Make sure you can park overnight.....

....before you park overnight.

So last night we stopped at a small, and I mean small, truck stop. It was really more like a place to fuel and then you had room for 5-6 trucks. We were somewhere around Winston-Salem and I think we were on 421. Anyway, we stop around 2200 or so because we were going to be going up some mountains, it was dark, we hadn't driven that way before and I can't sleep worth a damn going up and down mountains. We have PLENTY of time on this load, so we decided to stop for the night and I would get up and leave this morning. I am better driving over mountains than I am sleeping through them. J just crashes in the bunk and doesn't even notice the mountains. The turns and braking and the engine noise, or lack thereof if you are flying down a hill, just mess with me and I get no sleep. Anyway, we get to this little place, go in and go to the restroom and grab a burrito and a bag of chips, come back to the truck and chow. Then we pop in a movie and I am asleep about 10 minutes into the movie. J says up until 0300 and watches another one after that movie finishes. Yesterday I was up driving at around 0500 so when we stopped last night, I was done in. Well, at 0415 (0515 local time) someone is banging on our door. I am thinking WTF? So I go open the window and there is a lady there saying that it is 0500 and we have to leave. She is telling ALL the trucks this as she makes her way down and bangs on everyones door. I am not happy to say the least. Lets just say that I am not a morning person to begin with, even though I drive in the mornings. I am ok as long as I don't have to converse with anyone for about an hour. :) So the banging wakes J up so we head inside to go to the restroom and as we head back I see a note on the door. Plain as day it says you can only park until 0500 and at that time you will have to leave. How the hell did we both miss this big sign the night before? Or should I say a few hours earlier?? I wasn't as pissed after I saw that sign and realized it was our fault, well, was still pissed, but more at us for not noticing that sign than at the lady for waking us up. J heads back to bed, I get my log done and I head out. Iam headed north on I-77 from Winston-Salem up through the Virginia's. This is one windy-ass (as in lots of turns) road. A lot of the road is marked 55 for trucks and some of the turns are even marked at slower speeds. Each time I travel the same stretch of road, it gets easier because I know what to expect and I will get a little braver. I drove part of this road before but just from I-81 sb on I-77 so I had a lot more of I-77 today. Went up Fancy Gap which isn't bad, considering I drove down it the first time I was on that road about 5 months ago when we were on our first outing by ourselves. Anyway, I was going pretty dang slow. I thought I was probably holding a lot of other trucks up, but only a few passed me and a lot stayed behind me so I guess I was going about the speed everyone else was. I will be a little faster next time I'm sure, but I am still not crazy about driving in the mountains in a semi. I would rather have my Suburban for mountain driving. It doesn't lean like the big truck does! But give me Arizona or Texas where it is flat for hundreds of miles, and I will open this big orange truck up to a whopping 67 mph!!

We are almost to Indy and our drop is up in Neenah,WI. We have to stop and fuel up here but we only have 394 miles to destination so we should be there around midnight. Now, where will they send us next??