BoBo’s Blog-O-Rama

RIP Buddy Harman.  The following stolen from AOL news:

whose percussion work on more than 18,000 recordings established him as country music’s best-known and most-recorded drummer, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 79.

The native Nashvillian, born Murrey Mizell Harman Jr., is memorialized by his distinctive percussion work on such classics as Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman,’ Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy,’ Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire,’ Tammy Wynette’s ‘Stand By Your Man,’ Loretta Lynn’s ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Little Sister.’ Harman was also the first staff drummer on the Grand Ole Opry.

End.

So I guess next time I hear thunder I’ll know who it is.  RIP brother.

Well most folks would find a weekend in Orlando to be a fun family getaway or perhaps a nice weekend retreat from work and kids and whatnot.  Well not if you are a truck driver and you get stuck here like I did.  This blows.  Our dispatcher was gone on vacation or something this week so we get this substitute guy who gives us a load out for Indiana.  We go to the lot get the trailer hooked up get the truck packed with our things and get ready to head when he sends a message saying the load changed.  We would now not be leaving for several hours.  Great.  Home all day.  We could have planned something but now the whole day is wasted in waiting.  So we get our new load to Pennsylvania.  Deliver said load and we get dispatched on a load to Seattle that picks up in the morning.  Fantastic!  Zach is in Seattle.  Seattle is 2,600 miles away which is a really nice paycheck.  And it picks up the next morning so we have time to eat and sleep and such.  Head to the fuel stop and get fuel and food.  Get back in the truck and there is a message.  Load canceled we have a new plan.  Great.  Goodbye Zach and miles.  New load is to Ohio.  300 miles.  Yippee.  Get to Ohio get another load this time from Cincinnati to Orlando, Florida and the load delivers Friday night.  Great.  Florida is a black hole for van freight.  He better have a plan to get us out of here.  He doesn’t.  So we have been sitting here in Orlando since Friday night.  It’s now Monday morning and I’m waiting for our regular dispatch to come back to get us the hell out of Florida.

It really would not have been so bad if it wasn’t for the heat and my lack of funds right now cause if I had a motorcycle and some cash I would love to be stuck in Florida.  However I have a 60 foot vehicle and less money than I’d like to have on me.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not starving to death or anything I have money.  It’s just that I’ve been to the Orlando tourist stuff before and it ain’t cheap.  Hell even at this turnpike service plaza thingy it cost me 12 bucks for two slices of pizza and a pop.  Holy hell!  And the service wasn’t even that good.  Can we at least get people in fast food that look at you/pay attention?  It seems to be a southern thing.  Every time I come to the “south” I get terrible service at fast food joints usually by black females.  Not to stereotype but that’s what I’ve encountered every time.  No eye contact no smile and they barely talk.  Who hires these idiots?  You work in customer service, look at me when I approach the counter!  I don’t ask for much really and I’m not an ass but it’s getting annoying.

Speaking of annoying.  Buffalo Wild Wings.  Never eating there again.  The waitress was never at the table.  The wings were puny and cold, they gave me and my brother two scrawny napkins a piece for our drenched wings.  Hooters gives each table a roll of paper towels.  I’m just saying.  Anyway the food stunk, it was overpriced, we had to flag down busboys for refills, hell they brought the food out to the table and our drinks were empty and they didn’t even ask if we wanted refills.  Brother chum got the hot wings.  They gave him 20 hot wings with nothing to drink and two napkins.  Christ.  And then we had an extra guest show up after we had gotten our food and nobody came to the table to take his order.  We had to go to subway later so he could eat.  We sat there for a minimum of 20 minutes with no waitress in sight.  A large family was seated behind us about the same time and they never even got drink orders done while we were there.  The mother kept looking over her shoulder for someone to come but no one did.  We had to yell at a busboy for the check.  I go up to the counter to pay and there’s our waitress.  I give her my money and she proceeds to rifle about a pile of money strewn about the counter top and take five minutes to get my change.  It was a good thing it took so long because it gave our guest some time to complain about the service.  But bottom line is Buffalo Wild Wings sucks buffalo penis and I’m never giving them any of my money ever again.  And I’m pretty tolerant of bad service.  I love McDonalds for christ sake it’s not hard to make me happy.

What else can I rant about today?  Oh yeah.  Racial shit again.  I’m tired of these goddamned double standards we have in America regarding race.  How is it ok for there to be an NAACP?  A negro college fund.  Black history month?  But if we had any of these things traded with “white” it would be racist.  Why are white people so neutered any more?  I’m not saying I want to be a member of a white pride group or anything but why is it wrong for me to be?  Why is it that if you are a proud black man it’s a positive thing but if I say I’m proud to be white is means I don’t like black people?  When did this happen?  And now we have candidate Obama making me angry.  He recently got angry over a cartoon drawing of him and his wife.  Now every political candidate from clear back before there was CNN had a cartoon drawing of them.  From Taft to GW to John Kerry….everyone has had them.  But we can’t draw funny pictures of Barack cause that would be racist.  WHAT!  Are you f’n kidding me?  So you tell me Obama, what are we allowed to make fun of?  What is an appropriate Obama joke?  You see what happened?  Now that he’s pulled the race card everyone is afraid to make any jokes because you will be immediately labeled as a racist.  Have I mentioned before I hate censorship?  And why is Don Imus so vilified by the media but, hell who was it, Sharpton?  Al Sharpton got away with dropping the N word and also saying that Obama talks down to blacks and should be castrated.  If a white person had said that they would be strung up in town square.  Oh yeah, that happened to Michael Richards already didn’t it?  It’s all too insane.  So I suppose if I don’t vote for Obama I’m racist.

And then unfortunately I caught a show on CNN called Reclaiming the Dream Black in America or something to the effect.  First of all if there was a show called White in America it would be racist we all know that.  Second of all, it was ridiculous.  They were talking about how black youth statistically have higher dropout rates than whites.  So what was their solution?  To pay the kids to go to school.  What?  Yes.  They have a program that pays black kids money to go to school.  Whatever happened to “Stay in school or I’ll beat your ass!”  Oh that’s right, that would involve parenting.  I just love how people attack a problem from the wrong side every time.  They actually said on the show “we can’t hold the parents accountable all the time, they might be on drugs or selling drugs or incarcerated”  What?  Why the hell not?  It’s called don’t have kids if you can’t handle it and stop making me pay for your mistakes.  Rubbers are cheap people.  They also help stop AIDS.  Does Bono need to sing you a song about it?

Basically to wrap the race talk up I just want to say that no one keeps black people down more than black people.  They say there is a racial gap and we don’t understand each other and they are right.  And it’s because black people want it that way so they can continue to be treated as a special group.  They don’t want equality.  They want to be catered to special.  And of course that’s not everyone.  I don’t want to lump an entire race into the same group here that would be wrong:P  I’m just saying what I see.  There is a group I’ve heard of somewhere of black folks who want to make parents more accountable for their children and so forth and I think that’s great.  Baby steps.  We’ll make it though.  But who the hell am I to talk about black people, I’m white.  Only black people can talk about black people.  Ick.  Until we can all openly discuss and acknowledge our differences and similarities as adults together we will never be whole as a country, hell as a species, and there will always be hatred and bigotry towards each other.  Stop the double standards people.

And the bad thing is it’s not just racial.  There is a book that just came out written by a woman who was an animal trainer or was interested in animal training one of the two, and it’s a book about training your husband using the same techniques used in training animals.  Now how long would a book written by a man last on the shelf if it was about training your wife like you train your dog?  My wife nags at me so I whap her on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.  This shit absolutely turns my stomach.  That these broads can sit on television and laugh about training their husbands but if a guy comes on tv and talks about the same thing only reverse he would be a sexist pig and women would line up on the street to throw rotten fruit at his head.

Whew.  I need a drink of water.  Ok.

Another thing that really made me ashamed of our country was a discussion I listened to on Ron and Fez about deer hunting.  Basically Fez was against deer hunting and wanted to know why we couldn’t just load them up in a truck somewhere and put them in a game reserve like “in the middle of the country somewhere”.  WHAT!  You have to be joking.  First of all they tried this before with the Indians and it didn’t work.  Second of all, where is this game reserve going to be?  There are deer in almost every state and they are overpopulated almost everywhere so this is a shit ton of deer.  Also, it has been found that deer captured alive and transported away from urban areas don’t survive the process due to the stress involved.  But with all that said I just love how people can’t seem to realize that stuff has to die sometimes.  And they really don’t understand when the critter is “cute”.  Deer need to be thinned down for their own good and for ours.  It keeps them healthy and us safe.  Deer is meat it’s tasty.  Grow up people.  This is the natural order of things.  Something dies something else lives.  It’s also funny that one of the anti gun/anti deer hunting folks admitted that when he was a kid he used to shoot pigeons with bb guns because they were pests and he thinks that it’s ok to this day.  Well what are deer if not giant pests?  What are they too pretty to be pests?  And don’t talk to me about being humane when you are ok with torturing pigeons with bb guns.  If you are going to shoot something, at least use something that will kill instead of wound.  And be a good shot while your at it.

Oh and I know it’s completely off topic from everything else as well but when did everyone in America forget how to merge on the interstate?  Every interstate in America people come flying down the offramps and slam on the brakes cause there’s no where to go.  Or they just keep coming and run on the shoulder until there is a place.  Hello?  You have a yield sign.  That means look and proceed when clear.  Not ram your way into traffic like a buffoon.  Same thing for construction zones.  Everyone goes flying up to the merge zone and slams on the brakes cause the lane ended.  If you would merge five miles back when the sign said the lane was going to end you wouldn’t have had this problem.  And then all lanes of traffic have to stop because of your idiocy.  Oh it’s fun driving for a living.  I get to see/deal with this madness every day.

Well anyway I’m tired and I forgot half of what I was going to rant about.  Just wanted to put something here.  Let you all know I’m still alive and kicking.

Been awhile since I’ve made a proper post here and for that I am truly sorry.  Been stuck in Laredo, Texas since Thursday night (it’s now Tuesday morning) and I’m bored as hell so I just went through and categorized all the old blog posts here for your browsing convenience.  Isn’t that swell?  So now if you want to, say, find a ROBOFAN story.  You can simply click on the appropriate category button to the right and it should take you to all of the things I have tagged as such.  Hooray!

So I suppose I’ll let you know about Laredo.  We got here Thursday night and had to wait until Friday morning to deliver.  That wasn’t too bad just sleep in the truck and wait for morning.  Do that all the time.  Of course no wait until morning load is complete without a bobtail to a restraunt for food.  This time the food was Whataburger which neither of us had eaten before.  Wasn’t bad could have been better.  So we deliver the load and come back to the dropyard and we are bobtail because the load is going to Mexico.  We decide (if by we I mean Paul) that we need food so we bobtail down the street to Wendy’s.  And that was fine but on the way back we discover that the clutch has gone broken and that isn’t good.  Take the truck to the shop, they tell us that they close in a few hours, truck won’t be fixed until Monday, and we can’t sleep in the truck.  Fantastic.  So we get a hotel and here we sit for the weekend.

