I got up and got going fairly early this morning. With an oversized load you have to make the best of the daylight. I pulled out of the little truckstop and started through the PA countryside. It was several hours of woods, mountains, and small town before finally reaching I-80. The other driver took the lead for that section, but when we reached the interstate I jumped out and passed him and took the lead.
I really didn't want to hurt his feelings or anything, but my truck pulls the hills better than his does and I didn't feel like slowing down on the hills just because he did. We shot across I-80 at best possible speed. We finally crossed into OH where we had to stop and pick up our remaining permits. I also picked up a box of Poptarts to munch on while we raced across the Buckeye. No time to stop and eat as we needed to beat the sunset.
We made our goal of Ft Wayne just a tad late. The sun had set about 30 minutes before we reached the truck stop here, but we took our chances and pushed on until we made it here. Neither of us wanted to spend the night in OH.
We pulled in here, parked our wide loads, and proceeded to get something to eat. I ordered a breakfast since I had missed mine this morning and in most truck stops breakfast is often the safest choice. It's pretty hard to screw up eggs.
The load was originally scheduled to deliver Friday morning but after a conversation with the customer he agreed to accept delivery tomorrow afternoon assuming we could make it there by then. That was why we wanted to make Ft Wayne. We are now only about 7 hours from there so barring any bad weather conditions forcing us to stop (oversized loads aren't allowed to move in bad weather), we should be there between 2 and 3 tomorrow if we get rolling as soon as the sun rises.
It's going to be another hard day of running tomorrow, but it'll be worth it to get the load delivered early. I will probably not even call in empty until Friday morning, that way I can get some rest before moving on to the next load. But then again, who knows?