NIGHT OWLS

In all my years in law enforcement, about 90% of those years were working the 3rd watch, or graveyard as we called it. The hours, where any normal person, would of course, be asleep. I guess that explains alot about me now. So when we picked up the boats at 11pm local time and hit the roads, why wasn't I prepared for it? I guess I should start proudly showing my AARP card these days because I was not looking forward to it. Sure, on occasion we have had to drive at night to get to a certain place by a certain time, but it has not been on a regular basis. With starting so late and with so many miles to go until delivery day, we had to make this sacrifice. Did I say "we"? It's more like Craig, but we are a team, so I took one for the Gipper.


We ended up only driving until 3am local time and then found the last remaining spot at a rest stop just south of San Antonio, TX. See, the other thing I don't like about driving late is finding spots to park. We usually start in the wee morning hours, drive an hour or two in darkness, watch the sunrise and finish our miles before it gets dark. There is usually plenty of parking and you don't have to squeeze into a spot in darkness, which can prove to be challenging at times, but then that is where I earn my keep, being a spotter for Craig.

We couldn't leave until 1pm local time, so off we went enjoying the daylight for as long as we could. We managed to put in almost 600 miles before stopping in Amarillo, TX for the night. The truck stops all looked full as we drove by to go to our fuel stop, but as we took the off ramp we looked for the rest area we knew was near by, and much to our delight, there was hardly anyone parked there.

So here we are, Monday morning, up and about, meeting the local livestock on the grounds at the tourist center, and waiting until our 10 hour rest period is up. When the bewitching hour arrives we will go across the Interstate to the truck stop, fuel up, and take on down the road, knowing that we have a few more hours of daylight and an extra hour going from Central to Mountain time. Next stop, Denver for fuel..... I'll be sure to have that AARP card handy for the discount on the cup of coffee.