IT WAS ONLY A DREAM

Seems like dreaming about that Starbucks latte was as close as I was going to get to actually drinking one. After arriving at the Lamb-Weston facility in Prosser, WA, and dealing with all the road construction, and trying to get turned around, we finally got told to back into a dock three hours later. Then we watched as five other trucks started to arrive and deal with the same chaos of the construction and limited space, as they started a congo line down the torn up street waiting for their own dock.

Oh, might I also add that the heat index was rapidly rising, and with signs posted for no idling, we did what any reasonable person would do. Rolled up our windows and blasted the APU. Boy that device is a life saver! One of the other truck drivers pulled out his lawn chair, and walked over to sit under a chair and wait out his turn for a dock.

Speaking of the dock, we sat at ours for yet another three hours, before they were finally done with loading and paperwork. There was a false start where they had us pull out, then figure out that they were short on their count, had us back back up to the dock, only to then figure out their mistake and finally have us shut our doors and seal them. But then you now know the sad story, that with so much time wasted, although with some hefty detention pay, we were running out of time to get scaled and hit the road, so my Starbucks stop had to be scratched.

After a few adjustments on the tandems, we scaled out just barely legal with the full limit of 34,000 on the trailer axles, and a mere 100 pounds under the 80,000 gross pounds for the truck and trailer. Off we went with the sun starting to set over the Columbia River, where we made it to a rest area near Antelope, OR and called it a night.