 Good morning, everybody. The daylight hours are winding down already. I'm waiting to get unloaded. My appointment is at 9 p.m. in Laredo, Texas. I'm sitting up about 30 miles north of Laredo in Enns... I couldn't pronounce it yesterday either. Encinida, Encynda, a little town here, and a truck stop, a road ranger. That's where we're at, waiting to go unload as it loves across the street. It's pretty warm. You're not gonna lie, it's pretty warm. I've been sitting here with the windows down most of the day and a T-shirt, it's January. It's 12 degrees Celsius, and that's cold for them. I looked at their forecast for the rest of the week, and it was like 25 degrees Celsius the rest of the week. So right now we're sitting in like the 50s Fahrenheit. Their regular temperature looks like it's in the 70s in January. I saw motorcycles riding around yesterday, and I saw palm trees. I did, I didn't show them in the vlogs, it was already nighttime, but my life is complete. Saw my first palm tree of 2024, because it was very, very exciting. I don't get to see them very often. It just had gotten used to cold weather for winter. So coming down here, my body's like, what's going on? I thought it was winter time. Is it still January? Did we fall asleep? Did we sleep all the way till like May? I don't know what's going on. So I'm like sweating away here. Everyone else is probably doing just fine, but this Canadian is melting. We're 30 miles from the Mexico border. Closest to the Mexico border I've been in about 15 years. That was an exciting trip for me. It was a little bit out of the ordinary for me. Stretched my legs a little bit. It was a good rounder. I have a reload that's taking me back to Winnipeg. I gotta go pick it up near Houston tomorrow. But for now, we gotta wait. It'll be dark already by the time we start our day. Cause I've been sitting here since yesterday. We're gonna start our day. We're gonna go and get unloaded at nine o'clock and then get as close to Houston as we can tonight yet. Probably drive past midnight. The sun is down and I'm ready to start my day. It's gonna be a night trucking day today. So the vlog will be a little dark. Apologies in advance. We're still gonna have fun. Let's go get this freight off my trailer and get out of here, get back to Houston. Still attached? Fantastic, fantastic. And here we go. They were getting there at 8.45 as well. It's like a mall or retail store, delivery, back lane. So there will be plenty of room. I just don't know how many of us are down here. Cause I think I saw another one of our drivers down here with a second part to this load. I only saw him once in Kansas and then it would make sense cause I don't think my load is the whole thing. But I don't know. I just know mine. They turned their signal on for no reason. I'm just gonna wait and make sure. Yes, he is turning. Okay, well he had his signal on, so I just didn't trust him. Entrance to the load on 35 South. Patient, I guess. I just, I feel bad cutting people off. So I go like, out of my way, not to cut people off. That what he did there wasn't so bad. I mean, it doesn't really matter. That would have been one of those like gray areas where I would have felt bad about it but I probably would have still done it. I don't know, I don't know. Turning on, he was turning on at the same time. So it's just a stop sign, but stop waiting for it to turn green. Like I turned his signal on after he was already turning. Otherwise I wouldn't have known what he had done. Good, good, good. Glad to see the drivers are exactly the same in every corner of the continent. It's awesome. It's one thing that unites us all. Which that crosses into Mexico is called the World Trade Bridge. I've seen lots of signs for it trees everywhere. I wanna take exit 3A. Mexico is literally a few blocks over to our right. Take exit 3A. See them in the video? Exit 3A. I always say palm trees to me are a sign of good times. Vacation. Fun beaches. Or just warmer weather. 100 meters, turn right on West Colton road and then approaching destination on the left side. Under 100 meters. We're gonna make a right, immediate right. Cross here, cross to here. It's very humid here. Hey, so we're here. Just around the corner here. Destination 100 meters on the left side. Look at that old blue. You see that? Right in front of you. Something up with that light though. But here we are. I'm 15 minutes early. I just talked to the guy who's gonna come here and meet me. Told him where I was. He'll be here in about 15 minutes. In the meantime, I'm gonna go say hello to my little friend over here. There's a special place in my heart for palm trees. First I have to make sure there's no snakes or spiders or things around here that I shouldn't be near. We're not in Manitoba anymore. Okay, nothing around here. Always be vigilant of where you're stepping, especially when you're going into the grass. Okay, nothing there, nothing there. Nothing on the trunk. All right, well, had to hug it. It's a good day. I know I'm like 10 years old, whatever. Don't spoil my good mood. Palm trees put me in a good mood. Well, now that we got that over with, straight down to business. I'm gonna crawl inside the trailer here, get everything ready to go. