Effingham,IL

After a 14 hour day, I called it quits and pulled into the rest area. Granted during that time we spend about 4 hours in Springfield doing laundry, grabbing a bite to eat and visiting with TruckingTiger. It was awesome to meet up with him. I started driving today in Vinita,OK and pulled into Springfield around 1630 and then sat at the gate for almost 30 minutes before I could get in. While we were sitting there J went ahead and grabbed the laundry and headed in to get it started. Once I finally got into the facility I was pulling the trailer back to where you park the trailers, out in BFE, and actually ran into TruckingTiger (TT from now on because that is a lot to type) as I was pulling back there. So he swung around and met me when I parked the trailer and gave me a ride back to the building. I ran in and J and I grabbed a shower while he went to get his laundry and then we had dinner. After that we went back to finish our laundry and then he gave us a ride back to the truck so we didn't have to haul all that crap a freaking 1/2 mile! As we were loading the laundry into our truck we realized we were missing a sleeping bag. J went back and the thing was gone. Missing. Someone freaking stole it out of the laundry room. Not that it was expensive, probably $20 at Walmart, but it is the principal. Basically a fellow driver, or employee, of our company swiped our sleeping bag. That just sucks ass. Anyway, we gave him the five cent tour of how our truck is set up inside since MrsT will be joining him out on the road here shortly. Hopefully he got some good ideas from us on how we have things set up. By no means is it perfect, but it is working for us. And of course we are always finding ways to fine tune it or changing something that just isn't working out as well as we thought it would. Hopefully we will run into him out on the road again sometime soon when he has MrsT with him and we will get to meet her. He is a super nice guy and it seems like we come from the same background. We have a lot in common. We're looking forward to seeing him again when we get the chance. Also met ReeferDriver and Tiny for just a few while we were there. It was a great day to be there to get to meet a couple different people from Primedrivers.net which we frequent.

Tonight was a wierd night for me to drive. I just couldn't get comfortable going over 55. And this was in Missouri where that is actually below the truck speed limit. I think I know why though. A few days ago when we were heading west through New Mexico, a Swift truck about ran me off the road. He went to pass and got the truck past me and then decided to come on over. And he still had the whole 53 foot trailer that needed to clear me. I don't know if he was talking on the phone and not paying attention or suffering from Head Up Ass Syndrome or what but it scared the shit out of me. Thank God I was paying attention. Pushed me onto the shoulder and of course I couldn't honk or anything until he was past me and I was back up on the highway because my hands were a little busy. As soon as I got it back on the road and wasn't fishtailing anymore, I got on the CB and said some things to him that would make a sailor blush. He either didn't have his CB on or was ignoring me. But that really freaked me out and I think that is why I couldn't get up to speed so to speak last night. It was actually that way the night before also but I was coming across AZ and NM and it is flat on that stretch and there wan't much traffic out. Last night there was a lot of traffic and it was hilly with lots of curves coming through MO and it was dark so I think that is what bothered me. I would grip the steering wheel for dear life when someone passed me. But I will get over it and get my confidence back up. Day driving doesn't bother me a bit, even after that incident, just the night driving when I can't see good and can't see who is passing me because of their lights.

J took over a little whiole ago, around 0500, and we only have about 700 miles to go to destination. I am wondering if we are going to get a load out of PA once we drop this because it is a holiday weekend and most places are shut down for the long weekend. We may end up spending 24-36 hours just sitting. I hope not, but I have heard that on a good day if you don't have a load pre-planned before you drop on the east coast on a weekend that you will probably be stuck there until Monday because freight just doesn't leave on the weekend. I guess we are about to find out.

The sun is coming up and I am going down. Worn out you could say. I'm off to bed.