Day 4 continued (sorry out of order)

DAY 4, January, 18TH 2009

We got a late start on the road today after last night festivities, this morning excellent breakfast, and removing our vehicles from there overnight parking. All the rigs had to come out of a small automated gate (of course the gate kept closing so we had to assign one person to continually hit the button), make a sharp turn onto a small, busy street with tons of parked vehicles all around, all while in reverse.

We had a long, but productive day of driving. It has been really nice having the medic unit empty for us to take naps, sleep at night and have our own little area. Eduardo slept in the back for most of the day since he was up all night with his amigos. We switched off throughout the day except for Chris who is a driving animal. I think it brings him back to a happy place when he was a long haul driver. The rest of us like to switch as often as possible, and wouldn’t make good, “Trucker”.

It has been very interesting, “kind of hanging with the truckers”... It’s a world that you don’t get to see and I am glad to be a part of it, if only for a couple of days. Chris has showed us a lot of different and cool thing that truck stops have to offer its clientel. Did you know that with a 50 gallon fill up you get a free shower? It was quite nice too. They gave you two clean towels, your own little cleaned room with a new bar of soap, sink and toilet. When you’re on the road it’s the small things that seem grand. They also have relatively nice restaurants with good sit down food. Maybe all this driving is making me loco? They have quite the system, but still haven’t figured out how to offer, “FREE” wireless internet. It has been nothing but trouble trying to get a connection while on the road. Most truck stops offer it but also charge. Our best luck has been outside the motels. I’m sure that if you went into the cities it wouldn’t be a problem, but with these vehicles it’s hard to do. It’s inconvenient for us semi-wired people who could find a free internet anywhere at home.

After our meals and showers we got on the road again and drove until we got tired. We stopped about 40 miles west of the Arizona border, slept in the vehicles, once again froze during the night.

Jeff Palensky