A NEW EXPERIENCE...PALLETS

First off, we weren't able to put in an empty call until after 11am local time, which left us under 60 minutes to drive 70 miles to our preplan dispatch in Tremonton, UT. But being a good truck driver, Craig had alerted our dispatcher that we were getting close to the drop dead time to make our next assignment. Even so, when we were unloaded we confirmed that we should head towards Tremonton, and so off we went. About 30 miles later, we were told to hold on, plans had changed. Luckily, we were almost to Ogden, UT so we pulled into the Flying J we had stayed the night before, and awaited further instructions.

Now you know, after waiting a couple of hours and not hearing anything, that as soon as I got comfy on my bed to take a nap, the truck computer would start beeping with a new dispatch. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. Tossing the old information and writing down the new dispatch, we found out we were to head to Heyburn, ID to Simplot for an 8pm load. We were only 140 miles away, so off we go hoping that if we arrived early they would be able to get us in before our appointment time.

We arrived around 5pm only to be told we needed to pick up 22 pallets. Now, Heyburn, ID is a tiny little town of under 3,000 people. We found out that our company has a contract with a pallet company near town. Armed with the directions from the nice lady at Simplot, we took off and found ourselves going further and further down a little tiny road looking for the large sign for "Mabey's Pallets", that the nice lady said we couldn't miss. Right there, I was suspicious, but we kept driving until we almost passed by the aforementioned large sign. I submit a photo for proof.

So now here we go down an even tinier country road looking for the pallet place. All we see are farms until, clued in to what type of sign to look for from the one we almost passed up, we saw another one pointing straight ahead and on a dead end street. I'm already thinking of how in the hell are we ever gonna get out of here, but then reason tells me, that other trucks have had to come down here to get their pallets, after all, this wasn't unexplored territory.

Finally, stacks of pallets come into view and we know we have arrived, only to find that there is no one there, but a sign telling us to us the phone by the shed for after hour service. Craig ventures out and finds a list of names to call, and so the dialing begins. Then the excuses..... "I don't feel well, call so and so"........."He isn't home yet" ....... no answer....... "I'm the last name on the list because I live pretty far away, you might want to try so and so again"........... Finally we find someone and 15 minutes later the gate with the pull around is opened and I'm relieved to be facing going back onto the road and the 22 pallets are being loaded into our trailer.

Now, back to Simplot, who were more than happy to load us early, but informed us that our load of frozen french fries, was one happy meal away from being 45,000 pounds and that most likely we would be overweight, but that they would load us and have us go down to the local Love's Truck Stop 3 miles away and scale out, and then return to have them cut the load so that we would be legal.

With time running out on our 14 hour clock, we took off towards the Love's and hit the scale. We were both surprised to see that even with having three quarters of a tank of fuel, we were only 700 pounds over on the trailer axles. A quick slide of the tandems, a reweigh, and we were legal with a gross weight of just under 80,000 pounds. That weighing of the load also used up all of our available time and we called it a night in time to receive a decent television signal in which to watch the Olympics. With the reefer humming away keeping the french fries at a very cool minus 10 degrees, we had a very restful nights sleep.