Soooo...

The trip starts with the trailer in the yard.  Turns out the driver that loaded it and was going to take it had his truck broke down on him.  

Another Sunday start to a drive, I wasn't into it for quite a while.  Meaning I just plain didn't feel like driving and couldn't wait until I got 300 miles behind me so I could stop and nap a while.  There is no regulation saying you have to drive 300 miles before you stop, nor is there a company policy.

That's my self inflicted policy.  If I go well beyond 300 miles - which I often do - that's fine. But stopping before 300 miles is done? No, just doesn't work for me.

Anyway, the trip up was mostly uneventful. Didn't even see any horrific crashes anywhere - which is a plus.  Lots of congestion on the Interstates, lots of very rough roads, lots of - dumb- drivers, pretty normal stuff.

I ended up after the 2cd day of driving well beyond what I would normally do at about 78 miles from the plant.  Getting to the plant, all was fine, I figured 6 hours max, that's just what it takes them.  But after being parked and this dude attempting to unload for and hour and a half, I saw him walking around shrugging his shoulders. That was my queue to get out of the truck and find out what was going on. 

He claimed the fluid wasn't flowing and the truck wasn't unloading.  Partially true, when he turned the pump on, it was cavitating, meaning not enough fluid going through.  What was untrue is that it was obvious fluid is going through. This stuff is 150 below zero, when it flows through the pipe to go into the plant side, the pipe becomes completely frosted on the outside, you can't even see the pipe anymore. You can literally make snowballs out of the stuff.  Which I have  done lol.

We discussed this for a while, decided to let the air out my suspension on the tractor and see if that would change anything.  It did, immediately.  And yes, I was there over 6 hours actually.  Left there and started cruising. A little less than 6 hours left on the 14 hour clock, I was going to drive that out.  

And drive it out and then some I did.  For at the end of the day, I could not find a parking space. Into one place and out and into another.  I haven't had this much trouble finding a parking spot in quite a long time.  Looking at the Trucker Path app, I saw a place that said "lots of spots" 28 miles down the road. I was already beyond my 14 hour limit.  Had to his the 16 hour exception to keep driving legally. 

You can do that once every 70 hour reset.  Not something you want to abuse - use too often - which I don't, but tonight was definitely a night I needed one.  I got - here - and saw a spot right near the pumps.  The rest of the place looked full and I wasn't going to potentially give up a spot to find out the hard way that there wasn't any, so I backed in here and shut'er down.  This is not an optimal parking spot, but at some point, you get tired of looking. I was blessed that another truck parked next to me after I got in here, his truck will act as a sound block against other trucks coming in here. 

I was not happy to find out that my pressure in the vessel - the tank that holds the product - was up to 60 pounds.  Yikes!  I left the plant with it high as it was. 46 pounds.  This trailer is old and the safety valve goes off at 85 pounds. That's really low, it should be up at least as at 105 pounds.  So now I have to worry about pressure.  I can't let it get up to 85, once those safeties go off, you have serious problems.  They basically don't shut themselves off.  There's nothing in there but residual amount of product.  

And now, there are trucks parking in non-parking spaces and blocking other trucks from getting out, including me.  I'm here for 10 hours, if that junk is still out there when I get up in the morning? I'll be knocking on their door.  Dude, you are blocking me in and I need to go. Bridge I'll cross in the morning if I have to.  This is along Interstate 81 in Virginia and 81 is a  very busy highway. It's constant traffic, up and down the thing.  It must be one of the busiest Interstates in America, at least from everything I have seen.  That means drivers are looking for spots to park, just like me.  I do not, however, ever, park in a place where I would be blocking someone else from getting out. That's rude and will cause problems.

Last night. I was at a Flying J. Somewhere in Pennsylvania, it's been a long day, thinking isn't exactly on my list of priorities, I don't remember, I think it was in Harrisburg.  Almost 16 hours today, btw.  Anyway, I got lucky, there were plenty of spaces when I pulled in there but it didn't take long and almost all of it filled up.  Except for 2 spots, one next to me and one across from me.  

