I was here at 3:30 pm, plenty of time left in the day to unload the truck.
But they won't unload a day early. I knew that before I got up here and I knew I would arrive well early of the delivery date and time, but what are you supposed to do? I'll tell you one thing I could have done, and that is stop in Indianapolis and see a friend I haven't seen in decades. I opted against it because I would only have a few hours to visit and then I would have to leave - hours on the on-duty clock would wind down and I have to be here the day before.
I thought about going to a hotel, but I opted against it for two reasons. First, because I need to save money and spending it on hotels too frequently isn't conducive towards that end and second, because I don't want to have to get on the on-duty or drive clock tomorrow morning. I can just pull into the plant, unload the thing and get on the clock about an hour before it's unloaded and I'm ready to leave. Last time up here, I lost 6 or 7 hours due to the weather and them not being able to get to me the first thing in the morning. That shortened my drive day to 400 miles. I prefer to get 600 plus miles in tomorrow and then have a bit shorter drive the final day - which would be 400 miles or less.
Plus, the final day of this tour will be Friday, I will be home in time to visit with my friends and such before they go to bed since it will be the weekend.
Instead, when I got up here, I went to the Petro a dozen or so miles away, fueled up - it's cold up here, I'm running the truck 24 hours a day on this trip, making sure I have enough fuel to idle all night long plus during the unload - and get a bite to eat. This Petro has a nice little privately owned diner attached to it. It isn't the Iron Skillet restaurant, which has okay food, but just okay. The diner has 24 hour breakfast - so - a pork chop, sausage, bacon and 2 eggs. I forgot about the ham. They didn't have it on the "sides" menu but I bet they had it available if I had asked. Anyway, it was delicious and I have food with me in case I get hungry again - cause mama, there ain't nothing out here. There is this plant, a few farms and that's it.
In fact, I have a steak in the fridge and I might just gobble that down a bit later. Stick in the microwave, heat it up nicely and have a nice meal, replete with a bed of lettuce and dressing. It's not as bad as I thought it would be hanging out here in the truck. I have very good reception for ATT and I will be watching "data-free" tv here pretty quick. But the internet is my connection with people when I'm on the road.
Anyway, Taylor found a hotel right on the beach and made reservations. So I made mine as well - it doesn't take your money up front and it has free cancellation anytime up until July 11th. But then I did some reading about this place called Commodore On The Beach. Yes, it's on the beach but I wasn't impressed after reading the reviews. I'd rather spend an extra $60 per night and have a decent motel, but I understand they are on a budget. The reviews are not so great about the cooling and heating. Middle of summer, you want the cooling to work. Some said the rooms smell and other things about the place. I try to look at all the reviews of a place and try to come up with a "somewhere in the middle" type of thing. But there are plenty of pics of the place, it's right on the beach and that was the only redeeming feature about it for numerous reviews.
But there were reviews that said it was good enough. I dunno. I found a few other places. La Quinta is only $15 more per night and that is almost always at least a decent hotel brand. But there were places that were $229 per night and up - those were the places that appealed to me. Look, it's the middle of summer we're going, it's the most popular time of year there. Any other time and the prices are less than $100 per night. Whatever. I'll take my own pillows and sheets. I'll take Lysol and other things, but the idea of the cooling not working so well is a bit daunting. And "spotty wifi". I mean, I can deal with that with my phone I guess, but the place is going for $167 per night, that's pretty steep bill for bad AC and WiFi, doncha think?
But, Taylor says we're only sleeping there so no big deal. Yup, it's the sleep quality that makes or breaks a vacation. If you sleep like s***, you have sh**** days. Just plain facts. Oh well, I'll take my big box fan as well.
But on a good note, this has motivated her to start Keto again. She wants to shed pounds so she can look - whatever she said I can't remember - for being on the beach. Well, it's 5 months away. If she got on it and stuck with it, she could lose 40, 50 even more pounds. The reason it's good is because that helps me. She'll go all hog wild on finding recipes and then we'll all eat the stuff, including James. So there doesn't have to be 2 versions of the same dinner served every night. I've been winging it tho. Finding recipes that are keto friendly that are also delicious. Made some meatloaf that was absolutely awesome. And a version of crock pot swiss steak with a red sauce that I loved. I added some ingredients - the biggest being tomato paste for extra added tomato flavor. They loved the taste of it too, thankfully. I have the leftover with me, it's what I ate yesterday.
But, it's much easier to do this diet when everyone's eating it. I've stuck with it long after Taylor quit. She got me started on it - but she only lasted a week. The diet sucks at first, there is no getting around that. All diets suck at first tho. This diet has the best results I've ever seen. I get compliments all the time now for the amount of fat I've dumped. I still have fat, not saying I'm skinny at all, but I'm much leaner than when I started this thing. It's what's motivated me to stay on it almost 4 months now. We started October 15th and today is February 13th. I'm hoping she'll get going on this thing and stay on it. She just gets into moods and eats to compensate. Some people do that, I get it, makes it difficult to stick to a restrictive diet like this.
Anyway, I'm getting offa here and watch some tv.
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