What a day. I got my trailer loaded at the yard. Five truck cabs going to the Red River Army Depot just outside of Texarkana, TX and two industrial presses going to Houston. The presses had to be tarped of course.
Being as the presses are ten feet tall and not exactly made to climbed upon, the tarping was a bit of a challenge to say the least. It took a lot of work and a couple of minor injuries, but I finally got them tarped. I managed to bang my left knee against a bolt sticking out of one of them and my head on a steel bar sticking out of the other one. I used some very creative language in both cases.
By the time I finally had everything secured and covered it was after 12:00. I was getting a later start than I had wanted, but it goes that way sometimes. I headed down to the truckstop for a late breakfast and some fuel. While eating breakfast I realized that I had completely forgotten to turn in my paperwork. As I really would like to get paid next week I headed back to the yard to turn it in.
As I turned onto the road which leads to the yard my truck suddenly sprung an air leak in the break system. Oh great. I pulled on into the yard and asked another driver to check for a gladhand leak (the air connection between tractor and trailer) while I applied the breaks. I could hear the air rushing out; it wasn't a small leak. He found the problem, the air line itself had cracked. Wonderful.
Luckily the guys were still in the shop so I pulled around there and had them replace the faulty air line. I also took a spare one as I figured if the blue service line broke the red emergency line probably won't be long for this world. If the emergency line breaks the trailer brakes lock up which can be a very bad thing, especially if you're doing 70mph or so when it happens.
So I finally got the repair made, my paperwork in the drop box, and went on my way. That's when I realized that I had forgotten to fuel up after breakfast. Oops. The data panel informed me that my fuel level was down to 1%. Not good. I nursed it back down to the truckstop and fueled up. It was reading 0% when I pulled in. Running on fumes as they say.
I really haven't made it all that far now. I'm parked in Rochelle, IL for the night. I should go farther but by the time all of this was done I was soaking wet, tired, and sore, and need to get some rest. I'll have to do a hard day of driving tomorrow to make it up as I am still over 13 hours from the first stop, but sometimes ya have to do what ya have to do.