Saturday, July 26, 2008
7/26/08
Mountains, traffic, no new dispatch, parked on a street in some industrial park, and my Tigers lost again. How was your day?
Friday, July 25, 2008
7/25/08
Would it make me a bad person if I wished that Todd Jones would suffer a career-ending injury tonight when he gets home from the ballpark? If so, I'm willing to risk it. What a bum.
I got a good start to the day when my shipper was on the eastern edge of Louisville. I didn't really have to go into town at all, so the place was pretty easy to access. My appointment was for 1pm, I rolled in at noon, and I was back on the road at 4pm. That wasn't so cool.
Getting such a late start to the day puts me in a bit of an in-between kind of situation. I would like to have a chance, slim as it might be, at getting another load after I drop tomorrow. This means that I need to have some hours available. This means that I needed to knock out a good chunk of the trip tonight. This means that I would be wrapping up my drive fairly late at night. This means that I would be at the mercy of whatever parking may or may not be available. On a Friday night I wouldn't normally expect to have a problem finding parking, but I've been unpleasantly surprised a few times lately.
I headed east across Kentucky and into West Virginia. I thought that there was some kind of law requiring rain every time I drive through West Virginia, but not today. It was just a nice quiet evening. My load is also a nice one, weighing a cool 7,000 pounds. With the ridiculous number of climbs and descents, this route would push my patience to the limit if I had to pull a heavy load. When I got into Maryland, I stopped at the first little truck stop along the way to use the restroom and grab something to drink. They had a few parking spaces open so I decided to kick back for the night. It looks like I'll have about four hours left to drive tomorrow morning. Getting out of New Jersey on a Saturday afternoon is probably not extremely likely to happen, but I'm holding out hope. My miles for the week are at 2,116. Hopefully I can at least catch a decent deadhead somewhere to kick them up a little bit.
I got a good start to the day when my shipper was on the eastern edge of Louisville. I didn't really have to go into town at all, so the place was pretty easy to access. My appointment was for 1pm, I rolled in at noon, and I was back on the road at 4pm. That wasn't so cool.
Getting such a late start to the day puts me in a bit of an in-between kind of situation. I would like to have a chance, slim as it might be, at getting another load after I drop tomorrow. This means that I need to have some hours available. This means that I needed to knock out a good chunk of the trip tonight. This means that I would be wrapping up my drive fairly late at night. This means that I would be at the mercy of whatever parking may or may not be available. On a Friday night I wouldn't normally expect to have a problem finding parking, but I've been unpleasantly surprised a few times lately.
I headed east across Kentucky and into West Virginia. I thought that there was some kind of law requiring rain every time I drive through West Virginia, but not today. It was just a nice quiet evening. My load is also a nice one, weighing a cool 7,000 pounds. With the ridiculous number of climbs and descents, this route would push my patience to the limit if I had to pull a heavy load. When I got into Maryland, I stopped at the first little truck stop along the way to use the restroom and grab something to drink. They had a few parking spaces open so I decided to kick back for the night. It looks like I'll have about four hours left to drive tomorrow morning. Getting out of New Jersey on a Saturday afternoon is probably not extremely likely to happen, but I'm holding out hope. My miles for the week are at 2,116. Hopefully I can at least catch a decent deadhead somewhere to kick them up a little bit.
Do you think that this is still Rain Man's favorite airline?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
7/24/08
Damn that Google Earth, filling me with false hopes and dreams. I pulled around the corner leading to my customer, thinking, "That turn wasn't so bad. I wonder what those directions meant." Then I saw the big ass warehouse that I thought was my destination. The yard dog on the midnight shift came over and pointed to my actual customer - the little rinky-dink place across the street. Shit. At least the dock was open so I could park and take a nap until the people showed up for work. Getting there in the middle of the night was definitely the right move. Good lookin' out to whoever put that advice in the directions.
