Rundown, Iowa to Delaware

OK.
From Sioux City I deadheaded all the way across Iowa to Monticello, Iowa (between Dubuque and Cedar Rapids) to pick up metal building parts which I took down to Glenpool, just south of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was going to be a pool supply store. It is always so nice to know that I am part of something bigger than myself.
The night before I camped out in the parking lot of a Lowe's that was under construction and took a nice long walk across a bridge across the Arkansas River and sat in a park looking at a fountain sculpture of bear cubs playing in a mountain stream and felt rather at peace and then, rather foolish for feeling so.
Since it was Friday and I didn't have anything by noon I figured I would probably be sitting in Tulsa all weekend like I did in OKC the weekend before (why always Oklahoma?) So I headed up to the terminal where I got some maintenance done and washed my truck. The next day though, as it turned out. I got a load. Some guy didn't want to take this load of Stainless Steel Pipe and when I saw the assignment, I realized why. There were four stops and it was tarped. This, of course would mean partial untarping and retarping at each stop. But I didn't care, I wanted to get the hell out of Tulsa.
I picked up the load in a dusty windy yard west of Tulsa and headed out. This pipe was beautiful stuff but it was all dipped in oil to prevent corrosion (but it was stainless?) and that oil was making a mess of everything, my tarps included.
The stops were at three plants in Michigan and one in Erie, Pennsylvania. The first stop was a night drop at a plant that made the steering systems for trucks and tractors. Michigan is full of plants making the parts that make cars. I don't know why they don't do it all in one place.


The Pipe Storage in Portland, Michigan












The next was in Grand Rapids at a place that cut and finished pipe to sell to other people. That is lame and they were lame. It was really cold and their staff was astonishingly strict and unpleasant to be around.
The third stop was in Detroit. The directions I had took me to one place on the north side of the city, near Hamtramck, but it turns out the bills said the delivery was for one of their competitors on the south side of the city. Detroit has decided that all of the interstates in its downtown need to be resurfaced and all at the same time, which seems like an odd decision for a city that nature is quickly reclaiming as it's rotting carcass falls into the straits that separate it from Canada. (detroit is French for "straits" or "narrows"). The circuitous and confusing orange barreled detours almost landed me in Canada but fortunately not and I found the right place in short order.
The last stop in Erie was at a small plant that made parts to make parts to make cars. More goddamned absurdity. The pipe gets shipped from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania where they cut it into lengths just right for the shock absorbers, they ship the parts to Mexico to make the shock absorbers and then they probably ship them somewhere else to assemble the suspensions which they ship somewhere else to put in the cars which are shipped to the dealer where you ship it home so you can ship yourself around our ungainly metropolis.
After that I was empty and sent to Medina, Ohio where I picked up a load of Asphalt Roofing shingles. This place was a big disgusting mud pit where Owens Corning put all their palleted shingles to be shipped out. I guess if it doesn't matter whether or not something gets wet you don't need a warehouse as much as a warepit.
I took these to Charlotte down I-77 through hilliest West Virginia. A real slog with a heavy load like this. The got delivered to a building supply place and then I was sent up to Elizabethton, Tennessee to Star Building systems, the same makers of metal building components that I had picked up from in Monticello, Iowa.
For my route I chose US-321 from Gastonia through Boone and into Tennessee. This is a wonderfully hilly and curvy road through the highest (and in my opinion prettiest) part of the Appalachians. I was very glad I had not picked this route while laden as it could have been impossibly slow and, on the downhills, possibly quite dangerous.
US-321 near Boone, hilly curvy and under construction.









Melton does enough business with Star that they have preloaded trailers meaning we can just drop and hook. But with flatbedding this is not as much of an advantage as it is with vans since the loading often does not take all that long, its the securing and these loads can be a real pain to secure. There are often lots of layers, lots of little things and lots of things in crates that are not really made to be strapped down so tightly.
I had an ittybitty load going up to Newark, Delaware which I knew was my home load since it was nearing the end of three weeks and Newark is only about 50 miles from my house.
I delivered the load on Friday morning and drove home.