Truckers Bibles, lying gps, and truck parking places...Pilots are just gas stations with hot dog stands...and a free app! Petro, Ambest, Wilco Hess have restaurants and buffets...and free apps. Alps have current fuel prices, and how to find them as well as phone numbers I believe..
This message was edited Oct 13, 2014 8:09 AM
Ha! DG is done posting their FB and I can add pix! Usually there are hotels by tkstps, with limited truck parking spaces.
Thank you thank you kitt! Wonderful!
More nonsense, bbut there are other places than these main tkstls to stop at. Marathon oil sells oil to all diesel stops, no matter what name its sold under, so you have Mr Fuels, Shells, BP, Kwiktrips, WaWas (east coast).
Take the boy on the truck part of the drive- days are dark later and dark earlier and it will help immensely on the eyestrain to have a relief driver. Trucks are also more exhausting on long drives, the vibrations are subtly rougher, and the larger the vehicle, the slower the ability to get in motion, so it will cost you more time than the van. Speed limits are created for compact cars, especially on overpasses, like walking with a jug on your head, slower than posted on those curves.
Forgot to add, the farther south you go, the more people you meet always going somewhere in new vehicles or none, standing on corners bummin money for gas, for the greyhound, much like the reality of the unprepared who showed up and ate the locals out of house, home, and pasture and thought it was norrmal not to pay their way, just to take what they wanted with the excuse 'dont worry, be happy.' With the holidays these bums are on the rise.
I like the song Don't Worry, Be Happy, but as a philosophy it is full of doo-doo. Also, my kids say "YOLO" when they are about to do something REALLY stupid, You Only Live Once. If you only live once, then you have to get a tattoo and taste every chocolate without eating any and never make any decisions. Sorry, I am full of rant.
I got a Pilot App and another truck stop app and I'm getting excited.
I saw the list when I pulled up the pilot travel center, my favorites are ta/petro tho. I get on a rant cuz the guys send their wives to beg money from these male drivers. (Chuckl, half of em at least are male teams, another qtr are women haters, so the little gals hit up the women when they see us).
511 in many states gives you road conditions in that area, just enter the road you wish. On a laptop tethered to internet -in the western states, at least, you can pull up the DOT websites that have cameras on traffic and highways. These will also show your speeds as folks go under these cameras. Tell you of construction issues, different stuff depending on the state and their idea of pertinent.
Super. I was looking at one of the apps and noticed it include information about accidents.
My goodness, this truck certainly is bouncy! And fatiguing. Last night Ray's arms were almost stuck in the steering wheel
position by the time we pulled into the right Super 8.
AAA has routed us through WV up through PA to upstate NY. I have to check the details of course, but we're only an hour west of Memphis.
Kitt, do you drive all over the country?
I drive All 48 states for last 30 years. Warned you rough. WVa is probably I 70 across Dallas Pike? I HOPE. You didnt lay out whole route from Memphis, but if AAA routed you, they may be dunning $ to route you there. A hard run means solid sleep, bbut a light truck means not much weight- the springs (shocks) are adjusted to hold the maximum allowed weight and not soft like a car to absorb rough rides. IF by WV you are talking I 64 thru Lexington Ky to I79 be extremely careful of DEEP fogs. Trucks 'Georgia Overdrive' downhills which means they are freefalling to climb next hill faster than 25mph which these neutered trucks will do. I do not advise driving more than 2hrs at a time tween breaks, nor Longer than 10hrs. Each day. Richard Petty can tell you why we live on BC Powders and Doans pills, chuckl.
Nashville is extremely dangerous, I65 north to Indy has become a Suicide Alley recently, really horrid. Blue lined roads are Major Interstates, Green is Turnpike, red is secondary and US hwy routes
Cars and trucks when properly aligned with tires properly inflated WANT to drive straight ahead, means that guiding them does not require a death grip, many of the larger companies however give their vehicles an alignment that will always yank your truck to the right so you usually have to fight that slight right hand pull. The seemingly straightest routes can cost you longer hours to travel them due to the massive amounts of traffic already using them. These roads have higher amounts of damage as well and are far rougher to ride than the lesser traveled routes.
