Ten Year Anniversary

Ten years ago I started my career as a professional truck driver. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it seemed like the right decision. I was burned out with teaching and in trying to decide what other career I should pursue, it just seemed logical to get my CDL and team drive with Larry. I think Larry was a little surprised at my decision. I had spent a few weeks on the truck with him as a passenger so I knew that it was not an easy life, but it has been more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

Four weeks at a Truck Driving School and it was off to Werner Enterprises out of Omaha, NE. I had to clock 250 hours behind the wheel as a team driver with Larry before I was officially hired by them. And I almost didn’t get hired. I failed the drive test because of being so nervous. It took Larry defending my ability as a driver by stressing that, if he felt safe enough to go to sleep in the bunk with me driving, then I was ready to be a truck driver. Thankfully that was enough to convince them that I was ready to be officially hired.

Here are some milestones of the last 10 years:

I’ve driven well over a million miles and all accident free.

 I’ve driven on most major highways and through most major cities in 46 states.

My favorite place to drive is anywhere west of the Mississippi. (except California)

My least favorite place to drive (besides California) is the mid-west and the east coast.

I’ve driven in all kinds of weather with a few harrowing experiences – even driven in a hurricane. But I still haven’t seen a tornado. One went past us in the night, but we never saw it.

I’ve driven 7 different trucks, from a 9-speed to a 13-speed; 2 Peterbilts and the rest Freightliners.

I’ve worked for 3 different companies.

On the personal front:

I’ve gained weight and I’ve lost weight.

I started out with brown hair and now have gray hair.

I had no grandchildren and now I can count 10.

I have 3 new daughters-in-laws.

We sold a house and bought a house.

3 of my kids graduated from college while another one started his own business.

I’m still fairly healthy, with only a few minor issues, which is amazing considering the lack of exercise and good eating habits.

I’ve never regretted my decision to go on the road. Being with Larry has been amazing, and grateful that we have been able to be together out here. But it is a hard and stressful life and I’m ready to move on. I don’t know what the next few years will bring, but somewhere there’s another adventure waiting for me.

New Trucks Can Lose Their Appeal

I admit it, I love new things. I don't shop at Thrift Stores because of that very problem. I like the smell, the feel, the experience of all things new and fresh and untouched. But new, doesn't always mean better. In the 10 years that I've been driving, I have been in used trucks as well as new trucks. And I've realized, even with trucks, new doesn't always mean better.
With Interstate, we started out with a used truck. It had been taken care of so it was in good shape. The only big issue we had was the transmission. But it was getting old and things were starting to wear out. So we were issued a new truck.  Or fairly new - only 1 other team had it but only put 30,000 miles on it. It was in fairly good condition with a little wear and tear on the inside. (I figured they must have cooked their meals in it, which we don't do.) This new truck, however, had a constant problem with the electrical system, and we were always having to get it repaired in the shop. Also we had a AC system in the bunk that needed constant shop work.
Then last fall we got our 2nd brand new truck - only 2,000 miles on it, just the mileage to get it from Mexico to Tacoma. It had that nice, new truck smell, everything clean and pristine. In the 8 months that we had it we started out with an oil filter blow out, grinding brakes that never got resolved, and an overheated brake the sent us to the shop; also, fuel filter problems and a exhaust system problem that resulted in being towed to a shop.
And then the infamous refrigerator malfunction with the exploding milk carton. But that's another story.
Onto the 3rd new truck just issued, now a month old. Yay, another pristine, sweet smelling, clean, and problem free truck. Wrong. We had only been on it a week and the air conditioning went out.  By the time we got it back to the shop in Tacoma at the end of that first week, we had 8 things on the repair and please-check-this-problem list.
So, go ahead and give me new trucks: after all it nice to start clean and fresh, but don't be fooled by the idea that new means trouble free, because it just ain't so.

