IT’S ALIVE!!!

Yep, I’ve decided to rejoin the blogosphere. As you might have guessed from my earlier blog posts, the truck delivery job just didn’t pan out. I did pick up a truck (a brand-new International sleeper cab) in Laredo, Texas. I drove it back up to Austin, then to Memphis (where I met TDPRIer RC and his wife, some very nice folks who let me use their shower!) and got to eat some ribs and hear some blues on Beale Street with RC. From there, I drove to SW Virginia (where I spent the night in a truck-only rest area) and on to Salisbury, Maryland, where I delivered the truck and went on home.

As I enjoyed the trip (and got good fuel economy and didn’t spend any money on motels once I got the truck!), I called in to inquire about more trips from Laredo, and yep, they had a truck they needed delivered to Landover, Maryland. I drove to Upper Marlboro (not far from Landover) and left my car at my friend Rob’s place. Rob dropped me off at the Metro station and I took the subway to National Airport and flew to Laredo (cost me $200 for the airfare, which was much less than driving there would cost!).

In Laredo, I discovered that the truck was a day cab, so no sleeping in it. Oh well. The trip back up to Maryland was otherwise the same as my earlier one, except that I had to get motel rooms in Austin, Memphis and Virginia. I dropped the truck off in Landover, my friend Rob came and got me, and I drove on home to Ocean Pines.

…and pretty quickly calculated that I was making very small money for the amount of time and effort, and also found that my charter bus employer had plenty of work for me, so that was the end of my short career as a drive-away truck driver!

The following year was the same routine of driving bus charters and playing gigs with my band The Mood Swingers, and in January of 2011 my Mom and Uncle Pat and I went to California for two weeks (Mom had never been there) and, renting a car, drove a loop from LA to San Diego to LA up I-5 to the Bay area and then up to Sonoma County (much wine and laughter!), then a day in San Francisco (love it), followed by a drive down through Monterey to Big Sur, where we stayed at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn (absolutely magical), and then drove down the sublime Pacific Coast Highway to Hearst Castle (wow!) and spent a very nice evening in Pismo Beach (clams!) and on back to LA and flew home. A trip that deserved it’s own much longer write-up, but I wasn’t blogging then!

The following year DOES deserve its own blog post, which I will write shortly!