Yesterday - the beginning of this trip

The loading plant.

I get there, a lady comes running out waving her hands.  Okaaaaayyyy..... plant is shut down, you can't come in, park over there.  Must have happened after I passed the entrance to the operation - there is a red flashing light out there that comes on indicating a plant shut down.  So, I'm at the front of the line - and yes there was a line after it was all said and done.  Truck after truck after truck. This lady would wait until they drove all the way up to her and then she would tell them to go back.  By the time it was over, there were trucks backing up hundreds of feet to get to the next available parking space.  You know, versus her stopping them at the area where they would need to park?  

Getting into the plant, the scale is closed, they are doing construction and they are repaving the entire entrance and exit to the scale (about time, giant potholes everywhere).  So, going to the other scale, of course there was a line.  I got to the loading rack to find that the first load - ahead of me - had just started loading.  I went into my sleeper and fell asleep.  

After getting loaded?  Back to the scale house where it's all shut down and trying to find a parking space. Their temporary parking was full.  Going into the scalehouse, there were a dozen other drivers in there.  Another hour and a half wait. I lost 4 hours and 15 minutes in there yesterday.  When I finally got on the road, I drove almost 8 hours straight without stopping.  Yup, not even to go pee, I just huffed and puffed down the Interstates and tried to get some miles in.  Finally stopped to get fuel.  

It wasn't over after that.  Fueling was easy, took my 30 minute break there and got out of there, but I used my 16 hour exception - that adds 2 hours to the 14 hour on-duty clock. You can do it once per 70 hours.  I drove on down Interstate 40 and got a notice from GPS.  An accident on the shoulder, you are still on the fastest route.  Oh, well that shouldn't be a big deal, I erroneously thought.  

I got up to the traffic jam.  It was 3 -1/2 MILES to the accident site according to GPS.  That far at 0 to 5 miles per hour.  I lost over an hour and a half.  There were no exits in that area, I couldn't get off and just save my clock. See, I was looking at my 70 hour clock. It dawned on me that the Brownsville trip ate up some hours, I started this trip down 23 hours on the 70 clock.  At 70 hours? I either have to take  a 34 hour reset or if I"m lucky there will be hours available from 7 days prior.  I could be 20 miles from the yard and have to do that reset.  It's really going to be close.  I can't really say whether I'll be home for Christmas or not.  It's too close to call. Anything can happen to eat up time.  The only thing I can do is go off duty for everything but driving, excepting a few things I have to show time for.  Fueling and pre-and post trips.  

If it isn't any of those? I put that thing into off duty immediately, for off duty obviously doesn't count against your 70 hour clock.  I got up to the accident. Another destroyed semi truck. This was horrific looking. The entire cab of the truck was twisted.  It was leaning about 60 degrees off the driver's side of the frame.  The drivers seat area - the door was stuck open, the seat was partially hanging out the door, the entire area where the driver sits was twisted and caved in, the seat at an angle.  I don't know what happened, but the load on the truck had come off, it was 1-1/2 inch diameter steel pipe. I know this from 12 years of working at a pipe yard, lol, I can tell you the diameter of most pipe simply by looking at it.  They were loading that all onto trucks that had been brought in to haul it off.

After 16 hours I only got 547 miles in yesterday.  Today, no problems.  Lots of traffic but no real slow downs. 655 miles and I'm in some small town in Virginia not terribly far from the Maryland state line on Interstate 81.  I'm 185 miles from the area I will stop at tomorrow - I will definitely get a hotel.  I mean, I will be there at 10 am or earlier, probably going to have to hang out somewhere to get into a hotel, they don't usually let you in before noon or so.  I haven't decided which one, I just know that I don't want to stay in that Holiday Inn I stayed in last time up here on this run.  

Still, you have to find truck friendly places, ie: parking. I find that out by looking at satellite view of any property I am interested in staying it - you can clearly see if there's actual truck designated parking or if the property is big enough for a truck to pull into and park at.  \

I thought about spending Christmas on the road - if it comes down to that, I remember that I agreed to it to have Thanksgiving off.  I'm going to take the Mississippi/Louisiana route back along I-20 - if I'm only short 30 to 40 minutes - that's what I'm guessing this may turn into - I can stop at the truck stop in my town, park there, get a room and get a ride home.  Why get a room? Because my company will pay for it and it has a swimming pool lmao.  It's right next to the truck stop.  Anything can happen, I'm hoping for the best outcome. But I will suck it up and deal with it if I am stuck out here somewhere.  

My new fish tank has became the focal point of the house lol.  Everyone is interested in the thing, everyone wants to feed the fish, we're now talking about putting in fish tank specific fish in there along with the Koi goldfish.  It's okay as long as any exotics get along with my koi, especially. Goldfish are cheap, Koi are definitely not.  I may just wait until spring to put up my new pond setup.  It's gotten cold.  Speaking of cold it's getting into the 20's where I'm parking tonight.

But, I have plenty of cold winter gear. 

Well enough of this, time to go to bed.