headed to utah with BEER! :P

LOL! Yup, that's right folks, 20 tons (or 40,000 lbs worth) of bud light is what I'm currently hauling. Hauling it from St Louis, MO, to Utah. Right now I'm at a truck parking area here in Wyoming. I was planning on going maybe another 60 miles, but I'm at a pretty good stopping point, and it was at sunset so literally i was driving west, looking right into the sun, which even with me wearing sun glasses, I was blinded. I couldn't see a damn thing! Signs were blurred until right as I was passing them, and I was holding a small book I have that shows where truck stops and rest areas are in the different states on the different highways in front of my face to try to block out the sun a bit. Basically last night I started with 1300 miles to go, and it was roughly about 4pm when I left the Annheiser Bush location with my load. I drove about 8 hours and started looking for a good place to stop. I tried stopping at a rest area but it was too small and so it was too packed and I don't like the idea of using my long truck and taking up regular car parking spaces, so I kept going and found this large gas station that serviced cars and rv's and in my book it said it was also a truck stop. As I got off the highway and pulled in, i noticed they had a huuuuuuuuge open lot connected to their lot and it said "truck parking only!" on it, and there was already another semi parked there with their windows covered, so I swung around and parked beside them and before an hour went by, there were two other trucks that swung around and parked beside me. None of them stayed long, I think I was the main one that stayed through the night *mainly because it was midnight when I parked and I have to take 10 hours off in order for my driving time to reset back to 11 hours. (deals with the department of transportation and their rules). So, I set my alarm for the 10 hour mark, which because I had gone to central time, I set my alarm for 9:15, and then literally I got up earlier than that, and hit the rest rooms, grabbed my package of pop tarts and hit the road as soon as my time was back to 11. came up from missouri, into iowa literally for about 20 minutes, and then across the state line into Nebraska. I was like "damn that was a quick trip through Iowa!" So I came up a little bit into nebraska, connected with Interstate 80 west, and was on that for the past 6 hours or so. I had scheduled a sleep stop about 4 hours back at a flying j, but with how late i left yesterday, I basically ended up going about an hour or so past where i had planned to stop yesterday, and so today I needed to get a little bit farther than my scheduled sleep stop. It would have left me with over 600 miles still left to go, and although it could have been done because this load isnt due in till tuesday morning, my plan when I left with it saturday was to get to the drop by late monday morning, and right now Im on track for that. here's hoping they will take me when I get there. Otherwise guess what! I get to sit around and wait till they will take me. I could have been there already, but when I tried to leave to pick up my tennessee load early, and get it to illinois by friday night, they said "oh, your appointment isn't until from 10:30 am saturday to 10:30 am sunday, so the soonest we can take you is tomorrow morning." So I left, went to the closest rest stop and found a space, used the bathroom, did my homework really quick, and went to bed. I was so tired that night because I had really had quite a long day. Not to mention, with different stresses in life right now, especially financial although erin and I are working on it and things are improving and will continue to get better, but that day was a low day for me. I just felt like complete and utter crap,and I couldn't pin point the specific reason for it. But once I got to tennessee, got my load and headed back up, I felt a little better. Maybe part of my stress is the "getting lost" part of the job, and ending up in parts of towns where i really shouldn't be because of how long of a truck i am. I have had quite a few close calls, but thankfully after that minor accident I had before going home for home time, I have managed to avoid having anything else happen, so for those of you reading *however many there are. ;)* please keep me in your prayers. The Lord has indeed watched out for me since I have been back out on the road, and as long as I take my time, plan my trip, and just don't be in too big of a hurry, I have been doing fine. I honestly right now, with being parked in a huge empty lot that has spaces for trucks and nothing else, I honestly don't mind lots like this. As long as I have stopped recently to take care of business, which I did when I stopped at flying j, I hit the showers and restroom, and used the money I had left on me to get two large slices of pizza for $5, and another gallon of water, and some tea and 2 packages of poptarts to hopefully get me through till a paycheck hits on thursday. But back to me not being able to see because of the sun! I kept driving down the road thinking "i will keep a look out and not push too far" I had 2 hours left of time, so I wasn't dangerously close, and then through the haze and sun I spotted a sign that said "truck parking 3/4 mile" So I got off on that exit, and literally at the bottom of this exit, it's right by a bridge, and I look around and I'm like "ok where is it?" And I notice there's this huge lot. Probably about the size of 3/4 of a football field, and there were about 3 trucks already parked there. It had lines for spaces already on the pavement and everything, but no facilities obviously, so I circled around and parked. Did a quick walk around my truck, utilized a bush near by if you know what I mean, and covered my windows up to darken the inside of my truck and got ready for bed and here i am! Had to do my class stuff first, and read erin's blog. If there are any new readers out there, definitely check out Erin's blog! ;) So other than that, i have my alarm set for around 5:30 am, which is when I should be good to drive again. I learned the hard way a few times already where I tried to go my full 11 hours and when I got to about 40 minutes left, I then started looking for a place to stop. A few times when I did this, i got hit with heavy traffic, or there were no places to stop, and I got a log violation. So now I use that book, and I try to plan my stops and usually it works out. If it doesnt, then I use that book to see what places are coming up and i pick the one that looks like it might be the largest and most accessible. I avoid backing whenever possible. Always pull through if you can! What can I say! I figure, I want to be out here doing my job and not having any incidents. If I have an incident, get lost, whatever, the stress level literally blows the top off my roof and it sucks. Then I kick myself for the entire day. So, better I do what I can to avoid it and not stress myself out. Why do I stress myself out so easily in the first place? I honestly have no idea. Im just a worry wort! Erin knows how I am. ;) So on that note, talk to you all next time!