9/8/07

I got rolling as soon as my ten hour break was up this morning. If I had the choice I would have gotten rolling a little sooner and made it further before the football game, but the feds say "nay nay."

The drive through Oklahoma was a pretty simple one along I-40 to I-44. All of that bad weather that I missed for the last day or two found its way to me today. I got a message from CFI advising that a couple of the state highways in Missouri were closed due to flooding. I wasn't going that direction though, so I was fine. The only real danger were the cars driving with their headlights off. I think everyone knows that it's safer to turn on the headlights in the rain. Until I started driving a truck, I didn't realize just how much difference it makes. The trailers kick out so much spray that a car can be right next to me and, if its lights are off, that car is almost invisible.

At the start of the day today, the plan was to get into Missouri and find a place to connect to an IdleAire service station. Since the Irish were on ESPN, I would be able to plug into the unit and receive the satellite channels. Most weekends I can just park in a suburban area and watch the game. My truck's built-in antenna picks up most broadcast stations as long as I'm within a reasonable distance of a city. Not so for ESPN obviously. I checked the IdleAire website and found that they had no locations on I-44 in Missouri. Okay, so now it looks like another motel is in the future. Rolling through the Texas panhandle, there were tons of motels in the $20-30 range with truck parking. I wasn't staying in Texas. Rolling through Oklahoma, there were tons of motels in the $30-35 range with truck parking. I wasn't staying in Oklahoma. In Missouri I started looking for a billboard that had what I was looking for. And kept looking. And kept looking. Finally I saw a sign for a motel and truck stop at exit 61. Beauty.

"As long as you have ESPN, I'll take a room," said I.

"That's one of the channels we don't have," said he.

"What the hell? I was just making small talk. Who in the hell doesn't have ESPN?" asked I.

"ESPN is in a dispute with the motel industry," lied he.

"Screw it, I'll take a room and figure something out," said I.

"Okay, cash or credit?" asked he.

"American Express," said I.

"We take Visa or MasterCard," replied he.

"Seriously man, this is a motel. You don't have ESPN and you don't take American Express?" queried I.

"I guess," muttered he.

"Nevermind," said I as I walked back out to the truck.

So... I rolled down the road a ways and saw a sign for a couple of motels in Springfield. They didn't mention truck parking but game time was approaching. I had to take a shot. Neither one had enough room to park a truck, so I had to find a place to turn around and head back to the freeway. As I looked for a parking lot or a marked route that I could use, I saw a little Hindu place next to an abandoned restaurant. I parked the truck, walked inside, and got a room for $40 including taxes. Not great but not too bad either. The place is a little on the 'weathered' side, but fairly well-appointed. Unlike my EconoLodge room in El Paso, this one has enough electrical outlets to charge my gadgets, a dining table, and a sofa. Anyhow, I found a place to stay and watch some football.

When I went out to the truck to grab my things, my computer had some kind of error screen showing. I grabbed everything and headed inside. The computer issue was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. The computer wouldn't even start up, so finding the problem and attacking it proved to be quite difficult. At least it was a distraction from the bullshit on my TV screen. Three and a half hours later, another loss was in the books for the lads and my computer was still broken. By virtue of the fact that you're reading this, you can see that I eventually got the computer working. That's more than Mr. Weis can say about his offense, although Jimmy Clausen has me 100% convinced that he's the real deal.

Since I cut my day a little short today, I'll have to knock out a full 11 hours tomorrow. As long as I get rolling fairly early, I shouldn't have too much trouble finding a place to park. I'm going to have to do some maneuvering to get out of the parking lot here, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.