On the road-Week 1

It's been 1 week since Rex picked me up in Indianapolis, and this is the first time I've had the time to post something. I'm at a truck stop in Amarillo Tx doing laundry and giving Rex a chance to get to sleep before I go back to the truck. Since Monday morning I've done little except drive, sleep and eat. From Indianapolis we drove to a town not far from Columbia SC to deliver 20 tons of dehydrated potatoes to a pet food processor. Since then we've been to Youngstown, Ohio, Kansas City, MO, Calexico, CA, Los Angeles, and now we're on the way to Memphis, where we drop part of the load we're carrying, then take the rest to Louisiana. The driving is going well, the shifting only fairly well (I struggled with down shifting in school and it's still a challenge). I've driven in heavy urban traffic and up and down mountains (the Smokies the first day!) and on the freeways through some spectacular country in Tennessee,New Mexico and California. I am pretty intimidated maneuvering in the big truck stops, which all seem to be crowded. I need a lot of backing practice, but it's only the first week.

I seem to be relaxed when on the highway, but my body is telling me that I'm undergoing high stress overall. I should say, my intestines are telling me. I'm trying to eat well, but it's been difficult finding good food at the stops we make and until today, we've been going, going, so there hasn't been time to shop. So I'm living on bottled smoothies, the occasional banana, granola bars, and sandwiches. With my appetite being low, I'm sure I'm losing weight. I'm also letting my beard grow for the duration of this training. I've had two showers in the last seven days and it's too much of a hassle to keep up with shaving. Many, many of the drivers I see at the truck stops are morbidly obese. That's not going to be me.

Thursday I had my first "walk away" moment, as in I just wanted to walk away and go home. It was an accumulation of stress and frustration that had me close to tears, but I weathered it. One of my friends said that he'd have been worried if I hadn't had such a moment.

One good thing--I've been able to sleep pretty well whether the truck is moving or not. A couple of times I've awakened to find that we're parked in a Wal Mart lot. The first one had several other trucks and a couple of NASCAR nomad RV's parked there as well.

I need to get off the computer now 'cause I'm posting on a paid WiFi connection that I need to save some time on.

I'll post again as soon as I can.