One of the questions we get asked a lot is what do you do in your downtime on your thirty four hour reset. The biggest thing most truckers would probably say and I am NO different is catch up on sleep without the truck running. Sleep out on the road especially when you a team couple can be really hard. Because most of your sleep comes when you partner is driving. If there is bad traffic or accidents or bad weather it can really cause you lose a lot of much needed sleep. So on the weekends we tend to really try to catch up on quality sleep with the truck moving.
The other thing we try to do is if we are in a area where we have never been before, we will Google fun places to go visit or great restaurants to try. This is a great way for Larry and I to get a chance to not only have fun, but also have a date night or two. We also will Uber a lot of times to get things done like hair cuts or getting my nails done. By using Uber or Lift it is so much easier than having to research on whether or not we can get our truck and or truck and trailer into parking spots. And a lot of times businesses do not even allow trucks to park in their parking lots, so we tend to use Uber or Lift often.
On our breaks I will also create a list of meals we will be making during the week, and I will create an order through Walmart or Instacart of groceries, pet supplies or truck supplies or cleaning supplies we will need through out the week. Then arrange to have them delivered to whatever truck stop we are at. It is so much easier to use a grocery delivery system them trying to a Super Sleeper semi truck into a parking lot. The shoppers do all the shopping for me, all I have to do is plan out what we need and wait for the supplies to arrive.
Also on my downtime usually on the day before we head out I will do any meal prep I can do beforehand. Therefore if I have to drive a lot of the meal prep is done. Like cutting up things for snacks and putting snacks in smaller ziplock bags to make it easier for when we are driving. A lot of times since I drive during the day I will create meals that I can throw into my crockpot with a liner and let it cook all day and then when it comes time for us to swap, we have a meal all ready for us and don’t have to rely on expensive fast food at the truck stop.
Laundry is also a must, usually we will do laundry about every two weeks. We tend to have enough clothes and bedding on our truck that we do not need to do laundry on a weekly basis. But when we do have to do laundry it does tend to be several loads between our clothes, bedding, kitchen and bath towels and our coats and jackets.
Lastly we will try to make sure that the truck is cleaned up during our break, and that any repairs or simple maintenance that needs to be done is done before we start our week out. Between checking fluid levels and making sure we have plenty of washer fluid, oil, and antifreeze and more.
