Long day.  Got up at 6:00 am, took off.  435 miles later, was at the plant in Charleston. This was a drop and hook affair.  Drop the trailer I brought up, hook up to empty trailer, pull it out, drop it out of the way, rehook to trailer I brought up and back it into the hole, unhook, then rehook to the empty.  Sounds like a lot but it didn't take 15 minutes to get that done.  But, I was there an hour anyway.  Got out of there, drove another 165 miles and decided to call it a day.  11 plus hours, almost 600 miles.

I wasn't feeling to good today, otherwise I still had an hour and 20 minutes I could have driven.  No regrets tho, I can't make it home tomorrow anyway, even if I had driven the extra miles.  I'll drive ten or 11 hours tomorrow - however long it takes to rack up 600 miles and that will leave me with about 3-1/2 hours of driving on Friday.  That will leave me open to going out on Saturday or Sunday if she has anything for  me.  I had my time off, I need to earn some money.

______________________

Well, it's now Thursday.  I drove 652 miles today.  Just straight through. I would have made near 700 if I hadn't encountered unbelievable construction backup that was so bad, Maps told me to get off the Interstate and take this winding, alternate route.  I should have listened to Maps. I ignored it and paid for it.  The Interstate completely shut down to a standstill, my only saving grace was Maps gave me an alternate way out - much longer than the first route it gave me, but WAY faster than what I was going to go through there. I had an agenda- get at least 600 miles today and sitting in an hour and a half of traffic jam wasn't going to cut it.

What town was I in that all happened .... Little Rock I think. No it wasn't Little Rock it was before that.  I was so wrapped up in that ordeal I don't even remember what town I was in.  Anyway, Maps ended up having me on a small 2 lane highway that runs alongside I-40. We were going 60 mph - on the Interstate they were at various stages of stopped to maybe 30mph. I usually listen to her telling me about alternate routes for closures or backups, not sure why I ignored her today. This went on for miles and miles and miles.  I watched  the stop an go traffic over there and just thought, I'd be going crazy sitting in that nonsense for that long.  Surely the state could figure out something better than almost shutting down the highway like that for that long of a distance.

Well, anyway, I always plan out where I'm going to stop.  I have X amount of hours and minutes, that will get me to wherever.  I usually cut it pretty close, I want to maximize my hours out there and get this over with.  Well, before I entered that town with the traffic jam, I was going clear to a Love's truckstop much further down the road.  I was going to fuel up for tomorrow, get my free shower, spend some quality time in there as it stands, and just hang out in the truck.  But when I realized I wasn't going to make it there, I got out another app that shows ALL the truckstop, both s***holes and mega truckstops alike. I settled on one that is, actually, another 10 or so miles down the road.

Then I thought, why?  I've been on the road 3 full days, why not just get a cheap hotel and get out of that truck?  I was looking at hotels in a town called Arkadelphia, it's in Arkansas. I saw several hotels that were cheap, I chose the Super 8. It had the best ratings on the cheap brands and when I say cheap, this place was going for $37 per night.  I booked it, hoped to high heaven it wasn't a Roach Coach Inn.  Got here, found parking impossible.

In fact, I pulled into the parking lot, realized I couldn't turn around.  I went around back, it was a dead end, sort of.  I saw tire tracks, evident another truck had been through there before. So, I drove through the field beyond the motel, came up to a ditch.  Not a bad one, but geeze.  I saw where the other truck had plowed through it and I thought, naw.  I saw a much lessor deep portion of it, the truck went over that easily, into an open lot.  I parked there, walked back over to the hotel.  Well, I no guarantee nuttin' if you no park on hotel property. I was thinking right off: This is a bad place to stay, the room is going to be hell. But I already paid for it, no choice.  Non refundable deal on Expedia.

The property next door is unoccupied. It was a restaurant, it's just empty now with a huge parking lot.  I decided to pull in there - no signs saying no parking, no trucks, etcetera.  Cool. Held my breath coming into this room. Boy was I surprised!  Nice, fresh smelling carpet. Furniture in perfect condition.  Lovely king sized bed, very comfortable. Quite window ac.  44 inch flat screen tv - haven't checked out channels, really only interested in watching the news anyway.  Refrigerator, microwave, hair dryer, coffee.  I walked into the bathroom. No mold, mildew, perfect condition! For $37!!  It doesn't always work out this way, lol.

This is how I used to think about Motel 6, which basically turned into - well I'll keep those thoughts to myself.  So, I'm just relaxing : )  You get what you pay for - usually. In this case, I lucked out and got much better than what I paid for.  Just didn't feel like sleeping in the truck, but also didn't feel like shelling out big bucks for a guaranteed nice place.

I have less than a 3 hour drive back to the yard in the morning.  I'll have some home time.  Unless she throws a loophole as I drive in there an she has a load that has to go out tomorrow morning.  I'm not going to just hang out at this hotel to avoid that.  I would rather get in there, if there is another run, take it and run with it. If  not, I get a partial day home and probably out Saturday, if not then definitely Sunday.

I sometimes get lost on my blog, don't remember what I have discussed or not discussed because life gets very busy.  So if this repeats, oh well. But I bought all this stuff to fix up that bathroom which I used to be in when I was in the other bedroom. It's a private bathroom, no other entrance than from the bedroom. It also has the ugliest vanity and one of the most disgusting sinks I have ever seen.

_____________

 A few more hours passed.  A very long discussion with my friends in Georgia. They're really great people, very good friends.  But they have a family and they have a household.  They are coming back. I didn't ask her that tho, Taylor that is.  She said, "are you ready for kids".  I thought about that for a while.  Just giving myself an honest evaluation of having toddlers around and the demands they inherently are and the environment it is with them around.  Yeah, I'm good with it. I like the connection with both my friends - late 20's and early 30's and having kids around. I dealt with the screaming when they were there, I can deal with it again. I think the good far outweighs the bad. 

We went off of that and to my idea of having at least 50 acres of land.  100 better.  Pricey? Not that bad out of the city limits. At least some of what I have seen.  A mix of open land and woods would be great. Room for cows, riding ATV's and hunting.  Perhaps fishing if there happens to be a pond or small lake.  She loves the idea. Money the issue. Yes, in my case, credit score.  Get enough down payment and perhaps a different story. But, at the same time, getting around and talking with people can help as well. 

Anyway, that's it for tonight.  I'm going to bed soon. Want to get up early, get the drive over with, get home and spend time with friends and dogs : )