Success At Last!

DATELINE: ANTIOCH, TN, 6:30 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 261

Finally, some success! No, not with this job, though I do believe I know what I'm doing now. But with my "second job", ;-) the online poker thing. I played another online freeroll (no entry fee) Texas Hold-em tournament after I arrived here, and made it into the money. I took 17th place out of 3119 entrants! The top 18 places earned prizes, with 10th through 18th places earning a buck apiece. Big stakes, eh? (First place earns a whole $10.) But it's better than nothing, for sure. I would have liked to have finished higher but, as is custom, as we came down to the wire I stopped getting any semblance of playable hands. But that's not why you're here. You wanna read about my trucking work, don'tcha'?

Since my delivery is not 'til 9:30 tomorrow morning, and I only had 5 hours to drive to get close, I took my time making the drive. I woke up shortly after 6:00 (I would have liked to have slept in a bit later, but what can you do?) and hit the road by 6:30. I made one stop about a half-hour later for breakfast at a Pilot truck stop with a McDonald's, and was sorely disappointed that this one--as many down here in the south--didn't carry the bagel breakfast sandwiches. I was really jonesing for my fave, the Steak, Egg, & Cheese bagel. But I settled for a McGriddle meal instead.

Breakfast complete, I continued on towards Knoxville, planning to stop at the TA there to fuel up the truck and head inside for a shower (by buying 50+ gallons of fuel, I earn a free shower). My truck did need more than 50 gallons, but I strategized to earn another free shower by completing the fill-up when I stopped in the Nashville area. So I bought 51 gallons in Knoxville. Luck was on my side, too. For TA Road King Club members, you swipe your club card at the pump and your shower credit gets added to your account, then you redeem it at a kiosk inside. If you're not a club member, the pump prints a shower coupon when you buy 50+ gallons. Anyway, when I fueled up and swiped my card, I noticed a receipt from the previous driver hanging out of the pump. 'Twas a free shower coupon. So I got to use that for today's clean-up and save my earned one for later.

All clean and back on the road, I just proceeded here to the Antioch TA, where I've stopped a few times now. This is just southeast along I-24 from Nashville, and my delivery tomorrow is in LaVergne, another 2 miles down the highway. I reached here around 11:30 CDT and filled up the truck's tanks, earning yet another free shower. (By the way, the shower credits expire after a week, so I can't just hoard them indefinitely.) I'll have plenty of time in the morning to use that before I need to head out for the delivery.

After fueling I parked in the lot and headed inside for lunch. This TA has a Burger King and a Popeye's chicken along with TA's restaurant. Today I went for the chicken. Boy that stuff is good! Then it was back to the truck for the poker tourney. 5-1/2 hours later I busted out as described above, earning that whole dollar, then went back inside for dinner. Couldn't pass up the chicken this time, either.

So that's my day so far. It's sunny and hot down here this afternoon, after having been rainy all morning. I am feeling a bit tired, so I'll take it easy this evening, then probably get to sleep early. There's really not much to do besides reading and doing stuff online, and that all gets old after a while. Maybe I'll get up early in the morning and go for a short run--with that 9:30 delivery only a couple miles away, I'll have ample time for that (and the shower afterwards).

Thanks ever so much for dropping by to read my inane jabbering. Let me know what you want to know about; I'm sure there are facets of this job you're curious about that I haven't thought to comment on yet. And please do keep on truckin'.