I had to blindside from one side street onto another side street in order to get pointed at their dock. Then I had to make a pretty sharp turn (backward, obviously) off of the side street to get my trailer into the dock. There was a concrete post guarding the left side and a flatbed parked on the right side. The street from which I backed into the dock had no extra room for me to pull forward and adjust my angle of approach. You know those days when I can't seem to back a trailer? Today wasn't one of them. Places like this morning's location will cure that shit real quick like. Nothing short of perfection would have gotten me in there. Fortunately, I had exactly one dose of perfection available to me at the time. Yeah, I'm patting myself on the back for a minute here. You got a problem with that?
The weather was cool enough that, for the first time in quite a while, I would have been able to rest without idling my truck. The half-assed dock driveway left the front end of my truck slightly in the street though. Since it was either really late or really early, depending on your perspective, I could just imagine someone coming around the corner without paying attention and taking off my bumper. I decided to leave my parking lights on just in case, so I had to run the truck to keep the batteries juiced. C'est la vie.
After the consignee opened up and I got my trailer unloaded, I had to start looking for a place to park. I could go north along I-75 or west along I-64 to a rest area, with either option taking me roughly the same distance. Based on experience, I figured that my best bet would be to head west. We have a few shippers in the Louisville area. So I drove over to the rest area and found every parking space full. At 9am? Really? That's getting annoying. There was room to pull in behind a couple of other trucks along the driveway. After I slept for an hour or so, I got a call from my mother. She and my father were heading down I-75 on their way to Tennessee for the annual hillbilly family reunion. Some of my mother's family live in Georgia and the rest live in Michigan, so they all get together somewhere in the middle each summer. They were north of Dayton at the time and Mom wanted to know if I felt like getting some lunch. I told her that there wasn't much of a chance that I would still be around by the time they got down to Lexington.
A few hours later, Mom called again. Yeah, I was still at the rest area. Not too happy about it, but what can you do? I took myself off the board, where I was #2 at the time, and they picked me up. We headed out and had a nice lunch. My little niece was with them, so that was a pleasant surprise. She got a pretty good chuckle out of the dead bat in the grill of my truck. The simple things are usually enough to entertain little kids. After lunch we headed back over to the rest area and I got back on the board. Still #2.
I got an assignment around 4:30pm, but today was pretty much a lost day. I have a pick up in Louisville tomorrow afternoon, heading up to Jersey. At least I guessed right on my direction again. I hopped out onto the freeway and went around twenty miles or so to the Flying J. This will be home for the night, I suppose.
Now, I came across a story that has me all kinds of confused. Without delving into the political and societal implications of various lifestyles, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with gay people. Whatever floats your boat, as far as I'm concerned. I think that some of the activist agendas are a little off the mark but that's not my point right now. I know plenty of gay dudes and none of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause.
Likewise, without delving into the political or societal implications of various religious beliefs, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with Muslims. I think that some of the world domination and sharia stuff is pretty nuts but that's not my point right now. I live right next to Dearborn and I know plenty of Muslims. None of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause. (If you have any idea where this is going, you're way more perceptive than I am.)
I am a Christian by faith. By no means do I think I'm any kind of ideal religious practitioner, but you know, son of God and all that. Some Christians get all hot and bothered about gay people, but like I said, I don't. Some Muslims, of course, also get all hot and bothered about gay people. I've heard stories, as I'm sure we all have heard, about Americans assaulting people for being gay. What I haven't heard before today, and what I am completely unable to comprehend, is this story from CNN. You punish people for being gay by (homosexually) raping them? What the fuck? As bigoted as this may make me sound, it seems like one more example that Muslim extremists are way more twisted than any other kind of extremists in the world. God help us if we start meeting with these bastards to see what kind of rewards (aka 'big carrots') we can offer for their radical behavior...
