Watkins Shepard, Here I Come

Got up at 1:30 this morning (okay, now it's yesterday morning) and started driving at 2 am after my pretrip. I drove for the first time ever for six hours straight, stopping just long enough to check my load and tires halfway. Then I drove again. I STILL didn't manage 600 miles, but I did 10 hours total and 569 miles. We're dropping our MDF load at 7 am and just missed out on a load from here to Maryland (no TWIC card yet). But Chris is working on our next one.

I got a nap tonight after we stopped, then we went and played pool and darts for a while. It was a nice (and cheap) way to get out of the truck and spend time together for a while.

Scotsman, I forgive you... at least until I run into you on the road again.

Any chance you can save recruiting for another company on some other thread, TD?

 

New load... loaded up at Halliburton in Colony, WY, headed to Seattle. Joe is beside himself, getting to go back to the mecca of Starbucks and it was only 19 hours from where we loaded. That's less than a full day's driving.

I wasn't crazy about Halliburton. The entire place was even more muddy than Missoula (we had to use the interaxel differential) and tarping on a raised platform is a pain.

A little resting up and we'll be heading on when either the rain stops or the sun comes up.

 

Scotsman: It was a bad afternoon and I took a long walk. When I got back, you were gone. Sorry.

JimDriv3r: We park near the Safeco/Qwest field stadium and do a lot of walking. See below.

Today we drove the rest of the way to Seattle and parked near our drop for the morning (noonish). We got here a little after six pm local and immediately went for a walk... a long walk. We went past Starbucks corporate, Qwest/Safeco Field (home of the Mariners) and oceanside markets (closed up). We passed a mission giving out food to the homeless, passed the original Starbucks (Joe was nice enough to bypass his Wonderland), and ended up at the Space Needle. We declined paying nearly $20 each to go to the top, but had a blast buying little gifts for family (managed to keep it affordable) and just browsing.

After the Space Needle we looked for a place to eat, ending up at a little pizzeria called Bambinos. Wood-fired, New York style pizza, a nice salad... Joe had a beer or two (relax, we were out of the truck) at the cost of $2/each, and I had hazelnut-pistachio gelato for just $2.50. The whole meal was right at $30.

After dinner, we found a little bookstore/coffeeshop named Bauhaus. The coffee drinks were okay, the price wasn't bad, and the ambiance was actually pretty neat (very old books in shelves all over the two-story room), but the staff were snobbish and the clientele all kinds of odd, ranging from Goth to nerd and beyond.

Finally we got back to the truck nearly six hours and 10 miles later. This is one of the best reasons to be on the road together and it makes all the difficult days better. All in all, a wonderful day (and we even worked some of it).

 

Scotsman, we are in Missoula right now, fueling, but it appears you have gone to lunch..