Always one to try and make a little extra load revenue when it is convenient, I decided to take a load out to Phoenix this past weekend, where I was due to be later during the week to present at some workshops. With holiday freight from Los Angeles to Phoenix paying really well, I couldn’t resist declining to fly in lieu of taking a hot load on a Sunday out before the presentation. With the original plan to cut it tight and leave my house in California straight through to delivery, I am glad I negated instead and left the afternoon before to give myself a little time cushion to get out to Arizona.
As the Thanksgiving Day holiday traffic made its way back into town in the opposite direction that I was traveling, I was able to call my wife and boast about how I was glad I wasn’t headed into town and instead was smoothly cruising out of town instead. Boy, how I regretted saying those very words that would certainly come back to haunt me. With almost three hours of smooth sailing under my belt, I was happy to see the last little California town of Blythe on the horizon, meaning I would only have about two more hours to Phoenix from there. This would give me a good amount of time to check in to the hotel where my workshop was scheduled to take place, drop off my luggage, and then allow me to get a few winks before delivery.
As visions of finally being out of the 55mph state began to enter my head, the dreaded sight of brake lights lit up the night in front of me. Bad turned to worse as traffic came to a complete stand still and chatter on the radio began to mention word of a fire up ahead. At that moment it became evident by the sight of no traffic coming from the other direction, that I had landed myself in a full closure in both directions! As it turned out from my monitoring Caltrans traffic info, a power pole near the highway had caught fire and the power company crew was three hours out, with an hour and a half fix ahead of them in order to reopen traffic in both directions.
Had I have followed my original trip plan and left with just enough time to go straight to the consignee for delivery, I would have been in a lot of trouble. Folks that I met at the workshop that headed straight out that next morning in their personal cars said that they were still diverting traffic on that section of highway even then, leading me to believe I would have been late for delivery with as tight of a window as I had originally planned. With the 4.5-hour delay on the highway and the space cushion to buffer it, I made it into Phoenix without time to check in and drop off my luggage at the hotel, but did still make the delivery on time straight through! If not for proper planning and remembering to leave a time cushion, I would have been in some hot water with that load, knowing already that this particular receiver does not do work-ins for late appointments and usually takes 2-3 days to reschedule delivery!