Our delivery was 8:00 a.m. and we arrived in Memphis, TN around 7:00 a.m. We were unloaded and dispatched to our terminal in West Memphis, AR around 10:30 a.m. Arriving in West Memphis, AR we were assigned a load to pick up at 10:00 p.m. in Memphis, TN and deliver this to Charlotte, NC on Monday at 10:00 pm.
After killing our 10 hour break we were off to Memphis, TN ready to start our trip to Charlotte, NC.
As fate would have it, our load was actually bound for New Columbia, PA not Charlotte! What the heck? Who dropped the ball this time? Oh that's right, it's called double booking in the trucking business... not ball dropping.... a thing that happens that no one takes responsibility for.
Trapper called dispatch and he was then asked to "walk back in and get the person's name that told you the load was bound for PA not NC. A phone call would have been too hard? I should get off my soapbox here.
As he was walking back in to the terminal every single light goes out. All the inside lights, the outside terminal lights... everything. It was pitch black! As we were arriving at the terminal earlier, we saw numerous blue lights and heard sirens off in the distance. By the time the power was shut off, the news helicopters were buzzing around and you could see the glow of flames (in the near distance).
Turns out that the city cut the power off. There was an old, abandonded school that was burning. It was kind of interesting watching the dock workers running around on fork lifts holding flash lights so they could see. They didn't miss a beat. Our load was ready but we couldn't get our paperwork... the office couldn't print the bills of lading... so we sat for two hours making small talk with the other drivers.
Finally, the office workers decided to hand write the time in and time out on the bills of lading and release us! In the meantime the local dispatch out of West Memphis, AR had decided we were bringing this load back to the terminal there and it would be relayed to another driver.
We arrived back at the West Memphis, AR terminal around 1:30 a.m. and we were assigned a load going to Greenville, SC that is due there on Monday morning.
By now, I've got 3 separate maps saved and still didn't know where we were headed. I was afraid it would change again. The other aggravating part of tonight is the fact that neither of us really want to start driving at 2:00 a.m. (to finish our hours for today) so the less of the two evils is to take another 10 hour break and start out tomorrow morning at lunch time. We have plenty of time to make the 537 mile run by Monday morning.
At least after we deliver on Monday, our 8 weeks out will come to an end with us being at home for a couple of days. That's always a nice thought.
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