Life on the road is hard, but it makes going home all the sweeter. My team driver and I usually stay out about 10 days and we spend the whole day before we leave packing. Laundry, cleaning out the truck and re-packing it for the trip ahead. Meal prepping 10 days worth of food for us and Thumper our road dog, is what takes most of my time.
*Side note we’ve moved our dogs away from kibble and they are on the “predator diet”. Check out my predator diet post if you want more information.
There is always an air of excitement before we head out over the road, but the road home is my happy place.
We picked up a load from Memphis to Orlando this morning, which marks the start of the journey. After getting loaded my team driver (aka hubby) drives the first 250 miles as I catch a nap, it’s going to be a late night.
I love this drive for so many reasons, and we’ve run this route so many times the familiarity is comforting.
I’m driving down the road and we are moving towards summer so the sun stays out longer and intermittent rains are guaranteed. Moving south from Atlanta I notice that even though it’s getting later it’s also getting warmer. Ah Florida…
As I pass the sign that reads “Welcome to the free state of Florida” I glance at the temperature gauge on my dashboard and even though it’s 1am it’s a balmy 80 degrees outside. I missed this.
Driving down the highway I’m greeted by the usual sighting of deer grazing along the shoulder and move to the center lane just to be safe. It’s late and there’s hardly any traffic and on I roll, going home.
It wouldn’t be Florida if I wasn’t pulled into at least 1 weigh station and as luck would have it, tonight I was pulled into 2, but a quick check by law enforcement and a friendly thumbs up and off I go.
I arrive at my delivery around 3am, wake my husband and the big guy. Thumper blinks at me as the light comes on and after much cajoling we are out for a walk.
We are unloaded now, I’m snoozing away and my husband drives the last leg to our yard in Lakeland. As I crawled into bed I was secretly praying we won’t be unloaded for hours so I can sleep, but as usual we are out quickly and he’s waking me before I knew I was asleep.
A post trip inspection and off loading of our personal effects and then we are making the short drive, going home.
Life on the road feels long and quarters are small. Cabin fever is a regular occurrence, but today we are going home.
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