ROUTE: Clinton, CT to Clayton, IN: 908 miles (856 loaded + 52 deadhead)
09/19/25: Picked up a load in Clinton, CT at 18:00 EST going to Clayton, IN. It was late and I already had driven a 6hrs that day. There’s two truck stops in CT that I go to frequently; the Pilot in Milford, which is my home base, but the free spots are taken early and only paid spots afterwards. My company reimburses us, but I try to avoid it whenever possible. The Travel Plaza in Darien, CT normally has ample parking spots but my truck was towed there once because they thought I left it unattended. Since I was not going to leave the Travel Plaza that night I decided to spend the night there.
This assignment was a leisurely drive as the load only delivered on Monday 09/19.
BOOK REVIEW: Hotshot: A Life on Fire by River Selby (2025), Memoir – RATING (*)**
This book reads more like a PhD thesis for forestry, American Indian history and climate change than a thrilling memoir of a female Hotshot with a tumultuous past.
The pace is brutally slow with the overabundance of facts, for which the author did thorough research. There is little connection with the protagonist due to this overwhelming side stories. It would have been better to write two books; one with all the side facts and a true memoir.
The stories of sex abuse, homelessness and other meaningful parts of her life are brushed over while going into in-depth about indigenous rituals and sidetracks into completely unrelated topics that add little to the story, i.e. mentions of Mark Twain’s cabin or Japanese-American detention camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I learned some interesting facts about controlled-fires, life of a hotshot, misogyny in the forestry department and beautiful vivid imagery but fell short to keep my interest. I finished just to see what happens to her life which she relates superficially then ends with a righteous criticism of the system she belonged to.
Overall disappointing to what I expected from the book and the publisher’s description of it.
