This week started with the exact same two runs that started the week before. Monday drive to South bend, IN, Tuesday deliver then pick up soda in Paw Paw, MI for a thursday delivery in Robert, LA. For my third run though this week I went to pick up in Moselle, MS instead of last week's New Orleans. But I traded one bad city for another and it delivered in Memphis, TN. With the bad comes the good I had a preloaded trailer to pick up in Memphis and that is going to Tulsa for a monday morning delivery. I was told I can bring through the yard so I can reset my hours. Woo hoo.
Memphis was going to prove difficult. I had my laptop mapping software and the atlas sprawled out to help make sense of the company directions. Of course the source of the problem was a 13' 5" (standard for trucks needs to be over 13' 6") railroad overpass that the company was trying to route us around. Oh yeah and the original exit was closed for construction. This made my GPS just good for seeing the streets instead of routing. I could tell I was going into a forgotton realm of Memphis. A not very good area. In fact I had to turn around once and found a lot big enough but it proved difficult because I was trying not to hit the abandoned cars, tipped over semi trailers and broken pallets among other things. I get my trailer dropped and started heading to the better side of town for my load of tires. I mentioned to the yard dog about the overpass and he informed me it was ok to go under it. so all the rerouting was wasted. It's 13' 9" but they don't want to change the sign.
I get to the place that supposed to have a preloaded trailer full of tires ready for me and was told to wait. In the process I pulled a stupid move trying to drop my empty trailer and tried turning around in a place way to tight to do so. DOH! The yard dog rescued me by pulling a trailer out of my way and I sat in humiliation for an hour before my new trailer was ready. It was gonna be ready just in time for me to be leaving during rush hour.
The trucker gods thought I had been punished enough for the day and allowed an easy time out of Memphis. The traffic wasn't bad except for the four car pile up on the other side of the Interstate. Yay me.
I am destined to deliver the goods in Tulsa, OK Monday morning. Hand unloading 1000+ tires will probably be a long process. Oh well.
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About Me
- doomytunes
- Once long ago I was obsessed with the movie "Convoy". Years later I became a trucker. I don't have the budget to make a movie so I blog instead. I also play guitar and yell for a death metal band.
5 comments:
Hello--
Have you heard of Depiction? It's a new mapping software that you can use to place routes and then add in road barriers or other elements that will change the route. You can also add way points to customize those routes to your liking. It may have helped you in Memphis. We've got a free trial, too: http://www.depiction.com.
Good luck out there and thanks for doing what you do!
George Rodgers-Clark
I've heard a lot of bad stuff about Memphis. I guess several years ago a bunch of gang bangers hit the BPS store there. They couldn't get to the real guns but they ran out with a bunch of black powder guns and muzzleloaders. Street gangs re-enacting Civil War battles ain't my thing.
first time checking out your blog. into metal? very cool. those fast thrashing beats keep me going when i'm driving. love it.
your experience in memphis with low underpass sounds a bit like what i think i will come to expect. I was just reassigned to a family dollar account in the North East corner of the states. the dc is in rome, ny and will take me into the new york city regularly.
and, i'm a newbie to truck driving. only been driving for the last few months. I appreciate your honesty in your posts.
look forward to reading more.
Broadstone - I am still new at this too. I have only been driving a little over a year. The city I dread the most is the capital of low overpasses is Chicago. I am sure NYC has it's share. If I know where I am going I can deal with it. But getting lost in an older city like Chicago, memphis and NYC is not fun.
Burch - There is not one aspect I like about Memphis. That's not a truckers perspective more than it's a personal.
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