Wednesday afternoon I loaded five large crates in Milwaukee; oversized load. The crates contain some of the parts for a large mining shovel going to Lima, Peru. Altogether it will take over 500 crates to move the entire thing. That's a lot of loads, folks.

As my oversize permits hadn't yet arrived when I reached Beloit, WI which is on the WI/IL line I spent the night there. I got a cheap room and had dinner in the bar.

After dinner I was trying to relax with a pipe and a beer out on the patio but between the backache I have been dealing with for a couple of weeks now and some young guy who talked at me, not to me, I was feeling too grumpy to enjoy myself. I decided to just return to my room before I snapped and pounded the young guy through the patio deck.

In the morning I had my IL permit and that allowed me to at least get started through that state. Due to bridge construction in several places I had to take a rather out of the way route to get around the narrow construction lanes. That really makes for a long day when running a wide load on narrow secondary roads. We call that "cutting through the woods" for a reason.

I received my MO permit that afternoon and made it down into that state before calling it a day. I pulled into a cheap motel in Ozora, MO. Cheap rooms and a bar and grill. Good enough for me. I was really hungry at that point but had to wait about an hour before the bar and grill opened up but it was worth it.

They make all of their food fresh and I had a really good burger there. The place got busier than I had expected, but that's understandable as the truck stop restaurant had closed down.

After my burger I was enjoying a cold beer when three young people (early 20s) came in, two guys and a girl. We got to talking and I found that they were bicycling across the continent. They had started out separately from the Washington D.C. area two weeks earlier and had met each other along the way and decided to travel together.

I thought it was very cool, and they are at the perfect age for such a grand adventure. I hope they do well on the remainder of their trip.

The following afternoon I pulled into the truckstop in Texarkana, AR. I pulled around to the back of the lot to park my wide load. When I got back there I found another of our trucks, one that is driven by a friend of mine, and parked mine next to his. He was loaded with more parts for the mining shovel and obviously also heading for Houston.

After going inside and getting my shower I went back and rang his phone to see what he was up to. He was dealing with the fact that the air conditioning was out in his truck and was trying to find someplace that had a replacement compressor. He wasn't having any luck.  It is brutally hot and no time to lack air conditioning in your truck. He was going to have to finish the trip without it.

I told him to just forget about it for time being as there was nothing to be done, and suggested we go have a cold beer. He'd had no idea there was a bar next door to the truckstop and cheered right up when I told him about it. After driving all day in that heat, without air, he was ready for a cold one or three.

The following morning we hit the road for Houston. His load is taller than mine so our permits had us running different routes. He had a lot more "through the woods" running to get around low bridges while mine was more of a straight shot. We both knew I would reach Houston first so I agreed to scout out a motel for us that wouldn't have any low clearances so he could get to it.

I found a suitable motel just a couple of miles from where we deliver on Monday. He showed up about three hours later. By the time he got here I had my fridge loaded up with beer as I thought he would need some relief from the heat when he got here. I was right about that.

Now we are just hanging out in the motel. It is 8:30 am and already hotter than blazes outside. I don't think we will be spending a lot of time outside. It's just too bloody hot. There is a diner here at the motel so food isn't an issue. I have plenty of beer, Gatorade, and pipe tobacco on hand so I am covered there.

I guess I'll wander over to the diner and have some breakfast.