Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

True to that on the KLR. It was up high on my list before this bike. The same thing about finding parts pretty easy goes for some of the other Japanese bikes like the Suzuki DR and the Honda. BMW's are probably a little tougher to find parts for down there followed by the Italian bikes and then some of the other European brands like Husaberg, etc. I would think KTMs might be tough to get parts for as well.

 

Thanks, will do. Got a little interstate riding to do tomorrow on I-64 and through the bridge/tunnel complex down to my sis's family in Norfolk. They live near Old Dominion University in the city so it's kind of a cool spot to grab some food and look at women. There's a particular lunch place where they brought me once before with a particular tattoo'd waitress I wouldn't mind seeing again.

In the morning I have to run over to this post office in Newport News (what they like to call "Bad News" down here) to submit my passport application. I hope they accept it and everything goes ok. Apparently since my driver's license is based out of Washington but I'm applying for the passport here, they want additional proof that I'm not a terrorist or something. Gonna keep my fingers crossed that this goes smoothly. Didn't realize a passport was going to be so expensive - something like $225 total. I requested the passport book and the passport card. Not sure if I need the card but thought that I better be safe. Then, since I need the passport before I come back to Virginia in early August I had to request expedited processing - an additional $60. Jeeezzzzz....they are killing me ova hea.

It's been nice at least to spend Father's Day out here with my dad and mom. They are both getting older and both have health problems but they are around still and I am thankful for that. I'm at that age where I know a lot of my friends have already lost their dads so I'm lucky that mine is still here. We butt heads, as we always have, but I wouldn't trade that for anything. Going to make this time I have left with them count.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

 

Sitting at a Flying J near Evansville, Indiana waiting to leave in about a half hour to go pick up a live load bringing me up to Bristol, VA. A short days drive. After hometime I ran up to Pennsylvania with a load from Virginia, which is normally the case, and dropped. Got another short load t-calling at the Jonestown, PA terminal. First time I have been there. Didn't stay long though as I had another t-call picking up from there bringing me down here. A decent run as far as miles go. Lots of hills going south to Hagerstown, MD, west on 68 through Cumberland, through the West Virginia 3 - Morgantown, Charleston and Huntingdon -, across Kentucky via Lexington, past horse farms, through Louisville and west to Evansville. At one point, within about an hour on I-64, I passed into Central Time Zone, back into Eastern Time Zone, back into Central - as my GPS announced. I dropped Saturday afternoon and sat until this morning at a Walmart in Evansville until today.


My mom's fight...

I got back to my truck on Thursday. It was a longer hometime than usual but I'm not complaining. I think I needed the time off and out of the truck. I brought it in at the beginning of my hometime to get an air bag replaced that had been causing an air system issue since I originally picked up the truck. They fixed it.
I added some personalization on my new truck to make it feel a little more like mine. So if you see a white Prostar with a large red, magnetic "Rutgers" red circle emblem on the driver-side outside storage you know it is me.

