10/5/07

Memo to the Sunflower driver who went through Knoxville early this morning: You're an asshole.

Okay, it was good to get that off my chest. I got rolling before the sun came up today. My dispatch has me at the Wal-Mart DC in Delaware by 7:30 tomorrow morning, although I suspect there's no real reason for it to be that early. I have nothing better to do so there's no point calling to see if it can be moved back. What the early appointment did was force me to keep the breaks to ten hours and stay moving. That's not always a bad thing either. Sometimes I tend to waste time if I have extra time on a load, so this schedule will keep me focused.

Rolling up I-59 in Alabama, there were bumps in the road that were spaced roughly 20 feet apart. This went on for about thirty miles. Bumps are bumps, but this arrangement made for a constant vibration of my dumbbells. If I were strong enough, I'm pretty sure I would have reached over and launched them out the window. Eventually the road smoothed out and I got over it. Eventualy.

My route took me through a little bit of Georgia, on to 24, 75, 40, and 81 in Tennesee, on up to Virginia. Ideally, I would have driven a full eleven hours today, leaving me the shortest trip possible before my drop tomorrow morning. The catch is that I actually did a little trip planning for a change. As near as I could tell, there are no rest areas on I-66 on the way to D.C. As nearly as I can tell, the only truck stop along my route once I leave I-81 is all the way into Delaware, too far to make it within eleven hours today. So... Toms Brook it is. I'll take my ten hours here and then roll sometime after midnight. The weekend trip around D.C. should be better than most, but I expect a crowd anyway so I want to get through as early as possible.

Virginia is a pretty long, pretty straight ride on I-81. It's hilly, but with a light load like this one I can run the hills without much of a problem. Here's my beef with Virginia though. 95% of the state is only two lanes in each direction. There is way too much traffic in most of Virginia for just two lanes. Nevermind the trucks going slow on the hills, the cars drive anywhere between 55mph and 80mph. Further to that, people don't seem to understand the 'drive right, pass left' concept. They just line up in the left lane like it's a parade route. So, whenever a truck driver (like me) encounters a slower moving car, it takes ten minutes to find an opening and move over to the left. When you have 300 miles of that, it gets pretty obnoxious.

Over the course of the last week, I've been scouting the truck stops for two items that I need to buy. When I don't need anything, I see everything at the truck stops. Now, I need a new belt (broke mine) and a new truck stop directory (mine's pretty beat up). I have yet to see a belt anywhere. Lot's of cowboy hats, boots, socks, shirts, etc. but no belts. They all seem to have the Rand McNally directory, but I like the Trucker's Friend one better. I've seen them a hundred times, all over the place, but now that I want to buy one they're nonexistent. Hmm...

I need to sleep a little tonight, but right now I'm wide awake. I seriously think we should be allowed to whack down a six-pack once in a while out here, but I don't make the rules. So I guess another night of tossing and turning lies ahead.