Life on the road

Right on.. Good luck!

 

It's a lot like living at home and having a normal job but everything requires much more effort. To take a shower you have to pack up your supplies, walk as much as a quarter of a mile to the truckstop, scan your card, then sometimes wait 30 minutes for them to clean one. Then you get into the shower, you have to unpack the supplies, shower, and repack your supplies. If it's winter you have to make sure you don't catch a cold after showering when walking that long distance back to the truck.

To do a number 1 in the truck most drivers use a gallon container, which has to be properly emptied out once every two days. You never want to do a number 2 in the truck.

If you're on the road for more than two weeks at time you will have to do your laundry in truck stops.

After a while you become institutionalized and it will be like second nature. I don't even feel the miles anymore, whether it's ten or a thousand miles it all feels the same. Often when I wake up after a 10h break I forget what state I'm even in for a split second.

 

Forget about all the non sense you have ever heard or read about sleep rythems. Find your own path to sleep, make your sleep preparations a habit, prepare for sleep the same way every time and you will be able to go to sleep anytime, day or night. You will HAVE to be able to get sleep whenever you can, this ain't 9 to 5 and if you can't get the sleeping thing down, this ain't the right job.

 

A couple things that work for me to make my OTR experience enjoyable:

- Spend as little time as possible in major chain truck stops. I don't sleep in those truck stops or eat at them. I only fuel and shower. I try to go to them either late at night or in the middle of the afternoon so I won't have a line. I sleep at customers, smaller truck stops, rest areas, gas stations with some room to fit a truck, Walmarts, dirt lots, sides of roads, anywhere except the Loves or TA. I just get a really gnarly, negative vibe from those places.

- Discovering good places to park starts with being smart and doing your research. Use Google maps and find the area that you think you might want to shut down at for the night. Search that area for the type of place you might want, "truck stop", "Walmart", "hotel", ect. Then check those spots on Google Earth to see if it's a fit and if you can fit your truck in there. In fact, Google Earth all of your customers too. If you try to be a little bit tech savvy, it can help you a lot in finding parking and knowing how to approach your customer locations.

- Stay at a hotel once a week. You need to do laundry and you need to get out of the truck and you need to just relax every now and then. So get a hotel room. Get a good hotel room though. There's a big difference between the $50 skeezy inn and a nicer, $90 hotel. It's worth the difference. I like Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and DoubleTree. Treat yourself and get a good bed, good shower, float around in the pool and eat a nice breakfast.

 

Yeah man. I hate chain truck stops.

Iowa 80 is cool but that’s the only chain I stay at. I’ll take a shower in the Mom and pop ones too, at the end of the day it’s all gross.

When I used to drive a day cab all over I would always stay at American inn. They were always pretty decent for 90-130 bucks depending on where they were. Honestly I’d rather just drive a day cab and stay in a hotel daily if I could. Walk to the bar to eat and wake up and take a shower. I feel like it was quicker.

 

Carry enough water until payday.
Get rest when you can.
Carry canned food, and peanut butter and bread. Unless you want to eat all your money.
Stop wearing cheap cotton socks. Your feet will sweat
Carry emergency cash in hiding spot for hotel, or bus ticket.
Warm jacket and hat, and gloves.
Some other stuff. But forget.

 

I had to laugh at the last part of your statement. I’m from nh and I’ve spent a ton of time in Maine (much of my family is from the state).. I will agree that Maine does love their bottled water lol