7/29/07

Long, good, hard running kinda day today...

I grabbed another quick shower in Lamar to make sure I was off to a good start and then hit the road. I got on the interstate with the best of intentions - set the cruise at 65, take it easy, roll along. Then life happened. People going slow, people going fast, people going slow then fast. I gave in to temptation and hammered it down long enough to run away from the pack. Then there was another pack, then another. Any time I thought I would just back it down a little, a little became a lot, so I wound up flooring it again. I wound up running all the way out of Pennsylvania that way, but such is life.

Once I got to Ohio, I settled in right around the 55mph speed limit. This makes for a long day crossing the state, but it can be relaxing too. I tend to be the only, and I mean only, truck that obeys the speed limit in Ohio. This means that I rarely have to change lanes, hit the brakes, hit the gas, shift gears, or anything else. I just set the cruise, kick back, and enjoy the ride.

I made a deviation from my original plan today. Instead of catching I-70 across to Indianapolis and then angling down toward Olney, Illinois I decided to run 71 to the Cincinnati bypass and then go straight across on US-50. This allowed me to shave some miles off the run and, according to my estimate, wouldn't cost me much time. As I got out of Ohio and into Indiana, I began to have second thoughts. Heavy traffic, one red light after another, 35-45mph speed limits, what had I done? About 15 miles into Indiana, things shook out though and I had an enjoyable ride. Not too many towns, 55-60mph most of the way, I was able to make very good time.

The way I timed today's run, I was able to look forward to tonight's ballgame that started at 8pm. It was a long morning and afternoon, but knowing the Tigers would have a chance to get back on track with Bonderman on the mound gave me some sense of motivation. Anyhow, enough about that, moving along...

After the disgrace of a game I was flipping through the vast selection on my XM radio. I stumbled across Cigar Dave on Channel 166. It doesn't generally make for compelling radio, but I was in the mood to enjoy a nice cigar and I do get a chuckle out of the nerds with the "Long ashes, General" salutation so I gave it a listen. I like to drink a beer and enjoy an occasional stogie, so any time people gather to discuss life's simple pleasures it's not all bad.

Ole Dave was on the soapbox tonight though. Apparently Congress is prepared to pull another infinitely stupid money grab. They're proposing a tax hike on cigars from the current 4.8 cents to as much as $10. What is that, a 20,000 percent increase? Brilliant. Drive an industry out of business, piss off people who enjoy one of life's simple, affordable pleasures, give the money to someone that you deem more worthy. But it's for the children of course. The money would go to expand the SCHIP program, so if you oppose the tax hike you must not want children to have health care, right? I'm veering into politics now, and I make an effort not to do so on the internet, so it's time to shift gears.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I made it further than expected within my 11 hours today. In fact, I had 15 minutes to spare when I arrived in Washington, Indiana. I got the last parking spot at a small truck stop here, so I consider myself lucky. The parking situation is such that, when I started this job, I would have looked at it and driven away. With experience comes confidence though. I won't pretend to be a super trucker out here, but this lot is just a little tight, not ridiculous, and I had the confidence to put 'er in the spot without much trouble at all. I am still not too proud to look at a spot and say, "That's ridiculous." Fortunately this wasn't one of those spots.

My drop is about 50 miles away, so I'll head out around 7am. It's a WalMart distribution center, so I'll have my share of red tape to deal with in the morning. The old log book is going to start yelling at me pretty soon. With over 3,500 miles in the last week, the 70 hours are running low. I'll be able to cover a few hundred miles tomorrow, assuming they find me a load. Then it's the old 'wait for midnight' game again.