"So, where did you load out of?"
That's a come-on line, in case you didn't guess. I was in a truck stop restaurant somewhere off I-70 in Indiana, and I had just crossed undeniably into The Trucker Zone. On the TV some fellow who looked like Santa Claus was singing something about the highway, next to an interstate in front of one of the ubiquitous TA (Truckstops of America) aerial signs. As I pulled out of the place, I hit the scanner on the radio, and the clearest channel featured the Bozo Trucker's call-in talk show, thoroughly peppered with ads about JB Hunt's liberal fuel surcharge and per mile compensation, as well as industry news updates and nationwide intersate highway weather forecasting. I began to wonder if this might be something I'd be interested in.
Well? I have the stamina. I have the intel gathering and planning capabilities. I have the eye-hand coordination. I have the intelligence (and don't be fooled, it does take some). What I don't have is the willingness to take responsibility for a gigantic weighty moving object that can go to hell at any moment and take who knows how many motorists with it.
So, anyway, I was in the Zone the rest of the way to the outskirts of St. Louis. Every rest area and a good many of the on-ramps were cluttered with the rigs of sleeping drivers. The night fog was horrible, but manageable.
On the way back, I took a look at my grimy kids and said, "Guess what? We're gonna go to a truck stop and take a shower." Oh were they excited! Moomie helped me spy that aforementioned TA sign, and then we went in and had an adventure. It was a first for me too.
It works like this. You go to the checkout counter (it's a store/restaurant/video arcade/all kindsa things) and pay for a shower. They give you a key, and you go find the matching shower. You make sure they give you towels or there's some in the room. You enter a bathroom, pretty much, except it's roomy. The shower is a good three times at least as big as any home shower, and features a detachable sprayer.
We had a wild time blasting each other with water, and we all got clean and felt much, much better.
Then we were back on the road again.
I sure am tired. I left here about 3pm on Tuesday, met them near St. Louis Wednesday at 10 am (two hours ahead of schedule), and got them as far as eastern Ohio by that evening, where we got a lousy motel room and stayed the night. Thursday morning we were on the road again, but I needed another nap, so we didn't hit a certain town in western PA until about 6pm. After a bit of shopping at the Wal-Mart, we phoned my oldest friend (though not my eldest, by far, as mentioned before). More on that later. We wound up staying there until Saturday morning, and were home before evening.
Yesterday was about unloading the van and rearranging the apartment, for the most part, and getting essentials. Today was about registering them for school and trying to find morning care for my K kid. I haven't really slowed down yet, and there is so much to tell, but it's after 11pm now, and I am so beat.
Sneak peeks:
Fun with the Rats
The National Road/Zane Gray Museum
What an odd (but nice) motel
A vagrant *and* a liar
Sleeping (or not) with two children
And I might "let" them do their own laundry, too
Halloween parade
Oh god what is it with schools and technology? Or common sense?
When your first day of school is Halloween
Hey, Happy Halloween.
