I made it to a TA truckstop north of St. Louis. 632 miles driven today and damned tired. That alarm went off this morning at 3:25 am and I was not liking it. I dragged my butt out of bed, got in the shower, got dressed, said bye to my dogs and left. I was sooo tired, I tried to sleep at the driver's room at the plant, but it's just not a place for sleeping. I did finally doze off just before the dude came in and handed me the keys to my truck - lots of safety precautions here, including having to give them the keys to your truck before they will load it - and off I went.
I kept thinking, I am going to stop and sleep for 30 minutes. Another part of my brain: you do that and you'll have a lot of make up driving to do tomorrow morning. I fought sleep for 5 hours until my mandatory 30 minute break came up. I went straight to the sleeper, set the alarm at 28 minutes and fell asleep. That thing went off, I popped up, got my shoes back on, drove until I was out of hours. I mean, within 15 minutes of having to shut down.
I figured if I did that, I would be able to get a full 8 hours of sleep and still have time to get dinner, fuel up the truck and hang out for a while on the internet. And yes, I got my laptop out and that's what's putting up this post.
Tho, I didn't know this TA was here. I was going to go to Love's, another 20 miles up the road, but when I saw this place, I immediately exited. I wanted to eat a real dinner, not some junk from McDonald's or whatever. Love's has a good thing going - except - for what it chooses to put in for food. Many truck drivers want a real restaurant after 14 hours of work, not fast food junk.
Anyway, even at 632 miles driven today, I'm still 2-1/2 hours away from the plant and have to be there no later than 9am. So, another early day tomorrow, but not near as early as today. I really do not like this first loads. I tried to get it changed to a later load time, but no go on that one.
Lots of other stuff going on, but I think I'm going to go to sleep earlier than I first decided to.
