Calhoun, TN

I should be home right now. That's my opinion, anyway. I was to deliver in Ringgold, GA this morning, which I did, then pick-up in Calhoun, TN a load going to Manteo, NC. Not bad. I'd get a nice trip to the Outer Banks at least. As I was being unloaded, which started about an hour and a half after I arrived, I decided to take a walk around the truck and check the tire pressure. That's when I noticed one of my trailer tires was missing a chunk of tread. So, I called the shop and was told to go a few miles back down I-75 to get the spare tire put on. At this point, it was 11am and I realized there was no way I could make Manteo by 8am tomorrow. After informing my dispatcher, she asked the obligatory "why not?". Uh, let's see...8am is 21 hours away. It would take over 11 hours to drag the heavy trailer over there, plus a 10 hour break, tire replacement, fuel stops, food stops, and rest breaks. So she canceled that load and gave me one to South Carolina. Crap. I just got out of that black hole. At the same time, she also assigned me a load out of Columbia going to Ringgold again. Whew.

So I check-in with shipping in Calhoun and am told the load that was supposed to be ready yesterday isn't going to be ready until tomorrow. No biggie. I ran hard last week, so I don't mind a little downtime for some r&r. I headed down the road to park at the truckstop for the night and sent a message to my dispatcher to let her know what was going on. I may have also mentioned I need to get to the yard to get an updated fuel tax sticker. Poof! My loads to and from South Carolina were promptly canceled. Now in their place is a load from Calhoun to Charlotte and one from Catawba, SC to Carol Stream, IL. Oh, but it can't be so simple. I have to drop the Charlotte load, not in Charlotte, but in Rock Hill, SC, go up to Charlotte to grab an empty trailer and then go down to Catawba to get loaded.

Apparently three is the magic number. There is some cosmic law that says all trips to the Carolinas must involve at least three stops, take an entire day, and leave you an hour farther than you can legally drive from any decent truckstop. And so it is.