/whee
...I really need an icon with a truck in it. Or several. Hmm.
So, yes, I'm in Georgia again while my trainer has hometime. *rolls in internets* So I guess it's time for another post!
Let's see, since last time I've gone from Georgia to Rochester NY, Rochester to Ashton PA, from York PA all the way to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Willcox AZ, from Willcox to Calexico CA, from Calexico to Dallas, Dallas to Laredo, Laredo to Detroit, and then Detroit to Georgia again! ...dang, I've been busy. I'm amazed I remembered all that, and in order too!
I have this running list of places I want to live. Useful for my plans to move out of Arizona! It keeps getting bigger and bigger:
-TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS. Preferably Amarillo or somewhere in the southeast.
-Western New York! It's so verdant and pretty!
-Southern Pennsylvania. The north part is too hilly.
-West Virginiaaaaaaa
-Central Tennessee
-Flagstaff or Kingman in Arizona!
One place I definitely do not want to go: California. Specifically, I-40, but the whole place in general really. The 70/55 split speed limit slows trucks down and turns them into rolling hazards for passenger cars, and it takes a hell of a long time to cross the Mojave desert. Getting to Barstow was pretty horrible because it was completely empty and took so damn longand unlike a lot of other trucks I actually stuck close to the speed limit.
Los Angeles itself was a lot more tolerable than I had thought it would be, apparently I'm okay at handling traffic! The roads are just horrifying though. I got this weird ache in my shoulder there that stuck with me for several days, that I'm pretty sure was stress-related. It was weird, I've never gotten stress pains before. But I-10 was a lot better to drive on, so once we were out of there things got a lot better.
Another place I'd rather not go again: the Beltway. Oh man. First there was construction (with heavy but fast-moving traffic), and then I had to merge somewhere and by the time I'd actually gotten into Maryland I'd been cut off several hundred times. I made sure there was space between me and whoever was in front of me, and apparently that's like a gilded invitation for a lane change over there. XD Pretty crazy, though I didn't mind the drivers so much as the general slowness of it. You only get so many hours in a day for driving, and if you can't get very far in those hours you're not gonna make much money.
At least the drivers are entertaining, though! Going up I-95 in heavy, slow traffic, I got cut off so many ways. Some of them were legitimate (people going further down the ramp to merge in front of me) and some... not so much. There was this one guy who moved from a lane of traffic ONTO the on-ramp and tried to run up and cut me off that way. He failed, and I shrieked with laughter. People are endlessly, inventively stupid, and I appreciate when they go to the effort to be funny about it. XD
I've gotten to see autumn start happening for the first time! Where I live the trees never shed their leaves, it doesn't get cold enough. But in the East, the colors are starting to change. It is so pretty, and vaguely disconcerting. It's like realizing for the first time that leaves die in most climates in the US. But so pretty! Most trees haven't started changing yet, some trees are speckled yellow, some turn bright red from the tips inward (really stunning, my favorite so far!), and there are even some pine trees that have needles turning brown. That last really surprised me, I thought all pine trees kept their needles! :o It's fascinating.
...it's gonna get cold soon. I am going to need a jacket. A really heavy-duty jacket. And... boots and gloves and stuff. This is gonna be interesting. I've never driven in snow before. I hope there's some kind of class on how to drive in snow safely or something!
One thing that's really fun: driving down hills. Even more fun: driving down hills in the dark! I-40, from about 30 miles west of Albuquerque all the way through the city, was insanely fun to drive through. Really curvy and crazy, great place to make some noise with the jake brakes. >3 And just... playing in traffic the whole way down. Felt like a boss. "Hello, little car, thank you for noticing I'm in the lane you want to be in. I weigh 76000 pounds, would you like to move or shall I? Yeah, that's what I thought."
God, cars are so cute sometimes. Defensive driving has cultivated in me the mindset that cars are not very smart, and need to be actively cared for. (It gets proven true often enough, too, sadly. HOW DO MERGING??) I tend to think of them as kids running around underfoot, not really aware of the danger they put themselves in when they try to do crazy stuff around a big rig. I just wanna pat them on the head and tell them to run along and use their turn signals next time, and did you wash behind your ears, sweetie? It sure beats road rage. XD
...okay, so I think that's most of what I had to mention, so here's my latest adventure. The last two nights I've done night driving, since we needed to run most of the time to make the loads on time. The first night was a bit rough, I stopped and took a nap at midnight (which was twice as long as I thought since my phone didn't go off, fffff-) and ran out of hours around sunrise. The second night, last night, I had a Java Monster, my secret weapon, and ran all night long without feeling tired. It was fantastic.
But then I couldn't fall asleep, and, uh, I've been awake for about 36 hours now. I don't feel at all drowsy. It's starting to weird me out. I've actually been typing all of this up waiting to hit a wall or something, and... nothing so far. I can't tell if I'm superhuman, or about to wake up at three in the afternoon with the most horrible crick in my neck. So, um, I'm going to post this now and see how long before my body realizes I'm not supposed to be awake right now. Later guys! :D
So, yes, I'm in Georgia again while my trainer has hometime. *rolls in internets* So I guess it's time for another post!