I had to blindside from one side street onto another side street in order to get pointed at their dock. Then I had to make a pretty sharp turn (backward, obviously) off of the side street to get my trailer into the dock. There was a concrete post guarding the left side and a flatbed parked on the right side. The street from which I backed into the dock had no extra room for me to pull forward and adjust my angle of approach. You know those days when I can't seem to back a trailer? Today wasn't one of them. Places like this morning's location will cure that shit real quick like. Nothing short of perfection would have gotten me in there. Fortunately, I had exactly one dose of perfection available to me at the time. Yeah, I'm patting myself on the back for a minute here. You got a problem with that?
The weather was cool enough that, for the first time in quite a while, I would have been able to rest without idling my truck. The half-assed dock driveway left the front end of my truck slightly in the street though. Since it was either really late or really early, depending on your perspective, I could just imagine someone coming around the corner without paying attention and taking off my bumper. I decided to leave my parking lights on just in case, so I had to run the truck to keep the batteries juiced. C'est la vie.
After the consignee opened up and I got my trailer unloaded, I had to start looking for a place to park. I could go north along I-75 or west along I-64 to a rest area, with either option taking me roughly the same distance. Based on experience, I figured that my best bet would be to head west. We have a few shippers in the Louisville area. So I drove over to the rest area and found every parking space full. At 9am? Really? That's getting annoying. There was room to pull in behind a couple of other trucks along the driveway. After I slept for an hour or so, I got a call from my mother. She and my father were heading down I-75 on their way to Tennessee for the annual hillbilly family reunion. Some of my mother's family live in Georgia and the rest live in Michigan, so they all get together somewhere in the middle each summer. They were north of Dayton at the time and Mom wanted to know if I felt like getting some lunch. I told her that there wasn't much of a chance that I would still be around by the time they got down to Lexington.
A few hours later, Mom called again. Yeah, I was still at the rest area. Not too happy about it, but what can you do? I took myself off the board, where I was #2 at the time, and they picked me up. We headed out and had a nice lunch. My little niece was with them, so that was a pleasant surprise. She got a pretty good chuckle out of the dead bat in the grill of my truck. The simple things are usually enough to entertain little kids. After lunch we headed back over to the rest area and I got back on the board. Still #2.
I got an assignment around 4:30pm, but today was pretty much a lost day. I have a pick up in Louisville tomorrow afternoon, heading up to Jersey. At least I guessed right on my direction again. I hopped out onto the freeway and went around twenty miles or so to the Flying J. This will be home for the night, I suppose.
Now, I came across a story that has me all kinds of confused. Without delving into the political and societal implications of various lifestyles, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with gay people. Whatever floats your boat, as far as I'm concerned. I think that some of the activist agendas are a little off the mark but that's not my point right now. I know plenty of gay dudes and none of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause.
Likewise, without delving into the political or societal implications of various religious beliefs, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with Muslims. I think that some of the world domination and sharia stuff is pretty nuts but that's not my point right now. I live right next to Dearborn and I know plenty of Muslims. None of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause. (If you have any idea where this is going, you're way more perceptive than I am.)
I am a Christian by faith. By no means do I think I'm any kind of ideal religious practitioner, but you know, son of God and all that. Some Christians get all hot and bothered about gay people, but like I said, I don't. Some Muslims, of course, also get all hot and bothered about gay people. I've heard stories, as I'm sure we all have heard, about Americans assaulting people for being gay. What I haven't heard before today, and what I am completely unable to comprehend, is this story from CNN. You punish people for being gay by (homosexually) raping them? What the fuck? As bigoted as this may make me sound, it seems like one more example that Muslim extremists are way more twisted than any other kind of extremists in the world. God help us if we start meeting with these bastards to see what kind of rewards (aka 'big carrots') we can offer for their radical behavior...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
7/23/08
Dude. I know some of you fine OTR drivers like to run all day, every day. My hat's off to you. After seven or eight hours, my interest wanes quite rapidly. I had eleven hours left on my 70 at the start of today, so I put in a full day on the road. I guess it ain't so bad once in a while, but there's no way I would want to drive that much every day.
