Georgia Crossing

DATELINE: CUSSETA, AL, 3:00 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 477

Only 9-1/2 hours of work today, and since some of that time included a fuel stop and my drop-and-hook pickup in Savannah, I only drove for 8-3/4 hours. Hence the low mileage total for the day. And with the last 3 hours being all back roads (US-80 west from Macon, GA) with lower speed limits, that shortened my mileage as well. Which I can't really use right now, 'cuz I'm on a mad dash to Oklahoma with few hours to get there.

My load is due at 8:00 Thursday morning (they altered that from what my load assignment originally said, which was tomorrow--Wednesday--morning), in Marietta, and it'll take all the hours I have available tomorrow (7-3/4) and Thursday (7) driving as fast as the truck will go to get there on time. Obviously I'll have to get rolling shortly after midnight on Thursday to complete the drive by 8:00 a.m., so I'll need to start early tomorrow, too, to stay acclimated to the early shift. At least I've crossed into the next time zone so I've gained an extra hour that I can spend sleeping tonight.

Tonight I'm parked at a truck stop where I've spent the night once or twice before. It's a non-name-brand place with a nice big lot, a Subway counter, and a restaurant. It's not one of the chains where I earn shower privileges with my fuel purchases, so I'll have to stop at one of them en route tomorrow so I can clean up. (I generally shave every other day, and tomorrow is "shave day".) But any port in a storm, as they say.

Reader jim asks, "After more than a year on the road does the "R" still stand for reluctant?"

You betcha', I'd still far prefer to be at home. As I roam the country these days as Spring is springing up, it reminds me how much I want to be home working in my yard. That's one thing I really do miss (besides being with my family, of course) while stuck out here on the road. I have a good-sized yard, about 1/3 of an acre total, with lots of that space devoted to planting beds that require attention to keep the weeds at bay, shrubberies to trim, and much, much more. On the occasions I do get home, I'm usually too busy with other pressing duties to get much time in the yard. And consider that I'm averaging only 3 days at home per month. And with my hometime stolen last week, I won't even have a full day at home--midnight to midnight--for all of April. So yes, I'm still trucking reluctantly. No other job I'm likely to be able to find will pay as well as this, so this is it for the time being. Unless, of course, the Poker gods decide they've had enough fun at my expense and give me a fair chance when I do play. ;-)

Speaking of poker, I haven't been playing at all lately. For one, I feel reluctant to play because of how bad the cards have run for me the last couple of times I did log on to the tables. For another, this job has kept me so busy that I've been too tired to feel I could give the game the mental energy required to make good decisions. Maybe that'll change in the next couple of days as my work time will be limited by my lack of available work hours. So we'll see about that.

Thanks for checking in today. I do like and look forward to seeing comments and questions from y'all, so please take a sec' and drop me a line. And keep on truckin'.