Now that I arrived in Jacksonville, I needed a load that would get be close to home and that would provide me an opportunity to visit Mom in Darien. When I was in Biloxi, I found Douglas, GA to Suffolk on the load board and I nabbed it.

From Jacksonville, I had to drive over 100 miles NW to the fertile fields of Douglas, GA. Arrived at Premium Peanuts, the world’s largest shelling plant in the world shelling over 900 tons of peanuts a day. The 50 acre site serves as a cooperative for over 300 farmers in 30 counties.

In addition to shelling peanuts, the plant turns peanuts into inexpensive fuel by heat pressing the nuts into a cake, releasing the oil. Three million gallons of peanut oil is produced a year, which can be used as a biodiesel to fuel engines.

I was able to visit my Mom for a couple of days over the weekend. And on Father’s Day, I drove the 44K lbs of peanuts to Planters in Suffolk, VA. I shifted the tandems 10 holes to the rear to ensure the weight was less than 34K lbs on each axle. That did the trick, even though all four scales on the way were either closed or waved me through.