Charity.

10 Day Trip.

____ Out of the yard at midday on Tuesday with one objective in mind: free food. Having a regular run down to Laredo with the peat-moss has let me fine tune the journey to include a free breakfast buffet on Thursday morning. Tuesday night at Vermillion, Wednesday at the Oklahoma City Petro Stopping Centre and down to the Winstar Casino by 8 o'clock in the morning. It's not for everybody; you have to be over 55 and a member of the casino's Players Club but it is a massive free buffet and even coffee and fruit juice are included. I reckon everybody over 55 who lives within twenty miles car-pools to the Winstar for free grub. It's a half mile walk from the truck-park to the restaurant through a maze of a thousand slot machines but I avoid the temptation by leaving my wallet in the cab and just take a couple of dollars to tip the waitress.

____ Unloaded on Friday morning and as usual, there is a pre-loaded trailer that has come over the Rio Grande and is waiting to go to Mississauga, Ontario. It is a struggle to get to Hillsboro, just south of Dallas, as traffic on Interstate 35 is stop and go all the way. But the delivery is not booked-in until Tuesday afternoon, a whole day on the trip longer than necessary. I do need a few bits and pieces from the truck-superstore at the Joplin 44 Petro; so that's the way to go. From Joplin, it is the old Route 66 to St. Louis and then all the way to Chicago. Now Interstates 44 and 55 with every truckstop selling 66 memorabilia.

____ I am in the Flying J at London, Ontario, just after lunch on Monday and have time to checkout the new Blue Beacon Truck Wash that is now on site. The Kenworth always looks good after a wash and I have a whole day to admire it. There is another Ruby Truck Line waiting with the same load as me; he reached London before me and has an appointment for a Wednesday afternoon delivery. I'm sympathetic but glad I'm not him. Eventually, I poodle up to Mississauga and get unloaded at the RDC. Good news is that there is a reload from Sudbury, Ontario, loading at 8 o'clock in the morning and going to Winnipeg.

____ A charity load of clothes for the National Diabetes Trust and the second charity load of clothes in my career. Sudbury figured in the first load too; I was living at Sudbury, Suffolk, England at the time. The load was ex-military nurses' uniforms from a government store in Hertfordshire and they went to Warsaw, Poland. The only difference between the loads was that the clothes in the first load came in brown paper parcels tied-up with string and the second lot were in black bin-bags. Both trailers were packed to the roof, front to back and took all the morning to be loaded by hand.

____ From Sudbury, it was west on Highway 17; slow going to Sault Ste. Marie with more roadworks than ever. From the Soo, traffic thinned and at last I got moving. Early evening on the ups and downs of the Seventeen where the Shield slips under Superior. The roar of the Detroit alternating with the bark of the Jake. The lake, a mirror of calm. Window open, stereo blasting with the Jam's Entertainment; thinkin' bout me holidays. Through Wawa; pushing on to White River while avoiding the night danger; knowing that if I made it, then home would be only one day away and the start of a week off work.

Hillsboro TA; where the heavy-haul rigs have their own over-size parking spots.

The new Blue Beacon Truck Wash in the grounds of the Flying J at London, Ontario.

Bit of a Puzzle : a long-sleeper Peterbilt being used as a wrecker.