Didn’t do much since we are broke and it’s hot here.  Ate three times at Golden Corral which is awesome if you’ve never been there.  Went to Walmart and picked up season two of the Boondocks.  Also browsed Guitar Center for some sick axes.  Saw two RR5’s like Brandon’s and for cheaper.  Wish my government stimulus check would have been bigger.  Other than that pretty much wasted all weekend sitting in a hotel watching tv and playing on the internet.  Bored Bored Bored.

In sad news we lost George Carlin who lost his long fight against life this weekend.  He was old.  And a genius.  We’ll miss you George.  No sappy tributes for you.  You deserve better.  You said it yourself, everything is funny, cancer is funny.  Well so is death.  I’m sure we’ll all miss you more than you’ll miss us.  Too bad you won’t be around to see the downfall of man like you hoped for.

Speaking of that, man has Iowa gotten beaten up lately!  We lost most of Parkersburg to a “Finger of Sinatra” EF5 tornado, lots and lots of things to the flood of 2008 including the Sutliff Bridge, and evidently a couple of boyscouts who should have known better than to camp out in a tornado.  lol

And boy can I not wait to show off what I bought for myself with my stimulus check!  Happy birthday to me!

Speaking of that, we will not be home for my birthday, dad’s birthday, or fourth of july this year so I’m sorry I’ll miss out on my own birthday party.  Our hometime was denied.  So now it will likely be the second weekend of july we will be home for.  Which is convenient due to it’s falling on the Iowa Guzzi Rally weekend!  Which has been cancelled due to the flood.  Boo!  But I am still planning on making it to the WMGR rally in Wisconsin so hooray for that.  But that’s in August.  We’ll get to that later.  But sadly this hometime debacle will also make me not able to go to the Cavalera Conspiracy show I have a ticket for so I’m not happy about that one at all.  Anyone want to go?

Well anyway, this is all pretty abbreviated for what I wanted to post but it’s 2:30 am in Texas and I’m tired and cranky.  I want to make some freaking money so that truck had better be fixed when I wake up and we had better have a load hooked up and more loads after that.

So until next time, Ciao kiddies!

BoBo

Hi guys, been awhile since I’ve posted since the site got changed around a bit but I figured out how to run this thing so here goes.

First off, most if not all of my old posts have returned! So if you want to stroll down memory lane, now is the time. I have posts from clear back in Feb 2003! Whew! So check it out and have a ball!

In other news I have stopped keeping my trucker journals out of me being tired of doing it so I am going to just do normal style blogging from now on. Plus since I have mobile internet now, I have no need to keep a monthly journal since I can just post here whenever.

Oh and we will be back in Iowa on Friday just in time to see Dark Mirror in Cedar Falls so if you want to go, I suggest you do it.

BoBo

Yeah, it’s me again. Figured this goes beyond my normal truck driving stuff so I’d post it seperate. It’s real early and I’m not tired so I’m like Tom Hanks here, 1am in Seattle and wide awake. Maybe I’ll go take a dip in Puget Sound, go swim up the Strait of Juan de Fuca and hit up the Pacific ocean. Perhaps I shall go down to Safeco field and see how many jelly beans will fit inside. Or throw quarters off the Space Needle. Hell, everyone knows the CN Tower is cooler than that gay ass space needle. Maybe I’ll take a new Boeing for a test run since they build them up here. Or go find the old Olympia Beer factory and demand they make some more. Perhaps I should do like BZ and head up to BC and come back ten minuites later just to experience life under the metric system. No, I don’t think any of those things will do. I’m just going to ramble on about random thoughts like I usually do.

A conversation with Paul that started yesterday in the truck and spilled over into today at Jack In The Box made me think and I’m going to let you reap the benefits. It all started with the book I’m reading which is a book about “Natures Fury” y’know, earthquakes, storms, Volcanoes, that sort of thing. And that led to a discussion (it wasn’t a debate since we agree) about Algore and his global warming thing. Wich in turn turned to a talk about guns, censorship, religion, and racism.

We’ll start with global warming. There is much debate about man’s (I use man because I can’t stand being pc okay?) influence (or lack therof) on nature (is this two many parenthesis?). Algore says it is our fault that the planet is warming up and we are all going to die unless we drive pussy cars and buy his dvds. Well, I’ll agree with him to a point. Yes we have an impact on nature and it’s usually for the worse. Yes we need to regulate how much we pollute. But no, we are not killing the planet off or even changing it to where the earth even notices we are here. This is my point. To quote my book: “The earth emerged from cataclysm 4.5 billion years ago and has been evolving ever since.” There are forces, from our molten core 1,800 miles down, to the sun 93 million miles away, that effect our daily lives. Nature has been raging on our planet for millions of years. The earth has been buffeted by comets and asteroids, it has been frozen and flooded and burned. There have been terrible earthquakes and volcanoes, and raging tempests since before any humans were around to notice them. There have been good times and bad. Feast and famine. Since life emerged on this planet there have been five mass extinctions, remember the dinosaurs that ruled this planet for 160 million years and then died off very suddenly 65 million years ago? There was the forming and re-forming of a super-continent some call Pangaea. There have been several ice ages the last of which 18,000 years ago, left most of the US north of the Mason-Dixon line under a sheet of white. Most scientist believe those were caused by a slight shift in the earths orbit. And of course there are the tragedies that humans were around to see. Noahs flood for instance, THE flood. Weather or not you believe that it happened or not (no solid evidence exists yet) what you can’t argue is that the very human writers of scripture knew what a flood looked like and the carnage it leaves in it’s wake.

Yes, human history is full of tragedies. How about 1470 BC when the mountain of Thera blew up? You know, the island in the Mediterranean that is now five islands known as Santorini. Not much is known about this eruption since there is little record from back then (most likely since those who witnessed it probably didn’t live to tell) but it is theorized that it wiped out the Minoans on Crete and gave birth to the myth of the lost city of Atlantis. But really you know the stories, AD 79 in Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the death of up to 30,000 Romans. Or the 1815 Mount Tambora explosion that had the force of 20 to 25 thousand megatons and threw 170 billion tons of Vocanic debris into the sky. As far as 300 miles away darkness reigns for three days. It caused the year with no summer where it snowed in Vermont in July. Or the 1883 destruction of Krakatoa (I use the old spelling cause I’m old school like that) that killed 36 thousand people, obliterrated the island, and made possibly the loudest sound ever heard in human history. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away in Madagascar.

I could get long winded here but these names should ring a bell: The Dust Bowl, The Great White Hurricane of 1888, The Johnstown Flood in 1889, the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, 1902’s erruption of Mount Pele, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, The Tri-state tornado of 1925, The New England Hurricane of 1938, The constant China Floods that kill Millions, 1952 Deadly Fog in London, 1953 North Sea Flood, 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, Florrence drowns in 1966, the 1970 Bhola Cyclone (Bangladesh), The endless Volcano in Iceland of 1973, the regular drought in Ethiopia, 1974 Tornado Super Outbreak, 1976 the Tangshan Earthquake, the Blizzard of 1978, 1980’s Mount St. Helens, 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 1991 Mount Pinatubo, 2003’s european heat wave, and of course we can’t forget the Indian ocean Tsunami of 2004 and the deadly hurrican season of 2005 with Hurrican Katrina and the others. Anyway my point is the list is endless and that’s just the ones we were here for. Everyday there are storms and floods and avalanches and droughts and earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes and lightning and all that jazz. And there always have been and assumadly there always will be. But for all the loss of property and life these tragedies bring, this is the way the world works and at the end of the day, it is what makes life on this planet possible. The earth is in a constant cycle of destruction and re-birth. That’s just how it works people.

The problem is, we moved here. And now we get pissed off when it inconvieniences our lives. And we humans being who we are look for something to blame. You know, how tribes sacrifice virgins to apease the gods. Folks call it the wrath of god to cope. I’ve seen the blame placed on Ill Nino. Remember that? You don’t hear as much about that anymore. And now it’s us. We did it. Katrina? Us. Our bad. Bullshit. It wasn’t even the Halliburton Hurricane Machine. It was earth herself. She’s not mad at us, she’s just doing her thing. And of course we are just doing our thing. Being lazy and also blaming others. We always look for an easy out on these problems. Hitler blamed the jews, southern whites blamed their poverty on the blacks, the blacks blame the whites, most folks blame the government whenever they can, christians blame the devil and Heavy Metal, and now we have global warming.

I’ll tie some things together. In recent times there has been a fight to ban the “N” word from our vocabulary. There has also been a timeless fight to ban guns. Smokers and drinkers know about that too. (prohibition? or how about the new fad of smoking bans?) Well these things all have one factor in common. It’s a vain attempt by so called upright citizens to feel better. They say they want to change the world for the better but really all it is, is a pointless attempt to pat themselves on the back and feel good, while actually accomplishing nothing. Banning the “N” word (you know, nigger) will never solve the problem of racism. As we all know, if a word becomes un-acceptable we will just find alternatives. And we all still say the bad word anyway, we are just more carefull of our audience. The word isn’t bad, the meaning we give it is. We make up words and their meanings. Any word can mean any thing. So banning a word makes no sence because we will still be racist, we will just express it differently. Besides, if racism went away, what would Jesse and Al do? What would minorities have to blame their shortcomings on? Nothing. And that’s why no one wants to solve the problem of racism, and thats why our time is wasted on stupid trivial bullshit like censorship. Just look at the fight over the parental advisory sticker or all the shit the FCC does. One person gets offended and entire programs go off the air. It’s another easy out. I don’t like what you say so you should go away so I feel better. Well, you know what? If you don’t like whats on the tv or radio change the fucking channel. It’s even more ridiculous if you put it in another context. Lets say person “A” doesn’t like chocolate ice cream, they only like vanilla. So instead of ordering vanilla and ignoring chocolate, they decide they don’t even want chocolate as an option. They don’t even want to see it. So they fight to have it banned. Sounds stupid right? And thats my point. And that goes for the gun ban and smoke ban and banning drinking and so on and so on. Banning guns does nothing. People will still kill people. People will still find guns. It may make it harder but it will still happen. Killers will always be killers they will just use different means. Besides, if law abiding citizens all had conceal-carry or open carry even, I bet you crime would go down. Nothing stops crime better than fear. Goverments have been using fear for centuries. Anyway, the same logic goes for smoking, drinking and drugs. No matter how much you preach how bad the stuff is. So matter how many jel ads there are. No matter how illegal or legal it is. There will always be smokers drinkers and druggies. Banning stuff may make you feel better but it does nothing but waste time and money. Hell speeding, rape, and murder are all illegal. Those things happen everyday.

