Little Rock, AK en route to Laredo, TX

Lot's to talk about. First, what is with you Mercer drivers? Talk about a bunch of arrogant old dumb fucks. We're telling you, one of those hot headed Mexican companeros are gonna flatten one of you one day. The world does not owe you a living or service. Even though most of you are over-the-hill and should have retired long ago, you must learn to wait on line like everyone else, you cannot treat truck stop waitresses and clerks like dirt and I know it's a challenge, but you have to start reading signs. They're very useful in telling you what to do, since most of you are clueless how to act in a civilized world. Speaking of being flattened, it is only a matter of time before we read in one of trucking rags that a driver got arrested for punching out an Idle Aire rep. We see it brewing. You'll see. Ok, we have Con-Way and CFI merging. The courts have said they don't like the 34-hour restart and the 11 hour driving cap. Wow, big surprise. They're gonna dick around with this thru Sept. and a "final" word probably won't be decided till the 1st of the new year. Our position is that the 34-hour restart should either remain or extended to 48 hours - a full two days off before getting your 70 back. And, we don't think 11 hours of driving is safe under any circumstances. It should be no more than 10 hours, period. We all know that drivers "fudge" on their logbooks when being held up at a receiver or shipper, so they can drive to meet the absurd ETA's set by sales or customer service representatives. The FMCSA needs to take a closer look at the "whole" picture. We spoke directly to a FMCSA agent and he told us "everyone" is confused and the entire system needs to be simplified. Next, we turned off our Sirius and are giving XM a listen. We are very impressed wiith XM 171 Open Road - the trucking channel. If you get past all the Jesus died for our sins crap, it's not bad. Unfortunately, it seems that the same 3 drivers are always calling in on all the shows. Also, it really annoying that all the "personalities" have their noses straight up OOIDA's rear. One driver called in and said he won't join OOIDA because they have done nothing to change the way company drivers are paid. The response of "it's not in their charter" ain't good enough. Going slightly off topic - if OOIDA wants company drivers, it has to start by changing their name. Back on topic, the Sirius trucking "network" is horrible. The XM/Sirius merger is still on hold pending review of a new XM/Sirius pricing proposal by the FCC chairman and his pencil pushers. And finally now, we had the Petro Little Rock "steak" $10.99 buffet. It was horrible. The steak could barely be cut with a steak knife. It was like chewing rubber. Jerky is easier on the choppers. Everything was overcooked and had little or no taste. A few days ago we had awesome dinners at Panera's on the Ohio Tpk. and Starbuck's. Panera's has a terrific roast beef sandwich and French onion soup. Starbuck's has a great selection of pre-made sandwiches. Our coffee in the truck is better and certainly cheaper than any of their coffees. Anyway, after those two meals, we had to suffer at Petro.