"With a litle help from my friends"

We made to our drop in Seattle on time! Don't quite know how, but we did it. Had a little extra help from a new friend. During our run from North Carolina, we came up behind a CFI truck out in Texas somewhere after our stop in Lancaster. I decided to give him a hollar on the CB and ask where he was headed. Surprise, Surprise, they are headed to Calexico also. We ran with them (another team) for awhile and chatted some. Whiskey Runner, and Shot Glass was their handles. Come to find out he had 28yrs with CFI, and a multi-million mile driver (over 3). We were pretty light loaded and they were pretty heavy so eventually we moved on. We stopped in El Paso for the sleep and I don't think they stopped. The next day when we arrived at Calexico, they were just leaving the yard. "Where ya headed?" He replied "Santa Fe Springs, CA"! I'll be damm, so are we a little later. See ya there.
Sure 'nuf when we pulled in, there they were. The next morning when we went in at 0400 to get our paperwork to head out, ran into him and got to meet and shake hands. "See ya up the road". During the nite last nite, we were about 400mi out, and had been fighting the mountain grades. It was 7pm local, and IF I could maintain a 50mph average, it was still going to be RIGHT at 3am when we arrived (our deadline), and we still needed a fuel stop somewhere. I called in and told dispatch this, and was told just do the best you can.
We made our fuel stop about a 150mi into Oregon. Lo and Behold, there is Whiskey Runner! Pulled up and fueled alongside. Talked to them a little and told them our situation. He said this run is tough. They pulled out a few minutes ahead of us. About 30 min down the road, I see this truck slowly coming along side. I looked over and see all these stars on the fender. (CFI gives a star for each 120,000mi of service and you can have them put on the truck if you want) I immediately knew who it was, tho didn't know how or where I got around him. With the interior light on, and a big grin and wave as he went by, Ole Whiskey Runner took the lead. I tucked in and we went. We chatted all the way to Seattle. Found out he is THE senior driver for the company. Great guy, gave us a few pointers to help make teaming a little easier, and kept me awake. Also got us here on time. We rolled in at 2am, an hour ahead of schedule. It helped we really didn't have all the slow mountain grades after our fuel stop, so we rolled.
We dropped our trailer here, went down to the end of the yard, hooked up an empty, and went to bed, waiting on the Qualcomm to chirp with our next load assignment.
It's about 10am local and we are still here. Will just relax some today and maybe nap a little till its time to go again.
A big thanks goes out to our new friends, "Whiskey Runner", and his wife, "Shot Glass".
Till next time, keep it safe out there.