8/18/10

I think I get to stay in the truckers' club as long as I punch my card every now and then.  Therefore, having just driven 1,142 miles in a day and a half, my dues should be all caught up.  I even bought fuel at Pilot and everything.

After checking the truck over and rolling out of Franklin, Kentucky just after midnight, I was relieved to hear that the mosque talk had subsided.  Then I found that it had been replaced by... Brett Favre talk?  Again?  Every news update on every network?  All night long?  You've got to be shitting me. 

My complete and utter loss of faith in humanity was tempered a little once I got onto I-71 though.  I was getting a little hungry and what did my eyes behold?  Was that a SubWay at the Love's truck stop in Sparta?  Yes, yes it was a SubWay at the Love's truck stop in Sparta.  As I sank my teeth into the delightful goodness of my Italian BMT with double meat, it occurred to me that I can't even remember the last time I had an Italian BMT with double meat.  It's entirely possible that I haven't been to a SubWay since I got home in late June.  We'll have to be careful not to let that happen again.

The timeline for my northbound trip was pretty favorable, getting me through Louisville and Cincinnati before the morning traffic started to get heavy.  I caught just enough light rain to get the bugs off the windshield but not enough to cause any problems, so that was nice.  About the only thing that went wrong, and this part is a little embarrassing, was that I missed my exit on the way back to the dairy. 

I was listening to Drew & Mike on the radio.  For those of you who are not from around here, they're a typical couple of morning goofballs on the local rock station.  Drew plays the role of the more normal 'host' and Mike is just a silly pervert for the most part.  Between the two of them and the quality of their guests, I can almost always enjoy some good laughs.  So anyhow, they were interviewing this chick who apparently writes books teaching people how to masturbate.  I thought that some things were self-explanatory, but you know, I guess she's doing important work or something.  You know how these things go.  The chick gets to plug her website a few times and the guys make a bunch of inappropriate wisecracks.  Prior to that lady, they had interviewed a guy who sells books teaching guys how to score one-night stands with hot chicks or something.  That guy was a douche and they had some fun with him, so I already was chuckling quite a bit.  And even before that, they had replayed an old phone call that they made to the Captain & Tennille.  That one was freaking hilarious.

Back on topic - I caught I-96 over toward the dairy as the guys were having their fun with ole Dr. Sadie.  I managed to fight my way out of the merging lane (that is forced to exit at Newburgh) and then cruised the last few miles to Middlebelt.  I don't recall exactly what was said or what happened, as I was a bit tired at the time.  We had some combination of me laughing very hard, other traffic merging/exiting around me, and Mike trying to get the rather attractive author to reveal various things about her appearance.  I drove right past Middlebelt without even realizing it.  Fortunately I saw the sign for the Inkster Road exit and realized my mistake before I had driven all the way to Detroit.  I just had to run Inkster down to Plymouth and double back for a mile.  No biggie.

Once I dropped off my paperwork, the dispatcher told me that he didn't have anything for me tonight.  This was obviously welcome news.  I would have been able to finish a ten hour break by 7:30pm, but I really wouldn't have felt like going to work at that point anyway.  That Tennessee run amounts to a busy Tuesday and a busy Wednesday, so I was glad to have the rest of the day off.  Tomorrow is my regularly scheduled day off, so that's pretty nice as well.  I told the guys that I'm available if they need me, but my guess is that they won't call unless they're in a real pinch.  Life will be a lot easier on all of us if I go ahead and get a restart before the weekend comes around.  I'm pretty sure they see things the same way.