Sitting around the old truck stop. Glad to have friends who have stopped. Might as well have some fun. Talk and Laugh and tell tall tells.
Cooked out on the grill in temps that could kill. Pork chops today and chicken tomorrow. Veggies cooked in the microwave.
Glad to be hooked up to Idle-Aire. Stay warm, watch tv and play on the laptop.
Still I wonder when I will get a load, I really need to make some dough.
Being here is not productive. Even though I get paid for sitting. I'd rather be driving.
As you can tell it is really true. I'm rambling a way with nothing to do.

I hate this time of the year! Not because of winter, not because of the holiday traffic. Because of the FOOTBALL, College football has so many bowl games now that it is ridicules. I am at a truck shop in Barstow CA and they have a sign up that says: Monday, Thursday, Friday or any other day that has football on that's all that will be on TV. Staff can't change the channel. They don't have a movie room have only one TV room and the game room? HA! And like all Truck Stops there is no where to just sit and relax or read or talk. I Can't wait until MATS, 'cause if TA/Petro have their Platinum Lunch I going and giving my two cents about that.

I am not Democrat, Republican,or Independent, I am an American. I will vote for an American. I do not care about gender, color, or how many, if any affairs someone has had. I care about our MILITARY and the job market. I care about over spending. I care about Congress and the House getting RICHER as middle AMERICANS get POORER. I care that we are being sold to China and other over seas interest because our government can't pay our bills. So they keep raising the dept ceiling and borrowing what we don't have. I care that our government can't or won't cut spending because it doesn't know compromise, unless it betters there own state or takes away from the MILITARY or the Elderly. I care because I AM AN AMERICAN!

This time of the year loads are few and far between. I wanted to get home on Dec 21st, but got home 3 days early. Doing this doesn't make for a really good pay check. I got to spend lots of time with my Mom. This year we did a Dollar Christmas. The challenge was to spend $1.00 per gift with a $10.00 limit per person in the house. The fun part was seeing if there were any duplicate gifts given, and the funnier thing was that no one had duplicate gifts. We started out only being able to shop at Dollar Tree but soon found we were very limited on what we could buy, so we expanded to other stores, Dollar General, Family Dollar and Wal-Mart, Target and so on. Trying to find dollar gifts at a truck stop is impossible, so I did find a few of the dollar stores. But you could not spend over a dollar on any gift. It was a lot of fun opening presents this year. We plan to do the same thing next year, only there will be a two dollar limit and max spending of ten dollars. And we will draw names to do stockings. My Mom can't wait until next year. I plan on taking vacation during that time next year so that I don't lose out on so much pay.
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year and hope all your dreams come true.

Inconsiderate people: that's what I had to deal with last night. Three people playing in the parking lot at the Pilot,in Kannapolis, NC, very loudly at 2345. Woke me up out of a sound sleep. Why do people do that? Knowing that drivers are sleeping or trying to sleep. I did not confront them, I feel like I should have though. Is it wimpy to just want to get back to sleep and not confront a group of people?

Why is it that just as you are starting to drift off to sleep some bone headed inconsiderate super truck goes through the parking lot with his/her jake brake on and its an unmuffled one at that. And the parking lot is FLAT!!!

And whey is it you are just getting into that nice stage of sleep and some lot lizard decides that your truck is a good one to knock on and wakes you up and does not even apologize when she realizes that you are female and Just says "oops wrong truck" and walks off.

And why are there so many truckers tail gating not just cars but other trucks. How stupid do some of these drivers get. In cars or trucks that could be someone's loved one in there and if you don't care about that then at least care about your self and think what would your family do with out you. (I know dumb question)

And my final rant for the night. Why is everyone in such a big hurry. Is the load really that important. I know that more miles the more pay, but is the lack of safety really worth the lives we all take for granted, the lives of family, friends, or some strange we don't know but have to share the roads with. I sometimes wish that speed limits would stop going up, that they would stay around 60 to 65 mph. Not that the roads would be safer, because there is always someone who is going to let road rage take over the decision making. there will always be someone who needs to go faster, to prove that they are better, can make more miles, drive longer hours. And its all for just stuff that can be replaced and people who can't.

