West Across the South

DATELINE: TALLULAH, LA, 6:30 p.m. CST

Miles Today: 529

Yes, that's really the name of the town. It's on the eastern side of the state along I-20.

Just a driving day today. Once I hit the road at 6:30 (EST) this morning, I just kept on going, only making rest stops every couple of hours. I didn't make any extended stops 'til I needed fuel about an hour before I finished up for the day. I made the fuel stop just outside Jackson, MS, and bought a couple of small sandwiches for lunch while there. (I only ate one of 'em while continuing my drive; the other's for later.) But that also was a fairly quick stop so I could just make tracks before shutting down for the day.

I halted at this town for the night 'cuz they have a TA. I had driven for 9 hours today, so I could have driven for 2 more, but I'm in no rush. You recall from yesterday's update that I don't have to make my delivery 'til 2:00 Monday afternoon, so I do have plenty of time to get there. Shreveport's still 150+ miles away, so I wasn't going to be able to get to our terminal there within my allotted hours today anyway. I'll stop by there tomorrow for fuel and to check it out.

So that's all there is about my truckin' today. Now I'll move on to answering a couple questions from my fan mail bag.

First, from reader nancy r: "Do you ever see any husband-wife driving teams?"

Yes I do. Well, I assume when I see a man and woman in or coming out of a truck, they're a married couple. It could be they're just an unrelated team, or a trainer and student. But I suspect most of the time male-female teams are husband and wife. I know that it is quite common. Funny thing along those lines; this morning I stopped at a rest area. When I was walking back to my truck, I noticed another parked in the lot. Painted on the sleeper berth's window was "JUST MARRIED". Quite the romantic honeymoon, eh?

Second, reader Jim the Baritone wants to know, "I see a lot of trucks with just about every edge lined with lights - amber, green, red. What gives? Is this some sort of cult thing?"

It's just a personal style thing, the way some people like to "trick out" their cars, to make 'em look "cooler". You can bet those trucks with the extra lighting are owner-operators; company trucks tend to stay uniformly unadorned. USA Truck has a fairly strict policy against extra adornments on its equipment.

Another possible reason for all the extra lights is safety. It can be hard to make out a trailer's full dimensions in the dark, and many people have gotten hurt (and worse!) driving into or under trailers they didn't see that were in their way at night. So all the extra lights do define the trailer's outline to other motorists.

That's all I have to say--er, type--for today. Thanks once again for checking my reports out. Drop me a comment and/or question, and keep on truckin'.