I was happy to spend a little more time with my family this time. We didn't talk about it but my mom's cancer has come back again. This has been going on for the past couple of years and every time it is devastating news although none of us let on as such, to keep her spirits raised. Once again, just as her hair is growing back and she can stop wearing that #### wig, this has got to happen. It's not just the sickness the chemo causes, the fact that she will once again lose her hair, feel tired and weak but it's how it affects her emotionally. The whole thing pisses me off. I know everyone says this, but it happens to the wrong people. It's honestly not something I would wish on anyone but it definitely shouldn't happen to those that don't deserve suffering. I wish I could take her from her and take it myself it that would let her live out the rest of her years in peace and comfort. I always knew by the time I was in my mid 30's that I have lived, what I feel, to be a full life. Anything that happens after that point, any remaining days and years, would just be a bonus. I have no kids and most likely will never be blessed with them. My mom has kids - us 3 kids she did a fantastic job of raising - and now she has my nieces, her grandchildren, to watch grow up. She deserves this and deserves to see them grow and progress just as my siblings and I have. She has spend her entire adult life raising her own three children and also raising other peoples' kids as a domestic nanny for families too busy to raise their own. Not knocking those families' choices to pursue their careers but my mom raised their kids from the start to near adulthood. She was their mom too. Then us kids got older, moved out and moved on, the other kids got older and my mom still didn't get a break. She took care of my uncle and his alcohol problems until he unexpected passed alone and under suspicious circumstances alone in a motel room in Jersey. Her mom, my grandmother, moved in with them with the onset of Alzheimers and once my grandmother passes my mom inherited the position of family matriarch to all family, both immediate and distant. This should be her time to relax and take it easy yet it is not. It's a constant battle. The cancer shows up here, they remove some stuff some organs or tissue, she gets chemo and treatments and then it goes away. Hair starts growing back, hope returns, new tests come back and it has returned somewhere else. And so the battle continues, never ending and never allowing her guard to come down with enough time to fully enjoy this stage of life that we all spend our whole lives working towards. It never ends. We didn't talk about it so she can remain in better spirits but it is there and it is back again. Strengthens my resolve to make money and relocate out to Virginia so I can take care of her and my dad as they have done for me and so many others over the past years. Cancer sucks.


Trip planning...

During my home time Virginia seemed to get hot. Then it got hotter. I'm from a sweaty Irish heritage so at the least provocation I will perspire. It doesn't take much and riding in full gear out there had my helmet fairly drenched as well as everywhere else. I rode down to Newport News to apply for my passport. After waiting for 1.5 hours in line I realized that I didn't have my driver's license with me because I had photocopied it for the application and left it back at the house. I rode back, sweating, got the license, rode back to the Post Office and successfully submitted the application. It seems like it should be accepted and everything will be fine with it. Now I have to wait for it to be mailed. I had to get expedited service and I got the passport card as well as the book so in total it cost me about $225.00. Expensive! Looking forward to receiving it though as I'm one step closer to this trip. Next step is to talk to my DM about the procedure for taking that much time off from work and what I need to do to return smoothly to driving.

 

Thanks!

I didn't know I could get reimbursed for those. I did tell my DM a while back that I was getting my passport and would then be able to run up to Canada. I will check with him on this and see if I can get some money back.

Thanks, I'll check those out. I have the National Geographic tear and water resistant maps. They seem pretty decent. Not the best detail.

 

Ocala, Florida.

Truck having clutch issues already?!?

Sitting at the Ocala, Florida terminal with my truck in the shop. I got a load for John Deere dropping off some mowers at 2 locations down near Palmetto on the Gulf Coast. Easy drive mostly down I-95. Yesterday my clutch started acting up. It got tough to shift and it was grinding bad going into whatever gear I started off in whether it was 2nd, 3rd, reverse, etc. Well today it got worse, a lot worse. It started jumping from a dead start instead of easing into the gear. I shocked the lady at the tollbooth when I released the clutch and the truck jumped. Then it got even worse. As I sat at a red light, clutch depressed, truck in 2nd gear (technically 3rd I guess) the truck started to creep forward on me. I wasn't releasing the clutch at all and it was moving forward towards the car in front of me. I had to kill the truck to keep from running into the car in front as the stick wouldn't come out of gear. I finished up the load and deadheaded up here to Ocala about 150 miles north.

They say that it could take through the weekend. They might have it done sooner as this isn't my home terminal and they had asked about that. So I guess I will see what happens.

Last time I asked about an upcoming "B Service" in Richmond they stated that it was due at about 41,500 miles. Or thereabout. Now I have just under 38,000 miles but I'm not within the 2,000 mile window of the service. So I'm pretty sure they are not going to do my B Service here. I explained to the shop that, if at all possible, I would like to get it done now while the truck is here. I don't want to get it out of the shop here only to run for another week and sit in another terminal waiting on the B Service. That would be bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do the B Service now and get it out of the way.



Meeting someone new. A trucker's non-existent love life sees a faint sign of a pulse...

