Q & A with Gi-Gi Roxx Round #1

Round one of questions is in response to the top ten questions that were on The Daily Rant's mind. She's always got great questions for these Q & A sessions! But don't fret, I'll get to the rest of your questions soon. I have gotten a great response and have been thrilled to see so many of you sending in questions!

....on with the show.

1. Do you feel better going to work every day now that you’re out of the bus and back in the truck? Are you happier?

Yes and yes. I have a few mornings, mostly the ones where I have to get up by 4 am that I drag my feet and dread "going" to work. But overall, I don't find myself feeling that overwhelming sense of horror knowing I have to go to work each day. No no, those mornings are a thing of the past. Thank goodness! So, to answer your second part of this question, means my world is a lot brighter happier place. Happy Gi-Gi.

2. Now that you’re married, is it different being away from home, or pretty much the same?

The weird part is that it's pretty much the same as it was before, except now we seem to make much less effort to talk multiple times a day on the phone and save it all up for our nighttime chats. It's still hard on my heart when I have to hit the road after a few days off. I still miss him immensely every day. But we still make it work. I'm just so very lucky to have such a supporting and loving husband. He really is the yin to my yang.

3. I see you’ve taken up knitting – any other hobbies you’ve considered to pass time when you’re on the road?

Well I have a pretty strict regimen of talk radio listening I like to stick to while I'm driving, as I did before. I also still do quite a bit of reading. Plus while I was home for that bubble delivering/bus driving period of my life I added excessive Netflix watching to my life. So that still gets a lot of my attention, even out here.

But while I watch my "programs" on the Netflix I can knit. As far as adding other hobbies, I think I've got a pretty full plate. I find I have a hard time deciding which "hobby" gets the attention each time I have free time.

4. This week you dined at the German restaurant in Virginia – how do you feel dining alone? Do you bring the newspaper or a book with you? Do you ever dine with other truckers?

Edelweiss German Restaurant is amazing, first of all. I highly recommend it to anyone passing through Virginia with some time for a good authentic German meal. Exit 213, truckers can park at the Pilot and walk over. You won't regret it. And no, they're not paying me to advertise, it's just THAT good.

I don't mind dining alone actually. I know a lot of people feel weird about it, but not me. I am a people watcher, so not always having the distraction of a dining companion allows me to focus on my own little special social experimentation and observation time.

I do have days when I will elect to sit at the "drivers pit" over a solo table or booth. Sometimes it's just nice to banter with other humans, especially other truckers. Although I try to get a feel for the group of folks in the pit before I sit down, because if they're talking about things I've got no real interest in, I can just find a booth and entertain myself.

Oh and never a newspaper or book, but ALWAYS my iPhone. I mean, I have to text, tweet, update FB and play Words with Friends and DrawSomething right?!?! haha

5. Have you ever been approached to be part of a female trucker reality show kind of thing?

I was actually sent two separate e-mails about two years apart from different people asking me if I would be interested in being part of a trucker reality show. But I declined. For one, I didn't figure they would end up being interested in a 'company' driver, which would probably required a lot of hoops to be jumped through to overcome legal issues and such. And I don't really want that sort of notoriety. It could have been cool, I'd have been famous. But then, in my own mind, I'm already famous.

6. What kind of things do you like to eat on the road – favorite breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, beverage?

Ooh this is a fun one. Right now my truck stays stocked regularly with the following: Crunchy Nature Valley Honey & Oat Bars, FiberOne chocolate granola bars, Nestle Pure Life bottled water, Archer Farms Pomegranate fruit leathers, Baked Lays, Quaker Carmel Rice Cakes, generic brand Key Lime yogurt cups and Weight Watchers String Cheese.

Those are always on-board. They are, however, mainly "snacks" I can choose from each day when I have the need to nosh while driving because they're small, easy to grab from my little lunch bag I keep beside me and don't take up a lot of space. I have other snacks that come and go, but those things are staples for me.