The most efficient route, according to the software that figures out these things, would have taken me east to Nashville and then up I-65 into Kentucky. By the time I got to Memphis and realized that I would be hitting Nashville during rush hour, I didn't have the stomach for it. That stretch of I-40 into I-65 and then north... no. I hung a left on US-51 and went up that way. There are quite a few towns along the first stretch out of Memphis, but otherwise that's not a bad ride. It's one of those routes that is supposedly going to be an interstate in the future, so quite a bit of the road is wide open. The Kentucky portion of the drive definitely brought the payoff. The parkways in this state are some of the best freeways in the country as far as I'm concerned. It always surprises me how light the traffic is whenever I drive on them.
I got to my fuel stop in Morton's Gap just before my hours ran out, so I guess that works out pretty well. It looks like I'll have a little over three hours to go from here to Lexington. My appointment time is 8am, but the directions to the consignee have me thinking that I'll try to get there a little earlier. They say that the turns are tight and it's a good idea not to arrive while there's traffic around. I don't know if there's parking available, but Google Earth seems to indicate that I should be able to find a place to sit for a while. It looks like a pretty big place.
The most efficient route, according to the software that figures out these things, would have taken me east to Nashville and then up I-65 into Kentucky. By the time I got to Memphis and realized that I would be hitting Nashville during rush hour, I didn't have the stomach for it. That stretch of I-40 into I-65 and then north... no. I hung a left on US-51 and went up that way. There are quite a few towns along the first stretch out of Memphis, but otherwise that's not a bad ride. It's one of those routes that is supposedly going to be an interstate in the future, so quite a bit of the road is wide open. The Kentucky portion of the drive definitely brought the payoff. The parkways in this state are some of the best freeways in the country as far as I'm concerned. It always surprises me how light the traffic is whenever I drive on them.
I got to my fuel stop in Morton's Gap just before my hours ran out, so I guess that works out pretty well. It looks like I'll have a little over three hours to go from here to Lexington. My appointment time is 8am, but the directions to the consignee have me thinking that I'll try to get there a little earlier. They say that the turns are tight and it's a good idea not to arrive while there's traffic around. I don't know if there's parking available, but Google Earth seems to indicate that I should be able to find a place to sit for a while. It looks like a pretty big place.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
7/22/08
Q: What city do I not hope to see any time in the immediate future?
Give yourself five points if you said Houston. I'm sure it's a fine town, but I had my fill today. I had to contend with rush hour traffic on the way into town this morning. Yuck. Thank God I don't have one of those 'swear jars.' I would have had to take out a personal loan.
My plan summary indicated that I had a drop/hook. The security chick at the consignee said that I had a drop/hook. Then she saw that I had two bolt seals, a cable seal, and two thin metal seals on my trailer. I guess the amigos across the border didn't want that load getting fucked with. Simple deal, right? I drop the trailer and the yard dog cuts the seals whenever they get around to unloading it. Wrong. They changed it to a live unload and made me take the trailer to a door, since the bolt cutters are kept at the dock doors. Dumb. Punks.
After a couple of hours there, I was on my way to my next pickup. I had to go west along I-10 and catch Beltway 8 to the north. Beltway 8 is the surface road that runs along the Sam Houston toll road. The interchange was under construction and the signs were ambiguous, so of course I wound up on the toll road by accident. Even better, I managed to go south instead of north. I took the first exit and pulled up to the toll booth. I don't carry cash on the road unless I expect to need it. My mistake was not a terribly costly one ($4), but I'll still have to mail a check to the state of Texas within seven days. Oh well. The guy at the booth was helpful in getting me sorted out and headed toward my customer, so that was nice.
I rolled into the shipper's location and had a drop/hook. They made me go to a neighboring lot to drop my empty and then come back to the main lot for my loaded trailer. Nothing really exciting there, but it took quite a while. People were backing into the (extremely tight) loading docks each time I tried to pass, so I had to be a little bit patient. I saw that I only had five forklifts in my trailer, so I thought the weight might not be too bad. Then I saw that each one weighs 9,000 pounds. Damn.
