RHYMES WITH TRUCK

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Saint Simons Island


____Day 1: Positive temperatures for the first time as I leave on a Saturday afternoon at the end of March. A Winter as hard and as long as any that I have endured in Canada; but the  distances have been up to a year-long average. Jan: 21590 km. Feb: 19289 km. Mar: 23001 km. Another bonus for this trip: somewhere different  from peat-moss to Texas
____Day 2: Webster Groves, near St. Louis, an easy two days drive from Niverville is the first drop with this load of windows. The construction industry is waking from it's hibernation so more variation of destination in the forthcoming months. Easter Sunday and light truck traffic leaves plenty of empty parking stalls at the Quik Trip Travel Plaza at the north-side of St.Louis.

Smart Car Transporter with Big-Sleeper Kenworth 660.

____Day 3: First drop done but 1340 kilometres to the next in South Carolina. The road re-construction industry is also back in full swing; Interstate 24 in Kentucky is one big cone zone. Atlanta is the night's destination. I am looking forward to the final delivery on St. Simons Island; off the coast of Georgia, separated from the mainland by the Intra-coastal Waterway.
____Day 4: To Ridgeland, South Carolina, for the unloading of the majority of windows in the trailer. It takes four hours; five of us and a lot of sweat as the sun beats down on the tin roof. A phone call to St. Simons Island tells me that the job site is un-manned but the guy tells me he is working near the Flying'J at Brunswick. He comes to the truckstop with his pick-up truck to collect his consignment. No visit off-shore adventure.

The Intra-Coastal Waterway on the Eastern Sea-board.

____Day 5: Carpet manufacture for the US is mostly done in Georgia and an off-shoot of the industry is the production of geo-textile fabrics for the construction of roads. My reload is 160 of the black rolls from a factory at Willacoochee, an hour and  half west of the Flying'J. Heading home takes me back to Nashville; two days away from Niverville.

Egret colony just over the fence at the Brunswick Flying'J in Georgia.

____Day 6: To Madison, Interstates 24, 57, 74, 39. A heavy load but a tailwind, flat terrain and the truck running well.
____Day 7: Hopes of getting back to base for a snow-free trip are dashed with flurries at Fargo. A full days driving gets me home at 6 o'clock in the evening with a cold wind blowing strangely from the south.
____Overall Distance: 6262 km.

Shed load

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