Columbus to Denver and Beyond.

We arrived in Columbus OH at about 1600 on Wednesday afternoon and took a dispatch for Denver CO to be ready at about 1800. Tina had some laundry to take care of and I had some light maintenance work to do on the truck and then had to fuel the truck as well. I hadn’t bought fuel since Milan NM, 1590 miles. I love this fuel mileage.

The load was actually ready at about 1900 and after hooking the loaded trailer and performing a pretrip inspection; we were off to Denver CO.

The weather was pretty stormy from Indianapolis IN all the way to about Columbia MO. I suppose that was the same storm that produced tornadoes in Arkansas. After crossing into Kansas, the wind started picking up pretty heavily. It had been windy all the way across but not like it was in Kansas. The wind in Kansas and actually all the way to Denver was very strong and out of the north. I despise the wind, but a cross wind in a big truck is very bad. The side of the trailer acts like a large sail on a sailboat. Besides being dangerous, it killed any chance of decent fuel mileage. I used 73 gallons more fuel in 1280 miles than I had used in 1590 miles the previous day.

We arrived in Denver at about 1630 on Thursday. Before arriving we received a call from dispatch and were asked to take a load from Denver to Salt Lake City UT and then turn right back out of SLC to Columbus OH. The load in Denver was to be ready at 2330. We agreed to take the assignment and should be back in Columbus on Saturday afternoon.

After arriving in Denver, I dropped the loaded trailer we had, at the terminal, and headed out to the local truck stop about 3 miles east to dump our waste tank, fuel up for the upcoming load to SLC and for a bite to eat.

We had a pleasant surprise we got to the truck stop. It seems that the Flying J has made a deal with Denny’s Restaurants to place Denney’s in some of the truck stops in place of the Flying J branded restaurants. We had a great meal. Not that I’m a big fan of Denny’s but as opposed to Flying J food, well really there is no comparison.

After dinner, Tina and I headed back to the terminal for a nap before the load was ready. Trent, from 912 Project Fan Site, called while we were napping. I remember answering the phone and telling him to call me tomorrow, but I don’t remember anything else. I may have come off somewhat rude and if so, to him, I apologize. I assume he’ll contact me today. I awoke at about 0130 and still had no notification from the Denver terminal that our load was ready. I decided I had better call dispatch and check on the load. Come to find out, the truck from Kansas City had been delayed and they had some freight that was to be moved to SLC. We went back to sleep until 0245, when the message came, via Qualcomm that the load was ready.

Up and at it, I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, dressed and hurried to the office for my paperwork. After retrieving the Bills of Lading, I hooked the loaded trailer, performed the pretrip inspection, and we were off to Salt Lake City.

The wind was very bad north on 25 and west on 80 until we got to about Rawlins WY. It seems to have laid a bit now but we’ll see how it is on the way back through here this evening.

We are now at about the 130 mile post on I-80 west. We should be in Salt Lake City by about noon and be headed back to Columbus OH by about 1245EDT. We will travel I-80 all the way to Davenport IA where we will access I-74 and run that to Indianapolis IN. In Indianapolis we will run I-465 around town and get onto I-70 on the east side of town. We will then run I-70 into Columbus OH. We should, if all goes well, arrive in Columbus OH by about 1900 on Saturday evening. Hopefully, after a 7770 mile week, we will get to lay over in Columbus until Sunday evening. I’m sure we can if we say we want to, however, the ever illusive dollar is very enticing. We shall see.

In God I Trust
Have a Great Day and a Better Tomorrow
ADW