Then it was back onto the freeway and all the way back through Houston. Like I said, I'm sure it's a fine town... At least I got out before the wind and rain from the hurricane got there. I headed up US-59 toward Texarkana. The routing programs say that the 'practical' route is eastward across Louisiana and then northward. My paid route is quite a bit shorter than that, coming pretty close to the route that I'm taking. For some reason, these runs originating in eastern Texas always work out that way. US-59 is a decent drive for the most part, so I can't complain too much. My 70 hours ran out before I got to Arkansas, so I'll have some hard driving ahead of me. I'll get up bright and early and go as far as possible tomorrow, then finish off the run early in the morning on Thursday.
I heard on the radio that Estelle Getty died tonight. I always got a kick out of The Golden Girls for some reason. It just seemed to be one of the wittier sitcoms and the casting was perfect. I (sort of) made an appearance on that show a long time ago. I was at Disney World with my family when I was thirteen years old. They had this thing where they selected people from the audience to appear in an episode of The Golden Girls. I was one of a few people chosen from a pretty huge crowd. They gave us about five minutes to memorize our lines and then filmed us against a green screen. The people in the crowd were watching an actual episode of the show on a movie screen. Then when a certain scene came up, there we were, right on the screen with the real actors. My parents couldn't afford to buy the videotape so I never got to see it, but everyone said it was pretty cool. I just realized that there's really no point to this story, but screw it. I'm not getting paid for this. I just liked Estelle Getty. That's all.
Give yourself five points if you said Houston. I'm sure it's a fine town, but I had my fill today. I had to contend with rush hour traffic on the way into town this morning. Yuck. Thank God I don't have one of those 'swear jars.' I would have had to take out a personal loan.
My plan summary indicated that I had a drop/hook. The security chick at the consignee said that I had a drop/hook. Then she saw that I had two bolt seals, a cable seal, and two thin metal seals on my trailer. I guess the amigos across the border didn't want that load getting fucked with. Simple deal, right? I drop the trailer and the yard dog cuts the seals whenever they get around to unloading it. Wrong. They changed it to a live unload and made me take the trailer to a door, since the bolt cutters are kept at the dock doors. Dumb. Punks.
After a couple of hours there, I was on my way to my next pickup. I had to go west along I-10 and catch Beltway 8 to the north. Beltway 8 is the surface road that runs along the Sam Houston toll road. The interchange was under construction and the signs were ambiguous, so of course I wound up on the toll road by accident. Even better, I managed to go south instead of north. I took the first exit and pulled up to the toll booth. I don't carry cash on the road unless I expect to need it. My mistake was not a terribly costly one ($4), but I'll still have to mail a check to the state of Texas within seven days. Oh well. The guy at the booth was helpful in getting me sorted out and headed toward my customer, so that was nice.
I rolled into the shipper's location and had a drop/hook. They made me go to a neighboring lot to drop my empty and then come back to the main lot for my loaded trailer. Nothing really exciting there, but it took quite a while. People were backing into the (extremely tight) loading docks each time I tried to pass, so I had to be a little bit patient. I saw that I only had five forklifts in my trailer, so I thought the weight might not be too bad. Then I saw that each one weighs 9,000 pounds. Damn.
Then it was back onto the freeway and all the way back through Houston. Like I said, I'm sure it's a fine town... At least I got out before the wind and rain from the hurricane got there. I headed up US-59 toward Texarkana. The routing programs say that the 'practical' route is eastward across Louisiana and then northward. My paid route is quite a bit shorter than that, coming pretty close to the route that I'm taking. For some reason, these runs originating in eastern Texas always work out that way. US-59 is a decent drive for the most part, so I can't complain too much. My 70 hours ran out before I got to Arkansas, so I'll have some hard driving ahead of me. I'll get up bright and early and go as far as possible tomorrow, then finish off the run early in the morning on Thursday.
