An Odd & Tiring Day

I woke up this morning with snow drifts around my truck, it was still snowing, and the wind had not let up.  I had the feeling that it would get worse as I headed south from Fargo based on the weather report I heard before going to sleep.  Surprise, surprise.  By the time I reached the South Dakota line there was very little snow on the ground.  All I had to really deal with driving through SD was the wind.  Nice.

But I had a lot of weight to load and that's when the fun started.  I loaded almost 45,000 lbs it turns out which put me 80 pounds over gross.  No big deal there I'd easy burn that off in fuel but I was already sitting at less than 1/2 tanks. Guess I'll be making a few fuel stops on the way home if I want to stay legal.  Getting my axle weights legal was a challenge though.  Not because the freight was loaded poorly but because after driving around in blowing snow & sub zero temperatures for a few days the equipment was iced up, frozen up, seized up, call it what you will.  I had fun releasing the pins on my fifth wheel so I could move some weight up on to my steers.  At 80,000 pounds you need to use all the moving parts to balance things out.  Problem was they wouldn't move.  I persuaded them in the end though.

I got back into the snow covered iced over roads not long after crossing back into Minnesota, made it to Albert Lea where I had to take on a little fuel and decided I'd had enough fun for the day.  I don't mind driving in the crappy weather but you know what they say about too much of a good thing.

I really miss getting out for a walk or a run when the weather is bad like this.  It's amazing how it gets me down.  I actually feel more tired when I can't get that regular workout in.  I feel frustrated by it, as hard as I try not to be.

Finally, it looks like I'm not getting in until Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night.  That extra messing around today ate into my hours of service a little too deeply and I don't feel like pushing it to close to the edge in this crappy weather.  Slow & steady wins the race!!

It has been an odd & tiring day today.