Don't Think Too Hard

• Road atlas mileage charts
• Wandering around one of the largest health care facilities in Wisconsin
• An iced mocha coffee from a deceptive tool shed
• 54F in central Wisconsin on Thanksgiving Weekend
• Improvising when purposefully given spotty data
• Watching violent Anime you've seen 10 times already
• "Recall Scott Walker" human sign posts
• Pulp Fiction

I never expected to witness all this in one day, and I bet you wouldn't either.  Today's mission started with a general expectation list:  Eat, shower, coffee, homework, entertainment.  It was easy up until the coffee part, the local place I was going to check out across the street had closed that location to focus on their only other one, located in the Marshfield Clinic attached to the gargantuan St. Joseph's Hospital.  Once inside one of the 15+ entrances finding it wasn't an easy task, and it turns out they were closed for the weekend.  I used my license plates to make my way out of the massive (and busy) parking lot, and found my way to the ominous strange looking tool shed in the bank parking lot across from the hotel.  I had never heard of an "Espresso Hut", sorry.  Turns out its pretty cool.  Fast, cheap, and tasty.

Okay, so about that truck driving thing...

Week 2 is gone, and with the Thanksgiving Eve CDL test canceled (so we found out Tuesday afternoon), we finally have a date.  Thursday, 12/1 is what it all comes down to.  I had a nearly textbook-perfect run yesterday, in my 3+ hours behind the wheel.  It was also a landmark day because it was the first time we went out on a 65mph highway.  I didn't even know it was on the agenda, all of a sudden Dale's like "Turn right at the next light".  It was fun as hell, I remember just 10 days ago when just grazing 30 on the range felt fast.  I enjoyed it while I could because the rest of the fleet is governed at 63 on the pedal, 59 on cruise control.  Feels plenty fast for me, and I knew I had to get used to it eventually.  It was nice to finally feel what its really going to be like out there.  Feels like I've been waiting forever.

Homework is no longer rules of the road.  We've moved on to what I call "Road Trips 201".  I could have taught a 100 level course for rookies, but truck driving trip planning is a straightforward yet head-spinning thing that has to be done day in and day out.  I can't do x total miles / 65 = ETA like I used to.  Now its total miles / 45mph = ETA.  Which is good because you feel good when you come in under xD  fuel stops, breaks, inspections, and to top it all off: FMCSR telling you when to sleep.

Lucky for me I'm familiar with highway time management concepts already.  These specific exercises are just building on that.  The "spotty data" is when we're given cities that aren't listed on the mileage charts.  Then you go to the city index, which lists in crystal clear 5pt font every known population cluster in North America and their coordinates.  Then find the nearest city that IS listed on the charts, and guesstimate from there.

See, we weren't told that when it was assigned.  We were suppose to think outside the box on our own (which I did anyway).  I haven't used Google maps yet and I'm VERY proud of myself.

With enough of that done for today, its Pulp Fiction time.  I haven't seen a Tarantino move yet that I didn't like, so hopefully this will be no different.  I have a ton of laundry to do tomorrow, and it very much does
"Look like a bitch"