I managed to make it to the air base fire station and made delivery today. Finally. Only took 5 days to do a two day trip. I've never been so happy to be out from under a load in my life. Some loads are just bad luck or something, they just don't go well.
But it wasn't completely uneventful. After I directed the fireman pulling the truck off the trailer he went to back it into the firehouse driveway and the wheels wouldn't turn right. They would turn left just fine, but they wouldn't turn right. I laughed and told him it was a NASCAR truck and only designed for left turns. He didn't think it was funny.
After I checked it out to make sure there was nothing blocking the steering system in any way I told him to let me take over. I started driving it straight ahead and working the steering back and forth. It slowly started responding. As I suspected, the long trip in subfreezing temps had simply frozen the hydraulics system. After a few minutes of playing around with it it was steering normally again.
He didn't seem too sure but after driving it around for a bit he was convinced that everything was normal. I told him to just make sure to not take it to Antarctica and it should be fine.
As I suspected, there was no load for me to pick up today. They asked me if I could make it to Gulfport, MS to pick up yet tonight but I told them no, I could not. That's more than 4 hours away and never mind the fact that I don't have enough service hours left on the day to get there legally, I was hungry as hell and tired to boot.
The broker called me on the way in to the air base to discuss picking it up either tonight or maybe Sunday but I was in stop and go traffic and told her I would have to call her back as I needed both hands for driving right then. By the time I got unloaded and called her back she had apparently gone home because all I got was her voice mail. Oh well, maybe she'll call me back tomorrow.
Tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, I'll wander over towards Gulfport just in case she calls me. If she doesn't, I'll be close enough that I can make the pick up on Monday. At this point I don't really care one way or the other. When running oversized loads one has to get up before dawn to be ready to run when the sun comes up. I'm planning on sleeping in a bit tomorrow. I wish there was a bar close by; a cold brew sounds pretty good right about now and would help me sleep. They sell 6 packs here but it's just no fun drinking beer alone in the truck. Most of the fun of a bar is the socializing.
Maybe tomorrow night.