So anyway this all brings me back to Global Warming. It’s an easy out. We see these tragic things happening and want an answer and us being lazy, that is what we came up with. But it’s all a crock of shit. The fact is, we are ants on a mountain. The earth will do what it pleases and we can’t do anything about it but get out of the way. But we being we want to find a way to stop it. We see glaciers melting and polar bears (some of which are animated btw) drowning. We see the victims of hurricanes. And we want it to stop and we see our cars and factories and go “Ah ha! That’s the problem” but it is really just lazy science. The deal is, we don’t know how the world works, we like to think we do but we don’t have the technology and we haven’t been here long enough to really understand. Hell the science of Plate Techtonics wasn’t accepted until the 1970’s. How long did we think the world was flat and that the sun revolved around us? Exactly. Well global warming is this generations flat earth. It’s the equivilent of me holding up a salt shaker in a restraunt and saying “This salt shaker repells tigers.” You can’t prove me wrong since there are no tigers available to test it. The believers of global warming are basically saying that since you can’t prove me wrong, I must be right. But that is really a shallow inconvinient truth isn’t it? It’s similar to religion in the effect that I can’t prove God doesn’t exist but you can’t prove that he does. So are we both wrong? We don’t know. But global warming is more obvious to me just for the fact that the earth is constantly changing without our help and it has done so since it’s formation. So why the hell would it be logical to conclude that we are doing anything? We have a hard time dealing with change but unfortunately that is what the planet does.

Just think of where you are right now. What did it look like in the past? Has it always looked the same as it does now? Odds are, at one time or another where you are sitting was under a glacier, or under water, or it was a mountain top, or a rain forest. Perhaps 70 million years ago a dinosaur was taking a shit right where you are now. That’s my point. The world never stops changing. For some reason we have this silly notion in our heads that our world stopped evolving when we got here. That mountains exploding, the world flooding, or quaking, etc is a bad thing when in reallity it is only bad to us. To the world it’s everyday normal stuff. And without these things we wouldn’t be here.

Now like I’ve said I’m not saying we have no impact on the environment. Things like the Exxon Valdeze oil spill were our fault. The deadly fog I mentioned earlier in London was deadly because of our involvement. As well as the Johnstown Flood or the lesser known flood at Buffalo Creek and even a few in China like in 1664 the Ming Army quashed a rebellion of peasants in Kaifeng by inundating the city killing 300,000 and in 1938 nearly a million people drowned when during the second sino-japanese war, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the opening of a dike to halt the oncoming Japanese Army. The dust bowl was also partly our fault, when a drought combined with our lack of knowledge on how to properly manage soil. But none of those happened by themselves, nature helped.

And really most of these deadly disasters are only that way because we are here. Earthquakes would probably kill no one if it weren’t for the fact that we built bridges and buildings and stand in or under them. Here is a good one for you. What was the largest vocanic event of the 20th century? Mount St. Helens? Nope. Was it Mount Pinatubo? Close. It came second even though the aerosols released into the stratosphere caused the greatest ozone depletion on record (here that algore? Blame that on us!) It caused the Mississippi river to flood that year and people on the east coast wore sweaters on the beaches in mid summer. Some even think it caused yet another drought in the Sahel region of Africa. But no that one isn’t the biggest. The biggest was actually the eruption of the Novarupta volcano on the Alaska Peninsula in 1912. But since the place is so remote and scarcely populated it is almost forgotten today. So we can only imagine what terrible things have happened in the past that we weren’t here to see. And those things can and will happen again and they do. We just need to deal with it like men instead of trying to blame it on fictional demons. Don’t like the weather? Move. Can’t move? Tough.

It all boils down to our inability to cope with the unknown, we want an answer for everything and a solution to every problem. And the fact is we just don’t know everyting and we can’t fix everything. Change happens if we want it to or not and we just can’t deal with it. Glaciers melt, animals become extinct, cities flood, forests burn, we live, we die. Deal with it and move on. Life is too short to try to fret over things we have no control over. The sad thing is, algore won a nobel fucking peace prize over this shit. People act like he’s a hero or something. He’s really just looking for attention. Hell half of his movie is just footage of him staring out a window or typing away on his lappy. I mean give me a break. You want to lessen your impact on the planet? Die. It’s the easiest and cheapest way and it’s guaranteed to work.

And I’m done now (finally) thanks for reading this far if you did.

And on a side note, I watched the movie “Be Kind Rewind” tonight with Jack Black and there was a scene that bothered me. In the scene Jack’s charachter was busy making a movie and he had gone into the back to get into costume. He came back out in black-face and a derby hat with a fake mustache ready to play the part of a black man from the twenties. And as soon as he walked out into the room the whole place went dead quiet with angry stares from black people in every direction and Jack’s charachter couldn’t figure out what was the matter. And neither do I. Why is it that white people can’t do anything to make fun of black culture or even in Jack’s case, he was just playing a bit part for a movie, there was no racism on his part he was just doing what he does. But my point is, how is there this double standard where the fucking Wayans brothers can do a movie called “White Chicks” and it’s hillarious because two black guys are dressed up as white bitches and it’s wrong for a white man to dress up as a black? WTF? Hell Dave Chappelle dressed up as a white guy all the time. Carlos Mencia does stuff like that? Why can’t we? Why is it only racist when a white man does something? I’m just curious. If anyone can answer that and make sence I will give them a cookie. Besides, in the same movie Jack dressed up as an old woman, Jackie Chan, and even fucking robocop and no one had anything to say about that. But as soon as he comes out to play the part of a black man, and it wasn’t even a real bad stereotype black guy either, he was doing an honest tribute to a person he admired who happened to be a different color and somehow he’s wrong. I don’t get it. I think Paul Mooney was right in a way, I’m gonna cast a movie with Tom Hanks and call it “Last Nigger On Earth” and see how it goes. I’ll let him talk to a 40 of malt liquor named Wilson.

BoBo out.

Oh btw, I’m sure he’ll bitch if I don’t mention it but the salt shaker tiger thing was all Paul. And my source for the historical disaster stuff was Life magazine special edition “Nature’s Fury”. Both of my sources helped my post here tremendously so thanks to both of you.

What’s Wrong With Being Nice?

Was listening to the radio the other day, I believe the Ron and Fez show, and they had a debate about men being nice to women and how some women find it offensive. I guess I don’t get it. How is someone being nice offensive? It kind of pisses me off a little cause I do those kind of things you know, like hold a door open for someone or offer help if they are lifting something heavy you know, and I guess some women find it offensive because we are underhandedly saying they are weaker and they need our help. So come on. I don’t fall for that bullshit. We offer to help because it is embedded in our genetic code to do so. Women are the bearer of our children, the key to the continuation of our species. Men are designed to provide and protect, it’s natural instinct, and not concious insult. Plus most men are nice to women cause they want to get in their pants. But either way how is someone being nice offensive? I just want to know what harm it really does. The other thing is, the woman on the show was saying that we shouldn’t help women because it implies we are not equal. Fuck off. Okay, yes socially and legaly we are equal now where before we were not. We all can vote and own land and have good jobs and all that jive. But chemically and physically we are different and you can’t convince me otherwise. Men are just designed to be bigger and stronger. It’s no ones fault but nature so don’t get pissed at me. Besides most women I’ve ever heard of play both sides of the field where they say that we are equal and there is nothing a man can do that a woman can’t, but then they turn around and when something is too hard or too icky, then they bad their eyelashes and say well I’m just a girl. Shit. I’ll tell you what though, if I ever open a door for a woman and she yells at me, I’m slammin it back in her fucking face. Thats the price you pay for trying to make the world a better place I guess. Oh and to counter this particular woman who said that men only open doors for women, I for one open the door for everyone. It’s not sexist, it’s me being polite. So quit being a bitch and let people be nice to you. That is all for today.

Sorry for the length of my bitching again.

BoBo

Feb 19:

Finally made it back on the road. Had a wonderful week off and hung out with alot of
friends so thanks to those that I got to see. So Sunday night we were supposed to leave on
a load to Nebraska that also had a drop in Kansas, but the roads were bad. So we stayed
home. Monday we were scheduled for a load to Washington but we were going to have to wait
until 10pm to get it. Well we go to the shop to get our stuff together and they tell us
we have a new load assigned that would run from Cedar Rapids to Texas and then right back
to Cedar Rapids again, which we were fine with but travel was still not recommended by DOT
so we did a test run in the car and decided to stay home again. Finally this morning we
called in and they had a load for us. Yup, it was the Washington load again. So now we
are headed to Vancouver. But it took a lot of fun driving to get this far (Des Moines).
The roads were still ice covered in most places and there were wrecks and cars in the ditch
everywhere. Stop and go traffic from Iowa City almost all the way to Des Moines. But now
the roads seem to be clearing up and it should be clear sailing. It’s supposed to snow
tonight in Iowa but I don’t know if it’s coming from the west or south so I don’t know if
we are going to hit it or not. The for sure not fun stuff will be in Wyoming which has a
no light load advisory which we have, and it’s supposed to be snowing in Oregon and
Washington when we get there. The other fun one is we have been sent out with license
plates for another truck and we have to meet them on our way there. They are supposedly
sitting in Idaho now. But anyway, at least we are back on the road again and the money will
be flowing free once again. Well it’s off to bed for a few hours of shuteye before I have
to drive across Nebraska and Wyoming at night. Ciao.

Feb 21:

Smells fishy. We are sitting in Troutdale, Oregon waiting for a load. Delivered last night
in Vancouver, Washington at a Petsmart store. Evidently we pick up a USF load tonight here
in Clackamass, Oregon that heads to Minnesota so that will be another new state for me. In
other more amazing news, the roads were terrific all the way from Des Moines to Portland.
I don’t think that has happened before. Usually there is some ice or snow or wind or
something. But no. We did have to meet that other truck to give them their liscence plates
which worked out well and we did have to sit overnight last night to wait for the store to
open and we did have to sit here all day and possibly tonight to wait for our next load, but
other than that, it’s been a good run so far. So until next time, keep ‘er between the
ditches.

Feb 24:

Well, that one new state turned into three for me. They routed us across Montana, North
Dakota, and Minnesota for that last load so North Dakota and Minnesota were the new ones.
But wait, I thought you said three? Yes, because the load we got after the Minnesota one
was to the Chicago area which they routed us through Wisconsin for which is new state
number three. So we got the Minnesota load there early, picked up the next load early,
and because of that got another load so instead of sitting in Minnesota right now, we have
a load done and are on our way on the next one. God we are awesome lol. So now we head
to the Seattle area for Petsmart which will take us right back through Wisconsin, Minnesota,
North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington again. Hooray. We’ll be rollin’ in the money
now boys! Anyway, hopefully the weather will hold out for us. Ciao.

