Monday, March 7, 2016

Notes from the road.....


I'm slowly acclimating to life on the road again. Last week I was in Eastern North Carolina and treated myself to a nice sunset on the New River one night.  I sat there and watched a mama duck with about ten chicks swim past me and off into the sunset. I believe they were all black ducks, but is there such a thing?

I have been off two days since I started, lots of miles on the road already and its just week two. I have some sort of cold or allergy, lots of head and chest congestion. Can't figure out if I'm just tired from stress and the newness of it all, if its allergies to all these hotel rooms that smell of things I don't really like to smell, or if I just got a cold from someone. Anyway, I don't feel bad, just this congestion annoying my head and making me cough.

After last week grabbing a veggie sandwich from Subway every day, I decided that was going to get old fast, in fact it did get old fast, haha! So before I left for Virginia this past weekend, I went to the grocery store and got road food. I cut up carrots, peppers, got some rice crackers, nuts, raisins, yogurts, other good healthy food I can eat while driving and lots of water. This week I had way more energy than last weeks fast food extravaganza. I forgot how I used to travel. I've got to get my road show back in order! I'm trying to hit four stores a day, so there is not time to sit in a restaurant three times a day.


Speaking of shows, I was at the Richmond Va. Home and Garden show this weekend. It was incredibly crowded and our booth did over $80,000 in sales. Yep, that is correct. Sure puts a whole new light on those f' ing craft shows I used to do where I might make $300 on a good day, $3 on a really bad day. Maybe I should have been doing these home shows.....  we sold 5 of these cute little chicken coops on Saturday and they are $1000 each. Lord have mercy.....


This booth was a local lavender farm. They were selling these gronomics beds. We sold these at my last job, made me a little homesick for my pals at 5th Season. They should also look into doing these shows!


I had to go into the hateful Walmart because I did not know where I was, it was convenient and I needed room deodorizer for these hotel rooms that I don't like smelling. This woman literally parked that damn cart and got out right in the middle of the driving part of the parking lot. It did not matter to her one little bit that there were cars trying to drive through, she just got up and left it there, I could barely squeeze by her.... Lord have mercy.....


Today as I was trying to get from Richmond to Fredricksburg,  they shut down ALL north bound lanes of I95. ALL of them. They detoured traffic onto Hwy 1. Oh hell no, said I. Those detours can jam up a town faster than a blink and so I took a nice long drive through the country, finding my way on the backroads. It was nice. I got into Fredricksburg Va. and the town was about shut down from the traffic. One customer at the store I was calling on said it took him 45 minutes to go from one traffic light to the next before he was able to turn onto a side road.

I hate interstates. I hate the 18 wheelers that go screaming down the road scaring me to death, I hate those assholes in the white F150 pickups that want to crawl up everybody's ass, I hate those drivers in their expensive cars that seem to think they are the only ones entitled to driving on the road.... there are so many types of drivers and I hate most of them, ha! I may start hitting the backroads and just get there when I get there. The good thing about this job, is there are no appointments, I just show up and get my work done and no one is really waiting on me.


Tonight I am in Newport News. I found a nice little Vietnamese restaurant and ordered a 33 Export, Vietnam's answer to Budweiser, and a nice noodle dish. Its a Monday night and apparently no one eats out on Mondays. I was the only one in the place, it was pretty and quiet, the food was good and even the music was soothing. Near the end of my meal, feeling relaxed from a nice meal and a good beer, the sound 500 Miles came on, but it was an Asian version. So weird. Do you know this song?
Bobby Bare did it years ago:
Away from home, away from home
Cold and tired and all alone
Yes I'm still 500 miles away from home

It was kinda surreal. I'm having a lot of those moments lately. 


 

10 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

You are spitting distance from my stomping grounds of nawfalk. There is good food, good beer and my girls just over the bridge.
Enjoy some down time.
Yes, there is money out there to be had. It makes me wonder our choice.
Smart move on the road food.
Wishing you good travel.


Tracey Broome said...

Hey M. I thought about your girls yesterday and wondered how close I was. Wish I had the time to meet them. Maybe on one of these trips we can coordinate you being up here too and we could have a beer!
PS: I have some Barbie stuff for your girls :)

Dennis Allen said...

Just drove to NC and back. Guess what? I hate traffic too.especially the people that drive 45 in a 60 just because it is Sunday and there are two yellow lines.

Tracey Broome said...

Oh yeah, I forgot about those! They are usually in the far left lane for me

Unknown said...

Hey Tracey! Lost track of your movements... a new job?!! I'm going to catch up now. Hope the house works out too.
I agree 2015 sucked, but i'm liking 2016 already, two of the toughest months have just flown by with nice things happening. Work is still dead, but what changes there?! Ha!!
You reminded me of this tune too https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=terry+callier+900+miles
Get that road diet sorted and keep on trucking!

Michèle Hastings said...

Driving on 95 is PITA! Heading north to New Hampshire it should be the quickest route, but it never is. Seems there is always a traffic jam somewhere that ties you up for two hours. We never go that way anymore.

Glad your enjoying your job and that you solved the food thing pretty quickly!

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Scott, yeah, lots of new happenings for us in 2016. Your work is looking so great, very excited for you
Michele, it is beyond pain in the ass! I got stuck coming home today on 85, thought I would try a different way, and even that didn't work, bleh. So tired and cranky right now!

Anna M. Branner said...

You were in Fredericksburg?? And on the worst day for sure! There had been a high speed chase on I95 the night before, the back up is because they had to close down the northbound lanes to repair a sign hanging over the interstate that was hit by the racing car...apparently it was hanging by a screw or two. It was a horrible mess!

Where was your destination?

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Anna, yeah, I was whipping through Va. trying to see a bunch of stores and get back home. When I figure out what I'm doing, I need to make time for friends in Va.
I was only in Fredricksburg for about an hour and trying to beat traffic to Va Beach.
Wesley's best friend lives in Fredricksburg too, I would love to see him on one visit

Anna M. Branner said...

Your picture behind the truck shows our favorite Mexican restaurant. You could have pulled over for an amazing margarita! Fredericksburg isnt that big...wonder if I know (or know of) Wesley's friend?