Looooooooooong daaaaaaaay.  I'm not a fan of working on Sundays to begin with.  I got up at 5 am, got my shower, got out of here.  Over to the yard, get the truck, over to the plant.  Loaded, headed out. Pretty much settled in myself that I wouldn't be home tonight, even tho, if everything works perfectly, you can actually do this trip in one day.  The first thing was a boo-boo error on my part.  Got to Lufkin, was going to fill up the truck - no go. I left the fuel card at home!

I was at 1/3rd tanks.  I knew I could make it down there so I left the truckstop and kept on driving.  God down there, wasn't dreading it this time.  This is the 2cd time at this port, but I knew what to do this time as far as getting in and I wasn't at all uncomfortable with unloading the truck.  We have 2 sets of trailers: really, reeeeaaaaalllly old one, like over 30 years old and then these new ones. I had a new one today and that thing popped the pressure up to 95 in no time. 

I kept that pressure up, too, even after they opened the plant valve to let the liquid flow into their system. The higher the pressure, the faster you get out of there. Well, you can't let it get too high or the safety relief valve pops off and then  I"m in for an ordeal with the company.  The point is, the trailer has a pressure building coil on it and if you tend to it and if it's working properly, you can keep the pressure up high and it pushes the liquid out of the tank.

Got done with all of that and got out of there, only to look at the available hours left and how much time my GPS said it was going to take to get back to the yard and I thought, well maybe I will make it home today.  But, I didn't hold my breath.  I made one stop: at a small truck stop to pump $40 cash worth of my own money in diesel fuel into the tank. Just enough to get it back to the yard and to a filling station the next time I'm out - there is one a mile away from the plant where we load the trailers.  Lol, I was looking at that GPS a lot. How many minutes left to drive versus how many minutes I had left before my 14 were cashed.

Yes, I did make it back to the yard and this marks the first trip that I have accomplished in a single day.  Considering all that had to be done, I am pretty happy with myself that my level of knowledge about this stuff is starting to grow.  Lots more to learn, I'm sure, but I have the base stuff down at least.  The time spent at the plant was what was going to determine whether I made it home today or not. 

Anyway, it gives me another full day at home unless, out of the blue, Ann calls me in the morning needing help with something.  Tho, I intentionally leave my phone off at night, lol. 

I've been on 2 short trips in a row now, I fully expect to be sent on a 2 to 3 day trip next.  I would prefer a Brownsville trip. 

Tomorrow? I want to take Addler back to the doggy bath place - he is smelling again.  If they have a slot to get him in there, he IS going, lol. In fact, I'll take both dogs if there is room.  I have numerous phone calls to make trying to get some of this move stuff wrapped up.  And right now? I'm really tired, so I'm getting offa here.