After seven hours of waiting my satellite unit went off and told me to deadhead up to Joplin, about 140 miles to the north. Wish they wouldn't have waited all that time (and a big thanks goes out to a couple people who helped out with this; they know who they are!). Since I would be passing by Crowder College I stopped in and chatted with my old instructors and some of the new students.
I had a wonderful time in Joplin, at least as much as you can have in less than 24 hours. When I finally boarded I got stuck with a run up to Wisconsin with two drops; no other choices. Joplin was also out of empty trailers so I was sent over to the trailer shop to grab the next one that was fixed and in short order I had it. Naturally, it wasn't completely fixed and another hour was wasted getting the air brakes taken care of.
My dispatch had me run about 35 miles away in Missouri to pick up the load and it had an incredible 3 screens of driving instructions to get there and what to do once you got there. Allow me to simplify:
From Joplin, take I-44 east to exit 18A south to HWY 60 west to Monett. Turn left (north) on Bridal Lane and go though stop sign, shipper is on the right. Take the first truck entrance to the shipping office and you are DONE. FINISHED. COMPLETED. Please, dear god, someone replace the dreck that is in there.
Anyway, was very quickly given the paperwork and directions to the back side of the plant to drop my empty and pick up the loaded trailer. Did the pre-trip and paperwork in short order then departed, finishing up just north of Springfield for the night. Load delivers in two locations in Wisconsin on Friday morning, a solid day's drive away that I will knock out on Thursday.
