"...if you wanted to bad enough."
I don't.
For several reasons. One is, there's nothing particularly special or interesting about this year's Thanksgiving with my family. The big plans are to assault Cracker Barrel this year, instead of having mom do the bird. It was suggested that I go to a Cracker Barrel that day, at the same time they did, and we'd do dinner together via the cell phone, but of course, there are no Cracker Barrels in California. But, there's always Moo Moo's Burger Barn, or there's a Mexican / Soul Food restaurant near here, Nacho Momma's.
Another reason is, 2200 miles is a lot of deadhead, be it for any reason. I do get great mileage in this Sprinter, so fuel would only cost about $225, but an empty mile is an empty mile, and I try to keep those within reason. I had 2500 loaded to get here, and if I deadhead 2200 back home, then I'll have, essentially, delivered this load for half price, driving 4700 miles for 2500 loaded. If I had a load offer like that, it would have to pay considerably more than the $.77 mile I get in this van.
Another is, yeah, coffee (Diet Dew, actually) and munchies, CB, XM, little sleep, I could get there, but with 32 driving hours behind the wheel in less than 48 hours is pushing it a little more than I'd feel comfortable with from a safety standpoint. I might hit that recliner before the game was over, but I'd be asleep in that recliner before the game was over, too. Or certainly out of it and worthless the next day, for sure.
Lastly, if I went home I'd go back into service a day or two later, maybe on Monday, right along with every other truck in the fleet. I'd be #37 on some board someplace, lucky to get a load by Tuesday or Wednesday. I'd sure hate to deadhead 2200 miles just to sit and wait another few days. If I stay here, I've got a better shot at getting a load sooner, and without having to do 2200 dh miles to do it.
The load that brought me out here was 2500 miles, which is both my weekly goal and my weekly average. So if I have to sit the rest of the week, I've still put in my week's worth of work. If I get another one out of here in the next day or two, great, but if not, that's kewl.
The Oakland Public School System was going to stage a Miss Ebonics Beauty Pageant, but they had to call it off.
No one wanted to be Miss Idaho.
