Sunday, April 8, 2007

California Dreamin' & Making Plans

Most truck drivers, whether driving solo or team, live for long runs -- especially long runs out west.   For the second time in two weeks, we are headed west.  The first time, we left from Texas and drove out on I-40 through New Mexico and Arizona to Southern California.   That was a nice run, but we were on a pretty tight schedule and had to keep moving at a pretty constant pace.

This time, we have plenty of time, and the route we are taking is probably my favorite drive out west.  We left this morning (Easter Sunday) from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and are taking I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska, taking I-76 down to Denver, and then finishing up the run on I-70 through the beautiful Rockies in Colorado and Utah.  In Utah, we'll hit I-15 and go south through Utah, Nevada, and California.

For me, I-70 west of Denver all the way through western Colorado and Utah is probably my favorite stretch of road in the world driving a truck.  Except in winter, of course.  My first time driving through there a couple of years ago, I think I stopped at every single rest area just to take in the view, take pictures and video, and enjoy just being there.  

As I type this, Terry is driving, and we are on I-80 west of Des Moines (where we changed shifts) and will probably shut down for a little while somewhere in Nebraska before we head into Colorado.  It is cold (about 35 degrees), but the sun is shining and the countryside here is beautiful.  

Pardon me while I pinch myself again to make sure I'm really doing this and getting paid for it.

Yep, I'm awake alright.

I suppose I can write a little bit about downtime.  Terry and I are planning to stay on the road for long periods of time without a formal break, so it will be important for us to carve out little bits of time when we can to take a break from driving, just relax, and decompress a little bit.  We were able to do that last night for the first time, and it was wonderful.

We dropped a trailer in Wisconsin Saturday morning, and then had to go up to Green Bay to pick up a loaded trailer going to California (the load we are under right now).  We got to Green Bay yesterday afternoon, and because of the fact that we have plenty of time to get the load to SoCal (Southern California), we decided to just shut down until early this morning.  

One of the nice things about driving a truck and being in our situation (not having to worry about getting home to spouses or kids) is that we can choose when and where to spend our time away from the truck.  We both love the music of  Norah Jones and have talked about going to see her in concert if we get a chance.  Well, she's going to be at Red Rocks in Colorado in June, so we are going to make plans to take a couple of days around that time and go to see her and enjoy being in that area of Colorado.  I'll keep you posted.  How cool is it to be able to even think of doing that?  Wow!

I suppose I've rambled on enough for now, and my laptop has endured enough shaking from this rough road, so I will end things for now.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm not driving, I'm just working, not too much.
I've been hearing Nora Jones, I like it.


I love the music of Tunng.
I love David Lodge, a writer, I've finished Therapy.

Bon voyage Allan & Terry