I delivered my load in Houston yesterday afternoon after a hard drive down from WI. As I expected there wasn't any reload available. As motels are way too expensive in the Houston area I head about 80 miles North to a little town called Seven Oaks where I know of a cheap motel. On the way up I got caught in a major traffic jam. An accident up ahead, with fatalities, had brought the highway to stand still. After about two hours I finally crawled past the accident scene. This was a divided h...

Around lunch time I decided to drive over to the local Galleria mall, mostly just to walk around a bit and check things out. I wandered around a bit and came across a vision center having a pretty good sale. They were offering a complete pair of glasses, plus eye exam, for $99. I've been needing new glasses for some time now so I decided to use some of my down time to take care of that. I explained to the doc that I'd had problems with my last two pairs of bifocals and that the distance part ...

Yesterday I picked up a large loader (construction equipment) at Camp Edwards in Buzzards Bay, MA, which is near Cape Cod. The amount of traffic heading out to the Cape for the weekend was unreal. It was supposed to be a legal load but when I got there I could see right off it was wide and so an oversized load. That late in the afternoon this was a problem as it takes time to order and receive permits. Scramble time. And of course it also meant they would have to pay us more to move it. Alway...

I finally made it back to the yard yesterday. I put my truck in the shop for serviceing and a couple of minor repairs. They finally finished up on it around 7:30 last night and I checked into the hotel for a shower and some rest. I'm still fighting this Summer cold. This morning I have to go to the yard and chain down the fire truck I will be hauling to NJ. It's going to a port there where it will then be shipped off to one of our airfields in Iraq. I really hate driving in NJ but right no...

Around 11:00 this morning I was starting to feel pretty hungry so I walked over to the BBQ place just down from my motel. It wasn't open. Damn. I really wanted a BBQ sandwich too. I was just about to walk back to my room when the owner pulled up. I asked what time they opened and he said noon, and then asked what I was wanting. I told him I just wanted a BBQ sandwich but could wait until then. He said he had come in early this morning and had it all ready and then invited me in to get a sandw...

This morning I drove over to the outlet mall near my motel. I went mostly just to wander around and kill some time before getting some lunch. I wandered into the Old Navy store. They were having a buy 1 get 1 free sale on many items. I wound up picking up two new tee shirts and two new polo shirts for a total of $25. Not a bad deal at all. As I was looking around the outlet mall I spotted a discount beauty supply and remembered that I was running low on shampoo and popped in there to pick som...

After delivering the fire truck in Lubbock and then spending a couple of nights in a motel up in Amarillo, they found me a decent paying load, some power transformers, from Lubbock to Wills Point, TX. I loaded them up on Wednesday and delivered them on Thursday morning. Then then went down to the truck stop in Terrell to await my next load. Nothing on Thursday so I spent the night there at the truck stop. I spoke with the dispatcher Friday morning and , as I expected, he said it wasn't too li...

Been coughing for a couple of days now. Sinus issues too. Seems I've come down with a Summer cold. Sucks.

I'm hanging out in a motel in Amarillo. There's a bar next door, The Buckles Western Bar, and I was in there enjoying a few adult beverages. Tomorrow morning I'll be picking up some transformers in Lubbock going to Dallas. Not a long run but it pays well. While in the bar I was shooting the shit with my fellow patrons, most of them truckers.One guy told me I had the perfect voice for radio and another agreed. My voice is my voice, such as it is. This isn't the first time I've been told this. ...

I'm in Elk City, OK tonight, which is near the OK/TX line. Tomorrow morning I'll head on into TX, cut South in Amarillo, and deliver a fire truck in Lubbock. Thankfully it seems the severe heat wave of the past week or so has abated and the temps have returned to the "normal" range. It was pretty damn hot until today. Friday it was in the 90s up in WI, which is very high for this time of year. Those poor folks were sweltering. I'm hoping that they will have a reload lined up for me pretty ...

My first stop today was at the Central Prison in Raleigh, NC. I was elivering a machinery cooling unit there. They are builiding onto the prison there. Needless to say, prisons are not exactly my favorite places to deliver. I can't help but think of what brutality goes on in those places and how many people don't belong in them that are sent there anyway. Makes  me shudder. It should have been a really quick, one piece stop but things were delayed and I wound up spending most of the d...

It's been an interesting week or so since I've last posted. I picked up an oversized load in Or, delivered it in MO, hung out for a couple of days there, and then took a load up to WI where I now sit after being rained on most of the day today. After loading, securing, and tarping my next load (in the rain) I checked into the hotel here. I went over to the Applebee's next door for dinner and a few brewskies. As usual I was greated with many smiles and such from the folks who work there. I was...

It's been a long and interestng few days. I  met a guy in Montana who was from South Africa. He had some prettty strict ideas about race which we talked abiut and I just couldn't bring myself to agree with, but otherwise he was a nice guy. We had an interesting conversation. I met a gut the next night who was the only black guy living in Hardin, MT. He was a very bright 22 year old fellow and I really enjoyed talking wiht him. Again, we didn't agree on everything but he was able to expre...

It's been a long and interestng few days. I  met a guy in Montana who was from South Africa. He had some prettty strict ideas about race which we talked abiut and I just couldn't bring myself to agree with, but otherwise he was a nice guy. We had an interesting conversation. I met a gut the next night who was the only black guy living in Hardin, MT. He was a very bright 22 year old fellow and I really enjoyed talking wiht him. Again, we didn't agree on everything but he was able to expre...

It's been a long and interestng few days. I  met a guy in Montana who was from South Africa. He had some prettty strict ideas about race which we talked abiut and I just couldn't bring myself to agree with, but otherwise he was a nice guy. We had an interesting conversation. I met a gut the next night who was the only black guy living in Hardin, MT. He was a very bright 22 year old fellow and I really enjoyed talking wiht him. Again, we didn't agree on everything but he was able to expre...