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be unloading around here or back over there, but we'll take a look. See if I can show you inside the trailer here a little bit. I don't have a lot in there. Come on, focus. Focus. No, there's not enough light in there right now. See? Oh, oh. No, camera's not. Can you sort of see where they are there? Sorry, guys. Too dark in there. Look at this. January 2024, walking around no-took t-shirt. Pushed my wife and son right here. Then I have everything that makes me happy all in one place. My son, my wife, palm trees, and old look. Wouldn't that be great? One day. One day, that's why we got these tattoos. The Brit got one too. See? Nope. Brit's got a matching one on her leg to remind me all the time to plan vacations. As you know, life gets away from you quick. And you gotta remember to stop, slow down. And go have some fun. And just for the record, I know on the way down here, I wasn't familiar with this area at all. I'm still not familiar with it. And I was a little bit nervous about coming down here. I just wanna let you know that those worries were unfounded. From what I've seen here so far and where I spent the night in this area here, Laredo's very nice. And I would have had no problem staying here overnight. There would have been no problem at all. It seems like a very nice place. Though I've only been here for a very short time, so I don't know. Oh, there's two of us here unloading. So that's Roger there in his truck. They're unloading him first, and then they're gonna unload me. I figured there must be a second truck on this load because this is what I had on. They haven't unloaded anything yet. And I'm just taking the straps off the first bundle. That's what I mean. Like it wasn't that much. And I knew this couldn't be the whole thing, right? And I was right. He's got the other part. Looks like they're just about done with him though. So I better get my stuff ready to go. Gotta get two more straps off of here. I've gotta be very careful taking it off. It can be a little bit delicate. This'll be a lot easier. T-shirt, can't get over that. January. And to them it's cold here right now. To me it's nice. So my plan from here is to get as close to Houston as I can, so I'll be driving into the night. I explained this to you before already, right? We'll see how far we can get. I'll drive till I'm tired, but I slept pretty late. I slept most of the day actually, half the day away. So I've got quite a bit of energy now. And we'll see how it works out. We get to where we get to. As long as I get to my customer tomorrow between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. We'll be good to go. I'll load everything up and start headed home. We're all done. So I wanna get back and past San Antonio. That's my goal for tonight. I wanna at least get back and through San Antonio so I don't have to do that traffic tomorrow. I'll get as close to Houston as I can. It's actually not on the west side of Houston that I'm picking up. It's the north side, near Conroe, Texas. So I will have to go through Houston tomorrow. I don't think I'll be able to go, I don't think I'll make it all the way there tonight. Yeah, that's a long way. That's about six, six and a half hours from here. So, we'll see how I feel, but I'll probably end up stopping somewhere between San Antonio and Houston. So let's get going. Turn left on. San Dario, I only met. Take the entrance to the mountain to 100 meters. Back straight up the way we came. I-35. So this was a pretty cool trip. I enjoyed it. The guys who were unloading me here were really awesome. Funny guys. Had a good time. I keep working. Turned my signal on and after I turned my signal on, he goes racing around on my left, on the side that he knew I was turning. I gotta see my palm trees. Continue on this road for 242 kilometers. For a quick little coffee. The entrance to the left on, I-35. Oh, I need to get here. No, maybe we'll get coffee, Karen. What do you got against coffee? Banser is nothing. Drill Sergeant. Lighted route. The sleep that I got there was very good. So I'm just gonna park. Temporary parking anywhere. All the city. Right on, US 90 West I-10. East US 90, East US 87, South I-10. Came to the right at 130 meters. Nice. Got that same cheap fuel way back. So I've gotta grab a little bit of fuel now, here at San Antonio. They've got the second cheapest fuel on my road home. To the right. Home of juice. Save a bit of money. Interstate 10. Exit 532. Exit 2 on this road for 12 kilometers. We're flying J there. That's where we're gonna pull in. What is the Texas likes to build? Highways in the sky. And I know we've been going through Texas mostly at nighttime length. But look at this. Can you see this? I wonder if the camera's gonna pick this up. There's like a road that they're building. Keep to the left on. I can't use take. Aggro road. No, it's not showing up. The camera is too dark. Interchange here. That highway is gonna be like 20 stories in the sky. The nurse. Take