Tonight finds me in a hotel in Beloit, WI. I spent the day at the Oshkosh defense plant picking up an armored truck heading for Camp Lejuene, NC. I got there early this morning but the paperwork was hung up and they weren't ready to load the truck. I spent most of the day at the nearby truck stop smoking my pipes and waiting for the call to go pick it up. I finally got the thing loaded around 4:00 this afternoon. Sometimes it just goes like that. I went back to the truck stop to scale my ...

I am back at the yard tonight and my truck is in the shop so the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) can be repaired...again. I checked into the hotel and went over to Applebee's for dinner and a few beers. As Wisconsin has passed an outlandish smoking ban that includes not only bars but hotel rooms as well (totally fascist!) I took along an e-cigarette as I refuse to be forced to stand outside like a damn dog. As I walked back to the hotel I saw a couple of local police cars, lights and sirens goi...

This evening is a perfect example of why I hate to try and watch a movie in a truck stop TV lounge. I am trying to watch this movie that was playing and this moronic asshole sitting next to me kept making comments, loudly, about every damn scene of the movie. At first I just tried to ignore this ignorant piece of shit but he just kept going and going and I finally got to the point of feeling an irresistible urge to punch his face in. I decided that it was better to just return to my truck ins...

I belong to a great forum for those of us who enjoy pipes and cigars. It's called Smokers Forums. It's a great collection of folks who appreciate the finer aspects of tobacco. I have a thread there, thanks to the suggestion of one member who is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, where I simply post, well, much the same as I often post here, just a few things about my travels around the country. I named the thread "Where the Pipe Smolders" in keeping with the theme of the forums eve...

I've been holed up in a motel on the South side of Nashville for three nights now. Tomorrow morning I'll head on my way once again. Tonight I wandered over to the Hooters next to the motel for a few beers and something to eat. The inside area was non-smoking so I took over a table out on the patio. I chose one that was under cover as the sun had not yet set and was very hot. My server out there was a young lady who expressed an interest in my pipes, ebook reader, and tablet computer. She s...

I am currently hauling a load from WI down to Florida with some stops in TN and GA.  This evening I stopped in Lebanon, IN where there just happens to be a bar next door to the truck stop. I accidentally walked in the bar and since I found myself there I decided to go ahead and order a beer or three. While I was sitting there conversing with the bartenders who seemed to know me for some odd reason a black fellow sat down next to me. Yes, for the PC crowd who may be shocked by this fact I...

I am hauling an over-sized load, a fire truck, to the port in Baltimore. As PA has a weekend curfew that prohibits over-sized loads from moving between noon on Saturday and sunrise on Monday I pulled into the truck stop just East of Wheeling, WV around 2:00 PM on Saturday. As there is a tavern across the street I have taken my meals there as well as enjoyed a few adult beverages. It's a decent enough place and the food there is pretty good. When I walked across to there this afternoon I co...

I was originally planned to haul an over-sized load out to Washington but the great state of Minnesota threw a wrench in the works and wouldn't issue a permit until Tuesday. So instead dispatch put me on a load going to Vermont. Cool enough as that allowed me time to get a room and even visit the pipe shop in Milwaukee on Saturday to pick up some of my favorite pipe tobacco before heading out. As I was sitting in the Applebee's next to the hotel "R" called me and asked me what I was doing. I ...

I delivered the fire truck to the port in Seattle despite being ill. I made my way to the truck stop and emailed the proof of delivery the customer requires (scanner/copier/printer in the truck) and then collapsed for a while. I was pretty well wiped out. After napping for about four hours I had a bite to eat and made my way down to the local tavern. As I am ill I eschewed alcoholic beverages and just drank ginger ale. Alcohol only serves to dampen the immune system and as I am fighting of...

For the past few days I've been feeling a bit under the weather, like maybe I was coming down with the flu or something. This morning I woke and at first thought I had one whopper of a hangover but then remember that I only had a few beers the night before, hardly anything to warrant a major hangover. I realized that whatever bug I had been feeling coming on had finally hit me full force. Well, nothing to do about that, so I began getting ready to hit the road again. As I was washing up in th...

In Miles City. MT tonight. On my way to Seattle. The wind was terrible today and made for a very tiring drive. I called it a day here after fighting those high winds all day. Last night I stopped in North Dakota and spent a little time at a pub I hadn't visited before. It was a good/bad experience. The good was a fellow came in smoking some cherry blend in a cob and we talked pipes, the bad was that when I went to the restroom someone stole five dollars from the money I had left in th...

I picked up a fuel tanker yesterday at Ft. Lewis in Washington that is heading to Oshkosh to be rebuilt. The pick up took longer than I expected as they were quite busy so by the time I made it to Spokane I was pretty much done for the day. I pulled into the Flying J and was lucky enough to find a parking spot. I went inside and did what pretty much any trucker does when he/she arrives at a truck stop and then asked one of the employees about any local bars in the area. I used to freq...

I delivered at the port in Tacoma yesterday morning and have been sitting here in North Bend, WA ever since. There are worse places to be stuck I suppose, but rolling equals money and sitting equals, well, sitting. They thought they had found me a very good load today, a catering truck going to NC that was paying $5,000 but when they ran the broker's credit it was very bad so we passed on it. No point in hauling a load for someone who is likely to stiff us on the freight bill. So I continu...

Last Saturday I secured a load, a military truck, that had to be at the port in Jacksonville, FL on Monday morning to catch a ship that was sailing on Tuesday. No big deal, right? Before I got out of Wisconsin the blower for my air conditioner stopped working. Not a good sign. Less than half way through Indiana one of my drive tires blew out taking out the tire next to it as well as the mud flap and mud flap hanger. When I tried to call the boss to let him know I needed to get a couple of tir...

I am currently sitting in Nashville, IL. I had run an oversized load, an air crash rescue truck, out to the port in Baltimore to go onto a ship and wind up in Pakistan and after sitting for a day I dead-headed over to a landfill in Gallia County Ohio and picked up another over-sized load, a dump truck, and hauled it to a landfill in IL. When I left the landfill in OH it was a very tight turn on a small country road, but I swung it as wide as I could and managed to make it out while watching f...