Rayville, LA

DATELINE: RAYVILLE, LA, 7:15 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 411

Nothing much exciting about today's activities, as my whole drive was over familiar roads (I-85 west to Montgomery, US-80 west into MS, I-20 west the rest of the day). I only had 7-3/4 hours available to work, so that limited the distance I could cover. But we knew that going into the day. The going was good, though, and I made about as many miles as I could have hoped. I did make a stop for an hour en route at the Flying J outside of Jackson, MS for lunch (a slice of their Hawaiian pizza) and a shower and shave, so at least I'm presentable again. Before that I also made a pit stop at the MS rest area where about a year ago I had my celebrity sighting (Ed Begley Jr.), but no celebs this time.

I've encamped for the night at a Pilot Travel Center here in Rayville, where I've spent the night once before. (By the way, I've decided to start using the cities where I stop each night as the title of each day's update. That way I don't have to keep trying to come up with unique, clever titles every day, and it can give y'all a quick view of my travels in the list of updates over to the right there.) I got here around 1:00 CDT and pulled down my laptop to blog away. But at that time I couldn't get a 'net connection, so that idea was hosed. I was quite tired then, due to a bad night's sleep. (I had taken a nap of a couple hours' duration after writing yesterday's update, then woke up for dinner. Afterwards, I just could not fall back asleep for quite a while, 'til after midnight. So I wound up with just around 4 hours of sleep for the night, not counting the nap.) So I hit the sack for another nap this afternoon.

I woke up around 5:20 p.m., feeling like I'd been asleep for much longer. Not that I was that much refreshed, but it just seemed like longer. But I was ready for some dinner and got outta' bed. There's a stand-alone Popeye's outlet down the road, so I hoofed on over there for a chicken dinner. It is warm and humid down here, but some cloud cover had rolled in, so I wasn't walking with the sun beating down on me at least. After dinner and my walk back, I continued to the strip mall next door to get some more walkin' exercise.

Back in my truck, I was happy to see that this time I could get connected to the 'net, so I could enlighten you with my brilliant prose. Now let me move on and answer reader questions from dennis the accompanist and jim.

Dennis asks, "I know trucking is partly regulated by the feds, and partly by the states. How much do things vary from state to state? Such as speed limits, weight limits on trucks, roads you're not allowed to drive on, etc."

Most states pretty much follow the same guidelines in terms of weight limits and lengths of trucks allowed, but there are variances. Speed limits also vary, but only OH and IL limit trucks to 55 MPH on the interstates statewide (except on the OH turnpike) while cars' speed limits are higher. So I hate having to drive through those 2 states. Pick up (or go browse through) a copy of Rand McNally's "Motor Carriers' Road Atlas". In the front sections are state-by-state regulations and restrictions, as well as lists of low-clearance locations, weigh stations, and restricted routes. That'll give you an idea of what we truckers need to consider when planning trips. There's far too much there for me to describe it all for you here.

Jim's query: "How do you do all of your navigation? A GPS? On-line mapping? Directions from the trucking firm?"

For each location to which we're routed, the company sends us written directions to the site. I suspect that the text is supplied by someone at the company in question, as there's no consistency in the form--or quality--of the directions. I consult my Road Atlas for the highway routing between points A and B, and go online to use MapQuest.com to get a pictorial (and satellite photo) view of the street layouts around the sites. (Unfortunately, I sometimes rely on the provided directions and neglect to verify them on MapQuest. Those are invariably the times when one small unexpected detail escapes those given directions and I wind up somewhere else. So I'm trying to remind myself to MapQuest every time--unless I'm going to a location to which I've been before, such as tomorrow's delivery.)

So now it's time (8:20 p.m.) to wrap up and try to sneak in another nap before I need to get rolling again. In order to get to my delivery on time (8:00 a.m.), I'll need to hit the road at around midnight. I'll have just enough hours available to get to the Marietta, OK site to make the delivery, then zip over to the nearby truck stop to sit out the rest of the day. I'll get 6-1/2 hours back for Friday, so that'll be another short day. Thanks for your interest today, and keep on truckin'.