Driving down the highway when I am on vacation is kind of scary. You don't realize how close trucks run up on 4 wheelers and other trucks until you get a "birds eye view" or in this case "a cars view point". And this is at night and it is snowing! I wonder if these drivers even think, this could be my spouse, my child(ren), my parent(s), my sibling or grandparents? And one misstep, one little patch of ice, one car or truck slamming on the brakes could cause a major accident.

I Love what I do make no mistake
Rolling down the highway at 68
Going through the scales, DOT inspections,
It's all part of the job,
Running at night, watching the sun come up,
Running during the day, watching the sun go down,
It's all part of the job,
The traffic, the weather, the bad truck stops,
It's all part of the job,
The sitting and waiting for the next load,
It's all part of the job, the career, that I love.

I'm hittin' the highway,
Leaving my baby.
I'll be gone
I'll be gone.
Two weeks gone, then home for the weekend.
Trying to make up for all that I've missed,
Then back to work for two more weeks.
18 Wheels, I hit the road.
Run 11 hours with a heavy load,
Pull in for a night,
Grab a bite,
Git some sleep
Then run 11 more.
I'm hittin' the highway,
Missing my baby,
I'll be gone,
I'll be gone.
The cell phone helps to ease the pain,
Driving our country in the sun and rain.
I love what I do
there is no doubt
I'll be gone
I'll be gone

I have a wish, well I have a lot of wishes but this one is about truck stops. My wish would be that they had a quite room to read, a pool or work out room. A bus or van to take drivers into town to shop or sight see. I would not expect these things to be free but a reasonable fee would be nice. I would like to see more fruits and veggies and less fried foods (some are working on that one already). I would like to see boots for women, clothes without weird sayings( I like tequila but my clothes do not fall off), and under clothes and socks that fit women. I would wish for unabridged audio books. I would wish for Idle-Aire to come back.

I would wish for a lot of things like governors to live in a truck for a couple of weeks during the hottest part of summer and the coldest part of winter and see how they like to live with no air/heat and try to sleep.

I would wish for our men and women to come home. That the US could stay out of other countries affairs and focus on the problems here at home. I would wish that our government would quit giving away money that we don't have and use what little we do have for home improvements.

The life of a truck driver is long and hard.
I've been sitting and waiting for a load since 0600 this morning, now it is 0930 and I’m still waiting. I have not put myself on duty because I want this load, it pays good. But by the same token I don't want to sit around all day.

I sometimes wonder at the inconsistencies of the profession I have chosen. We are told from the get go that we are professional. But the government classifies us as unskilled labor. (I'd like to see one of our government officials get out here and drive.) If there is an accident you can bet that the truck driver is going to get the blame (a lot of the time but not always) because he/she is the professional. For some reason people see dollar signs when they see a big rig. Which is sad because though a driver can make a good living-- it doesn't mean that there is a lot of money to spare.

And its not the company these people hurt... its the driver. For even though a driver with the help of a attorney can beat a citation and not have any point on the DMV report, the company will put it on your DAC report. Thus the driver suffers... for that DAC report stays with the driver for as long as he/she has a CDL.

The people of the USA are (myself very much included) spoiled. We have what we need, when we need it. But worse we have what we WANT when we want it, whether we need it or not.


Imagine what would happen if every truck driver, everyone who had an A or B class CDL pulled over to the side of the road for 6 hours or 12 hours or if we all took our 10 hour break at the same time.

A lot of people in the trucking industry say we need to band together..so that some of the changes taking place can be stopped. But (personal opinion ) it will never happen because the American truck driver is basically a loner.
That's not a bad thing but not a good thing either.
So where does that leave the American trucker?? No one really knows.
Are we obsolete? Never.
Do we need to band together? Probably.
Will it ever happen? Nope.
Even if some of the drivers decided that they were not going to drive for 12 hours.
Someone, somewhere would take the load and it would be business as usual

The United States of America, home of the free and the brave. We are also home of the biased and unopened (is that a word?) minded. I really hope not. A lot of changes are going on in our industry. The hours of service, Mexican drivers to health regulations and Whether you can smoke in your own truck. Yet, we the truck drivers of America are going to adapt and over come the obstacles set before us. Not because we want to but because we have to.