It doesn't look like much, but today was one of the most tiring days I've had in my 13 months of trucking.
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I got up early this morning and drove to my consignee in Huntington Beach, California through fifty miles of the best that LA could toss at me. Of course, at 0400 that typically isn't much.
The consignee was a real treat to get in to. At one point I had to blind-side back out on to the street then make my way inside, where I had to wind my way around through muddy paths to the area where the trailer would be unloaded. By hand. A full 53' trailer, filled top to bottom with heavy clay pottery, protected by an incredible amount of cardboard boxes.
It took two hours just to get started because the owner didn't have a cashier's check for the C.O.D. as instructed, and CFI doesn't take plastic or company checks apparently. So, he had to run over to the bank and wait until they opened up, before I opened up the trailer.
Then his crew of about 10 workers went about unloading these huge clay pots. I'm talking big enough to plant a palm tree in, some of them at least. All made in central Mexico in the state of Jalisco in a town called Tonala, that I've been to before.
While I was watching this go on for three hours, I get a call from my fleet manager asking if I could pretty please help out with a high priority load (Conway, naturally) that hadn't been picked up. Just need me to take it from the Los Angeles area on I-10 just inside Arizona then swap trailers with another driver. Oh, and deliver his load back in the Los Angeles area tomorrow.
I've been highlighted for ten days now. I spent all of this morning thinking of what I would do on my time off today and tomorrow. Then, I sighed and told them I'll do my part, take one for the team, yada yada.
So now I'm in Blythe, California near the Arizona border. The other driver agreed to meet me here since traffic was absurd in Los Angeles and I got very much delayed. Also delayed will be the load of his that I'm taking in, that was supposed to be there at 0630 tomorrow. Try noonish, folks.
Nite nite.
