Fri... Jan 8... West Memphis, AR

We left Baton Rouge, LA on Wednesday morning and arrived in Laredo, TX around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night. We were both ready to get stopped.

Normally I look forward to the warm weather in Laredo and it was warmer.... than the rest of the country... for a short while. I think it was 57 degrees when we arrived. Of course, we took advantage of the easy showers and by the time I turned in for the night it was 42 degrees. That still wasn't too bad.

Thursday morning, anxious to get out of there, we sat and sat and sat some more. Finally, around 4:30 p.m. we were dispatched to West Memphis, AR. The weather Thursday was horrible everywhere. We kept getting qualcomm messages about wrecks in Iowa. If I had been in charge I would have called all the drivers in Iowa and asked them to stop as soon as they safely could. Wreck after wreck after wreck. The temperature in Laredo was around 30 degrees by now and the wind was rocking the truck.

Due to all the backed up freight in the country, we (along with 9 other trucks) were deadheaded (paid for it, but no load...) 879 miles from Laredo to West Memphis. Evidentally, the company had a lot of expected trucks that had gotten stuck various places in the US.

I wasn't particulary looking forward to traveling north, empty trailer, and the wind blowing as bad as it was, but we had to go.

We stopped at the terminal in Lancaster, TX around midnight and left there on Friday morning. We safely arrived in West Memphis, AR at the terminal this afternoon and then came the fun part. The dispatcher asked us where we wanted to go....

Our choices were New Brunswick, Canada (north of Maine), Quebec, Canada (west of Maine), or Georgia! The two first trips would have been awesome in miles and scenery (under good conditions) but we decided to stick with Georgia. We were both at home so long, getting back out here and getting used to traveling 600 miles a day is kicking our butt's right now. There were two other drivers that jumped on the long loads, so everyone will be leaving West Memphis happy!

Our load doesn't pick up until Sunday night, so we're going to reset here. Groceries and laundry tomorrow and I'll even be able to get a jump start on school for next week. I see a trip to the hotel in order!