Feb 27:

Good morning! Here it is 3am but since I’m in Seattle, WA (Everett actually but who is
reading this anyway), it’s actually 1am. Just got done watching Be Kind Rewind at the
movie theater here since I slept all day and now I’m awake and Paul isn’t. We sit at
the Petsmart store now since we are empty and we don’t pick up our next load until 7am down
the road from here in Fife. So instead of trying to go back to the truckstop down the road
and not find a parking spot we figured it would be easier to just sit here where we have a
place to park and it’s nice and quiet and close to many places to eat (not to mention the
movie theater). So we had some Jack in the Box and Paul went to sleep and I went to the
movie. And that brings us to now where I am sitting in Seattle behind a Petsmart store in
a semi in my shorts typing this blog in the dark. Fun fun. At least the weather is better
here than in Iowa right now by the sounds of it. Plus I finally got to see Seattle in the
day time which is nice. Went over snowqualmie pass yesterday but didn’t see where the
avalanche was since it was dark so I’m hoping that later today I’ll still be awake and I can
see it as well as the rest of the pretty country surrounding the Puget sound area. And I
found out that they really need more truckstops in Seattle and Portland because both cities
are impossible to find truck parking unless you are bobtail (no trailer). Each city has
basically two main truckstops (TA and Flying J) and both are full most of the time in both
cities so I plead to you Petro and Pilot and even Loves, please build truckstops in the
northwest so I can find a place to f’n sleep. Well that’s all for tonight. Our next load
takes us to Missouri so I’ll see y’all in Kansas City. kthxbai

Feb 29:

Well, as promised here I am in Kansas City. Dropped the load at Kohls about 2:30 this
morning and headed over to the Petro for some sleep and then food and showers. We have
our next load set up and we are picking it up shortly in Joplin and it heads to Sacramento,
California. So far the weather seems to be great and spring is surley on it’s way. Also
I found out that as far as performance we are on the top tier in our fleet. On a scale from
1 to 6, 6 being a student with trainer and 1 being the best, we are 1. Which hopefully
means more loads for us especially since the months of January and Feb are over and the
company is pushing to get more frieght for us to haul. Also as far as the idle competition
I think we are doing more than ok since our idle percentage is less than 5 percent. Other
than that Paul was excited to have gone through South Dakota for the first time though he
found out that it’s boring as hell. And we had to meet a truck in Mitchell to give them our
chains so now we don’t have any. Hopefully chain laws will not be in effect or we will
have to shut down. And in other news Paul tried to kill a Lienies truck by taking it’s
picture. The lane the beer truck was in was ending and Paul was in the lane directly to the
left of him and as he was taking his pictures the guys lane was ending and Paul didn’t
notice and damn near ran the poor guy off the road. I had to tell Paul to move over or else
he would have just kept taking pictures as the guy went in the ditch. What a mook. Any who
I’ll catch ya in California. Happy leap day.

Oh, and I forgot, here’s some random thoughts for you. People who support the myth of
algores global warming are people who can’t understand that you can’t take something that
is constantly changing and evolving and expect it to stay exactly the same forever. Other
wise Panegea would still be here. Fact is the world is changing everyday and it has been
ever since it was formed. Another random thought. Walking through a crowd full of mall
going cookie cutter trendy teen fucks makes me proud that I’m different. They may giggle
at the fact that I’m wearing overalls and work boots and smell like diesel fuel and rape
fluid but at least I’m comfortable with who I am and don’t feel the need to copy eveyone
else to fit in. Shit, I’m fat and un-attractive and balding sure. But I’m smart, creative,
funny, giving, and caring and people like me the way I am. So laugh all you want kid with
the baseball hat on crooked listening to 50 Cent in your moms Honda. Cause at least I’m
cool enough to be myself and to think on my own. Besides, I just hauled all your gf’s shit
to the Gap so you should be thanking me right now. Another random thought. Why is it, when
there is guardrail damage on the interstate, they put up orange cones and flashing lights
and signs alerting you to the fact that the guard rail is damaged? I mean, yeah, you
wouldn’t want to crash into that, but you aren’t supposed to hit the guardrail anyway right?
Isn’t it redundant to say, “Hey, don’t hit the guardrail cause it’s damaged.” because well
you aren’t supposed to hit it regardless. Besides it’s not like you are going to change
your mind in the middle of the crash because the guard rail is broken. If you are going to
crash you are going to crash and that’s it. Just seems like a waste of money to me.
Another random thought. I was listening to the radio the other day in Montana and they
reported that an environmental group was calling for the removal of wind turbines because
they were a danger to migratory birds. You have to be fucking kidding me. People seriously
just kill yourselves and save me the trouble. I can just see their bumper stickers too
and it’s hilarious. Picture a wind turbine with blood dripping from the proppellers and
feathers stuck to it and maybe a pile of dead birds with x’s for eyes on the ground below
and a caption that reads “Just how clean IS your energy?” lol BoBo out.

*update* Nope, load changed, we’re relaying this load in Liberty, Missouri and taking an
air freight load to Seattle tomorrow. So, back to the northwest once more. I’m gonna be
able to drive there blindfolded before long.

March 3:

Made it to Seattle ok, now waiting at the consignee to be unloaded. Started watching dvds
but now my disc drive seems to not be working which makes me less than happy. Gonna make
the trip a lot longer now that I can’t use this thing for internet or video now. It
couldn’t have gotten burned out because Paul burned his entire cd collection on here, nope.
That is also not why it runs slower either. Probably just got old. Computers are like
child labor, once they turn 4 years old they are pretty much worthless. No word on where we
are headed, probably won’t know until at the earliest 7-8 am. So for now I sit in the truck
in the dark with no capability to watch movies and Paul is asleep. Maybe I’ll go stick
cashews in his nose and ears, he sleeps soundly enough he’d never know. *evil laughter*
Oops, don’t wanna laugh too loud, might wake up my victi….er co-driver. Yeah, co-driver.
That’s it. BoBo out.

March 5:

Well we got loaded on a load for Wal Mart on the third there in Seattle and Paul had to
chain up at snowqualmie pass which I guess sucked. Add to that the pass was closed for a
few hours because a couple semi’s tried to go through without chains on and jacknifed and
blocked the whole road. Then I drove and hit snow on Lookout Pass that was a few inches
deep and not plowed off which was not fun at all especially since it was still snowing and
dark. And I hit snow off and on again the rest of the way across Montana. Then Paul hit
random ice pellet downpours and snow most of the way across Montana, Wyoming, and South
Dakota. Then I hit some nasty snow and ice on my run across South Dakota where the road
was 100 percent covered and even the tractor was coated in ice. But it cleared up by the
time I hit Iowa. And also I had my first scale where they told me to pull around back and
bring in the paperwork to inspect it. Oh man I was so nervous, I think I was in there for
15 minuites with the Kansas Highway Patrol but I walked out with no violations. *whew*
Made the drop at the humungous walmart warehouse and then no sooner did we get out on the
road to hit up the truckstop that they sent us our next load which oddly enough is the same
run they cancelled on us the last time we were here which meant we had to run down to Joplin
and run to Sacramento, California. So I’m currently finding that kind of funny. And that
is where we are right now, I’m in the bunk trying to sleep some before I have to drive at
midnight probably across most of Nebraska and some of Wyoming. Wyoming probably wont be
fun since I think they are calling for wind and black ice. Imagine that in Wyoming. And in
other news I think I am now addicted to the Opie and Anthony show on XM radio. If you have
never heard them before they are offensive and crude and, well, really like most of e53 is
at our parties lol. They crack me up so much. I guess the virus has spread. See you all
in California.

March 7:

Sitting in Sacramento now, delivered the load this morning and now are waiting until tonight
so we can pick up our next load. Picking up and delivering to places that we’ve already
been to. Picking up in Livermore, CA over by San Fran and running it to Baltimore, MD.
This is the load we had last time that had four drop offs. As of right now I don’t know if
we will have multiple drops again, I won’t know that until we get the paperwork when they
are done loading us and that won’t be until the wee hours of the morning. The place we
delivered to this morning was the company that makes baking chocolates and nuts so that was
cool. You could just smell the almond bark. Hard place to get around though. To get to
the docks you had to drive through the building and then through a narrow tunnel under a
railroad track and then you got to the dock area which was cramped. Add to that the fact
that the docks were too high so you had to back the trailer wheels up onto metal ramps.
Kinda like the ones you pull your car on to change the oil only a lot bigger. And then to
get back out you had to go the same way you came in which means if another truck is coming
one of you has to back up cause the tunnel is just wide enough to where you don’t scrape
the mirrors on each side. But the weather is great and we seem to be getting good miles.
We stopped at the salt flats on the way out here which was fun cause I’ve never seen it in
the daytime so we stopped and walked on it and took pictures and such. In other news we
did not win the idle percentage competition because they included the week the truck was
sitting in the lot on our hometime when the shop left the truck running all week which I
think is bullshit. We are sitting at 4 percent idle time right now and the winner had over
20 percent. What a crock. Oh, and I guess I still owe money to the doctors from when I
got plowed into by that Buick five years ago and the lawyer never took care of it so they
are garnishing my wages now. Fuck that. Just because five years ago some asshole couldn’t
read a fucking sign, now I have to have my pay stolen from me without notice or approval.
How come that fuck that hit me doesn’t have his wages took huh? Time to call my Mastif and
see just wtf is going on here. And if he can’t help me I’m building my AR-15 sooner than
expected along with a duece and a half, and I’m making a trip to Pickle town if you know
what I mean. It’s not a small amount of cash either. I had $100 took out on tuesday and
another $20 on Thursday, and they say I owe $1800, which will take a long time and alot of
my fucking money for something I don’t think I should have to pay. I’m trying to make some
ground up here from being broke for so long. I got alot of shit to pay off and things to
buy not to mention if I ever want a house or something. Well now my credit is shit and I’m
having money stolen on top of it. Oooh, wait till I get home…..bobo

March 9:

Got our load picked up in Livermore and as suspected it had four drops, one in Baltimore
and the other three in Virginia. Made our way towards the east when in Salt Lake City the
truck died right on the freeway. Well come to find out we had a coolant leak that caused
the engine protect deal to shut the truck down before it could overheat. So we refilled
the cooland and headed to the truckstop where they told us they couldn’t fix it and they
sent us to the Freightliner dealer in town where they told us we would have to wait until
the next afternoon. So we sat at the dealer until they got us fixed early afternoon. But
it was too late to keep our load and they re-assigned it to another truck. So we no
longer are headed east. Now they put us on an air frieght load headed to a town north of
Vancouver and south of Seattle. So yeah, for the millionth friggin time this month, it’s
back to Washington. Well, we’re off for a shower and then pickin up our load at midnight.
Later. BoBo

*update* Ugh, I’m tired of changes in plan. Now we are not picking up the load at midnight
and we are instead picking up a Fed Ex load at 11am and dropping it in Portland, Oregon so
we are still headed northwest but it’s a change in plans none the less. Boo I say.

