It was one of "those" days. The kind that makes you wish you had just stayed in bed.
I drove my rig over to Titusville this morning and found the machinery place I was looking for with no problem. So far so good. There were already several trucks there either loading or waiting to load. Crap. I waited my turn and backed into the narrow sand driveway from the narrow sand road after a number of pull ups and adjustments to do so without running down one of the numerous small trees lining the road.
I spoke with the rigging crew foreman and told him what I was picking up. That's when the fun started. The first stop, the one going to MI, was no problem except for the fact that it was three pieces instead of the two I had been told, and weighed about 1,000 lbs more than I had been told. Ok, no problem, I can roll with that.
The second stop I was to pick up, the one going to WI, was another kettle of fish altogether. It seems that the party who had purchased the machinery through auction had not yet actually paid for it, nor had he yet paid the riggers who refused to work gratis. Can't say as I blame them really.
I made a few phone calls while the riggers were getting the MI machinery ready to load onto my trailer. I rattled a few cages in hopes of getting someone on the ball and grease the wheels to get me loaded up. Frankly, I really didn't care if I loaded the WI machine or not I just didn't feel like sitting there all day. And I was starting to get a little hungry.
The MI stuff was loaded and I secured it all to the trailer. When I finished that I starting rattling cages again. I was really feeling hungry at this point.
Late in the afternoon the rigger informed me that he would be leaving in about 20 minutes, I told him I really didn't give a damn. I was starving by now. I had planned to stock up on food enroute to MI but was now wishing I had done so before coming here to make the "quick" pick up.
Just about the time the rigger was climbing into his truck to leave and I was preparing to do the same his cell phone rang. Mine then rang about 30 seconds later. The idiot in WI had finally wired the damn money.
The rigger, looking pretty pissed off, climbed back out of his truck, unloaded the big forklift he had spent 10 minutes chaining down, and headed into the warehouse to get the WI machinery.
That's when the next curve ball was thrown. This was supposed to be a single machine weighing 4,000 lbs. It wound up being a total of three pieces. When I got the paperwork (after the rigger had left) I found that the single piece that was supposed to weigh 4,000 lbs actually weighed 5,500 lbs. Damn. The other two pieces bumped that up to 7,600 lbs. A far cry from two tons. Damn brokers lie about everything.
I called the office and let them know that there was a weight problem and that I was going to go find a scale to weigh the load. The nearest scale that didn't require me to enter a weigh station was about an hour South from me. Wrong direction but better than getting a ticket and getting shut down. I headed South.
I scaled out on the Cat scale and sure enough I was a little better than 3,000 lbs over weight on my drive axles. That is not a good thing. Not good at all.
I called the office and discussed it while I was waiting for my breakfast to be served (5:30 PM). They know a company up in Lautey, FL that would move the pieces around for me to adjust the weight, I just have to get there without running across any weigh stations. Easier said than done, but I did plot a route on the map that will get me there, it just requires me to use the toll road which I hate doing. But it will be better than getting a ticket.
Lautey is about 4 hours from here and there's no place to park a rig over night. I'm staying here tonight and will head that way first thing in the morning.
Why did I even get out of bed this morning?