Heavy Load - for me anyway - this trip

Tonight I am calling Malvern, AR home. I was able to put two loads together going to within 70 miles of each other. Plus they loaded within 50 miles of each other -- life is good. I have been doing some serious driving for seven days straight now. But I am taking a brief break Thursday and let my log book 'cool off.'

I delivered my signs in SC early Monday morning and then reloaded for LA. I ran into the remnants of tropical storm Claudette just past Atlanta and stayed wet all the way to my delivery near the TX-LA border south of Shreveport.

That delivery was pretty neat. Boise Cascade takes pine trees and makes them into landscape timbers and posts. I drove past log trucks waiting to unload and watched them transferring these limbless pine trees onto a conveyor that fed them into a machine that removes the bark before sending them along to be cut into posts. I enjoy seeing how they make things you walk into the store and just buy.

Unfortunately I had to drive more than 150 miles after this to get my next load. It's one of the disadvantages of my 'small' trailer. Less Than a Truckload (LTL or partials as they are known in the biz) can be difficult to come by in some parts of the country. It's always a factor to me when I book a load, how do I get to the next one?

But, as I mentioned, I got lucky and was able to put two little ones together. So now I'm headed for north-eastern Indiana. Originally, I was going to press hard and deliver by Friday morning - it's only 1,000 miles. But, after looking at the map, I realized that my route takes me within 60 miles of where my youngest son lives in AR.

The sad news, his grandmother - on his mom's side - is not doing so well. Hopefully I will get to visit with her also. So I'm going to take my 'week-end' tomorrow and Friday and hang out with Jared. Then I will leave Saturday and continue on to make delivery first thing Monday.

I previewed partial loads moving out of NE Indiana and was happy to find 39 of them! That's encouraging. I'll work Friday to set something up to load Monday afternoon and keep on trucking.

Wish I had my motorcycle with me this trip. It would be nice to 2-wheel over to Pine Bluff and visit Jared. But, it needs tires and is sitting in IL. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to put these two partials together if I had my bike on also. I am 'maxed out' on this trip. In the long run it all works out.