Ice, Ice, Baby

DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, Midnight

Miles Today: 635

Gonna have to make this fast tonight...I spent way too much time playin' poker (mostly not getting the results I wanted or expected), so now it's late and I need to get off to bed. But I'll fill you in on today's trip first.

'Twas just a long drive from eastern IL to here in OKC. The weather started out pleasant enough; dry (though overcast and foggy) and warm (in the 50s). But as I made my way into western Missouri, after the fog had cleared out, I obviously passed through a cold front as the temperature dropped, the skies darkened, and the rain began. So the second half of my drive today was with my wipers on.

Through the last bit of Missouri and all the way through Oklahoma, evidence of the recent snow and ice storm abounded. All of the trees, shrubs, and grasses were coated with ice. Fortunately the roads were well salted. It woulda' looked real cool if the sun were out, all sparkly and such. But with gloomy, rainy skies, it just looked, well, interesting anyway.

I made it to my usual OKC hangout, the Flying J on the city's northeast corner, with just a few minutes of my allotted 11 driving hours to spare. Tomorrow I'll probably get up around 6:00 and try to hit the road by 7:00. It should be about a 4-hour drive down to the Dallas area and my delivery, and I'm due there at noon, so that plan should suffice. Now some responses to reader questions.

Reader nancy r asks, "Nice that IL has decent restrooms at the rest areas, but what about the food? Do you have enough munchies in your truck for when you're stuck in places that have no fast food?"

I stock up on heat-n-eat meals from the grocery store whenever I'm home, so I do have plenty to eat when food's not available (or I want to save some bucks). As you may recall, I have a portable oven (kinda' looks like a lunchbox) that plugs into the truck's outlets so I can heat up my carry-along foodstuffs.

And a reply to reader jerry: Sure, I'd love to go to the Motor City Bowl again this year. It's always a fun time. Thanks much.

That's all for today, folks. Thanks for dropping in. Drop me a line or two, and keep on truckin'.