A small town and hey, isn't that Mexico?

For the past week I have been hanging out in Texas and getting a feel for the culture here. Everyone that I talk to back home keeps saying to go to the Alamo or other famous tourist spots, and while I agree that they are places I would like to go, I also enjoy the random findings that happen along the way. This wooden guy here is a perfect example of that. He is found in a little one horse town called Luckenbach. I really don't know much of the history of the town, however up until a few years back, their Post Office was still officially running and had an attached bar/saloon that was also still in operation. As such, there was a line that could not be crossed from one side of the building to the other if you had an alcoholic drink in hand due to the fact that the Post Office was an official active Federal Building. As such, no drinking open containers of beer or alcohol was allowed inside. Now that the Post Office was decommissioned, it is now a gift shop with the most peculiar odds and ends.My favorite was the wine glasses.

To say that I want a full set of these would be a massive understatement. Someone turned around and took every size glass canning jar and put a glass stem on the bottom of it, turning the "jars" into wine glasses. Most people would say that this is a cheesy thing to do. *I* think it is brilliant in design and in subtle practical application and use. First off, I may be guilty of drinking from Mason jars if they are available to stroke that Red Neck feeling of living in the South from time to time, that being said, these glasses have one major thing going for them that other glasses do not. A secured and waterproof cover. If someone were to have these glasses and you screwed the top on them between sips, first off the drink will always be under your control and there would be no additives dropped in without your knowledge. Secondly, it is now completely spill proof. Unless the floor is terra cotta tile, these jars are very durable. No more spills! Trust me, if this ever went viral and appeared on the pre-paid "as seen on tv" commercial circuit, these things would be in every household. If anyone reading this is looking for a unique christmas present for me. This is it.

 Overall, the small town of Luckenbach, Texas was a cool experience. I was only there for a short time and in the middle of the week so there was not much going on at the time. The town sports the Post Office/Gift shop and Bar as stated earlier, also there is a BBQ stand for food, an outside staging area that can hold up to 2 separate musical acts or other performances at the same time. As small creek that runs behind everything but at the time was dried up. There was also this amazing dance hall there, restricted access mostly due to keeping it tidy and in good repair between uses. Like most things, the entire dance hall was made of wood, however the entire place gleamed from polish, tender care and good use. Just peeking in was enough to put into perspective how well cared for this dance hall was and I was very impressed. If anyone reading this ever makes it over to Fredericksburg Texas, it is highly recommended to look up this quaint little town and spend some time taking in the rustic feel. Live music is played there daily towards the end of the day so you can kick back and relax with a drink to listen to a well played guitar and a few excellent singers. This was a good find and I was glad to have had it shared with me.

Then came Friday which found me driving as close to the Mexican border than I have ever been in my life to date. At the end of the day, I had two separate trips to Laredo, Texas. It was a very long day as I had to deadhead from Fredericksburg to Laredo to pick up a package that needed to go 7 miles down the road. What I did not realize was that due to the short delivery mileage, this put my back on the board as a < 75 mile driver. What that means is that my status puts me generally at the top of the list for the next load that comes down the line. So as I am driving out of Laredo, thinking that my day is done, I get the second load opportunity to go to Seguin, Texas to pick up a load that is going BACK to Laredo. There was a lot of driving done yesterday as the sun rose and set while I was sitting in the van, actively driving.

The fun part was going to the Vehicle Inspection for the Boarder Patrol/Immigration Service. Having told a few people where I was going, the horror stories about the inspections and delays while they searched the vehicles and such. Whereas, to my surprise, getting through was quite easy. Well, easy so long as you are not smuggling anything like aliens or drugs. I am not sure exactly how many rads of x-ray radiation I went through yesterday, seeing how I was there twice. However just leading up to the station, you go by these HUGE scanning devices which possibly count how much sperm I am producing, yes they are huge. Then when you take your turn to take to the border patrol guy, a drug sniffing dog is run near your vehicle to check for potential hidden drugs. What amused me was that after all the horror stories, this is was was said the first time I went through.  "Are you a citizen?"  "Yep!"  "Have a nice day."  Then the second one was: "is there anyone else in the back?" "Nope!" "Are you a citizen?" "Yep!" "Have a nice day!"  Then off I went.

 Now these guys don't fool around at all when you get caught, as seen here by the next two photos.

If you are a CDL driver and you are caught smuggling drugs or aliens into the country. They strip you of your CDL for LIFE. No If's, And's or But's about it. Just hand over your license and don't worry about your rig anymore, firstly you can't drive it anymore and secondly, it's not yours anymore and off you go to jail. Which, at the very least, means you get out of the heat. So I guess there is a small benefit there.

This sign is what I like to call the Pike with the Head on it to warn others about what not to do there.

Their current score of captures is 313. That's 313 CDL licenses confiscated just at that checkpoint. 313 people were tempted by money, fame or some other vice to risk their livelihood and was caught doing so.

I understand the reasons, some of them I agree with, some of them I don't. However I like to keep politics out of my postings because this is more of an adventure than a soapbox. Still, this number boggled my mind when I saw it. I could not help but take a moment and wonder what was going on in their lives to risk such a fate. Granted I am no criminal mastermind, nor trafficker. So all I have are the musings and suppositions of my mind.

I would like to take the time to thank the people who come to read my blog. It's a blast to look at my stats and wonder who the heck do I know in  Germany, Russia, China and Japan. Either way, I appreciate the visits. Feel free to reply to any entries with any questions you might have, I would love to have the opportunity to answer them and start a dialogue with new people in far off distant lands that I won't be able to drive to due to that whole ocean thing that's in the way.

