Gulfport Greetings

DATELINE: GULFPORT, MS, 5:15 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 541

Greetings today from the Gulf Coast. Well, I'm not actually right on the coast, but I'm certainly well within 10 miles of it. Probably 6 or 7 miles as the seagull flies. I've found refuge for the night at the Flying J here along I-10 at exit 31 (info given for those of you atlas-tically inclined), arriving around 4:15 this afternoon. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to how my workday went.

I woke up at 5:15 this morning so I could grab a quick shower and start work promptly at 6:00, when my requisite break reached its 10-hour mark. There was a delay before a shower room was ready for me, and I used that time to grab a quick bite--a hot dog--from the truck stop's convenience store because I was REALLY HUNGRY when I got up. But even with the delay, I managed to hit the road on time.

The rest of the day I pretty much just drove straight through; no lengthy stops for anything, just quick ones for rest rooms. My longest stop was at the Shreveport terminal for fuel, but that was only 15 minutes. After Shreveport, which I left at 9:15, I didn't make any other stops long enough to note in my log book, so that just shows a continuous line in the "Driving" section from 9:15 'til my arrival here in Gulfport at 4:15. I decided to stop here instead of proceeding on to Mobile, AL as I wrote as my plan yesterday because it'd take me most of another hour to get to that TA, and it has a much smaller lot (and is an older, smaller facility).

I'm motivated today and tomorrow to get as far as I can as quickly as I can because I need to get to Orlando (or wherever I stop tomorrow) in time to take a full 10-hour break before I need to get rolling Friday morning to get to my 3:00 a.m. delivery appointment. By my calculations, I do have enough time to take a couple extra hours in tonight's break and sleep in 'til 4:00 tomorrow morning. If I'm rolling by 5:00 (after a shower and shave), I should reach the Orlando area around 3:00 tomorrow afternoon if all goes well.

I am a bit worn out now--possibly because I didn't have enough to eat today and was getting hunger shakes by the time I got here--so I'll hit the sack fairly soon. I did run over to the Wendy's right next door for dinner after I parked, so I did take care of that hunger issue. No need to enumerate my whole caloric intake for the day, but I did have some between the aforementioned hot dog and Wendy's meal (Spicy Chicken sandwich and fries). Just apparently not enough. But all's well now.

It's been another grey, on-and-off rainy day, but down here along the coast it's good 'n warm. No need for another shirt over my T-shirt when I'm roaming outside now, so that's good to feel. Last night was good in that the temperature was moderate enough that I left my truck off, without needing the climate control system to periodically turn the engine on to run the heater. And I'll probably do that tonight, too, though until the sun goes down, I'm a-gonna need to run the AC to keep it comfy in here.

So that's the scoop on today from my vantage point. Thanks for living it with me vicariously, and keep on truckin'.