A while back I downloaded, again, a free dating app for my phone. I had this app once before, and I don't remember if I explained my experience with it here, but it was semi-disastrous.

So back last year sometime, I had this free dating app. I had made a connection with two people, talked on the phone with both and set up a "meeting" with them. On a Thursday I would meet one. The next day I would meet the other person. I didn't keep my plans a secret.

I met the first girl at a casino. She was attractive, very attractive actually. We had a good time having a few drinks, some dinner and a little bit of gambling. During the goodbye part of the "meeting" it got awkward, at least for me, on how to say goodbye. I thought she was putting her arms out to offer me a hug. So I went in to hug and I nearly head-butted her as she kissed me. When I was young we called it a "Scottish Kiss" but this wasn't an intentional headbutt on my part. It was more of a face-butt. I wasn't expecting her to give me a bonus kiss- I assumed she was implying a hug. We laughed and my face was burning hot with embarrassment as I made my way back to my bike.

The next day I was scheduled to meet woman #2. She was always cool when I talked to her on the phone and I really looked forward to meeting her. It took a lot of convincing via test messages for her to meet me on that Friday. Why? Because when I was leaving the "meet up" with Girl #1 I texted her that I really enjoyed the day and that I was sorry about the fumbled kiss and near head-butting. However....the text I got back was not from Girl #1 but was from Woman #2 as I had just mistakenly texted the wrong person. So Woman #2 was kind of mad about my sweet text about kisses to Girl #1. The next day I rode a few miles north from my nasty, run down motel room up in Everett, WA to downtown Everett to eat and meet at this NY Style pizza place. She finally said she would meet me and I waited for her to arrive before I ate. I was hungry and waited. When she showed she was attractive but her head was somewhere else. She said she was only happy when she drinks. Following what I thought was her lead, I asked if she wanted to get a drink. You know, to make her happy. She didn't. She had some issues. That "meeting" ended up with just an apathetic hug and a goodbye. Never heard from her again.

I dropped the app for a while and just let it lie. Then, not long ago, I figured I would try it again. I downloaded the app again, updated my profile and waited. I have found with this dating app thing that I usually won't even bother messaging a female. In the past it seems that getting a response is unlikely. I'm not sure why as I usually just say hello and maybe a comment on their profile and leave it at that. It's like fishing - see who bites. But I think part of the problem with these apps is that women get so many messages that they can be overly picky about whom they respond to and maybe some of them are technically on the site but don't check their messages. I've heard from the few women I've talked to on there that they get an overwhelming number of perverted messages and pictures from guys. That does not help the cause for those of us that aren't being perverted.

So the app was updated. I had a couple of short conversations on there with a couple of women out in Virginia. Ironically, one of them is a waitress at a mom and pop truckstop near Norfolk. The other lives near Williamsburg and we have taken it out of the dating site realm of private messages to actual texting on our phones. It's not that often but it's there, off and on. But neither of these women moved me. They are people that I wouldn't mind meeting in person for some coffee and see where it goes from there but neither one really gave me that feeling.

And then, I went to North Carolina...

 

continued...

Something like serendipity. How a private message on a stupid little phone app dating site leads to hope...

Sitting bored at a Walmart southwest of Raleigh, NC I was somewhere between logging my location for the night in my calendar and staring out the windshield at nothing when I heard the sometimes familiar *ding* of a new message from this dating site phone app. Admittedly, it's not a sound I hear very often.

I looked down at my phone, opened up the message and there was a simply message. Succinct but friendly because it had the little smiley face emoticon following this one line message she sent to me...


"I don't even shop at Costco "


Next to her one line message was a tiny little pic of a short-haired blonde. She had sunglasses and it looked like she was sitting in her car when she took this "selfie" pic. On a cellphone her pic was even tinier. I couldn't tell much by looking at this. Her username appeared to be a first initial, followed by a last name and some miscellaneous numbers. That told me that she wasn't trying to be clever with her username, just throw something simple together and get on with this whole stupid phone app dating thing.

