Some of you know that I'm not a fan of the I-35 corridor, specifically the part from the DFW metroplex south to the border. There is lots of construction, an absurd amount of traffic, and some screwed up paths through three different cities (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio). Because of this, I planned to go through there early in the morning and so I set my alarm for 4 AM. It is about 3 1/2 hours from Waco to the south side of San Antonio in my truck at that time of the morning, and from there south it is mostly barren countryside. All went as planned and I arrived at our Laredo terminal at about 9:15 AM.
One of the reasons Laredo is my least favorite terminal is the extra work we get to contribute each time we arrive with a load. First, we have to head to our terminal where we wait in line for our trailers to get inspected and a written report created, documenting the condition of the tires, lights, etc. I got lucky this morning and only had to wait a few minutes before getting to the front, and only about 15 minutes for the inspection. Then another 10 minutes to pull through the adjoining trailer repair bay so they could fix a bum light.
Then I was given directions to the broker that would take this particular load over the border. This time it was the local Fedex international brokerage only a couple miles away in a nearby office park area. The waiting in line for the rent-a-security-guard to check my trailer out of the Laredo yard, optional truck wash (no thanks), drive to the broker, paperwork to get into their gate, parking to get inside, waiting around for their people to assign a dock door, backing to said door (my newfound backing mastery has managed to vanish again, mysteriously), cursing and moving forward to break the seal and open the doors, backing to said dock, dropping the trailer, driving to the other side of their building for their rent-a-security-guards to check me out of their lot, and drive back to the CFI yard are on my tab. In other words, gratis.
Did I mention traffic yet? Most days, this side of Laredo has more big rig trucks on the road than cars. Think I'm making this up? Here is an unfortunate driver trying to survive in the big bad world of trucks: (No, he didn't end up crunched between those guys)
This was not, by the way, during rush hour... this was at about 10:30 AM.
Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I get back to CFI and go on the board... I'm 81st. I'll probably be here the rest of today and most if not all of tomorrow before I get a load out to wherever. Good time to do laundry.
