"MOO"NDAY

I thought I would stay with the dairy theme in light of the dispatch we are currently on, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me take you back to Saturday.

We waited Saturday until around 11am, when we were told to go ahead and bobtail to the Pilot Truck Stop, about 10 miles north, and stay there for the night. We really didn't mind, because as we pulled into the lot, I saw a little coffee shack, and knew where we would be headed next. We had a restful day and a good night's sleep and we were ready to take on the day come Sunday morning.

There was a nice restaurant within walking distance, and we thought it would be nice to have a Sunday morning breakfast and get the local paper and make a morning of it. However, just before we finished eating, we received a phone call to head to the Fred Meyer Distribution Center in Clackamas, OR and pick up a trailer there.

A short while later, we were driving down a long line of trailers, trying to find the one they wanted us to pick up. We found it, but it was fully loaded with sporting goods and not empty as they had thought. So, onto plan B, and we were instructed to go find another one of our drivers, who was getting unloaded, and take his empty trailer from him.

Empty trailer hooked up and we received our dispatch to go to Darigold in Milwaukie, OR and pick up some dairy products, but not until Monday morning. I could get used to these lazy days. We drove about 20 miles away to the nearest truck stop and settled in for yet another relaxing day.

It was an easy drive into Darigold this morning, with good roads, light traffic, and a big lot to maneuver around. After having over 44,500 pounds of milk and heavy cream loaded onto our trailer we headed back to the truck stop we stayed at last night to scale the load. Here is where being good with math is an asset. We knew we wouldn't have much room for error as our gross weight was 79,760 pounds. But, we moved the fifth wheel a little bit here, and the trailer axle a little bit there, and after 3 rounds of getting weighed, we were finally legal.

We have just under 400 miles to our final destination in Spokane, but the load does not deliver until tomorrow morning at 6am, which means we will be able to stay in the Company yard tonight for showers and laundry. Yes, I could get used to these types of days, but know they don't come around too often.