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

Hello friends,

I hope all are warm and safe this Friday afternoon. I write you from the public library in chilly Boise, Idaho where I just arrived last night from Wyoming. The weather has been extreme all over and I was caught up in the mist of it in the small town of Rawlins, WY. the last twenty some hours.

Coming off of the last two official gigs in Montana and Wyoming earlier this week I headed for Rapid City on Monday for another try at that most difficult of all stops; South Dakota. It has become my most frustrating of all stops by far. I first landed on the east side of the state last month in Sioux Falls, only to spend seven excruciating days with nothing to show for all my time, troubles and freezing nights in my truck, on top of that having to suffer the humiliation of being jerked around by some local loser on the phone who dangled a job carrot for three days only to have a good laugh at my expense. Nevertheless I chalked it up to an isolated incident and moved on to Iowa knowing I had a chance to work the west side of the state when I hit Wyoming and Montana. The fuel cost has now become my biggest issue since the states out west are large and the distance between job opportunities require much more gas.

I was happy to complete the last two gigs so quickly but the bottom line is I only netted a total of one hundred dollars between the two stops. Barely enough to cover the fuel cost and allow me to stretch it all the way to Rapid City some 238 miles east again to S.D. Unfortunately when I arrived Monday afternoon I found the job situation much the same if not worse than before. I spent the night hoping for a last minute miracle and even went to the local Labor Express I found on line, for goodness sakes this town doesn’t even had a Home Depot I could have went to try to utilize as I have in other places when times got tough. All my efforts failed once again, the CL, social media and online services all proved fruitless for me again in that job forsaken state! So faced with an impending snow storm and $55 dollars in my pocket, I had to make a tough decision. I could sleep in my truck with temps in the teens but not in single digit cold, and with no prospect of any work on the horizon things looked grim for me to wait it out once again.

After two stops and eight and a half days and nights in the state with no success I bolted west Wednesday morning, the Great Plain states were tough and South Dakota proved to be the worst. I headed for Boise some 865 miles away feeling dejected leaving a state undone but feeling that I had no other option at that point. I don’t know if I will return for a third try but the only solstice I have is that I tried everything I knew and endured plenty of cold, boredom, hunger and stress trying to score a gig in that devil of a place. I still I feel a loss and a bit incomplete even after forty four successful stops.

I regained my focus as I drove to my next destination only to be thwarted this time by the snow and ice in Rawlins, Wyoming. The storm I eluded in Rapid City met me head on in western Wyoming. Interstate 1-80 was closed for the day at noon and I was stranded in there along with hundreds of truckers and travelers for the night until the storm passed and the highway was plowed the next day. Now as you know I have been roughing for the better part of the last eight months so sleeping in my truck, although not the best situation at times, is still not a big deal anymore for me, but I felt bad for the many folks who were forced to sleep in their small cars and trucks in the cold truck stop parking lot unprepared for such an event. The truckers have their cabins to sleep in and most are used to things like that from time to time but most ordinary travellers aren’t prepared for emergencies like the one were forced to endure it for that night in Wyoming. It was just another night for me with this adventure so I dealt with the situation better than most of the stranded folks. The truck stop and restaurant was filled to capacity and I enjoyed sitting with all the road warriors watching movies in the lounge, discussing stories and speculation about the pending road conditions. The next morning at nine am the roads opened and it was a mad dash to the interstate for everyone trying to get to their destinations, including me, it was one for the books!

Now I am in the land of potatoes hoping for better weather and success with work. This is the last state before I get to the Pacific Ocean and I honestly am sick and tired of looking for work, but I have to keep going for five more stops before I could wrap it up in Hawaii. I hope to have some good news next time I write you and another gig under my belt.

Take care, stay warm and thanks for checking in!  #Yo-Ga-Fla

Juanjohn