I'm sitting here in Western Montana watching it rain and waiting for the sunrise to begin so I can get rolling. That's one big problem with running out west. The time zone difference means sunrise comes pretty late to those of us who run on Central or Eastern time.
I'm typically not a late sleeper, especially on the road and most especially when I know I'm under the gun to get some place. Thanks to some pretty nasty fog in SD slowing me down the day before yesterday I am in a tight spot regarding time. The oversize piece is going to the port on Tacoma, just south of Seattle, and they knock off at 4:00 PM local time. I'm still over 500 miles from there. They don't work on Saturday. The oversize permit expires on Sunday so waiting until Monday to deliver it would be highly problematic. I have to get it there today.
The second stop is a couple of hours north of Tacoma. I have no idea what their hours are or if they work on Saturday as there is no phone number on the bill of lading and so far dispatch has been unable to get me one. Hopefully they'll manage to get it for me while I am rolling today so I can find out of I can deliver their pieces on Saturday. Once I get the oversized piece unloaded at the port terminal I'll be legal size again and if I really have to I can wait until Monday to deliver the last stop, although I'd really rather be done with it late today or some time tomorrow.
Either way today promises to be a long, hard day of constant running to get there. I can make the port terminal with about an hour to spare if nothing causes me any delays, but between the slow climbing mountain grades and the high elevation passes anything can happen. I'm loaded heavy so going up those grades means speeds dropping down to about 25mph while climbing, and then using the engine brake and transmission to try and hold the speed down while going down the other side so as to maintain control of the rig. It only takes a split second to lose control and then that's all she wrote.
As long as nobody else screws up today I should roll into the port terminal around 3:00 PM local time. It only takes about 30 minutes to remove the chains and detach the trailer so the thing can be driven off. If I am delayed we'll have to order a new WA permit on Monday just so I can legally move the thing the rest of the way. That would really suck.
Well, civil twilight should begin in another 30 minutes or so and then I can get rolling. I'm not liking this rain and hope it doesn't mean snow up in the passes. I saw a little light snow falling in the big pass leading across to Butte yesterday. It wasn't enough to cause any concern, but this time of year these high passes can turn ugly in the blink of an eye. Well, at least the wind seems to have died down, and I'm thankful for that. It was blowing so hard yesterday that it was slowing me down and making control that much harder as this snow removal truck I'm hauling is about as aerodynamic as a brick wall. I'm pretty sure the strong wind contributed to that bad wreck yesterday.
I think it's going to be one of those days where I have to actually earn my money. I hate when that happens.