Let's see, since last time I've gone from Georgia to Rochester NY, Rochester to Ashton PA, from York PA all the way to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Willcox AZ, from Willcox to Calexico CA, from Calexico to Dallas, Dallas to Laredo, Laredo to Detroit, and then Detroit to Georgia again! ...dang, I've been busy. I'm amazed I remembered all that, and in order too!
I have this running list of places I want to live. Useful for my plans to move out of Arizona! It keeps getting bigger and bigger:
-TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS. Preferably Amarillo or somewhere in the southeast.
-Western New York! It's so verdant and pretty!
-Southern Pennsylvania. The north part is too hilly.
-West Virginiaaaaaaa
-Central Tennessee
-Flagstaff or Kingman in Arizona!
One place I definitely do not want to go: California. Specifically, I-40, but the whole place in general really. The 70/55 split speed limit slows trucks down and turns them into rolling hazards for passenger cars, and it takes a hell of a long time to cross the Mojave desert. Getting to Barstow was pretty horrible because it was completely empty and took so damn longand unlike a lot of other trucks I actually stuck close to the speed limit.
Los Angeles itself was a lot more tolerable than I had thought it would be, apparently I'm okay at handling traffic! The roads are just horrifying though. I got this weird ache in my shoulder there that stuck with me for several days, that I'm pretty sure was stress-related. It was weird, I've never gotten stress pains before. But I-10 was a lot better to drive on, so once we were out of there things got a lot better.
Another place I'd rather not go again: the Beltway. Oh man. First there was construction (with heavy but fast-moving traffic), and then I had to merge somewhere and by the time I'd actually gotten into Maryland I'd been cut off several hundred times. I made sure there was space between me and whoever was in front of me, and apparently that's like a gilded invitation for a lane change over there. XD Pretty crazy, though I didn't mind the drivers so much as the general slowness of it. You only get so many hours in a day for driving, and if you can't get very far in those hours you're not gonna make much money.
At least the drivers are entertaining, though! Going up I-95 in heavy, slow traffic, I got cut off so many ways. Some of them were legitimate (people going further down the ramp to merge in front of me) and some... not so much. There was this one guy who moved from a lane of traffic ONTO the on-ramp and tried to run up and cut me off that way. He failed, and I shrieked with laughter. People are endlessly, inventively stupid, and I appreciate when they go to the effort to be funny about it. XD
I've gotten to see autumn start happening for the first time! Where I live the trees never shed their leaves, it doesn't get cold enough. But in the East, the colors are starting to change. It is so pretty, and vaguely disconcerting. It's like realizing for the first time that leaves die in most climates in the US. But so pretty! Most trees haven't started changing yet, some trees are speckled yellow, some turn bright red from the tips inward (really stunning, my favorite so far!), and there are even some pine trees that have needles turning brown. That last really surprised me, I thought all pine trees kept their needles! :o It's fascinating.
...it's gonna get cold soon. I am going to need a jacket. A really heavy-duty jacket. And... boots and gloves and stuff. This is gonna be interesting. I've never driven in snow before. I hope there's some kind of class on how to drive in snow safely or something!
One thing that's really fun: driving down hills. Even more fun: driving down hills in the dark! I-40, from about 30 miles west of Albuquerque all the way through the city, was insanely fun to drive through. Really curvy and crazy, great place to make some noise with the jake brakes. >3 And just... playing in traffic the whole way down. Felt like a boss. "Hello, little car, thank you for noticing I'm in the lane you want to be in. I weigh 76000 pounds, would you like to move or shall I? Yeah, that's what I thought."
God, cars are so cute sometimes. Defensive driving has cultivated in me the mindset that cars are not very smart, and need to be actively cared for. (It gets proven true often enough, too, sadly. HOW DO MERGING??) I tend to think of them as kids running around underfoot, not really aware of the danger they put themselves in when they try to do crazy stuff around a big rig. I just wanna pat them on the head and tell them to run along and use their turn signals next time, and did you wash behind your ears, sweetie? It sure beats road rage. XD
...okay, so I think that's most of what I had to mention, so here's my latest adventure. The last two nights I've done night driving, since we needed to run most of the time to make the loads on time. The first night was a bit rough, I stopped and took a nap at midnight (which was twice as long as I thought since my phone didn't go off, fffff-) and ran out of hours around sunrise. The second night, last night, I had a Java Monster, my secret weapon, and ran all night long without feeling tired. It was fantastic.
But then I couldn't fall asleep, and, uh, I've been awake for about 36 hours now. I don't feel at all drowsy. It's starting to weird me out. I've actually been typing all of this up waiting to hit a wall or something, and... nothing so far. I can't tell if I'm superhuman, or about to wake up at three in the afternoon with the most horrible crick in my neck. So, um, I'm going to post this now and see how long before my body realizes I'm not supposed to be awake right now. Later guys! :D