But I also quite enjoy hot meals. I keep canned veggies and soups on hand when I'm not near a truck stop with hot food offerings. I also keep canned chicken and stuffing mix which can be cooked together in my lunch box cooker for a quick tasty treat.

But if I'm eating out, I prefer a sit down place like a lot of the larger truck stops offer with a salad bar and menu offerings. I try to stay away from fried foods but find sometimes I just need a basket of fries. I also try to limit my red meat intake but find again that sometimes I just gotta have a juicy steak. I try to avoid the fast food type joints just because they offer very little nutritional value overall. But again, sometimes that's all that is available and when canned peas and carrots just isn't cutting it another day, I'll grab a kids meal or a salad.

7. We recently crossed paths, but didn’t get to meet. I’ve met several other drivers on the road that I first met through my blog – do you ever have any desire to meet your other driver friends in person?

I LOVE meeting other drivers I've found via the internet and my blog. (And you, Eddie and me will be sharing a dinner table conversation eventually, I just know it!)

I often find that even just through the comments I get on my postings, emails, and social media interactions with other truckers that real friendships are being formed. I kind of feel like they just haven't yet matured. If that makes sense. It's not until I really sit down with someone that I've shared an online relationship with that it feels really real to me.

I have actually had the pleasure of meeting a few of my online friends in person just since I've been back on the road and have been thrilled to do so. (holla to Jenn, Scoot and Allen!) It's always so much fun finally getting to shake hands with or hug a person I've been sharing my life with via words on a screen.

8. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, which ones do you like? If not, why?

Ok, so I didn't listen to them before. Occasionally I'd find myself entertained by the short segments of books read on the XM Book Radio station, but never really got that into it. Mainly because it was done in daily or weekly installments and the good books always interfered with my other regular programs.

I did recently download an audio book from iTunes. It is one that I've read before but wanted to "refresh" myself with. I figured I could listen to it on the weekends when my talk radio programs are repeats from the week before.

This past weekend I made it 6 chapters through the audio book and really enjoyed hearing it read by someone else. I found myself comparing how I interpreted the words on paper and how I was interpreting them as words in the air. And while I'm a HUGE proponent for actual books with pages and covers and the intoxicating smell of ink and nostalgia, I really found myself enjoying the new set of visuals I was getting from listening rather than reading.

Will it replace books for me? Never. But will I consider listening to other books? Probably. Especially ones I've already held in my hands and read from paper, just so I can kind of devour them from a different perspective.

9. Do you make any notes on places you see that you’d like to stop at when you have more time or are back in the area?

I have tons of notes in my head. But I haven't put them on paper. Mostly because I can't forget them too easily. I want to spend time in Mammoth Caves area of Kentucky. I want to see the Biltmore in Ashville, NC. I could spend weeks/months driving around Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. I definitely need to book a week in Gatlinburg, TN and maybe even spend a little time in both Nashville and Memphis.

The list is endless really. I'm a traveling spirit and absolutely love seeing new town, finding the hidden secret gems in out of the way places, and just generally exploring the world around me.

10. If you’ve done any sightseeing, what are some attractions that you enjoyed seeing? What places disappointed?

During my over-the-road time I've not really gotten to do a whole lot of sight seeing. Mainly because big trucks, as you know, just can't fit everywhere. I also have this insane thing where I won't break laws to do something fun, regardless of how fun it might be. So I won't drive into places that a lot of other truck drivers might not think twice about because I actually read that tiny little sign that said "no trucks".

What little I've managed has been a hoot. One highlight was when I made a point of stopping off to see The Thing in New Mexico (and of course bought a shirt to prove it!). I'm a SUCKER for roadside kitschy attractions. I had a blast roaming around in there, making good use of the $2 it cost me to gain entry to the "main attraction", of which I'm still confused about which part was actually supposed to be "The Thing".

Another highlight was when I took a taxi to the Indianapolis Children's Museum while my truck was in the shop once to see a King Tut exhibit that only two pieces of jewelery that belonged to Tut was at. I got free tickets from the hotel front desk and got in during "preview/VIP" hours before regular opening time so I pretty much had the joint to myself. That was awesome.