nurse. Where am I going? Hey, this road goes right. Yes. Oh, my lane ends though. Oh. Okay. 300 meters. Turn left on. Ackerman road and end. Turn right into 130 meters. Am I there yet? Oh, here's a Petro. Petro stop in town. I wanna go left. Okay. Flying Js across on the other side. All those constructions. So confusing right now. My lane. There's no lines. Oh, I see the flying J over there. Oh, I get in there. Turn right on. Connecting road and end. Approaching destination on the right side. And draw meters. Entry only. Okay. Let's go in here. Remind me not to go out this way. Tight one. And it's busy at the pumps. Hot in the world, middle of the night. Pumps, sleeping. All these trucks in the fuel aisles. No one's fueling. They're all just parked in there. I guess over there, off to the right. Two gallons should get me up to Oklahoma City. All the way to Houston and around is about 600 miles. That should be good. They're different. They have roads running parallel to it. This isn't just good. Okay, so this is the on-ramp right here. I think. Where? No, there's just a big puddle here. What? We're in Houston on I-10. Pulling into the Amigos Travel Plaza. You have arrived at your destination on the right side, Amigos Country Corner. This is how we get in here. I can't read that sign. Those lights behind it are too bright. There's some parking here for me. So I think I got some good distance behind me for driving into the night like this. The sun's not up yet, so that's a good sign. That's one good thing about this season is the sun comes up later. I don't like it that it goes down earlier, but it also comes up later. It's harder for me to fall asleep once the sun is already up. That's why I stop. One of the reasons I stop now. The main reason I stop now is because every truck stop around my shipper where I'm picking up tomorrow, charges for parking. I went and looked at all of them on the Trucker Path app. All of them charge 10 to 15 bucks a night to park. And you know me, that is my absolute, absolute last resort. I refuse to pay for parking. I'm gonna be a little stubborn there. This isn't Europe. We don't pay to park. Can you imagine how expensive it would be if I would have to pay to park every single night? Like, let's say 15 bucks every, every single night. 150 bucks every 10 nights. 300 bucks every 20 nights. 450 bucks, am I doing my math correctly? 150, 300, 450, I'm tired. Another reason I pulled over. 450 bucks a month just to park my truck. Just to sleep. This is my home back here when I'm on the road. That's my bed. I'm not even in a hotel. Do you pay $10 a night to park yourself in your bed, in your bedroom, in your house every night? Like, can you imagine if like the government or something like your landlord or HOA if you are unfortunate enough to live in an HOA? I don't know why anyone would want to. I don't. I would never live in an HOA. That's a story in a rant for another time. But can you imagine if like your HOA leaders or whatever would come like knock on your door before you go to bed and say, hey, if you want to go and sleep in your bed, you're going to have to pay me 15 bucks because you're on HOA land. Like homeowner's association line, like it's ridiculous, right? It doesn't make any sense. It's cruel, it's greedy, and it punishes us truckers for stopping one. It's not even, it's not even our choice. The government's telling us we have to stop. Whatever. You know how I feel about that. I won't go into that any further. I already told you the other day. So yeah, they all charged the park over there. So I'm parking here. Excuse me. I'm going to bed. Morning's going to come quick, real quick. So I'll see you then. Don't forget to subscribe, everybody. A lot of you are watching and aren't subscribed yet. Why? It's free. Down below. Go and subscribe. I'm also going to be opening a member's thing on my page here. Sorry, I can't even talk. We'll talk with this tomorrow because I can't really talk. Where you can become a member of the channel and get early access to the videos. Sort of like what I was doing over on Patreon, but I'm going to be winding Patreon down over the next few months, I think. And moving it over to YouTube memberships that keeps everything right here on this page. But I haven't made that final decision yet because I used to release the videos early over there, right? But it's a bit of a hassle to go around that way if we can give early access right here on YouTube then everything's all sort of in one place. Tomorrow after my brain is a little bit more rested, maybe we'll talk about it a little bit more. But don't worry about it right now, okay? That's just foreshadowing a conversation I'll have with you in the future. We're going to be opening up a member section of my YouTube channel here. Nothing's going to change for all of you. All my videos will still be free for you to watch when they get released. But I'm trying to find ways of whoever wants to can access them early. Stuff like that. We'll see what happens. So good night everybody. Stay safe out there. And I'll see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.