March 11:

Didn’t get our load at Fed Ex until 2pm cause it wasn’t ready when we got there. But now
we are in Portland having dropped the load last night and now we wait for our next orders.
But judging by the number of our company’s trucks in the lot, it might be a while. Had a
pretty shitty night last night. Don’t really know why but I just got really angry at
everything and then I got depressed so I’m currently in self loathing mode which I don’t
like. I guess I’m just tired of being out here. I feel so disconnected from everything
and very lonesome. I think it’s time to be home now, but there is still another week left.
Also I smashed my phone so now I’m really disconnected. Just gotta make it one more week.

March 13:

Made it to Indianapolis which is our first drop. Was supposed to go to New Jersey and New
York but now we are relaying the rest of this load in Columbus, OH. Got terribly lost
trying to find the place in Portland. The directions they gave us weren’t even close to the
actual directions. I mean, how much is it to ask for some friggin acurate directions huh?
In other news, I saw the Oscar Mayer wiener mobile going down the freeway the other day so
that was cool. But anyways, I’m gonna go find some place to lay down and wait until one
week from now when we’ll be home again. Ciao.

March 16:

Well we relayed the load in Columbus and had to go down by Cincinati to pick up the next one
which we took to California near Sacramento. Not too much excitement along the way, pretty
typical I-80 run for me. Ran into some heavy snow suddenly in Salt Lake City which caused
several accidents that choked up traffic but other than that the weather was fine and the
snow I did run into was short lived. Paul dropped this load off at Fed Ex this morning
early and had to run down the road a ways to grab an empty trailer and now we sit on Sunday
because our next shipper is closed. So we are here at a Loves truckstop waiting for morning
so we can get out of here and come home. Yup, this load is going to Pennsylvania but we are
relaying it in Cedar Rapids so we can come on home time. And it’s just in time as well
since both Paul and myself only have twenty hours apiece to drive this week and that’s more
than likely what it will take to get home so we will just barely squeak home on our hours
and then it will be hurry up and get everything done before we go back on the road time
again. *sigh* Oh well, it will feel really nice to be home again and on top of that it
will be easter so I can have some fun holiday time with the family. But other than that its
going well today, the sun is out, it’s warm and the grass is green and I’ll be home in a few
days so life is ok today. See you all soon. BoBo Oh, and happy St Patricks day you drunk
bastards.

March 17:

Just a quick update. I’ve been thinking hard the last week or so about it and unfortunately
I have decided to cancel my California trip. I have the money and I have the machinery and
I have the stamina but I just don’t think it would work out. I can’t get the time off of
work without possibly having our truck re-assigned and looking bad performance wise. And
I can’t do the propper trip in the time I can have so I’ve decided to put off the trip
until I have vacation time and can do it propperly. Sucks it does greatly. But the good
news with it is I will have more propper home time and more money to go to other things that
I need to spend money on like getting mobile internet and things of that nature. Plus I may
do a different trip later in the summer with my regular time off and just go somewhere
closer. Possibly Las Vegas. Or not. But either way, um, sadly Malibu just isn’t going to
work out the way I wanted so I’m cancelling. Boo. Also I want to note that I stopped at
the Donner Pass rest area and there was a glory hole in the stall which is the first time
I have honestly seen one. And there was a peep hole cut in the other side so you can snoop
on peoples cocks at the urinal. God it was uncomfortably gross shitting in there. So any
way that is it, should be home tomorrow. Later. BoBo

Cedar Rapids, IA to Vancouver, WA
I-380 - I-80 - I-84 - I-205

Vancouver, WA to Clackamas, OR
I-205

Clackamas, OR to Owatanna, MN
I-205 - I-84 - US 730 - I-82 - US 395 - I-90 - I-94 - I-495 - I-35w - I-35

Owatanna, MN to Waseca, MN
US 14

Waseca, MN to Bolingbrook, IL
US 14 - US 52 - I-90 - US 14 - I-43 - US 12 - IL 53 - I-290 - I-355 - US 34 - IL 53

Ottawa, IL to Federal Way, WA
I-80 - I-39 - I-90 - I-94 - I-694 - I-94 - I-90 - I-5

Federal Way, WA to Everett, WA
I-5

Everett, WA to Fife, WA
I-5

Fife, WA to Kent, WA
I-5

Kent, WA to Grain Valley, MO
I-5 - I-90 - I-29 - I-435 - I-70

Grain Valley, MO to Joplin, MO
I-70 - I-435 - US 71

Joplin, MO to Liberty, MO
US 71 - I-435

Liberty, MO to Kansas City, MO
I-435

Kansas City, MO to Kent, WA
I-435 - I-29 - I-90 - US 85 - US 212 - I-90 - WA 18 - WA 516

Fife, WA to Ottawa, KS
WA 18 - I-90 - US 212 - US 85 - I-90 - I-29 - I-435 - I-35

Ottawa, KS to Joplin, MO
I-35 - US 75 - US 160 - US 169 - US 166 - I-44

Joplin, MO to Sacramento, CA
US 71 - I-435 - I-29 - NE 2 - I-80

Sacramento, CA to Livermore, CA
I-5 - I-205 - I-580

Livermore, CA to Salt Lake City, UT
I-580 - I-205 - I-5 - I-80

Salt Lake City, UT to Portland, OR
I-15 - I-84

Portland, OR to Indianapolis, IN
I-84 - I-80 - I-74

Indianapolis, IN to Columbus, OH
I-70

Columbus, OH, to West Chester, OH (Cincinati)
I-71

West Chester, OH to Elk Grove, CA
I-74 - I-80 - CA 99

Elk Grove, CA to Modesto, CA
CA 99

Modesto, CA to Cedar Rapids, IA
CA 99 - I-80 - I-380

And that’s it folks, I’m home and I’m relaxin until next week. Happy Easter!

Oh, and an update note I have a new phone and I may have lost a lot of people’s numbers so do me a favor and call me if you know me. Also I now have a gmail account so if you want it ask for it. Otherwise, if you know my aol email it is the same as that minus the suffix. Oh, and Iron Maiden in June in Chicago! *jumps around excitedly*

BoBo

IOWA CITY - Greg Glowacki, 55, of Iowa City, died Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008, from injuries suffered in a car accident. Family will greet friends from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008, at Lensing’s Oak Hill, 210 Holiday Rd., Coralville. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established.

Greg was born April 1, 1952, in Chicago, Ill., the son of Joseph and Loretta Sneid Glowacki. On Aug. 1, 1981, he married Kathy Enfield in Cedar Rapids. Greg was the owner of K&G Distributors and before that he was a partner in the Subway franchise in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty.

Greg was an avid motorcyclist, a member of the BMW MOA, and past member of the Pure Stodge Touring Association. He was a great storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor; he always brought a smile to your face. He was a friend to many and enjoyed nature, especially when he was camping.

Greg is survived by his wife, Kathy, and their two children, Andy of Ames and Kate of Iowa City; two sisters, Diane (Bill) Lundt and Joyce Kline, both of Chicago.

Greg was preceded in death by his parents.

——————-

Bad deal, cool guy. See ya at the big rally in the sky brother.

Well I’m back folks. So here’s the trucker journal of doom once again.

January 20:

We left on Friday night for Clinton, Iowa and got a load to New Mexico which was great, except that the place is closed on the weekend and we got here Saturday afternoon. And they would not let us relay so we are stuck here until Monday, assuming there is a load out, which at this point looks not likely so we may have a mini vacation. The problem is we are both broke-ish and we don’t get paid, likely till Thursday so we are major screwed. But hell, it’s not like there’s anything to do. Moriarty, New Mexico is a town of nothing.

January 23:
Well, we delivered the load on Monday am and went to the TA in Albuquerque and sat there until this afternoon. Man did we start going stir crazy. We have no money, no idea where anything is, no way to get there, and no hope of ever leaving New Mexico. Both Paul and I got attacked by panhandlers and bums begging for money, my guy actually started crying to try to get money from me. Didn’t work. Pauls guy on the other hand laid down the “nice guy hitting hard times” trick and it worked. He said he was getting his truck worked on and needed twenty dollars for a hotel room. He gave Paul the key to his truck and said he would pay him back when his sister or some shit wired him money later that day. Well the dude never came back, he had handed Paul a key to nothing that he probably found on the ground. Sucker. So anyway we got a load now but we can’t pick it up until the morning. And the load is in Portales, NM which is a few hundred miles away so we took off early so we could go to Fort Sumner and see Billy the Kid’s grave which was pretty neat though it was quite difficult getting the semi in there cause the road was very narrow. Luckily the place where he is buried has a museum/gift shop there and they had a large empty parking lot where we could get the truck turned around and back towards the interstate. Lucky for us the place was closed or we would have never gotten out of there if cars were in the lot. So anyway, we hit up Santa Rosa for showers and sleep until morning where we will run the last hour or so down to Portales to pick up our load and we should be in California in no time. At least I hope so since the load delivers on the 25th before noon. Oh, and evidently, Chineese women do not know the meaning of “I have no money” since I got attacked by the Chineese massage ladies and they would not give up. Of course I had no money so eventually they had to. I would have taken a free massage though. Well, I get paid tomorrow so maybe next time. Until then, I’m going to try to calm my rumbling stomach with some pepsi and wheat thins with a pop-tart chaser. Oh yeah and I guess Fred Thompson bowed out of the race so Zach will be pissed. But then again Heath Ledger died, and I have no idea what that has to do with anything. So later. God I want to ride my Guzzi right now.

January 25:

Made it to California with the maxed out load of peanuts. Hit snow in Flagstaff, Arizona again. There was a semi jacknifed in the median and he had his trailer sticking out into the passing lane which was kinda scary since I didn’t know if the truck next to me was going to hit me to miss him. He missed both of us thankfully. Hit snow again in California in a mountain briefly which was heavier but much more isolated. We pick up a load tonight in Livermore, CA a suberb of San Francisco and it delivers in Swedesboro, New Jersey. So we finally got a good load, almost 3000 miles. Not looking forward to driving over Donner Pass at night with the recent reports of snow there. But I am looking forward to a decent paycheck. And also looking forward to two new states, Delaware and New Jersey. And I get to visit Wheeling, WV again and it’s fun tunnel. And that sounds bad. And I have a few things on my mind. First of all, is it really that hard to lift the freaking seat up on the toilet before you piss? Cause I’m tired of having to wipe up someone elses fucking piss before I sit down. And why is it that people choose the bathroom to talk about Jesus? I mean, I think I would take your religious diatribes more seriously if I were not sitting with my pants around my ankles with a log hangin out of my pooper. Y’know? And also, I’m tired of 4 wheelers (cars) getting mad cause the slow semi is in the way. We don’t take off from a stop fast enough, we take too long to slow down, we need too much room to turn. Those are all well and good, but you have to realize that there is almost nothing in this world that gets to you without a semi being involved somehow. If you really think about it. Everything from the food you eat, the clothes you wear, even the car or motorcycle you drive. It all got there via a truck. Now you can pull the boat or train thing out (hi Ted) but when is the last time you saw a container ship or a train unloading at a Wal-Mart or Best Buy? Never. Even if you use a ship, a plane, or a train, it still has to get there at least part of the way by truck. So just think about that next time you get mad at a truck for being in your way, cause if it weren’t for that truck, you wouldn’t have anything to go to. Thank you for your time and attention, BoBo out.