New adventures at every turn

Picked up a load that went all the way to, get this, Metropolis Illinois. Now, when I first heard the town name, my thoughts wen directly to Superman. When I finally got to the town, I was greeted this way.

So I found out that the town of Metropolis, Illinois is the hometown of Superman. What you are seeing here is the large statue of Superman standing in the middle of the business district.

The nice part about it was that I literally had the entire town for myself. Small town in the early morning, there were only a couple of people wandering around and no cars at all. So I was able to wander up and down the streets and take pictures at good angles without having to worry about getting hit by a car or anything.

Days like this prove that for every bad day that I go through, there are really good surprises waiting for me down the line. I mean who knew I would wake up and find a huge statue of Superman and an entire town dedicated to the history and mythos of Superman.


Now the rest of my weekend will be spent sitting around in Matthews, Missouri at a Flying J. Which has not been boring at all. I am currently sitting in the drivers lounge with about 25 truckers. We have been watching A&E all day starting with Shipping Wars, which is about 5 or 6 competing owner/operators bidding on and then delivering loads and the (mis)adventures that are associated with it. Now we are watching Storage Wars, which is the group of people that are running around Storage Unit auctions trying to make a buck. The level of snark and commentary from the crowd is amazing and hilarious.

SO.. I will leave this post with a picture of the statue of  Noel Neill, who was the actress who played lois Lane.

Living the dream

The funny thing about living a dream is trying to believe it when it happens.

I finally got a load opportunity yesterday, the timing of it was quite curious. I spent the morning sleeping in and getting laundry done while watching a couple of TV episodes that I had brought with me. Once that was done, I packed up everything, cleaned up my sleeping area and moved everything back out to the truck, "Just in case". Figuring that spending some time in the truck waiting would be beneficial. Turns out, getting into the truck was not in the plan. Once outside the passenger door, the phone rings and its a load opportunity. Scrambling to answer the call, it was disconnected. Luckily there are two safeguards in place. One is that one an opportunity is sent, there is a tem minute window in which to replay to it. Second, there is a phone number to call in to listen for any available opportunities that are available.

Once accepted, the ten minute window must expire before finding out if the load was awarded. So I ran back inside and said my quick goodbyes and ran back to the truck. My on board computer is called a C-Link and it's made by Qualcomm. The C-link bursts to life with all of the load information and I start to work in trying to remember what to fill out on my Bill of Lading. Once thats done, I pop the address into the GPS and take off. One of the many key points that a driver is graded on is arriving within the time frame given for pickup and delivery. Since I am in an expedite branch of FedEx, these are live orders that came in and MAYBE were places 5 minutes before I was given the info. The expectation is that once a customer calls, you are there to get the load, whatever it is, and then head out and deliver it.

Once I was all packed up and cleared to leave, that was when the realization hit me that the dropoff was in North Carolina and that it didn't need to be there until 7:30am on Monday. So with a bit of executive privilege, phone calls were made to verify that the delivery was indeed on Monday. This was done because the actual delivery was not confirmed on the original order. After calling a couple of times with 3 hours between calls, it was pretty obvious that Monday was the correct time. So I started calling family in Charlotte, NC to see if I could hang out there for the weekend instead of wasting money I don't really have yet at a truck stop or a motel.

So here I sit now in Charlotte, NC at my wife's grandparents house visiting family. Then it struck me that I have been wanting to come visit Charlotte for quite awhile. Driving to the house, memories and emotion struck me with an almost physical force as I went past familiar places and crossed familiar streets. Charlotte was my first true home after leaving Massachusetts. This was where my second attempt of life began. I grew up here in more ways that I can count. Some days were good, some were bad, but all were important. Breaking out of old habits and shedding off shadows of my past layer by layer. Perhaps one could say I was reborn or that I finally opened my eyes a little wider to see what was going on.  Breaking out of the shell I built around myself growing up and conforming to the ideals of the world around me instead of finding my own path as I do now. This place is dear to me. Only coming back here, as I have now, shows me how much I have missed this place.

Living the dream.

I have heard this term countless of times in the last few months as a sarcastic response from a Co-Worker anytime he was asked by a person on the phone, "How's things?"
I never really took much stock in it after the first few times I heard it. The depth of the term is subtle and can be as simple or as complex as one wants it to be.

What does the term mean for me though?

I find that it means that one follows their heart, grabs opportunity to see where the path leads. To not worry about consequence of the day to day, and enjoy the moment.

I drove 12 hours straight through mountainous countryside from Pittsburgh, PA to Charlotte, NC. It was the most enjoyable trip I have ever had in my entire life. Towards the end, I was a little punch drunk, I will admit. The energy and challenge of the trip was nothing I have ever experienced. There was no stress, there was no second guessing. All I had to do was drive and it was all good.

Life will be a bit inconvenient at times, but that's ok. I know I have people looking out for me everywhere I go. I know that I won't have the availablility of sleeping in a bed every night and that my truck will be my home. That's ok too and I accept that. To me, this is living a dream. Having the ability and freedom to actually go see the people I talk to and build friendships with. That in itself, blows my mind.

For ahile there, I thought my ability to travel was dead. The last few car trips I were on, I couldn't stay awake long enough to make it out of one state. I nicked 4 states yesterday. I think I got this.

From tech to truck...

I have been contemplating the idea of changing my trade from Technology to Trucking for awhile now. I am certain that someone from the outside looking in will ask, "Why? Technology is the place to be." While this is true, the problem lies in where my niche in the technology field lies.