Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Man On The Moon

I am here sitting after a full day of driving in a Truck Parking area outside of Cheyenne. I like the quiet somehow and I always think about the 6 million dollar man...yes, Lee Majors. In the pilot of the show, Steve Austin was being interviewed and was asked what the moon was like and he replied, Wyoming. My grandmother was from Laramie as were some other relatives that no longer write or call and have grown apart from my branch of the family. I always have some sort of wandering thoughts when crossing this state and in spite of its sparce population, I have managed to find some cool spots when crossing. I will add more on this tomorrow.

I had an interesting thing happen today. I was in a construction zone (and therefore on my guard) and some cars and a truck were merging ahead. The truck made it on ok but the cars were lagging. I slowed down and tried to allow them the chance to merge. The first car refused to do the smart thing and panicked, running into several barrels and then slamming on the brakes. The second car then panicked and swerved very abruptly to the left to avoid the idiot in the first car. The second car ended up where the front of my tractor would have been had I been typical and not slowed down. My point is that there are definitely times to hurry. There times where impatience will not necessarily cause trouble. Just try and remember that the speed you are currently doing in a truck or car is also the speed that you will carry with you into an emergency situation or heaven forbid, a crash. Drivers; regardless of what they drive need to work together to have patience and try to keep themselves and others safe in driving. End of sermon now have a good weekend. Dedication...

Friday, July 13, 2007

Cheese Kingdom

Well, Last night I pushed hard and managed to get to Oconomowoc, WI at the customer, Roundys with 45 minutes to spare on my 14 hours. Slept 4 hours and backed into the dock then 5 hours and 95 bucks later I was empty. Went to the town of Hartford, WI. Allegedly 24 miles from Oconomowoc...Detour added 16 miles in and 16 miles out. And I bet that Jim Palmer will not pay a cent of it...I will keep you posted about that...
On the way out of that mess, however, I managed to stumble into the Pine Cone Truck Stop in Johnson Creek, WI...that is I-94 and WI-26. I smelled the bakery, baking away as I exited the truck and went into the truck stop to use the facilities. I saw a rather large salad...Garden to be exact with everything in it and lots of it for $3.29. It was out of this world. I had a Strawberry nonfat yogurt parfait for $2.99 that had fresh strawberries and granola with great creamy yogurt in a large cup. Awesome. Then there are the doughnuts...they were huge. I bought a bismarck that was the size of my hand with fingers extended. It was the old style bismarck with the top cut off and the bavarian creme installed in large portion fashion. Also, I bought a chocolate raised doughnut that was larger than the bismarck. It was all delicious. I ate this slowly throughout the day but the doughnuts went all at once...oink, oink....oink!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Idiots Out Wandering Around...

I am just east of Des Moines, IA in a rest area. Stopped for a spell to walk off my fat gut and type a little. I have till 0430 to get to Oconomowoc, WI to deliver this rather hot load coming from Swift in Greeley, CO. Not a problem. It is funny however that whenever I get the notice from my driver manager, Bret, that the load is hot hot hot! The shipper, Swift, in this case just doesn't have their stuff together and delays my getting loaded. Just have to push a bit harder I guess but I feel that it is unnecessary. Maybe I have a bit of intolerence for things I deem to be stupid and for people that behave in the same way. Just a thought I guess. Man, I hit a nasty rain storm just east of Council Bluffs, IA this morn...note to drivers of cars and trucks; Use your head lights and slow down. It was a wonder I didn't get to witness a catastrophe in that mess with all the people texting while driving without lights in heavy rain. Be Safe, Dedication.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Oh What A Wonderful Day

I am now at the Evanston, WY Flying J truck stop after a rather nice experience with a blowout at 1130 pm last night. Took till 4 am to get a service truck out to Perry UT to fix the precariously blown tire. Fortunately there was no damage to the truck which is rare at 65 mph. It sure took the steam out of my driving for the night so i stopped here and got some needed rest. I have 466 miles left to run to Centennial, CO for 9am on the 11th. Somehow, I think I will Make it. All for now. E

Monday, July 9, 2007

Potato Kingdom

I am here at perhaps the smallest Flying J in the world in Blackfoot, Idaho. It has 4 parking spots, one of which, I managed to sneak into with little swearing and displaying of signs from passers by. I only had 94 miles to go and the delivery on this load is on the 10th. However I do have dreams of grandeur...I am going in Monday the 9th and just see what happens. Sometimes if a guy is in the right place at the right time and says the right things...the unloading just happens early. Other times, a C-note will not help. We shall see what today brings.
About yesterday, I enjoyed the nice drive through Yellowstone park on hwy 191 down to West Yellowstone. I stopped at a wide spot in the road and met a fellow Jim Palmer driver named Victor. We stood at the river watching the rafters drift by and talked about fishing and the many pretty women that were in abundance. It was truly a spiritual conversation as the views of the cliffs, the trees and everything else was magical. A couple on a Harley Davidson pulled up as we were talking and the gentleman got on one knee and proposed to his woman. Magic was in the air. There are few places that you can stop and feel that you could stay for a long time and just soak in the beauty. I hope to take my wife there someday. I stayed in Big Sky once and had a lot of fun but that is another story.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Where This All Comes From

As I sit here in a Lucky Lil's truck stop in Miles City, MT; I think to myself that there really is no difference in where you go if the places you choose to stop all look the same. I drive a Semi for a living...the places to park are rather limited in quite a bit of the country and as a result, the places we all pile up in all resemble one another. Some have nice views and some are just garbage dumps with parking. I will try to describe some of what I see on a near daily basis and perhaps one can get an idea of what it is like to ride along with this seeing eye country driver.