Over a 1000 miles that’s a record for me, but it was work getting it. Between a light tailwind and no hills from Nashville to San Antonio and not idling or even running the generator at night, it was pretty good.

Lately, a lot of my loads have been kind of short and several days to get there, mainly because I would be loaded on Thur or Fri and couldn’t be unloaded or to my next drop till Monday. I usually drive the speed limit. If it’s 70, I’m driving 70 or a little over. If it’s 65, I’m driving 70 or a little over. If it’s 55, I’m NOT driving 70 or a little over. Usually under 65 keeps me out of trouble.

This time with a total load of 15 very light pallets I had three days to drive 900 miles. I drove to the next Flying J and parked Friday night, got up Saturday, after walking Willie, eating breakfast and getting fuel I started driving 60 mph in a 70 mph state. Agonizingly slow for me. Since I had the time, I wanted to see what the most mpg I could get. I loaded up the iPod with talk shows and headed out.

I don’t mind being passed, but at 60-63 you get passed by most everyone. I didn’t care. After getting used to it, it was actually more relaxing. I didn’t have to worry about getting in the left lane as much, most merging traffic could get ahead of me and if they couldn’t, too bad. I wasn’t going in the left lane and causing a wreck. I saw the same flatbed with a torn tarp pass me three times, hauling ass from one truck stop to another.

I usually get between 6 and 6.5 anyway. I’m usually really light compared to other trucks, but my trailer is heavier than the regular trailer too. 9.0 is pretty good, but I’m not this light all of the time, I wanted to take advantage of the weight since I couldn’t take advantage of the space. Back in the good ole days, if there was this much time I would have been able to fill the rest of the trailer and make some extra money and not worried about the price of fuel, those days are long gone. I guess I’m supposed to feel lucky I have one load and I’m not sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen, let alone try and get extra. So I feel lucky, keep driving and try not to worry about when or where the next load will be.