January 28:

We sit tonight in Hagerstown, MD waiting for the place to open that we are delivering to. Made it over Donner Pass without incident though Paul hit bad weather in Utah and Wyoming but we made it still. And just in time as well, the weather report says almost the whole west is bad. All the mountain passes are either closed or requiring chains, Flagstaff, Arizona is going to get 8 inches of snow, it’s bad all over up there. But it’s just fine here in Maryland. This load is funny, cause we have to deliver it in four different cities before it is unloaded completely. We drop some of it off in Martinsburg, West Virginia tomorrow morning, and then some more in Baltimore, Maryland. Then we go to Swedesboro, New Jersey and drop some more off, and finally we go to Reading, Pennsylvania and drop the last of it off. Four dropoffs, four cities, in four different states all in two days. Yep, its gonna be interesting. But, I haven’t been to any of these places before so that will be neat in and of itself. Two new states and a bunch of new cities. Plus I get to say that within 400 miles, I was in and out of West Virginia three times. It’s wierd, I’m in Ohio on I-70 and you cross into West Virginia at Wheeling, and then you cross back over into Pennsylvania 15 miles later. Well then I hit I-79 and went south, and ran into West Virginia again, then I hit I-68 and went east and ran into Maryland. Well then I have to hit I-81 to go to Martinsburg and run into, surprise, West Virginia, again. Anyways, its off to bed so we can get up early and get this load delivered, four times.

February 4:

Whew! It’s been a few days so I gotta lot of catching up to do it looks like. Made the quad drops without incident for the most part. Made all but the Reading one on the 29th and then had to make the last one on the 30th. Saw some fun things. People in Jersey (pronounced Joy-see) are neat. Witnessed a truck rupture its fuel tank by dropping a steer tire into a manhole. That had to suck. Picked up a load in Pennsylvania and headed to the Chicago area with that. Hit some fun back roads in Pennsylvania that were just gorgeous. Had a nine percent grade on one of the roads which was the steepest I’ve been in a semi so far. Made the drop in Chicago which was a relay meaning someone else will actually deliver it at the final destination (Tacoma, WA). We then picked up a relay but this one the opposite end. Meaning we took it all of 45 miles to the other side of town. Got stuck in rush hour traffic and then six hours at the shipper waiting to get unloaded. Then headed to even farther on the other side of town to pick up another load. This time it would go to Salt Lake City, Utah, or so we thought it would. They ended up calling us and telling us to take it to Portland, Oregon instead. And of course we started off this trip by getting stuck in evening rush hour traffic and a huge snowstorm. Many many cars and trucks in the ditches. I actually watched two different vehicles in two different places go in the ditch which is always fun cause you have to wonder what is being said and or thought in those cars at that time. Anyway, the roads got icy by the time I got to Walcott so I decided to shut down until morning so we could get some sleep and let the ice melt off the roads. Well it was a good thing we stopped because we had two flat tires on the trailer and we ended up having two of our tire chains stolen off the truck and one replaced with a broken one. So we got up early and took the truck to the TA shop and they put on two new retread tires and got us two new tire chains and away we were again. Oh and on a side note, one of the things that really sucks about trucking is when you have to shit. I’ll elaborate. Being that the roads were bad and it was late at night, the I-80 truckstop, as huge as it is, was almost full. So I had to park really really really far away from the actual building. Well I parked and Paul was sleeping so I walked up to the truckstop and mailed our paperwork and looked for some food. Since it was late, the only option left was the sit down place or Wendys, and since I was tired I opted for the fast food. So I had my food went to the bathroom and trudged back out to the truck. I then got undressed and made my bed and crawled up to the top bunk for sleep. And almost as soon as I layed down, the Wendy’s shits hit me. So I had to crawl back down, get dressed, and trudge back to the building which mind you, it’s cold, snowing, wind blowing, and dark. Then I have to walk all the way back again, along the way, falling down on the ice and making my bad leg feel worse. Luckily it didn’t hit a second time.

So anyway, we make it out of Iowa and head across Nebraska and Wyoming, and then Utah and Idaho. We stopped in Utah in Snowville and had a nice breakfast at a local joint. Cool little town if you ever get a chance to stop. Anywho, we didn’t hit trouble until Oregon where Paul lost traction on some icy roads and became afraid we would not make it up the hill. So we had to put the chains on for the first time. And it really sucks. It’s cold and windy and your on the side of the road with trucks whizzing by and your on your hands and knees in the snow trying to put on these heavy ass chains that are all rusty and shit. Oh it had to suck for Paul to do that. But then the worse part is you can only go about 25mph with them on and it’s noisy. So we get the chains on and take off, and a few miles down the road the ice goes away and the roads are nice again. Just great we think. But we know the mountain pass is requireing chains to proceed so we don’t want to take them off and then have to put them back on again a little while later so we just kept going. But then of course when we get to the pass there are no cops checking for chains and the roads weren’t really that bad so we could have went without them. Then we had to stop to take the chains off which also sucks. In all, one set of chains fell off completely and are lost to time and we broke two others and I don’t think we gained much time if any by doing it. So bottom line is, I don’t think we will chain up anymore. We’ll just shut down and wait for the pass to open unrestricted. And so we made it to Portland and made the drop. Now we are at the Troutdale TA sitting all day Sunday waiting for a load hopefully Monday morning. But that’s okay cause we got to shower and have some Popeyes and watch the Superbowl at the bar. Which, yes I was surprised as well, there is a bar at the truckstop. And I talked to a quirky French-Canadian truck driver that I never learned the name of. All in all, an eventfull week and a welcome one since we had been hurting for miles and money and all of a sudden the loads came pouring back in. Hopefully it lasts cause we need money. Especially if I’m gonna go to Malibu in June. So with all that, I’ll finally leave you alone and go back to being a trucker again. Ciao.

February 5:

Well we got a load coming out of The Dalles, Oregon hauling aluminum to New Albany, Mississippi. Thats the good news. The other good news was the cabbage was clear and we didn’t have to chain up this time. The bad news is I-84 is shut down from the I-86 split to the Utah state line due to high winds, blowing and drifting snow, and white out conditions. I contacted dispatch and they say I can’t go around and to just sit and wait until the road re-opens. I wanted to just take I-86 east to I-15 south and go around but evidently it’s too far out of route. So I found a place to sit and now I play the waiting game. I love winter. The good thing is we got re-supplied in Boise truck-wise. Meaning we got the fuel filter replaced, three jugs of washer fluid, new chains to replace the broken and/or missing ones, and new wiper blades, and of course fuel. I still don’t have food and I’m out of Pepsi and Grape soda but at least we can see out of the windows again. From the land of the potatoe people……BoBo out.

February 8:

What a crazy week weather wise! Iowa recieved over a foot of snow in places, there was a deadly tornado outbreak in the Tennessee and surrounding states area that killed something like 40 people, and we seemed to miss it all. The road re-opened in Idaho and we made it safely across Utah. Saw some elk and deer, probably out looking for food since everything was buried under fresh snowfall. Got into Wyoming and hit some icy patches and blowing snow and it’s usual batch of fresh vehicles in ditches. Met a neat German lady in her 50s that happens to be a truck driver from Florida now. Who knew. Well then Nebraska was better but still icy in places, but then by Missouri it got much better. We ran into wet pavement and then some light rain and then nothing. It cleared up and by the time we made it to Mississippi it was gorgeous. Came up on a flatbed that lost half his load on the passing lane in the middle of the night in Memphis, that wasn’t fun. Especially since a semi was passing me at the time and we both had to jab the breaks and I just hoped he didn’t try to merge into me. So anyway, we stop at a Wal-Mart and park for the night since the place we delivered to was not 24hrs. We made the drop in the morning and had a message to head to Birmingham, Alabama to pick up the next load but of course, this one can’t be picked up until the morning so we headed over here to Birmingham and got fuel, turned in paperwork, showered, and got some food. Paul has a cousin that lives down here and she met us for lunch (shes not old enough people so stop what you’re probably thinking) and by lunch I mean supper. And now it’s time for bed so we can get up and pick up the load by 5am. Oh and it’s heading to Henderson, Colorado which is near Denver. And from there we should be headed home so we shall see. Can’t wait to see Exodus live in concert! Oh, yeah, and I guess all my friends and family too…..BoBo

February 10:

Jesus christ it’s cold out! Wow. We made the trip from Alabama to Colorado without much incident. Had fun trying to back the trailer up to this goofy dock in Boulder. Don’t even ask. And now we are in Joliet, Illinois and it’s -2. And the sun is still out. Brrrrr. We lucked out in Colorado. We were supposed to pick up the load Sunday morning and deliver Monday but it cancelled and we got the same load only a day earlier. So now we are here waiting for orders for Monday morning so we can get back home. The good thing about this is Kari and Putz made the journey here to hang out and have supper with us. What a neat end to our long journey. But it was a fun journey. And we got to eat at Cracker Barrell. Well, if all goes well, we should be home tomorrow early afternoon. Fingers are crossed. Wish it were a bit warmer though.

—–

So here I sit at home once again. Anyway, Exodus is playing on valentines day, who’s coming? I’ll be home probably until next monday so come see me while you can.

Oh and before I go, have some trips.

