By the time I left the park, it was like 10:30. They wanted me to bring the truck first to the yard and then drive another truck up to the plant. I decided against that and drove to the plant first, dumped that load and then spent 2-1/2 hours going on these back roads going through a bunch of small towns with slow speed limits and most of the highway speed limits are 55 mph. It's Arkansas and that's what they do. Interstates being the exception.
There is no fast way to get to El Dorado and the location makes zero sense. They should have a setup near an Interstate, not some hick town in the middle of nowhere that is far from Interstates and costs a lot of time to get to. But whatever, this company is pretty backwards in its thinking all the way around.
So I have this offloading down now. No questions in my mind about any of it, just get it done. One of the operators wanted me to keep checking their tank - that is not our venue and tho I know how to check it, that is really on them. He was afraid it was going to overfill. They have this setup with 2 giant tanks. They're like 24 feet tall. An entire tanker full of product only fills them up 4 feet worth. That's a big tank lol.
I went inside several times and checked the thing, it was getting close but I figured it would be right at it's maximum fill line and I would be done and I was correct. I got done, put everything away and went back inside, something we don't really have to do but these people seem to want to check my work. I asked them, I'm done, do you want to check my work or can I leave? They wanted to check. I figure they're looking for any spills and to ensure there are no lines still attached to the tanker. Well of course not, I'm not going to just drive away with lines attached lol.
What I was looking at was the fact that another driver had put the drip bucket into the containment area - this is the area where their line and filters and inlets are for their setup, if it leaks, it just stays in the containment area and yes, it leaks constantly while offloading - on the floor instead of up on the ledge. They had used all of the cloth blankets to put the bucket on and had left a bunch underneath the bucket. It was all stuck on there.
I was scratching my head. Do they have other new drivers and if so, why would they do this? There is obvious resin on the floor, why would you put the bucket into the resin? I wondered if everyone would be blaming me for this mess. I cleaned up the cloth blankets and threw all of that in the trash and got out new ones.
Off to El Dorado - 2 hours worth of that, then 30 minutes in the yard dropping the trailer, moving the tractor, getting the other tractor, hooking up to the trailer, moving my stuff from one truck to another, updating the elog and then finally leaving. I took another way to get home and it's definitely much easier drive and faster. It was coming from Gurdon that took forever today. There is only one way down and it's zig and zag and what a drag. Going any other way looks like it would add 50-75 miles.
Home several hours later. They day was done for everyone else, the boys were already in bed and the parents not far behind them. Me? No thanks. I have to wind down, think about my next steps, catch up with the news, visit with the doggy, stuff like that.
Whatever happens, I am keeping the goal front and center in my mind and with everything I am doing. Pay off debt. But I've got bills that are coming due that will have to move some of the goal further out. The property taxes and the insurance, to be precise. I'd love to pay off the washer and dryer, $800 owing on that. Just get rid of $220 per month payment. If you look at getting rid of payments, that one makes more sense than paying down credit card debt first. It's only $800 and it's $220 a month. That's a decent chunk of change.
Getting late.
