Jan. 16, 2017

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Hello friends.

Happy M.L.K. day from the T.A. truck stop here off interstate I-84 in Boise, Idaho. I write you from the lounge because all the libraries are closed due to the King Holiday.  I pray all are off today, if not then warm and safe in this relentless weather raging throughout the country. As you last read I was stranded in Wyoming last week and now I’ve been stuck here in the frozen potato state of Idaho.

After four days of searching for work and battling the elements namely ice, snow and extremely cold temps I have managed to come up empty handed until now. I can’t afford not to work with such a tight budget but I guess Mother Nature didn’t get my memo. The job situation here is as bad as my last five stops with the exception of Colorado.  Hardly any postings on the CL and nothing else on the horizon including online staffing services, which promise plenty but deliver very little as far as results are concerned. I posted my own ad again and I have only received one call from a contractor interested in my services but changed his mind after I declined his full time offer. I guess he didn’t read my posting citing that I was looking for short term employment only. The two Home Depots were a letdown also looking like ghost towns when I went see if I could score some daily work there as a laborer. And to make matters worse I slipped on a sheet of ice in the parking lot landing squarely on my back but avoiding any serious injury except for my pride.

Snow fell the last three days and the temperature dropped below zero last night as I bundled up in the gigs mobile for the ninth consecutive evening. I am able to survive by engaging the heater every couple of hours through the night and dreaming of the Hawaiian Islands. It’s a double edge sword as I burn up the gas that I so desperately need to move forward with. This tour survives with the ability to find work and earn enough money to continue on despite the weather forecast or my own personal struggles. The bottom line comes down to this; no work, no movement forward. To add insult to injury, after I thawed out this morning, I walked into the truck stop building to use the restroom and grab some coffee before I drove to the H.D. and the manager informed me that I had already parked in the lot for four nights and that if I parked again he would call the police and have me towed away!

Apparently I look like a vagrant now and one night was okay but according to him I have overstayed my welcome and I need to move on like a good little bum that I am! I tried to explain to him that I was on an adventure and that I had been using the truck stops like his for months without any problems and because I couldn’t afford a room I had few options. I gave him my card and told him I was writer on a book research project and wasn’t looking for any trouble, unfortunately it fell on deaf ears, I assume because I don’t spend the one to two hundred dollars to fill up my truck like the REAL truckers who frequent the establishment. So it goes with this journey, I’ll just have to find another lot to park in tonight. It will just go down as the worst truck stop on my best and worst list!

There is some good news to share with you though; I just secured my gig in Moscow, Idaho that is not Russia, some three hundred miles away on Wednesday. I just spoke to the lady before I sat down to write you. It will be a short but very interesting gig I saw posted a few minutes ago, but I’m sure you will appreciate the uniqueness of it and find it amusing!

Well friends once again thank you for checking in with me and please take care on the roads wherever you call home. Next time I write you I hope to be checking in from Seattle and the west coast!

Have a great rest of the week and go Patriots!  #Yo-Ga-Fla

Juanjohn