8/30/07

The double-edged sword of riding across the countryside kept biting me in the ass today. It was a nice ride with light traffic, far from the hustle and bustle of the interstate. For some reason though, I got a lot of phone calls today. The reception was sketchy at best. I would roll along for a while, get a voicemail notification, try to check the voicemail, lose reception, roll along a while longer, and repeat the process. I guess the interstate does occasionally have its strong points.

I got my beep this morning and received a load assignment to pick up locally in Lincoln and head for El Paso. A nice 966 mile run to put me over 7,500 for the pay period... sweet. The load was scheduled for a 1pm local time pickup, but it was a drop/hook so I headed over a little early. It was ready and I was on the road in short order.

I got out of Lincoln ahead of the afternoon traffic and headed south. Aside from the aforementioned cell phone issues, the only thing notable about today's drive was a detour due to road construction that took me about twenty miles out of the way.

Since I had most of yesterday off and got a good quiet night of sleep last night, I was ready to do some serious driving today. The weather in Nebraska was cool enough last night to sleep with the truck off, and I managed to get through the night without waking up. Of course, the DOT sees it differently. I only had enough hours to make it to Dodge City today. Of course that means tomorrow morning I'll actually get outta Dodge. What are the odds I ever would have been able to say that if I didn't start driving a truck for a living?

I pick up a full day's worth of hours for tomorrow, so I'll have to drive all day in order to be able to get a ten hour break and still reach El Paso on time Saturday morning. By then, my 70 hours will be used up again. The good thing about being in El Paso will be that I can find the cheapest motel in town and kick back for some football. Pulling a trailer, sometimes the options are limited. I'll drop this one off at our yard Saturday morning and have a chance to bobtail wherever I want. I can go anywhere with a bobtail, at least that's how it feels.

A little warning for Georgia Tech's new quarterback: Be afraid. Be very very afraid. He's back for another year and he's watching you...