This truck comes around the corner and begins to attempt to back into the space across from me.  I have never in my entire driving career seen anyone have such a difficult time backing into a space.  I was eating dinner and watching this facade. How did this guy get a CDL?  This went on for almost 20 minutes.  I finally got out of the truck and literally had to tell him which way to turn the wheels.  It took another 10 minutes after that even with me directing him before he finally got the thing in there!  If you can't back a truck, you can't drive one.  

I can see doing a few pull ups, but half an hour to get a truck into a spot?  Guy didn't speak English very well and I was just trying to help him out. Oh, I forget, there was another spot 2 down from this dude's - 2 trucks tried to back into it and couldn't, they ended up leaving before another truck got in there and backed it right in. 

How do these people survive?  If I were having that much trouble backing into a hole, I would be doing some serious practicing on my free time to get the hang of it.  Not wait until I am out of hours and be forced into a position of attempting to do something - I can't do.  I can honestly say that there are nights when I'm blitzed tired and have more trouble than normal to back into a space, like having to get out of the truck a few times and go back and make sure I'm not about to ram another truck, but half an hour?  Or leave the spot altogether because I can't get in there? That's part of the job!

Next came the spot next to me.  I wasn't paying much attention to this truck, I was ready to go to bed.  But I happened to look and see him backing into the truck on the other side of the spot next to me.  STOP!!!! I was out the door quick, dude, pull up!  A lady got out of the truck that was hit.  She was not panicking or even angry, but she was definitely taken by surprise. The driver got out, I'm sooooo sorrry.  It actually only took off some paint, he got lucky that he stopped when he did, any more and he would have taken out the hood.  

In that respect, this has been a strange trip.  

Anyways, I have about 980 miles left to go to get back to the yard in Texas.  Try to knock out at least 650 miles tomorrow and then finish up on Thursday.  

OH! It was SNOWING today!  At the plant, it started snowing.  I was like, what on earth.  Fortunately, it was melting as fast as it hit the ground.  I couldn't imagine going through another trip like that one from West Virginia driving over ice.  That was a wicked run and not one I ever want to repeat.   

I don't remember if I posted on another property I found or not, but it is 25 acres next to a lake. Not fare from where I live.  So I forwarded it to the realtor - she came back and said: FLOOD PLAIN. There is one place on the property where someone built a huge pad for whatever reason, the rest of it is covered with water.  One could wish for a property next to a lake that wasn't flooded.  That would draw people far and wide.  Put a boat dock on there, heck, build a marina.  But noooo, it has to be flooded with water.

If that sounded cynical, it's probably because it was.  One property after another after another. It's already under contract, or it doesn't have water available, or it's covered with water. LOTS of properties I have looked at are covered with water. Just the nature of the region I live in, lots of rain, lots of water.  No place for it go.  I just keep looking.  There are properties that would work - but way too far away.  I'm not going to deal with a business that's 30 miles away. My support system may not mind driving 50 or 10 miles to deal with stuff, but 30 plus miles? 

I saw an RV "park" being built on the way back from Brownsville the other day.  It was a very small patch of land right off of Highway 59, a bunch of spaces being crammed together.  I guess the allure is the location? Other than that, you have constant, all day/night long highway noise, ugly views and nothing but just a place to park your Rv.  Is this what I should do, look for 2 acres of land and build a dive place?  Is it even worth the money spent?  Do they make any money off of those places?  

My desire for acreage goes beyond an RV park. It's the rest of the property to do other things with.  

Ugh. I don't want to think about all of that right now, it's time to go to bed. 650 miles may not sound like much (intended for tomorrow) but in a truck that goes 67 miles per hour and running into all the traffic and bad roads and construction sites that I do? It's pretty darn good to get that much done in a day.  I don't even have to do that much tomorrow if I don't want to - it won't change the fact that I will have to drive the next day to finish the trip. But, the final day? I won't have to drive near as far and will get home in the afternoon instead of nighttime.  

With that, I'm offa here.

G'nite.