Sunday January 11th 2009 Waiting

We are in a waiting in a truck stop west of Raleigh NC on I40. We have been here since Friday and do not pick up our load until Monday afternoon.

We have done several things while here mainly clean the truck inside and out. We have been running up north and the truck was covered in road salt and we had tracked the salt into the cab. Molly has also added to the mess even though we keep her feet trimmed up to look like a poodles feet. We have been able to get our laundry done and cook a few things in the truck to get us prepared for the next week.

While we are sitting waiting for a load we keep pretty busy as we have many things to do in the truck. One of the ways Bob keeps busy is to keep the truck polished and waxed. This can take two full days to get done as people love to stop by as they walk towards the building to offer hints, ask if he will polish their truck or to just discuss ways to keep a truck clean. The inside of the truck always needs to be cleaned as black dust is always coming in off the road. When you live in such a small space it is much easier to keep the inside picked up and have a place for everything. For entertainment we have a Wii, Wii Fit and Guitar Hero that we spend time with, we have trucking forums we belong to and we have hundreds of DVD's as we do not watch TV. I also like to crochet and have a large blanket I am working on now. I also have an IPOD and I listen to books as often as I can. Right now I am listening to The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand.

I am reading a book called The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn which has some fantastic ideas and if I had this guide when the kids were small was a money saver that would have been. Really great book and if you can find it used you will really save some money.

While sitting yesterday towards evening a women approached the truck and introduced herself and she was wanting a hand out. She said her and her husband were going to have money wired to them but the money had not arrived yet. I have a very hard time understanding why in the world you would put two small kids in a truck and not have enough money to take care of them. It appeared that they owned their older Freightliner truck but they let the truck idle all night so they burnt up at least 12.00 in fuel and the weather was perfect last night to leave the windows open and use a blanket. I do not know if anyone gave her any money nor if the money they were expecting to be wired to them happened. We find that often in truck stops people asking for money as we are a captive audience. It is amazing the stories you hear and when you break down their stories they have made one bad choice after another and now they want you who are sitting not making money to help them out. When our wheels are not turning we also are not making money and I figure it they want money offer to do something I work for what I have and they are ALL that we see able bodied.