Writer Unblocked

DATELINE: STRINGTOWN, OK, 2:45 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 437
Miles Yesterday: 310
Miles Friday: 349

My humblest apologies for not updating this site the last couple of days. I have no excuses; I just was not inspired to write. I guess this job has become so "old-hat" to me by now that the days and the duties don't seem remarkable any more. I'm sure you can relate. But I do know that you, my faithful readership, are interested in my daily comings and goings, and I have a duty to keep you informed. So, again, my humblest apologies for keeping you in the dark for 2 days.

Let me continue today by answering reader mrr's query, "So, how are you REALLY enjoying this trucker thang?" The short answer is that I don't, really. It's a job to try to pay the bills, that's all. Sure, there are some cool parts about it, such as I know how to drive a big rig and I get paid to drive around this great big land of ours. But for the most part it's a grind. The hours are long; I'm away from home (and the millions of things I need to be attending to there) and my family; I never know where I'll be more than 2 or 3 days ahead of time; my "free time" is spent mostly by myself in my sleeper berth blogging, surfing the web, and dealing with e-mail; mechanical breakdowns are a royal pain in the neck. So no, on the whole I'm not really enjoying this trucker thang. So cheer me up and send me some comments already! ;-) Now, on to what I've been doing lately.

At my last report I was in central Tennessee headed for Chattanooga. That delivery went fine, although I did have a 45-minute wait there before they assigned me a dock door. Then I drove to the nearest rest area down the highway (I-75) just over the line into Georgia and waited for my next assignment. That came quickly: pick up a load from a small town about 15-to-20 miles northeast of Chattanooga and take it to its southern Oklahoma destination for a Monday morning delivery. After a 40-mile detour thanks to more faulty directions (man! you get on one of those 2-lane country highways and there's no place to turn around for miles!), I found the town and the company, parked, and checked in. Then I had another hour-long wait before they assigned me a loading dock. The loading process went quickly, and then I was on my way back west. I stopped for the night about an hour west of Chattanooga at a mom-n-pop truck stop near the town of Monteagle.

Yesterday was a short, 6-hour drive to USA Truck's West Memphis, AR terminal. I was up early and reached the terminal just after noon, then spent the rest of the day getting bad cards in my online poker pursuit. Not a good day there.

This morning I was planning to wake up at 5:00, but I woke up at 3:45 and couldn't get back to sleep. I hate when that happens. Oh well. I got up anyway, had a leisurely shower and shave and a bite to eat, and hit the road at 5:00. Since my delivery appointment tomorrow morning is at 5:30, at least I'm on the right schedule for that. Today's drive was across Arkansas and into Oklahoma along I-40, then down US-69 to my current location. I'm at a truck stop that has a Choctaw Nation casino, or rather, it's a casino with a travel center (gas station and convenience store). Anyway, it's a small place that probably just has slot machines. I don't plan on going into the casino to check it out. I'm a bit tired from a few short nights of sleep, so I think I'll finish this up, check my e-mail, then catch some Z's.

So that's what's what with my whirlwind wanderings. I hope you didn't miss me too much during my silent days. Since I'll have a new destination tomorrow after making my morning delivery, I'll be sure to let you know where I'll be headed. By the way, I will be headed home at the end of this week for another couple of days off, so I am definitely looking forward to that. Here's hoping for some good weather so I can get out and work in my garden--it's time to get some veggies planted!

Thanks for your loyal readership, and keep on truckin'.