Day 1.

Get up later than I wanted to - just didn't want to get up that early on a Sunday, especially when the thought of walking out the front door and work awaiting me in the form of a semi-tractor sitting in the street was right there.

Said my goodbyes to everyone including the grandma/pa that were there visiting for a few days.  They didn't leave long after me.  It took quite a while to get my brain into drive mode.  But I eventually did and made it clear to the yard in Atlanta.  

The trailer I was supposed to pick up was blocked by a tractor and there was a bunch of stuff on the fenders.  I asked a driver that happened to be in there what time they start up in the morning?  7 am.

I got out of there, went to the local Quik Trip truckstop and parked for the night.  Decided I wouldn't get back to the yard until well after 7 am.  It would be Monday morning, people would be lagging trying to get into work mode.

This morning, I couldn't believe this Quik Trip. I have never seen anything like it.  The parking lot had probably 70 cars parked in it and yes, there were a lot of people in that store.  So many and apparently expected that 2 sheriff deputies were standing around. There were 3 lines to the cashier, each line had at least 10 people in it.  I was just amazed at the sight of all of it.

Back to the yard, I was correct. They didn't even know I was coming.  Of course not, it happens every single time I get sent out on one of these types of trips.  But, they were accommodating and get me out of there pretty quick.  

OH, what threw me off yesterday? I ended the day with 666.6 miles for the day.  The terminal number? 66.  Weird, really strange stuff in my mind.  I proved my manager wrong - tho I wasn't trying to - that you can drive all the way to Atlanta in one day. I actually already knew that when he said it to me but I thought it better to keep my mouth shut about it.  Probably some other drivers had driven there and stopped somewhere before they got into town.  

Anyway, I got out onto the road and got 663.1 miles done with 45 minutes left on the clock. I could have gone further, but where would I park?  There wasn't much available after where I stopped and I thought, this is a lot of miles by our company's standards for one day, I can rest easy stopping here.  Here, is a truck stop in Ozark, Arkansas. 

I have 467 miles left to Amarillo and then it's 500 miles back to the yard.  So Wednesday afternoon I should be done with this trip if nothing happens.  I'm pulling a Carbon Dioxide trailer - apparently pressure isn't an issue with this product in these trailers. It's all sitting at zero on the gauges.  Trailer was covered with dried out pine needles from the trees above it - obviously had been sitting a while.  

I'm glad I took this trip.  Other drivers are sitting at least 3 days waiting on a load.  I dunno why my manager gives me these runs and not other drivers, but I'm not going to complain.  Especially when we're this slow.  I don't want to sit 3 days when I get back, I hope the plant gets fully operational pretty soon so we can get back to normal. I've lost a lot of income to 7 days worth of sickness and then 10 days worth of being off due to Snovid21.  

I started to look at properties listed in my town area today - and then thought, no.  I"m not going to find anything different and it's a waste of time and mental energy going through all of those listings and seeing the same properties over and over.  Exasperating.  I'll wait til' I get home and take a fresh look to see if anything has been added.  Nothing available in my price range is anything I want or need.  The only properties that are appealing are far over-priced.  They aren't worth anything remotely near what hte sellers are asking for and I"m not going to waste the realtors time trying to get her to lowball them.  Those people obviously made their money off of those properties with the gas drilling rights, funny they would try to jack up the price per acre after they had already made their fortunes.

Some of them don't have gas rigs on them, why they think it's worth so much is unknown.

I'm actually thinking I should just put this RV park stuff out of my mind for a while and let the realtor just send me whatever she might find when it comes up on the listings.  I'm getting burnt out looking for properties.  The only change I could make is to widen the search, but that means a longer drive to get to the property.  Just not sure that's a great idea, but I might try a widened search parameter just to see what might be available out there.  I might be missing some gem that even if it's 20 miles away, would be worth it to get it.

Not much else going on, at least not worth mentioning here that I haven't already gone over so many times before anyway.  

With that, I think Ill brush my teeth and go to bed early.  It's only 8:40 pm but driving all day long and dealing with traffic takes it's toll.

G'nite.