Fuel for Thought

Buffalo To Newport News

My second load for the week was a leisurely run from Buffalo, New York to Newport News, Virginia. Picked up Friday night to deliver Monday. The load came over from Canada, and Buffalo was a cross dock location. Nula was the Load One driver for the first half of the run. She arrived early, and the dock clerk said we would have a long wait, so we transferred the crate ourselves. Two people with one 780 pound crate? No problem. The two vans back-to-back and two pieces of lumber between the vans to make sure the crate couldn’t fall between the two vehicles, and a ratchet strap did the heavy work sliding the crate from one van to the other. The front edge of the box tried to hang up on the edge of my floor, but a 2x4 for a prybar cleared that 1/16th of an inch hurdle. Paperwork took longer than moving the freight, and we were both on our ways.

With a two day cushion for delivery, I took the direct slow route and saved thirty miles. I even took a two mile stretch of two-track road. Normally I try to stick to the highways, but this road was in good shape and part of a national forest road system that the government forgot to block for the government shutdown.

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