I heard on the radio that Estelle Getty died tonight. I always got a kick out of The Golden Girls for some reason. It just seemed to be one of the wittier sitcoms and the casting was perfect. I (sort of) made an appearance on that show a long time ago. I was at Disney World with my family when I was thirteen years old. They had this thing where they selected people from the audience to appear in an episode of The Golden Girls. I was one of a few people chosen from a pretty huge crowd. They gave us about five minutes to memorize our lines and then filmed us against a green screen. The people in the crowd were watching an actual episode of the show on a movie screen. Then when a certain scene came up, there we were, right on the screen with the real actors. My parents couldn't afford to buy the videotape so I never got to see it, but everyone said it was pretty cool. I just realized that there's really no point to this story, but screw it. I'm not getting paid for this. I just liked Estelle Getty. That's all.
Monday, July 21, 2008
7/21/08
Hmmm, that day was something. It was a pretty easy drive into Laredo this morning. I guess that's pretty cool at least.
Once I got to the terminal and the guy inspected my trailer, I headed up to the dispatch window in order to get on the board before I delivered my load. I don't know whether self-proclaimed badasses are just drawn to this line of work or if something about this job turns people into self-proclaimed badasses. Whichever it is, I observe more than my share of bullshit bravado whenever I spend any amount of time around other drivers. Today's example was a guy who apparently got inspected while leaving to deliver a load and received a ticket for an obstructed placard. Even if we accept his version of the 'obstruction' being a non-issue and the ticket being undeserved, it should have ended there. The following twenty minutes consisted of him telling stories to the dispatcher about how CTL can kiss his ass if they think he's paying the ticket and how he told the cop what-for and so on. All I needed to do was get to the window and get on the board. King Salami there just kept going on and on about what a tough guy he is, holding up the line for the rest of us. Obnoxious.
I finally got my turn and then headed over to the broker to drop my trailer. There was a guy waiting to make the left turn into the yard, so I pulled in behind him and turned on my blinker. Twenty minutes later, the entrance cleared and the guy ahead of me turned in. Twenty minutes after that, I was able to enter the yard. Something about twenty minutes today...
The security guard checked over my trailer and wrote "4 mal" on the part of the inspection report about tires. My Spanish ain't what it used to be, but I seem to recall that 'mal' means 'bad.' The CTL dude had indicated that they were all fine. Whatever man. Not my problem. I (luckily) didn't have to put the trailer in a door. That place was incredibly crowded and the quarters were tight, to put it mildly. He told me to drop at the far end of the yard. Then it was... go ahead and take a guess... twenty minutes until the driveway cleared and I could get out.
I hung around most of the day and finally got called in to dispatch around 10pm. The dude knew that I was getting hosed without me saying anything, so he called the Texas planner in Joplin and got me another run to back up the one that he was giving me. I have to drop in Houston at 9am tomorrow morning, to a consignee with no overnight parking. I could either stay in Laredo for a couple more hours, complete a ten hour break, and then head to Houston or I could use the eight hours that I had been in Laredo as the front end of a split. I decided that I would rather use the split, so I grabbed my trailer and headed out.
By the time I got back to Ganado, I decided to pull in and get a little sleep while I finished off the split. No parking spaces available. Nice. So, I got back on the road and started looking out for somewhere to shut it down. In rather poetic fashion I suppose, I had to drive for exactly twenty minutes until I spotted a little truck stop with plenty of room to park. I'll catch a nap here and then run the last hour or so to Houston.
My pre-planned load picks up on the other side of Houston and goes up to Kentucky, so I should get clear of any hurricane-related issues before they arise. Groovy.
