We landed at the Rocky Mountain bunker yesterday afternoon. We were blessed with 3 days of fair skies and no weather events other than the usual wind gusts of 60 mph going over the Continental Divide between Cheyenne and Rawlins WY.
I can report a few things from the road: gas is expensive everywhere, even in Wyoming where it was once a fraction of the price in other states. As the bargain prices began to disappear a few years back I can only assume their legislature passed a higher gas tax.
It’s hard to believe there is a shortage of truck drivers. In all the years we’ve travelled the I-80 corridor east to west I’ve never seen more semis on the road than this trip. We left on Friday and encountered an unbroken line of tractor trailers on I-94 from Detroit to Chicago and it didn’t thin out much from there. Saturday, generally a light day for truck traffic, was more of the same from Iowa to Cheyenne. Sunday, more of the same in Wyoming which in the past is a wasteland with little traffic any day of the week. Maybe that’s why they raised their gas tax.
Otherwise the labor shortage seems real. A quick milk, eggs, bread run to the local grocery store upon arrival revealed that they are offering jobs at $24 an hour to handle incoming freight – that’s nearly $50,000/yr to move boxes of food from a truck to the storage area. And I will guarantee you the sign will remain up for weeks if not months. People around here didn’t like to work even before the cooties provided government bonuses to stay home.
While there were people in masks, masks everywhere I’m pleased to report the vast majority of Americans appear to have eschewed them in favor of free face.
And finally, I can state categorically that I’m getting too old for this. I’m still exhausted this morning although I went to bed on EST not MST, Also, I’m still feeling a wee bit oxygen deprived, although that could be due to a caffeine deficiency as well. So after my coffee and a post my immediate plans are to go back to bed.
I do hope you’ve all got your Christmas plans in place and have completed your Christmas shopping as time is growing short.
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