THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Really been enjoying running nights. So easy. I should have switched my schedule over long ago, but it took me several weeks to get my body into feeling OK running later than 2am or so.

There is literally no traffic. I drove 100 miles today across TN on a 4-lane state route and I saw a total of 1 truck and 5 4 wheelers. All of them were going the other direction. Not one set of taillights in front of me or headlights behind me the ENTIRE time.

The cool weather is nice and its very easy on the truck, engine runs cooler, tires stay cooler, etc. I've been slowing down even more (I think I'm the only IC that drives under 72 MPH) to 57 MPH and enjoying the better fuel mileage. I'm not in any hurry, anyone that is can easily pass right by me since its the middle of the night and there is no traffic around.

During the day I would avoid Walmarts because of how much of a hassle it can be to get in and out, or worrying that I may pull into a lot only to find there is no room to turn around. At 3am I can pull in, turn around in the entire parking lot and park myself in a position to easily leave the next evening.

Because I've been able to keep my truck stocked up with food so much, I have not spent any money eating out in the past 2 weeks. Not one.

At first I was a little worried about the difficulties of finding new customers at night. But its not bad at all. I spend a little extra time looking at entrances on Google maps. But worst comes to worse I can slow down and crawl along at 5 MPH until I find the entrance. Its the middle of the night, no one is behind me, who gives a ****. I can pull over and put my 4 ways on and bring up the map to have a better look at the area that I'm in without blocking a line of 4wheelers from being able to get past me. There are no lines at customers, ever. Its just me.

I shut down anywhere from 3am to 6am usually. Parking becomes available at truck stops around 4am when other drivers start leaving. From about 7am to 4am is the time when there is no room at the truck stops. But if I need to stop through quickly for a bathroom break and a grab something from the store, I can just stop in the fuel island. There are 8 other pumps wide open.

Rain can suck, but rain sucks too in the middle of the day when everyone panics and slows down and bunches up. At night at least there is no one else to slow me down, so I can just drive whatever speed I feel comfortable with without being surrounded by 15 other morons that feel that there is strength in numbers when it comes to low visibility safety. Idiots.

The only thing that can be really frustrating is magnet 4wheelers. You know, the ones that want to follow behind you, and off to the side. So there headlight is in your mirror. I just hit the jake and start slowing down until they pass me, even if it means I'm doing like 40 MPH in a 65... I have no patience for these idiots, you caught up to me, YOU PASS ME, don't SIT THERE IN MY ******* MIRROR WITH YOUR HEADLIGHT CONSTANTLY IN MY EYE.

Even worse are the magnet 4wheelers that want to sit behind your trailer, in the other lane, but won't pass. Then it means I have TWO headlights in my mirrors. I slow down, they slow down. Then I just get in front of them. Repeatedly. After about 3 times of them switching lanes and me switching right back in front of them they get really mad and go flying by me at about 75 MPH and I'm back to the peace and quiet.

Time to enjoy my macaroni and cheese. I got some kind of microwaveable kit thing but put it in the lunchbox stove instead. Man this is GOOD.

 

This I'm still adjusting to. I like to try to shut down before the sun rises because if it starts rising, my body says "yes its time to go to sleep" but my mind says "the sun is up HOW ABOUT NO". Its pretty much impossible to block ALL the sunlight out of the truck so you are still going to see it somehow. I only close the dash curtain and not the mid curtain (just makes the space feel a little bit bigger which I like) but it does let more light through this way.

As far as actual sleep though, I have no problem getting a full 8 hours of sleep. I can do more than that if I want, no problem, lol. I've always been a night owl though (I have NEVER been a morning person, EVER) so maybe that is why getting a full sleep is no problem. I've never really been able to take shorter naps, its either I'm asleep for a long period or I don't sleep at all.

Having the APU and the AC on helps because the blower motor for the APUs AC system is pretty noisy and drowns out a lot of noise. I do occasionally get woken up by something coming by the truck though.

All in all its not bad. I find that waking up, even for a few minutes, once it is light out is a bad idea. Like right now. I wanted to sleep until about 1730-1800 so that by the time I get moving rush hour is over. But, I woke up at around 1600, found my cell phone battery was dead, got up to plug it in, then decided to flip open my laptop for "JUST A FEW MINUTES" and... I'm up. lol. But, that's OK, I'll just burn some time on here until after 1700 and then hit the road. Got plenty of time for my delivery so I can shut down whenever I feel like it.