Happiness is a warm truck

& an open road. Yes I have finally got my beloved booze & bog roll run back. I love it for a variety of reasons. Its all good clean palletised freight with no time consuming hand stacking. The places I pick up from have really got their shit together & my freight is generally all ready to go when I get there , so its usually straight up & straight back, only having to go as far as Manukau, because any further in to the city is a bitch at that time of day. I'm usually heading in the opposite direction to the lemming like exodus from place of employment. That helps. Most of all I love it because my darling usually comes with me, & I really enjoy her company. being able to listen to good music helps too. I particularly enjoyed it tonight, because i got to take Matty's 6 wheeler Nissan with the 12 speed Roadranger gearbox. Its a real pleasure to drive & even with 15 pallets on, eats the Bombays like they arent there.

I noticed something different tonight. Usually the drive home down State Highway 2 presents a more or less continual parade of big trucks, resplendent in their accustomed array of coloured lights. Not tonight. It took a bit of figuring out, because I am in my twilight years you know, but I Got there. Last Friday, they finally opened the last bit of the new expressway between Auckland & Hamilton, thus removing the interminable succession of 80 km/hr speed restrictions. I came through in the northerly direction on Monday & its brilliant. damn near motorway all the way from Auckland to Huntly. My theory is that the big boys are using that now & going down through Hamilton instead of using Highway 2 then 27 down to Tirau.

Whatever it is, the open road is a lot more pleasant than a congested one. I remain hopeful at this point that reduced traffic flow will cut the number of accidents. Now if only they would finally open the new passing lane at Heavens Rest..................