I read this one-liner. I was a little intrigued to be honest. It kind of came across as ######## but tongue-in-cheek friendly, thanks to the smiley face emoticon. Those things go a long way in communications of this nature. She had read my profile where I stated that I was not interested in someone whose priorities rested in finding the best parking space at Costco.

Immediately I clicked on her tiny picture, next to this message she had sent, to open up her profile. This particular dating site app sets up the profiles as follows: On top is a line of pictures users submit. It is followed by some standard questions everyone has to answer. This is followed by a short narrative where the user is supposed to describe themselves and finally there is a little area to describe what a perfect date would be.

Upon clicking on her page the first thing I noticed was her second picture. You could only see two pictures at one time on the page. The first picture was that one next to the message with the sunglasses. I couldn't see much. But the second picture...ahh the second picture. That did it. It was another "selfie" picture but this time without sunglasses and her face was at a different angle. She had short blonde hair, kind of falling to the sides of her face in an upside down V, the length down to the bottom of her face, inches from reaching her shoulders. Her skin was fair and smooth as was those lines that define someone's profile. She wasn't quite smiling, not frowning. It was sort of a half-smile, mouth kind of crooked to the side as though someone were explaining something to her and she was in between believing and not believing the story. She was looking up a little towards the camera. Her eyes were fully dark brown, deep and like ink reflecting the light from outside. Her lips were full, beautifully shaped and her nose complimented it all perfectly. I couldn't take my eyes off of her but I moved on to the next picture. She was with friends at a bar and this time she was smiling. Nose scrunched up and her face was fully animated and she was stunning. She looked loved by her friends. The final picture was of her again with one other friend and again there was that smile. Face more scrunched this time and she looked mischievious. Something somewhere in my brain clicked on. Something that I had long forgotten about, had forgotten it's existence sometime years ago, way before I even met my exwife. It was like a shot of steroid that had woken it and triggered a response in my mind that I wasn't even sure how to deal with. I couldn't even understand it but it was there. All this triggered by some pictures of some girl that I have never met, that had sent me a one line message on some stupid dating app. And here it was. Without trying to explain it further to myself, without trying to discipher I let this feeling just be and I just kind of floated there for a few minutes in this strange yet vaguely familiar feeling that I had long forgotten. It was just one of those things where you know you have felt something so incredible but you can't remember exactly where it was, whom it was with or what the circumstances were. But you know it existed at some time, I was elated to feel it again. It's been so many years I can't remember any of it. But this was crazy. Over some pictures? How can that even be possible? It just didn't make sense. But I was enjoying the way this sensation felt and as much as I tried to figure it out, I couldn't.

I moved away from the pictures and down towards that obligatory informational section of her profile. She was 5'8". - Children: Yes. - Personality: Artsy. - Marital Status: Separated. - Longest Relationship: Over 10 years. The "About Me" descriptive section simply stated that she wasn't going to put much on there and to simply ask her. That was it. No info about the first date. Really none of that mattered to me anyway. It didn't say much. I went back to the pictures some more before I replied...

"What?! Blasphemy! Isn't everyone supposed to shop Costco? " I added the smiley emoticon as she had.

"Nah...I'm a BJ's girl. Wait...Lmao!! No really I do have a BJ's membership though."

She replied almost instantly which was odd because most of the time that does not happen. From that point the conversation was on full swing and the more she responded the more I couldn't believe I was having a conversation with what must be one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, even if it was right at this moment only a superficial conversation about mega discount stores. The more it went back and forth the more intrigued I became. It was playful banter, jokes about the name of BJ's (like a Costco or Sams Club but only located back east) and the conversation evolved and progressed. I lost track of time and ignored everything else that was going on in the world around me. Nothing mattered at this point.

