First , REMEMBER, everything you use in your day to day life has been on a truck.  It didn't just appear to you one day, it traveled many miles by TRUCK and there was someone who drove that truck....not a 'truck driver', but a person...someone just like you and me.  Without them, you would not have the food you eat, clothes you wear, the T.V. that you watch or even this computer that you are using to search the Internet.
The average truck in the United States travels an average of 64,200 miles per year, the equivalent of driving almost two and a half times around the world. The average trip for trucks is about 420 miles one way.  The average driver puts in 70 hours a week to our 40, just make the he makes and to be there on time. 
DOT (Department Of Transportation Rules) that these have to be legal hours and they keep them in a log book that is turned in with their paper work daily. 

This is just a small tribute for the man I love.
When he decided to take the truck job, we thought it would be great because now he could do something he really enjoys...traveling.  I never took for granted what he did, but until you are out there I have to tell you, it was worse than I ever imagined.  I came back in tears and filled with such love and admiration for him at the same time. I cannot even begin to tell you.  They say truck drivers have easy sit down jobs, but until you actually see what they do, I am here to tell you there nothing easy about it.  Sure you see some awesome places, that other wise, you would never have seen.  But to tell you it isn’t worth it to me, he is a better man than I ever thought.   You are scheduled a load to (per say) pick up at 9:00 A.M. (don’t be late), you are there on time, but hey, there are 15 trucks in front of you.  Well about 3 pm you may get to the door, then it takes another 2 hours to load, because, they ran out of what you are going to be transporting.  They are making it as they load your truck.   Well, needless to say, your hour of load time has just gone down the drain, and so has your delivery time.  The delivery time is (per say) 3 pm the next day 650 miles away.  Sounds like an easy ride, well you can only 11 hours a day on the log book (and you have already sit in the dock 8 of it), then you have to take a 10 hour break.  So now if you drive the 3 hours you have left for the day, you can only drive the legal speed limit, or should I say log the legal speed.  So we are gonna say you get the 3 hours behind you, appox. 180 miles (using 60 mph as speed limit), then you have to take your 10 hour break.  By now it is 6 pm, 10 hours later is 4 am.  Now you still have 500 miles to make by 3 pm.  And most of the time can be done, if you don’t have traffic jams or a bad wreck where you have been detoured.  Not saying it is like this all the time, most of the time, it is really not bad, but the bad days make up the good.  I really admire my hubby and his job and would trust my life with him completely in any vehicle, on any road conditions.  I am very thankful that he is a local driver now, he is home every night, but still I thank the Lord each evening when he walks through the door, cuz he is still in that traffic.

I know I have bored you with the tribute, so I will make this short and sweet.   The modern truck is almost, if not better than most efficiency apartments.   They come in all sizes, shapes, colors and with everything, INCLUDING, the kitchen sink if you want it.  You have to remember this is a driver’s home away from home.  He lives in it for the duration of his trip, most are two weeks gone, and home two to three days and gone again.   They have refrigerators, stoves/microwaves, TVS, etc., all kinds of storage & closets for clothes, they even have hooks for cable & internet, at the truck stops.  Next time you see one those big rigs go down the highway, just think of it as a small home on wheels. 

Now last of all a little about all those truckstops/travel centers you see out there.  They are a driver’s best friend, because a rig can’t just pull off at any normal place to go in.  not only do driver’s get their fuel there, but they eat, take showers, watch a good movie (yea they have movie rooms, most are like a movie theater), they buy their snacks and can use the phone or the WIFI  for their internet.  Most of them have washers and dryers also so they can do their laundry.  They also have game rooms, reading rooms and some even have motel rooms.  There are several (not a lot of these, but more popping up), that have barber shops, Dr’s and Dentist offices in them, along with weight/work out rooms and saunas.  So these travel centers/truckstops may look like your normal convenience store on the outside, but the inside, holds a lot more than the eye can see, if you are only there for gas & a snack.