Once I got to the terminal and the guy inspected my trailer, I headed up to the dispatch window in order to get on the board before I delivered my load. I don't know whether self-proclaimed badasses are just drawn to this line of work or if something about this job turns people into self-proclaimed badasses. Whichever it is, I observe more than my share of bullshit bravado whenever I spend any amount of time around other drivers. Today's example was a guy who apparently got inspected while leaving to deliver a load and received a ticket for an obstructed placard. Even if we accept his version of the 'obstruction' being a non-issue and the ticket being undeserved, it should have ended there. The following twenty minutes consisted of him telling stories to the dispatcher about how CTL can kiss his ass if they think he's paying the ticket and how he told the cop what-for and so on. All I needed to do was get to the window and get on the board. King Salami there just kept going on and on about what a tough guy he is, holding up the line for the rest of us. Obnoxious.
I finally got my turn and then headed over to the broker to drop my trailer. There was a guy waiting to make the left turn into the yard, so I pulled in behind him and turned on my blinker. Twenty minutes later, the entrance cleared and the guy ahead of me turned in. Twenty minutes after that, I was able to enter the yard. Something about twenty minutes today...
The security guard checked over my trailer and wrote "4 mal" on the part of the inspection report about tires. My Spanish ain't what it used to be, but I seem to recall that 'mal' means 'bad.' The CTL dude had indicated that they were all fine. Whatever man. Not my problem. I (luckily) didn't have to put the trailer in a door. That place was incredibly crowded and the quarters were tight, to put it mildly. He told me to drop at the far end of the yard. Then it was... go ahead and take a guess... twenty minutes until the driveway cleared and I could get out.
I hung around most of the day and finally got called in to dispatch around 10pm. The dude knew that I was getting hosed without me saying anything, so he called the Texas planner in Joplin and got me another run to back up the one that he was giving me. I have to drop in Houston at 9am tomorrow morning, to a consignee with no overnight parking. I could either stay in Laredo for a couple more hours, complete a ten hour break, and then head to Houston or I could use the eight hours that I had been in Laredo as the front end of a split. I decided that I would rather use the split, so I grabbed my trailer and headed out.
By the time I got back to Ganado, I decided to pull in and get a little sleep while I finished off the split. No parking spaces available. Nice. So, I got back on the road and started looking out for somewhere to shut it down. In rather poetic fashion I suppose, I had to drive for exactly twenty minutes until I spotted a little truck stop with plenty of room to park. I'll catch a nap here and then run the last hour or so to Houston.
My pre-planned load picks up on the other side of Houston and goes up to Kentucky, so I should get clear of any hurricane-related issues before they arise. Groovy.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
7/20/08
That was about the easiest trip west along I-10 that I can recall. Even going through Houston, things moved right along at the speed limit. Any time you can hit spots like that on a weekend, things are definitely going in your favor.
I've stopped at the T/A in Ganado to grab some dinner and spend the night before heading into Laredo tomorrow. My job has definitely been more enjoyable for the past few days, compared to the few before that, so I think I'll stay out for another week or so before heading home and tending to some personal business.
I think tonight I'll catch up on some reading and try to figure out whether or not I should put an alcohol still on my parents' property up north. If I can convert my car and brew my own fuel, I may have a leg up on the rest of you suckers. Considering that we're about to elect a guy who thinks it's a good idea to have a campaign rally at Adolph Hitler's favorite monument to military domination, I don't have any good reason to think our national policies will move in the right direction any time soon.
I've stopped at the T/A in Ganado to grab some dinner and spend the night before heading into Laredo tomorrow. My job has definitely been more enjoyable for the past few days, compared to the few before that, so I think I'll stay out for another week or so before heading home and tending to some personal business.
I think tonight I'll catch up on some reading and try to figure out whether or not I should put an alcohol still on my parents' property up north. If I can convert my car and brew my own fuel, I may have a leg up on the rest of you suckers. Considering that we're about to elect a guy who thinks it's a good idea to have a campaign rally at Adolph Hitler's favorite monument to military domination, I don't have any good reason to think our national policies will move in the right direction any time soon.
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