Thursday, May 08, 2008

Stuck in Laredo...

It's way past my bed time here in Laredo. I had a load - 2 stopper - way up to Minnesota. Two large commercial HVAC units. I secured them and was about to leave the terminal, when the one on the rear decided to start! The unit, manufactured only a few days ago across the border in Mexico, seemed to be determined not to wait to be installed, and turned itself on. I'm not kidding. I was just talking to our safety guru and just after waving me goodbye, the unit started up. "I've never seen anything like it", he said. "This could only happen to you, Grumpy!", he also said. I backed into the same space I had just vacated, while the "logistics" folks called down to Mexico to find out what they want to do. This was about 3pm. The temperature was 116 degrees! At 5pm the word came down that the unit is to be offloaded from my trailer, returned to Mexico, then I can proceed up North. That is (proceed) in the AM. 5pm in Laredo - everybody is going home - so the off loading can wait until about 0800 tomorrow. I put in for the big $25 layover. I decided to shoot up to the FJ at exit 13 - the locals were directing traffic - to have dinner and get on line.