Indiana interstate 70, for instance is so rough that you think you are traveling an old corduroy road. Worryin abt you 2 Carrie, hope all is well...
Ahh, we are fine. We took your advice and didn't go south. Today somehow despite having two cell phones and a tablet and a mobile hotspot, nothing would stay charged so we sang along withthe ipod. Home tomorrow, at least that's the plan. We are sleeping in Hagerstown, MD.
Yup, mobile chargers tend to disintegrate electronic devices real fast. Hagerstown. So many different roads to reach that town Cumberland Gap- or through Roanoke Virginia but you're in a good place now the roads -traffic is heavy East Coast but you're almost there, I'm glad you made it to Hagerstown I feel much better!
Please don't lose any sleep over us, kitt. My husband and I have so much fun travelling together! Even if something bad happened,, we've got each other other.
We made it home!
Good! That was an experience, I know! Chuckle, dont forget us in Tx!
How could I ever forget Texas? The time we spent here was so precious. ...we always knew we were coming back to Boston. (We couldn't tell everybody, and we tried to be open-minded, but the plan was always to come back sooner or later.)
No place like home, chuckl, hope not EVeRY memory is based in relief at escape, chuckl. Back to work. I fought Atlanta traffic this mornin, but it will be the Miami tomorrow that sets my teeth on edge, sigh.
You do get around!
Not every memory of TX is nasty; some wonderful things happened in Texas. We have four grandchildren in Fort Worth, and were seeing them for a weekend a year when we lived in Boston. Now we have good, unforgettable ties to each one of them.
We could have seen them every weekend but DDIL was not that keen. We probably saw them one day a month; still tons more than we ever would have seen them. Now we need to make friends with 4.5 and 2.5 who live in Boston.
Legally possible?
Shame it has to come down to legalities, possibilities abound, but, at that age memories will be 'fused. Running midnites so must try again to rest so my temper doesnt teach morons to get their acts together....
And you were SO right about the rougher roads, and electronics, and alignment. My next plan is to take a road trip to the Keys and go snorkeling. Burn Notice makes Miami look pretty cool.
Well, yeah, but they know how to find the more modern scenery. My life is viewed from the seamier areas. OpaLocka down by Hialeah where my truck must spend the night. The scattered showers today, scene from a 'cashbox' or tollbooth on Floridas Tollways, and a visitor that invited itself into my truck LOK how. As a tourist you will be pampered well for your money, but I leave water sports to younger folks. If they ever get a road to Hawaii going they'll let 18 wheels travel I MIGHT visit there, fond of dry roads myself tho.
That's why I have decided against Hawaii and Australia. I would never get over my jet lag. The trip is way, way, way too long.
We are totally addicted to Burn Notice at the moment. I nver really figured out commercial television before. When my kids were little, we had a small TV in tne master bedroom. (They were only allowed to watch public television and Disney channel.) That TV got darker and darker and I used to say that when it turned completely black, i wasn't going to buy another one.
Then my father had a stroke and had to go into a nursing home, so he gave me his gigantic television. Netflix makes everything different, though. When I start a show from season 1, episode 1 it's easy to understand.
Not to mention not having to wade thru all the commercials! I do without tv, but if its on I get trapped like a moth to flame. Love music tho, many many miles with music, and studied better with it as well. Waiting for cleanups...
So that's how you wash a truck. We said goodbye to our truck today. Kind of sad, kind of relieved. Hard to find diesel near our house.
I got--not lost, exactly, more like completely disoriented--on the way to Home Depot from our house to drop it off. That was embarrassing! I hope the streets will all jump back into their normal positions soon. :)
Do you find that there are not many female truckers? Does it bother you? I know I felt a little weird at some of those truck stops with my husband and a bunch of other guys, and I was the only woman.
There are tons of women drivers, usually not running by themselves. Some companies are run by women, but most women partner husbands and run teams. Teams just dont stop, refrigerators keep sandwich stuff, many women drive nights so arent seen. We have a trick of laying a pillow on the steering wheel when other driver is gone, if we have to get out and go in -so they dont run off without us. Many a sleeper half has walked up the road to the leaving truck for not warning the driver of their absence. Get out your Google Maps and study a bit, you'll orient soon.
