I've made it to Oklahoma City where I am going to be spending the night. It was a rough drive getting here. I didn't sleep well at all last night.
For the past few days my lower back and my bum hip have been giving me a lot of pain, yesterday reaching the peak of "discomfort" as the doctors put it. The pain has been the main reason I just haven't felt like driving much the past few days.
Normally I sleep like a baby after a couple of beers but last night even that didn't help and the pain in my back, hip, and leg prevented me from sleep much at all. When I got up this morning I needed my cane to walk into the truckstop from my rig. I really hate having to use that damned thing. Another thing I seriously hate is taking any sort of pain killers as I dislike relying on drugs for my well being. But, when I returned to the truck I had decided that enough was enough and I gave in and took a couple of Aleve which is about the strongest non-narcotic pain killer available over the counter today.
I will admit the Aleve did help take the edge off the pain well enough for me to remain in the driver's seat and cover the miles I needed to cover today. I'm now within a day's ride of my first stop. But while the pain was eased a little, the lack of sleep was not. I had to make several stops along the way to get more coffee just to stay alert enough to be safe on the highways. It's really not a good thing to fall asleep at the wheel of a 75ft long rig doing 75mph. It just wouldn't be pretty.
I was very happy to pull in here and be able to call it a day. I'm feeling so tired now that I feel confident that I will probably sleep tonight pain or no pain. As much as I dislike doing so I'll also probably take a couple more Aleve before turning in just to ensure that night's sleep.
I was planning on catching up my paperwork this evening in preparation for turning it all in when I arrive at the yard but at this point I'm just going to let it slide until tomorrow evening's stop.
I did luck out at one coffee stop, it was a Flying J, same as where I have parked tonight. As I was rolling down the interstate exit ramp I heard a driver come over the CB and ask if anyone needed a Flying J shower coupon. You get those when you fuel up and since Flying J doesn't accept our fuel card (only the most commonly used one in the industry) I never get them and if I shower at a Flying J I have to pay the 9 bucks. I responded that yeah, I could use one of them. I met him at his rig as I pulled in and he handed me two of them. Cool! Now I can get a free shower tonight instead of shelling out the 9 bucks. Real nice of him.