Choice program on the West Coast - from company driver to IC

And here's today's update.........

Spent Sunday night in Tulsa, OK. Had dinner with a high school friend of mine, then checked the load board out. Nothing good. Went to bed.
Got up Monday morning and left at 5:45 for a drop and hook at Kimberly Clark in Jenks, OK. About 15 miles south of Tulsa. Easy in and out, maybe 25 mins total. 12k lb load.
Had a 357 mile run to Temple, Tx to drop and hook at a Wal-Mart. Stopped by the Dallas OC for my 30 min break after 4 hours of driving. Grabbed some trip sheets, bar codes, and another load strap (up to three now, yesssss!)
Got on the load board again, nothing doing. Called my ICA and was told my 'looking for an empty' driving yesterday came out to 98 miles, 3 short of the 101 needed for the $100. So I get $50 instead. whoopee
Drove the final two hours down the I-35 mess to Temple and did an easy drop and hook at the Wal-Mart. Tons of empties...Yessssssssss.
Got on the load board again. Was seeing some new loads being put up but nothing yet. So I drove 30 mins back north to Waco and shut down at the Pilot here. Opened up my APU but can't see anything obviously wrong. DFO HELPPPPP!!!
The Pilot person gave me a free shower, I haven't fueled up yet because the cut off for fuel is tonight. I plan on dropping another $900 into my tank in the am. Got a sub and came back to the truck. Worked on moving in and organizing the truck for another hour or so. Starting to look better in here.
Jumped back on the load board and found two loads I liked. Driving the 90 miles back up to Dallas for a D/H at the HD Dist Center. Then driving 242 miles down to Houston to the HD Dist Center for another D/H. Then I'm dragging my empty 120 miles east to Silsbee, TX for another D/H. Then on Thursday morning I'll drive 180 miles to Shreveport, LA for a live unload between 8-11 am. Together these two loads pay $930, not bad for a day and third. Nothing booked from Shreveport yet, nothing impressed me when I looked.

I am really liking my MPG gauge. It constantly updates to tell me what I am getting for MPG at that moment. It is cool to watch how accel/decel, hills, weight of loads, etc affect the real time MPG of my truck. It also shows me how much total fuel I have burned and what my avg MPG is. Right now it says I have used 219.3 gals and my avg MPG is 7.7!!!! I'll check that tomorrow when I fill up the tank. Man, I hope it's right!!

So, pay period ends today. In three days I drove 1688 miles and grossed right at $2100 to the truck. I'm happy with that.

That's it for now.

Stay frosty.....