Some Excitement

DATELINE: OAK GROVE, MO, 2:00 a.m. CST

Wow, it's been a long day. But the trucking part was not why it was so long. (Well, it is why it started so early.) So let me get that out of the way quickly and move on to the good stuff.

I got up by 4:30 this (well, yesterday now) morning so I could roll at 4:45, when my break hit the 10-hour mark. Yada, yada, drove across the state, drop-and-hook delivery, drove to a nearby Flying J to wait for my next gig, got it after a little more than an hour. Next up: a pickup Monday morning back over just north of St. Louis.

Well now, that gives me lots of free time this weekend. (With this economy and at this time of year, freight has really slowed down, hence my long waits for assignments and free days on the weekends.) So first up I headed over to the Petro truck stop in this town. It's at a well-commercialized exit, so there are plenty of choices for dining. So I spent most of my free time this afternoon in the theater watching the movies they were showing. I caught the tail end of "Flight Plan" with Jodie Foster, then "The Bucket List" (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman), and "21" with Kevin Spacey. I highly recommend "The Bucket List" if you haven't seen it yet; a good flick and terrific performances by a couple of our best actors.

"21" ended just a bit before 7:00 (CST) toni--er, last night--and that gave me just enough time to get back to my truck, fire up my laptop, and enter a tournament on PokerStars. This tourney, which they hold nightly at 8:00 EST, is becoming one of my favorites (when I don't have to get up real early the next morning). It's a regular No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em event with a 50-cent entry fee. Well, allow me to spare you all the details and tell you that I finally had my first big breakthrough in one of these multi-table tournaments.

Tonight the event had 2804 entrants and paid prizes to the top 549 finishers. I managed to play a mostly conservative game (I've decided the poker gods will not allow me to play aggressive poker--successfully, at least) and finally avoided getting unlucky, as is usually my downfall. I even got lucky and caught a couple of game-saving river cards (the last one turned over in a hand) to stay alive or win pots when I wasn't all-in. Anywho, long (and I mean L-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-N-G, just over 7 hours before I crashed and burned) story short, I raked in a 4th place finish! That turned my 50-cent entry into a $56.09 bump to my poker bankroll! Yaaaa-hooooo! That more than tripled the balance. I'd been treading water with that lately, unable to create a new high-water mark for a while. But this gives me encouragement.

Anyway, that's my day in a nutshell. I've been up for over 22 hours now, so I'd best be getting on to sleep. Well, as soon as the "Poker Success High" cools off a bit. At least I don't have to keep to any set schedule tomorr--er, today--since all I gotta do is cross back to the east side of the state to a truck stop closer to Monday's pickup site. That'll probably be back to Wentzville, from whence I started today's doings. (Oh, and the load I'll be picking up will be bound for 2 stops on Tuesday, in Seymour, IN and Coldwater, MI, after which I go home for the holidays!!!!! My regular 3 days of hometime--since I'll have been out here for 3 weeks--plus my week of paid vacation for the year. I can't wait!!!!)

Thanks for checking in today. Let me hear from you now and then, and keep on truckin'.