Second Solo Stint

I finished my first solo stint last week, spent some time at home, and I've been back on the road for three days now. To start things off, I had a quick load from the terminal to a location just a few miles away, then I got a load to Spokane, Washington by way of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I'm excited to add some more Western states to my list. I've driven through 23 already and I'll hit 24 tomorrow when I cross into Washington. I delivered half my current load in Coeur d'Alene today and will finish off the trip tomorrow morning in Spokane. Though being less than an hour away, I can't deliver the rest of the load to the final stop because there are scheduled delivery times. While appointments can be stressful to make, they can also provide down time to do things like jog, shower for the first time in a few days, do laundry (which I may well have forgotten in the machine if I hadn't written this), and catch up on life stuff. I get more money when I lay down more miles, but a string of 10+ hour days gets pretty tiring.

The area of the Idaho panhandle I'm in made for a really pretty jog today. I've not run since I hit the road on Monday, so I pounded out a solid hour today under a sun that I swear didn't move all afternoon. I don't know if that's from the nine extra degrees of latitude or if I just wasn't paying attention. The Montana mountains along I-90 were also very pretty, and reminded me of the Colorado mountains with the terrain and types of trees. I didn't hit snow, but there was some left over higher on the mountains. The precipitation I really want is a good rain. My truck is dusty, covered in bug splat, and the days are starting to get warm. Nothing like a cleansing, cooling rain to make everything better.

I'm including some pictures from the last several weeks; I wish I could snap more pictures along the road to better represent my experiences, but there are obvious technical issues with that. This first one shows some goofy, bug-antenna-looking street lights over the interstate in southeastern Michigan.

I thought I'd forgo the gory ripped flesh photo and just show the post-op. Imagine a 3/8 inch wide metal band made of thick aluminum can material, used to seal a trailer to verify the load hasn't been tampered with. Now imagine not being able to tear the band off by tugging on it a few times with a solid metal tool. Stick with me, here's the punch line: further imagine being dumb enough to put your own (non-metallic) human flesh through the band and tugging until the loop breaks, sliding its sharp edges past and into said flesh. Thankfully, I had the foresight to have antibiotic ointment and bandages on the truck.

Pet-conscious rest area.

This last one shows the docking area of the Albuquerque Convention Center. If you're wondering, yes, it is a very poor design for full-sized semi trucks. I tried getting out around the truck on the right, but since grinding off my front end on the cement wall and ripping the other guy's front end off with my trailer didn't sound like my idea of a fun night, I had to wait almost an hour for him to get loaded and leave before I could fit out.

 

 

I just realized that, though a polo shirt makes me a bit more professional-looking than a lot of truckers, it also causes people to think I'm an employee at the businesses I patronize. I'm typing this in a Subway at a truck stop. A man just asked something about a restaurant and I, thinking he was wondering how to get a hold of the employees who were obscured in the back, told him to ring the bell. He clarified and asked if the restaurant was gone, not in the casual tone of one traveler talking to another, but more pointedly as if it were in my purview to know. Having never been here, I somewhat bemusedly answered that I thought the Subway was all that the truck stop had. I realized after he left that my dark polo resembles those of both the truck stop and Subway employees. This has happened before; apparently the lack of a name tag doesn't count for much.

 

Scott