Laziest. Driver. Ever.

Well, morning came and woke me up and I got my truck in the shop. My batteries have been acting up for the past month or so and I got tired enough of it that the $350 or so it cost to replace them seems like a good deal.

Of course, doing a simple changeout wouldn't do... there was one connector that wasn't attached to anything and when the new batteries were put in the engine would turn over but wouldn't catch and start. Another mechanic took a look and found a small, innocuous cable the first one had missed that goes to the ECU and that was why it wouldn't start.

I told my dispatcher that I would be ready to go Tuesday morning at 0400. He rewarded me by giving me a load picking up in Aurora, Nebraska and heading down to PetSmart in Phoenix again... just like last week.

It took almost an hour to hunt up an empty van trailer in Omaha... everything we had at the lot was either loaded or red tagged by the shop. I got sent over to the Nebraska Furniture Mart after one of our local drivers spotted a couple empties there.

The drive to Aurora was easy enough and the trailer I was picking up was loaded and ready to go. Even better: the tandems have that neat-o air slide system so I didn't have to pull a muscle trying to get the weight distributed properly. Scaled out on site, the guard did his thing with the paperwork and I was on my way.

Now, my plan was to head down to Salina, Kansas for a fill up then drive a few more hours to Dodge City, Kansas for the night. After I got showered and fed myself the dreaded lazies kicked in and I mentally surveyed the situation. It is about 1,100 miles from Salina to Phoenix which means two 550-mile days -- no problem for most drivers. Driving those few extra hours today would make the next couple days a bit shorter but that would require initiative and determination, and I was plum out of both.

So here I sit at the Bosselman Pilot. Tomorrow I'll run down the state highways to Tucumcari, New Mexico and end up in Santa Rosa or Moriarty, or even Albuquerque if I'm feeling up to it.