Cedar Rapids, IA to Clinton, IA
Hwy 30

Clinton, IA to Albuquerque, New Mexico
HWY 30 - Hwy 64 - I-80 - I-35 - Hwy 50 - Ks hwy 61 - Hwy 54 - I-40

Albuquerque, NM to Portales, NM
I-40 - HWY 84 - HWY 60 - HWY 70

Portales, NM to Pajaro, CA
HWY 70 - HWY 60 - HWY 84 - I-40 - CA 58 - CA 99 - CA 119 - I-5 - CA 33 - CA 152 - CA 156 - HWY 101 - CA 129

Pajaro, CA to Livermore, CA
CA 129 - HWY 101 - CA 156 - CA 152 - I-5 - I-580

Livermore, CA to Martinsburg, WV
I-580 - I-205 - I-5 - I-80 - I-74 - I-55 - I-74 - I-79 - I-68 - I-70 - I-81

Martinsburg, WV to Baltimore, MD
I-81 - I-70

Baltimore, MD to Swedesboro, NJ
I-70 - I-695 - I-95 - I-295 - US 322

Swedesboro, NJ to Reading, PA
I-295 - I-95 - I-476 - I-76 - US 422

Reading, PA to Breinigsville, PA
US 422 - US 222

Breinigsville, PA to Calumet City, IL
US 222 - PA 100 - PA 309 - I-81 - I-80 - I-76 - I-71 - US 30 - I-65 - I-80 - I-94

Calumet City, IL to Carol Stream, IL
I-94 - I-90 - I-290 - IL 64

Carol Stream, IL to Wheeling, IL
IL 64 - I-55 - I-290 - IL 53

Wheeling, IL to Clackamas, OR
IL 53 - I-290 - I-55 - I-80 - I-84 - I-205

Clackamas, OR to The Dalles, OR
I-205 - I-84

The Dalles, OR to New Albany, MS
I-84 - I-80 - NE 2 - I-29 - I-435 - I-70 - I-270 - I-55 - MS 302 - US 78

New Albany, MS to Bessimer, AL
US 78 - AL 69 - I-20

Bessimer, AL to Henderson, CO
US-11 - AL-5 - AL-118 - US-78 - I-240 - I-55 - I-40 - Muskogee Turnpike - OK-51 - US-64 - US-412 - I-35 - I-135 - I-70 - CO-E470

Boulder, CO to Joliet, Ill
I-76 - I-80

Calumet City, Ill to Cedar Rapids, IA
I-80 - I-380

Okay, I’m going away now. See you all later.

BoBo

I found this item description on ebay today, it’s for a Moto Guzzi Quota and it completely sounds like something Gatsby would write:

Hahahahahaha. Here we go again! In our last episode, the mighty Darth Quota rung up 10,000 hits, over a hundred questions and ZERO bids. So-what’s the problem? You afraid of buying one of Guzzi’s many ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS THAT NO ONE ASKED? Yeah, that’s fine. Just move one to the next auction, weenie-boy. Nothing to see here. Maybe look for a nice R1100GS. Those BMW guys are cordial enough, and they smell nice. That’s a much easier path to take than with this GUZZI WEIRDO STATION WAGON. Hint: look for a GS that already has hard bags, heated seat with hemorrhoid perch, a built in portable hibachi and an assortment of RAM mounts for your GPS, satellite phone, police scanner, garage door opener, night vision screeen, and UFO beacon. Oh, and cupholders. Make sure you get a GS with some nice cupholders. No sense in having an ADVENTURE RIDE if you can’t bring along a nice hazelnut frappuccino. You can lowball the current owner, and he’ll probably bite because he’s too afraid of his rear drive disintegrating in the middle of his ADVENTURE RIDE to Timbuktu, at which point he would have to move into that quaint native village that he formerly enjoyed tearing a$$ through. I hear that the Village Idiot has a daughter that’s right about the marryin’ age (…14 harvests- completely legal in greater Timbuktu). Yeah, you’ll look like a real farking Ponce De Leon as you pave new trails to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on your new GS. You can sit around the campfire at your next rally of like-minded motorcycle consumers and talk about which fancy new accoutrements from the Rider Warehouse catalog (an 100+ page compendium of completely unnecessary motorcycle crap) you’ll be purchasing next. OR maybe you are actually a Guzzi Weirdo prospect. You want to buy your way into a circle of motorcycling friends who will respect you even though you weren’t always the first pick on the kickball team back in grade school. “That Jim, he dresses like the 99-cent rack at the Salvation Army thrift store, he smells like the fish counter at Kroger’s and he’s always got something hanging out of his nose, but he rides a GUZZI so he must be OK”. Well, this Quota gets you into that club for well under four big ones. Then you can gain the immediate admiration from all the other ADV rider wackos when you add “Quota” to your profile sig. Yeah, instant credibility. Not bad for under four thousand bucks. Heck, you don’t even have to ride the damn thing. Lemme break it to you- nobody else on that website rides motorcycles, either. The truth is that they’re all in fact “care receivers” at a small mental institution in lower Des Moines, and that the internet is thought to be good therapy for their megalomania and obsessive, chronic onanism. To sweeten the deal here, I’ve dropped the price on the Quota a few hundred bucks from last time because I’m sick of looking at it in my driveway, and the neighbors are starting to complain about the four bikes sitting in front of my house. Good thing they don’t know about the bodies under the porch, huh. OK. I’m sure that I now have the attention of every TIGHTWAD ADVENTURE RIDER within earshot of the internet. Yes, you too can recapture your lost childhood and win the admirations of your fellow Kinkos employees by becoming the latest in a series of brilliant motorcycle marketing archetypes: THE ADVENTURE RIDER [roll Morricone’s “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” theme]….best of all, this Quota is cheap! Oh, and did I mention that it’s CHEAP? Yeah. Are you the guy who always draws funny looks from your riding companions when it’s time to pay the tab at “The Feedin Trough” after your 50 mile ride? Have you used “All I have is plastic-how bout I get ya next time…” on your buddies to the point where…hmmm… they haven’t really been calling you to go on rides, lately, have they? Well, then, tenderfoot… have I got a deal for you. This bike is CALLING YOUR NAME. With this, the CHEAPEST QUOTA IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, you can become a certified ADVENTURE RIDER for less than four g’s. That means that you’ll still have some extra cash left over to buy those day old bagels from the Bargain Basement Bakery, and shop for formal wear at that one stall at the truck stop flea market. [Oh, and here's a nugget for all you broke-assed poverty riders: You can sit in McDonalds ALL DAY and drink coffee- all ya gotta do is pay for the first cup. Mmmmm! Tastes like FREE! Maybe they'll let you have a big BMW/ADVENTURE rally in the parking lot! Lemme know if I can help. I'll speak with the Assistant Manager...] So-got a question on the bike? I’ll save you some time: Yes, it runs. Yes, it has tires. Yes, you can jump on it and ride back home to your hotel room in downtown Witchita straight forth. The other specifics, I prefer to leave to remain mired in mystery that is ADVENTURE RIDING. You want adventure? I’ll give you some. Hand me a stack of hundreds and let’s see how far you get on this piggie. Here’s the part where I shut up about the pile that I’m selling and answer your inane, maddening and very rarely insightful questions Let ‘em rip. Oh, and watch for a short treatise on internet motorcycle wackos by yours truly in the next issue of MOTORCYCLIST MAGAZINE, the BEST motorcycle rag in the farking world.
So yeah, funny stuff. Anyway, I’m probably off to the road again soon. I’ll be back around Valentines day, so ciao for now loves.

BoBo

Hiya folks, good old BoBo here and we’re back home in Iowa once again for a few days so that means trucker update time. So here’s the journal:

December 28:

Well I’m trying a new style of journal here since I think the last one was too boring and
clinical. I’m in Idaho now heading to Washington on I-84 from Salt Lake City, Utah. We
picked up our first load in Des Moines and took it to SLC and we dropped that one and we
are on our way with the second now. Hit some snow but nothing too serious. Not looking
forward to going over the cabbage patch though now. We have air freight too so we have no spare time whatsoever and the weather is not that great on top of it all so we are having all kinds of fun now. Trip so far was I-380 to I-80 to I-84 to I-82. So anyway, I’m not going to write daly anymore but rather I’ll update sporadically when I feel like it and when I have time and I’ll throw in random thoughts along the way. But for now, I gotta get ready to drive.

December 30:

And we are stuck. We made it to Washington and then back to Portland, Oregon. And from Portland we were directed to go to Nashville, Tennessee. Well, all went swimmingly until we got to Wyoming where we found out that I-80 is closed due to bad weather. So we are stuck here in Wyoming until further notice. Time to find something to do. The only good thing is that I drove over the cabbage twice and made it fine no chainup required. The funny thing is it’s closed now lol. Late night update: Still closed. Made a bad mistake. Watched Donnie Darko and then Smokey and the Bandit. Dreamed about team driving with a six foot bunny that time travels.

January 2:

Happy New Year! Blew the air horn somewhere between St Joseph and Kansas City on I-29 to commemorate the passing of the old year and the arrival of the new. Made it to Nashville without incident. Stopped at Waffle House in Kentucky, oh, give me a second to drool…. *mmmmmmmmWaffleHousemmmmmmmmmmm* okay. Saw some motorcycles riding around Kentucky. Such a contrast to the snow and wind and cold of days past. Once in Nashville we were stuck for about a day because there were no loads to be had. So we sat at a truckstop, played online for a bit, went to walmart and re-supplied food. And then we took off again. Picking up a load for the Gap in Nashville here and taking it to Houston, Texas. Oh I can’t wait for the sweet sweet warmth of Texas. At least it won’t be in Waco again. And hot damn it won’t be Waco! *does texas shoot invisible guns in the air and hop around dance*.

And hell, I did so much sitting around at truckstops, I had time to write a song about it
to the tune of the Smokey and the Bandit theme song.

We’re shuttin’ down
No more loads for truckin’
We’re gonna sit just like we sat before
We’ve got no where to go
And a long time to get there
Ain’t it a bitch that’s how old Paulbert runs

We shut down on account of weather
We shut down on account of dispatch
We bitch about how we ain’t gettin’ paid

We shut down in Wyoming
Sat in Waco from dusk till morning
But if we sit any longer we’ll give ‘em hell

(repeat “We’re Shuttin’ down” verse)

January 3:

Well we finally got a load. Hauled for the Gap from Nashville to Houston TX. And now
we are sitting in Houston cause the next load can’t be picked up until 7AM tomorrow. But
it’s not all bad, cause I guess Paul has a friend living down here that’s going to come
get him and take him out for supper. And the other cool thing is the next load is going to
Miami, Florida. Can you say “new state”? I knew you could.

January 5:

I drove on I-10 from Houston, Texas to about 170 miles west of Tallahassee, Florida which means I drove through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Not a bad day. Also got to see alot of towns I’d never been in, Houston is one of them but also I saw Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, LA which was neat. Drove right by the Superdome and saw alot of Katrina damage. It’s gonna be a long time before that place is normal again. Got lost thanks to my desire to take pictures and drive at the same time. Drove over the twenty mile long bridge over the swamps in LA. Also drove over lake Ponchartain witch is pretty awesome. It just goes on forever. This trip had the most miles of bridges I’ve ever been on in my life including the longest single bridge. Drove through Biloxi, Pass Christian, and the other Mississipi towns that got hit hardest by Katrina. Drove through Mobile, Alabama which was cool thanks to the tunnel, and then immediately after it, Mobile Bay with it’s long bridge and the neat battleship sitting at dock. Not to mention to backtrack a bit we drove over part of Galveston Bay in Texas. Drove over a neat bay in Pensacola, Fla as well. And, the rest areas are huge in Florida and they have on duty security guards which I never seen before until now. Well anyways, that was all yesterday.

