6/30/09

I fully expected to be writing some sort of miserable diatribe by the time I sat down to my computer tonight. I had to get up early this morning (which I hate doing), drive down Satan's Driveway (which I hate doing), dodge the incompetent Texas drivers in the rain (which I hate doing), and work for a full eleven hours (which I hate doing). Surprisingly though, the drive wasn't all that bad. It wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but we've certainly seen worse.

The traffic down US-69 and US-75 through Oklahoma was pretty light for the most part. Dallas, of course, had pretty heavy traffic and a steady stream of slow drivers in the center lane. For whatever reason, there's a stretch of US-75 where the lanes can't be more than a few inches wider than a 102" truck and trailer. With all the traffic merging and exiting, you definitely have to be on your toes. The left lane turned out not to be quite as skinny as the center lane though, so I was content to fall in behind another truck and cruise on through. If only I had that option on I-35...

As I dropped down toward Waco I was in the mood to stop for a steak, so I pulled off at Exit 343. The folks at Heitmiller Steakhouse are usually reliable for some good grub. Tonight I must say I was less than impressed. My five-dollar mozzarella sticks were far better than my eighteen-dollar steak. You win some and you lose some I suppose. At the restaurant, I ran into my trainer from the summer of '06 (when I got started with this vocation). He is currently training his brother and they'll be working as a team for the foreseeable future. Good luck with that. My old trainer is a pretty good guy, but sharing an enclosed space with another grown man for four weeks was about all I could handle.

After dinner it was time to deal with Austin and San Antonio. My break had been long enough to allow most of the afternoon rush to abate, so the Austin traffic was only 90% ridiculous instead of 150% ridiculous. San Antonio really wasn't bad at all, aside from the brief rain that I encountered on the north side. Today's eleven hours got me down to Cotulla, leaving around an hour to drive in the morning. That's not bad at all. I pulled into a massive truck stop parking lot at 9:30pm local time and found that there were only four trucks parked here. That doesn't make any sense. I wonder if they had a swine flu outbreak here or something. I hope not. I just went inside and bought an iced tea. That cashier did look a little sketchy. Hmm.

I saw a shit-ton of our trucks heading north on I-35 today. That's generally a good sign that the freight out of Laredo is plentiful. Hopefully there won't be too many people getting there tonight and filling up the board ahead of my arrival.