we got to city, it was deep enough that the interstate was covered. There were no lines to follow, so everyone was driving all over the place. I stayed pretty much to the left, and had a flat bed following me with a 4 wheeler in between us. I moved over toward center to allow the 4 wheeler room to pass. He started to follow me, then decided he wanted back to the left, then the snow got to him, and sent him sliding and nosed into the center retaining wall. The flatbed BARELY had time to swerve to avoid him, and was asking everyone around if he hit him. From the view in my mirrors, it looked like he JUST cleared him. After that he settled in behind me. I told him if he wanted around, just say the word. "Nope, you're doin good, just keep it up, and let me know if there is anything coming up!" We just crused thru town, and about 100 more miles. The band of bad weather stretched between Louisville, and Bowling Green. I just hoped to get thru it, and a little farther south to park for the nite, so we wouldn't wake up covered in ice and snow. It worked. By the time we stopped it was a balmy 52 degrees. (It had been anywhere from 10 to 26 degrees and freezing rain earlier).
OK, got the hard work over, time to sleep. We got up the next morning and Kim took a walk around the rig. "Steve, come look at this, somoething doesn't look right." One of the tires on the tandems on our trailer was FLAT, luckily it was the outside dual. We called road service and waited for them to dispatch someone out to fix it. After a 2 hr delay for that we were on our way.
Ok, the rough part of this trip is over, time to enjoy? Not quite. When we get to our destination at Jacksonville, we bypassed a couple of truckstops to head for a rest area just prior to our exit to wait till after midnite to deliver. We could not deliver prior to midnite, and was given a midnite to 5am window. Construction time on the Interstate, and the rest area didn't exist. Ok, no problem, there is a small truck stop at exit. We head for it, but no luck, it's full. Ok, lets see if there is room at the customer area, before we get to the guard. We passed where the place should be, but nothing there! Now what??!! Keep going and get turned around and go back. That easy huh? Ever tried to find a place to turn 65' of truck and trailer around?? Not the easiest thing to do in town. We eventually saw a grocery store and shopping area. Luckily it was about 9pm and not too busy, made it thru the parking lot, and eventually headed back. Ok, slooowly, where is this place? Again, no luck. Screw it, lets go to the truck stop and figure this out. So we proceed back 8 miles to the 2 truckstops. We idle thru the T/A and not an empty slot in the place. Head next door to the Pilot, and couldn't even get into to it, trucks were backed up into the road trying to get thru the fuel island, much less the parking area. OK, lets go back and ?????????? At the small truck stop there was a little store across the street. We parked in their lot until 3am then to the customer. I looked up the customer in Google earth which is satellite pictures of the USA. Figured out where I missed a turn, (there is no access from the road the address was on). Got up, headed in, and dropped our "Easy money run". WHEW!
Went back outside the gate and parked and slept till about 9am when we got our next assignment. We are deadheading over 600mi up to Charleston W. Va for a Con-Way load going to Denver, Co. Should be there about 9 or 10pm tonite, and as usual, the Con-Way run has a pick-up time of 4am and not much extra time to get to Denver.
We put in for a couple days off since we are going in the direction of home. Give our fleet manager some time to see if he can arrange a load from Denver to Salt Lake. Hopefully, thats next on our list.
Till next time, keep it safe out there!