Criss-Crossing the Country

We made our delivery to Conway Abilene about 11pm last nite. We had been pre-planned to pick-up a load there at 0330 for Henderson, Co, but it was canx on us about 6pm last nite before we got to Abilene, so we stopped at a Flying J about 7:30. It was only about 15mi from the terminal and we didn't have to deliver till 1159pm. We had a dinner, and took a 2hr nap, then went and delivered. Picked up an empty trailer, and went back about 5mi to a WalMart/gas station that had some truck parking and slept. We had gone on the board when we delivered, but nothing was sent back, so we decided to sleep until they woke us. About 5am I got a phone call from Joplin asking us about the load we were to pick up at 3:30, if we had a trailer, etc. Something got totally lost in the computer, and they screwed up. We headed back to the Conway yard and picked up a load headed to Blythe, Ca.
This load is actually the first HazMat load we have hauled. We couldn't get a load of flammables, or poisons, etc. Nope, they give a load of explosives for our first one. UGH, this will be interesting. We will be a little extra careful on following distances, etc. This means that we also have to stop at all weigh stations/port of entry's instead of being able to bypass most of them like we have in the past. CFI has a EZ Pass, the electronic transponder for the auto weigh, and allows trucks from companies to bypass most of the time. Once in a while you get pulled for a random check of your company's trucks, but not very often.
We also got a pre-plan for Blythe to Belle, West Virginia. This run to Ca is 1034mi dispatch, and the WV trip is 2169mi. That gives us about 3200 for the week so far. Hopefull Friday morning we can get a good dispatch from there and kick us back up to the 5000 range. The last dispatch last week actually ran us 2 days into the payperiod this week (Sun/Mon), so we are on a short week for new trips.
If you see a big red racer out there with Roadie and Wingz on the door, criss-crossing the country, give a wave!
Till next time, keep it safe out there.