Two Days and an Essay (A Must Read, If I Say So Myself)

DATELINE: JOPLIN, MO, 8:45 p.m. CDT

Miles Today: 502
Miles Yesterday: 370

Sorry for not blogging last night, gang, but I had a bit of a dodgy connection where I stopped for the night. It kept disconnecting and, when it was connected, was very slow. So after a longish day, I decided not to fight it any longer (after a couple of SNG poker tourneys--I cashed in both of 'em) and went to bed. So here's my 2-day story.

Yesterday I was up and rolling by 6:00 to cover the 100 miles to my 9:00 delivery appointment. Traffic was light and the going was easy, so I arrived at about 7:45. I had to wait just a little bit for a dock assignment, then after docking I had a whopping great wait. All told I was there for over 2-1/2 hours. But my next assignment came in pretty quickly afterwards.

Next up was a drive over to Arcadia, WI, a little ways south of Eau Claire, roughly another 100-mile trip. That drive went quickly and smoothly, as did the pickup. This load is taking me to the Lone Star State, back to the city of Garland. (You remember, a northeast Dallas suburb.) Unfortunately, delivery is scheduled for Monday morning (at 4:00 no less), so I have ample time to wing my way down there. But rather than take my time, I'm working on getting down there tomorrow so I can fit in another 34-hour break before starting back up to make the delivery. I'm heading for a Love's truck stop in the town of Anna, TX, about 35 miles north of "Big D". It's on our fuel network so I'll be able to fill my truck's tanks and earn a shower credit, which I can use to get clean and presentable before heading to that delivery. But I'm ahead of myself again. Back to finishing up yesterday and recounting today's trip.

After making that pickup in Arcadia, I be-bopped my way west into MN in order to head south on I-35. I was retracing a route I hadn't taken since my first week as a solo driver on this job, back just before New Year's Eve of 2006. That was the last (and only) time I'd trucked along I-90, on that occasion eastward in the middle of a rainy night. This time it was during the daylight hours, so I could see what I'd missed that time. Nothing much exciting--it's mostly open farm space--but there is a large wind farm near the Rochester area. Lots of windmills, that is. Anyway, I stopped for the night at the Love's in Albert Lea, MN, which is also on our fuel network. It's right across the street from a TA that I've stayed at once or twice before the Love's was added to the network. (BTW, Albert Lea is right at the junction of I-35 and I-90.)

This morning I used my shower credit from fueling up when I arrived last night before setting out. My goal for today was to reach Joplin, MO, about a 500-mile jaunt. As you can tell from the "Dateline:" above, I made it. 'Twas gloomy and rainy most of the day, with a few rays of sunshine through some breaks in the cloud cover. But I made good time and completed the trip in only 8-1/2 hours of driving. I'm not taking I-35 all the way down, which you might expect if you looked on a highway map. After all, it does connect Minneapolis/St. Paul with Dallas. (In fact, it runs from Duluth to Laredo.) However, it does swing a little bit out of the way to the west to pick up Wichita and Oklahoma City. So instead, between Kansas City, MO and the Dallas area I'm taking mostly US highways to shorten the mileage for the trip. Tonight I'm parked at a Pilot here in Joplin. It's also on the fuel network, so I'll "diesel up" before starting out in the morning. (I have a couple of Pilot shower credits already, so I can use one of them tomorrow.) And that's the story of my last couple of work days. And now on to an interesting tidbit.

Ya' know, my most reliable source of income since starting this job (well, other than from driving) is just finding money on the ground. Just about any day if I do much walking around at truck stops, terminals, or wherever, I find at least one penny lying around. Today when I stopped at a Pilot in Des Moines for a restroom break, when I got out of my truck I found a dime just below my driver's door. And tonight on my way into the building here I found a penny in the parking lot. Last week in Ontario I found a Canadian dime at a highway service plaza. A couple weeks ago in Texas, when I stopped for a quick break at a Love's I found a quarter right below my driver's door again. On one happy occasion I found a $5 bill by my trailer when I was walking around it doing my pre-trip inspection. (I guess it literally pays to do those, eh?) Maybe I oughta' be keeping track of these sums so I can report them on my income tax returns. Right! Sure! And now for something completely different.

With the election just a week-and-a-half away, I hope you don't mind if I stray a bit into a political essay. I just feel that with all the negative advertising going on, I want to throw in something to think about.

One side has been throwing out a lot of rhetoric accusing the other of being "socialist". That's one of those buzzwords they like to use to scare their non-thinking followers into voting for them. (Disclaimer: I'm not accusing all Republican voters of being "non-thinking", nor do I claim the Democrats have no non-thinking followers. And don't anybody accuse me of claiming that. However, we all know that in this real world, some voters on each side do not spend a great deal of time researching or critically thinking about the positions they hold on various issues. So they just glom onto the "facts" they hear on talk radio or from the candidates themselves and take them as gospel. Please, people, take everything with a grain of salt and actually THINK for yourself before spouting the campaign rhetoric you're hearing.) I'm certainly no "socialist", and readily advocate capitalism as the way to go, as I'm sure Barack Obama and the Democratic Party do. However, what's so wrong with the country having some social programs to supply basic needs for the good of all? Let me recount a story for you. A while back, sometime in my teens I think it was, I heard a minister (I don't remember who, or where, or the circumstances of the service) tell this story in a sermon.

A man had died and God was showing him the afterlife options. Their first stop was Hell, where they found all the denizens sitting at a huge table in a great banquet hall. The table was filled with huge amounts of all sorts of gourmet foods, plenty for everyone. The man was amazed that those condemned to Hell could have such bounty before them. Then he noticed that everyone there was miserable, wailing in anger and starvation, because affixed to each one's hand was a long spoon--longer than his arms so he could not get the food into his mouth. Thus each would spend eternity in hunger, tormented by what he could not have.

Then God took the man up to Heaven, where he found a similar scene: a great banquet hall with a huge table filled with food. All the population of Heaven was seated there, with the same too-long spoons affixed to their hands. However, everyone at this table was happy, smiling, and laughing, totally joyous. That's because each person there was using his spoon to feed his neighbor.

Anybody besides me see a parallel to capitalism versus socialism? Again, let me reiterate that I DO NOT ADVOCATE THAT THIS COUNTRY BECOME A SOCIALIST STATE. Everyone should have the right to run a business on his own without government intervention, save for regulations that protect the public and consumers of his (or her--I'm just using the masculine in this essay for compositional ease) products. And I do not regard living under a Republican administration as "Hell". And yes, I know that this is all a very simplistic view of the whole issue. But in complex times, sometimes it helps to step back and strip away all the complexity to see things in their simplest forms. Do you remember hearing somewhere, "'Tis better to give than to receive"?

All in all, IMHO the best path for the USA is a blending of capitalism with some social government programs. This isn't the proper forum to go into details, or any more depth, but I hope I did stimulate some thought in my readership--both of you ;-) If you found my little essay food for thought, please pass along the link to anyone else you think may find it helpful as the election nears.

Thanks all for checking up on me today. I hope you didn't mind my foray into the political arena. Please post some comments (and/or questions), and keep on truckin'.