She mentioned that she was only 45 minutes away and came across my profile. She asked about my transient behavior and I explained about spending time off in Virginia and Washington while work took me to all places in between. She sent me a picture of some baby blue ("Aruba Blue" as she corrected me) Chuck Taylor sneakers she had just ordered and received. I complimented her, honestly, on her taste in sneakers. I asked her if she had gotten any messages from any weirdos yet on this dating site, as that is what happens to women on here from what I have heard from others in the past. She had. She also had guys that asked about her feet - foot fetishes! - and it was only her first day on the site from what I found out. She was a ######## and we went back and forth. I loved it. I introduced myself and she told me her name.

I figured that maybe I should give her an "out" at this point, if she wanted to take it. Sometimes I think people are just being polite so they stay in the conversation longer than they want to. I told her that I really had enjoyed the conversation to this point and that if she ever wanted to talk about dating site weirdos that she was welcome to message me anytime. I told her I was taking that motorcycle trip down to Mexico in October and that, if she was up to it, would love to grab a cup of coffee with her. I figured, why not? What do I have to lose. She was playful and fun.

We got into the subject of her marriage somehow. She had been married for 11 years, two twin boys that lived with her. She started to dig a little into me. She asked about my job and if I would ever change it, at least where I wasn't out on the road so much. I said I would if it was for the right reason. Then she told me that her ex-husband working all the time led to the end of their marriage. She assumed that this was possibly the reason for my marriage's demise. I explained that it was the opposite. I was home with my ex when we were together and that I went out on the road to kind of run from things for a while and get out there to explore and forget.

Then she said...


"awww, I feel like I need to hug you!!" and continued, "Well if you were here more often I would totally go out with ya! Your eyes alone make me melt "


And so there it was. When she had said that the perma-smile I had already had from the beginning of the conversation just got bigger until my mouth now hurt. Conversation continued. She sent me pics of her with her twin boys. Adorable.

Eventually she said she didn't like the messaging system on the dating app and messaged me her phone number. The conversation continued by test until late into the night, long after I should have probably been sleeping. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything but what I was doing at that moment and I didn't really care. Not long after we decided to wrap it up for the night. Right before she left me for the night she took a picture right then and there, as she was at the moment, little to no makeup wearing a dark green tanktop that same half smile that she wore in one of her profile pics. Gorgeous, she didn't need makeup and she had that organic beauty that does it on its own. She was incredible and this picture she had sent me at the end of the night, our first night we had ever "met", was my favorite picture of her.

That was two nights ago.

The next day we shared some texts and around her lunch time she asked if it would be ok to call me. Of course it was. We talked on the phone for her whole lunch. We texted again when I shut down for the night last night. She told me "I like you". A simple statement on the surface but it is a statement that is deceivingly weighted with innuendo, suggestive of so much more. I was on cloud nine, even more so since this short time from our first interactions. I loved that she said that to me. That she brought it up out of nowhere. That night I was tired, from the previous evening. I knew she had to do her mom things with her kids, I don't want to interfere so I decided it was time for bed. I texted her that I was going to sleep, that I would talk to her the next day. My phone rang. She was out back with her kids and she wanted to talk to me before we went to bed. It was sweet.

Today she sent me more pictures of herself from her office. She asked me to send pictures and I reluctantly did so, as much as I hate taking a "selfie" picture. But I would do it for her. She constantly showers compliments on me. It's so strange. I'm not used to it in any way, and especially from someone that I'm so into. I almost can't believe it.

But these types of situations are what scare me the most. Any time things move fast they don't last. They come quick, are powerful and die out just as fast. I have to plan on it as it is most likely inevitable but I don't want it to happen. I really don't want it to happen. I want this strange, powerful and wonderful feeling that I have had for the past few days to continue like one of those trick birthday candles that you just can't blow out. I don't want it to be that basic match, quick to light, hot to the touch and then just smoke and sulfur.

She lives near Durham, NC. I Google'd the distance from Williamsburg and it is only 3 hours drive. That would be nothing to ride down there just to meet and share a cup of coffee. She has invited me to dinner already and of course I accepted. I don't want this to change but I know that in all likelihood it will. At least for now I'm going to ride this out, enjoy it while it is here and soak it in like the sun.