Now today we are stuck in Miami for possibly the weekend. Paul spent over 50 dollars going down the Florida Turnpike, good thing it will be reinbursed. So anyway we talked to the security guard at DHL and he told us about a Wal-Mart that had a big enough parking lot for a truck, and it sits on a truck route, AND, it’s within walking distance of the beach.
So right now Paul and I are in the truck resting after a walk down to the beach to stare
at the Atlantic ocean for awhile. Man this job rocks. We are right here where all the
high rise resorts and condos are on the waterfront. We’re seeing rich bastards in their
yachts and speedboats and I saw no less than four Ferraris and one yellow Lamborghini
getting fuel at a 7-Eleven. The Lambo was neat, he pulled out of the gas station and
smoked the tires all the way down the street. Ahh rich people. Yeah, and Paul and me don’t look out of place at all *denotes sarcasm*. Me in my John Deere hat and bib overalls and Paul with his “if you got it a trucker brought it” hat and red flannel shirt. But either
way we had fun. Paul got to see the ocean for the first time and I got to see it again.
We sat on the beach for awhile watching the seagulls fly about and ignoring the locals
pointing in our direction and snickering. Oh well. Fuck ‘em. I’m not going to change
myself to make them happy. I’m happy with who I am. Hell, if they were in Iowa and looked like they did right now, I’d be laughing at them lol. So with that, I am going to say
farewell for today. Gonna wake up early in the morning and watch the sunrise over the
ocean and then probably go find a truckstop and take showers and get fuel and wait for a
load. I’m just glad we’re not in the west right now since they are getting hammered with
bad weather from Washington to California. High winds, heavy rains, up to 12 feet of snow
in the mountains. Glad it’s sunny and 75 degrees here. BoBo out.

Oh yeah. Florida makes 34 states out of a possible 48 that I can get to in the truck. I’m
not counting Alaska because I don’t believe we will ever get there trucking (at least for
this company) 14 states to go. Most of them the north east, the extreme east, and the
northern midwest.

January 7:

Finally got a load on Monday morning headed to El Paso, Texas so it looks like we’ll stay
in the good weather. Plus I’ve never been there so that will be fun. Backtracking a bit,
Sunday morning we woke up early and watched the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. That was something I’ve never done before and I’m sure alot of people either never have or if they did, don’t appreciate it. Anyway, then I got to watch Paul flounder about in the surf. Then we came back to the truck and slept. I had a wierd dream about team driving with Kerry King from Slayer. Then we had some Burger King, saw some crazy homeless people like the guy talking to himself and the one we saw sleeping sitting down on a bench with his/her shirt pulled over their head. Paul ran into some bums, some guy named Joe Hollywood who has been living in his VW Van he bought in the sixties and sleeping on the beach everynight of his life. He’s been arrested several hundred times and he just says whenever the cops start harrassing him he just drives a few miles down the beach and sets up shop there. Saw even more neat cars like Aston Martins, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and a Porsche with Quebec plates lol. Paul says he saw a Lambo go through the Burger King drive through. Absolutely gorgeous weather out here. Decided to leave Hallandale Beach to find a truckstop Sunday afternoon. I think we ran over ever curb in the walmart parking lot to get out of there but by damn we made it. Found a truckstop in Fort Pierce and got fuel and showers. Showers were much enjoyed since Paul had been playing in the ocean and I was tired of being sweaty feeling from the warm weather. We eventually headed over to Waffle House where I tried grits for the first time and decided that I like hashbrowns much better. The people working in Waffle House evidently didn’t understand english very well since they had alot of trouble understanding us and the service was slow, but the food was tastey except for me wishing I had ordered hashbrowns instead of grits. Lots more homeless people here as well,
and I just love how they sleep wherever they want since it’s warm out. There was one
sleeping right next to the entrance to the truckstop. And I mean the walk in doors not the
parkinglot entrance. But either way, I am done with Florida for now. By this time tomorrow we should be in Texas. The only problem is, El Paso is on the other side of Texas which means it will take multiple driving shifts just to get across. And we’ll be WAY too close to Mexico. Oh well, maybe I’ll get to see some wetbacks. “Run Paco Run!” I’m not racist I swear. *giggle* BoBo out.

January 9:

We arrived here yesterday late and were told that the place closed early so we had to wait
all night to unload which wasn’t bad. Stopped at the Petro and had some food and bs’ed
with a few truckers and had some good laughs. Drove over to the place a few hours early
and waited until they opened. Got the load unloaded and now we are back at the Petro and waiting for another load. The bad thing is, evidently El Paso is a bad town to be in empty because there is alot of freight coming in, but not alot going out and we are too far away to deadhead somewhere else so we might have to sit…..again. But I guess it’s normal this time of year to have alot of delays what with the slow post-christmas trucking. Hopefully things will begin to pick up again. A few months from now it’ll be spring and the weather will be fine and the truckin’ will be better. I hope. But yeah, El Paso isn’t a bad place. Kinda dry bein’ in the desert and all, and not much to do but watch the parking lot fill up with trucks and watch all the illegals runnin’ around since we are only a stones throw from the Rio Grande here. Well, I’ll be back home by the weekend so hopefully this whole thing will just fly by and I’ll be back in good old Iowa. Though I’m kinda startin’ to
like Texas.

January 10:

Well, we got a load and we headed to Alamogordo, New Mexico for pickup. Got half way there and was told the load got canceled. So now we are stuck in New Mexico so at least we are closer to Iowa now. But I got some Sonic tonight so it’s not all bad. But on the same token we need to be headed home now or we are going to be hella late. So I guess it’s time for some Smokey and the Bandit 2 and possibly even number 3 cause it’s terrible.

January 12:

Paul is driving through middle of no where New Mexico as I write this. We got sent back to El Paso yesterday where we dropped our empty at Fed Ex so they could load it and we
bobtailed back to the same truckstop we were at before and spent the night. We went back this morning and picked up the load and now we are headed to Chicago for the drop. And then we are headed back home from there. We’re just supposed to grab an empty trailer and dead head back to CR for our home time. So yippy skippy we’re headed home. But we got a long way to get there brother.

January 14:

And we are home.

Ah, and that means you get the trip list:

Cedar Rapids to Des Moines to Salt Lake City, UT
I-380 - I-80

Salt Lake City, UT to Pasco, WA
I-84 - I-82

Pasco, WA to Clackamas, OR
I-82 - I-84

Clackamas, OR to Goodlettsville, TN
I-84 - I-80 - NE 2 - I-29 - I-70 - I-64 - I-57 - I-24 - I-65

Gallatin, TN to Houston, TX
I-40 - I-30 - US-59

Houston, TX to Miami, FL
I-10 - I-75 - Florida Turnpike - I-95

Miami, FL to Rockledge, FL
I-95

Rockledge, FL to El Paso, TX
I-95 - I-10 - I-12 - I-10

El Paso, TX to Alamogordo, NM
HWY-54

Alamogordo, NM to El Paso, TX
HWY-54

El Paso, TX to Chicago, Ill
HWY-54 - I-40 - I-44 - I-55 - I-355 - I-290

Chicago, Ill to Cedar Rapids, IA
I-290 - I-355 - I-55 - I-80 - I-380

So yeah. Besides having to deal with sitting for too long and not getting paid (you only make money when the wheels are turning boy), dealing with swamp ass and general trucker not smell goodery, and Paul talking in his sleep, and sometimes yelling in his sleep, we had a fun time. Almost like a paid vacation that you can’t choose the destination of, or how long you stay. Got lots of pictures so you will have to check out my other sites for those. Other than that, I’m outta here. But first I will leave you with some truckin’ inspired song lyrics I came up with while shut down. Enjoy.

“CRST”

Well I’ve been sittin’ in this rig for a whole big mess of time
My paycheck ain’t come in just yet and I’m on my last dime
The rent is due the wife is pissed and she says the baby is cryin’
I want to get back home to them but dispatch just ain’t trying

I’m out here on this interstate burnin’ off some tires
Pedal to the metal got the balls to the wall and I’m startin’ me some fires
I ain’t slept good in 50 days and my head is startin’ to spin
I’m gettin’ the impression that it’s hard for a long haul trucker man to win

Well I can’t really stand truckin baby But it sure beats bein’ broke

Got the shits from a choke and puke on mile marker 49
Made me late for my trailer drop and put me in a bind
Got a ticket from a diesel pig when I rolled on to the scales
If this run keeps up like this I’m goin’ straight to hell

I got four wheelers cuttin’ me off ain’t givin’ me no fuckin’ space
There’s big rigs ridin’ on my ass like we’re in a NASCAR race This nutless rig makes me drop three gears at every tiny grade
Man if I could just get home and get my pay I think I’ll have it made

Well I can’t really stand truckin baby but it sure beats bein’ broke

I want a better load better rig better money better weather and some fuckin’ sleep
I don’t know if I can take it man this mountain is mighty steep
I’m loosin money loosin time loosin faith loosin air and I think I’m loosin my fuckin’ mind
Runnin’ hard runnin’ fast cheatin’ logs cheatin’ death cause I’m always an hour behind

Well I can’t stand punchin’ clocks and bein’ told when I can eat
And doin’ the same thing every day just puts my ass to sleep
And workin’ in an office man that just ain’t my cup of tea
So I guess this goddamned interstate is just the place for me

Well truckin ain’t that bad maybe you just gotta take a joke
Well I can’t really stand truckin’ baby, but it sure beats bein’ broke

“Gear Grindin’ Curb Checkin’ Newbie Mother Trucker”

Well I’m a gear grindin curb checkin newbie mother trucker
I drive like I’m blind just a stupid mother fucker
Got a line of cars behind me that can’t go through
Can’t find a gear cause the shifter isn’t labled
And I don’t know my ass from my own kitchen table
And the worse thing is I’m out on the road with you

Well I’m a gear grindin curb checkin newbie mother trucker
Might as well be dead just a dumb mother fucker
Every time I jump in a rig people run and hide
When I talk on the CB you can tell that I’m a newbie
It’s so fuckin funny it should be in a movie
But the worse thing is that’s me on your left side

Well I’m a gear grindin curb checkin newbie mother trucker
My momma prolly wishes that my daddy hadn’t fuckd her
I pull up in my rig and my grandma clubs me with her shoe
I’m takin out the signs cause my wheels are in the ditches
I’m causin lots of people to develop nervous twitches
And the worse thing about it is I’m out on the road with you
And if you climbed into this rig then you’d be a newbie trucker too

That’s it for now. Have a good’n and happy new year.

BoBo