Road Rage

They say, (truckers, I mean) that if you don't get flipped off at least once a day, you haven't done your job. I'm not sure I agree with that, but I do know I get flipped off a lot, and horns blasted at me a number of times per week. But, that's the name of the game when an 18-wheeler shares the road with the 4-wheelers.
I've avoided out-and-out road rage until the other night, traveling through Pennsylvania on a dark, drizzly night on I-70. There weren't too many cars or trucks on the road. We were light so going up and down the mountain roads did not slow me down.
I looked in my side mirror and saw a car approaching on the left. Suddenly, he dove behind me and followed me for a few miles. This happens occasionally and it is very disconcerting. Is it a cop checking me out? Is it someone who likes to follow big trucks?(Surprisingly there are those that think following close behind a truck increases their fuel mileage. NOT!) Are they trying to take an exit and realized that they can't pass me in time? Nothing seems to happen - just following behind.
I was approaching a slow Land Span truck in the right lane. There were 3 lanes so I wouldn't be getting into anyone's way by jumping into the middle lane. I passed the Land Span and looked into the right side mirror and saw him flash his lights. I turned my turn signal on and moved over. Suddenly I heard a roar on my right side (which would have been the shoulder) and saw a car zip past me on the shoulder! Where did he come from?!?
If figured he was the car that was following me, but why did he end up on my right side? If he wanted to pass me, why did he wait until I was passing the Land Span, and more importantly, why didn't he pass on the far left lane?
It unnerved me but I didn't think more about it. A few miles later I saw the same car on the side of the road. The driver had his door opened. I didn't think much about it, but thought later that maybe he was looking to see if he had any damage to his car. After all, the shoulder was not that wide and there was a guard rail there.
I drove another few miles thinking about where I was going to stop to change drivers. I was about an hour from the turnpike so figured once I got on the turnpike we would switch there. It had been a grueling evening, picking up the load in Columbus, OH, and I was tired and ready to stop, but wanted to give Larry a little more sleep.
There were no cars or trucks ahead of me or behind me. I wasn't paying too much attention but happened to do my cursory glance in the side mirror that I do when I'm driving. There, right on the back bumper of my trailer were headlights. I saw the car swerve just barely past the corner and then run up the side of my trailer, over the center line and as he approached the cab of the truck he swerved into me. If I hadn't swerved the truck onto the shoulder I don't know if he would have actually hit me or not. He flew past, apparently content with the payback and was up and around the hill, with my brights on full to let him know I didn't think it was funny. It happened so fast I didn't think to hit my air horn.
That unnerved me. Was he going to meet again on another corner? Did he have other intentions? I decided I didn't want to take a chance so a few miles later there was a truck stop and I stopped to get myself composed and to wake Larry up and get some TLC.
We waited about 15 minutes and I continued on down the road and didn't see him again, thankfully.

New Year 2012

It's a New Year. I like the concept of a new year. I don't normally do New Year's resolutions but I try to "resolve" to be better, do better, and work harder. I made a list of goals years ago that I'm still trying to work on. Life is, basically, a work in progress, and who knows what the final outcome will be.  
We found ourselves driving the lonely 1-70 in Kansas last night. As midnight approached Central Time we were fueling at the Petro Truck Stop in Salina, KS. There were very few cars on the road. Almost no trucks. It was quiet. In the store there was the clerk and someone cleaning. Midnight struck. No fanfare, no fireworks, no tooting of horns. 
Larry came out with a bag of chips and some chip dip, and we scarfed them down, thinking about our blessings, and how 2011 on a personal basis wasn't a bad year. When you think about the chaos of the world, and the drama of our job, it's nice to think that when you scope it down to the minute particles of your life, that there is some saneness and a lot of blessings
So here's a goodbye to 2011 and a hello to 2012 and let the fun begin.

Eyewitness

I’ve heard about it, read about, but never witnessed it myself.

It was Friday night on March 4. We had stopped to eat in E. St. Louis, and when we headed for the bridge into St. Louis, we were hoping rush hour traffic would be gone. Instead it was stop and go. It’s a little complicated there. There are 3 major freeways converging there. There’s I-70, I-55, and I-64. For those needing to stay on I-70 you need to be in the far right lane. If you need to take I-44,(the south route to Oklahoma) you need to be in the second lane. All others need to stay in the left lanes. Right before the bridge there are only 2 lanes. We were in the 2^nd lane creeping and crawling almost to the merge point where we meet the other lanes on the left.

As we were creeping along, I noticed a black Lincoln Sable, 2 cars ahead of us, veer into the right lane, where a Landstar truck was moving slowly as well. At first, it looked like maybe someone wasn’t paying attention to the road. Mind you, we were not going very fast, probably 10 mph. It got back into the lane and then seemed to slow down a little bit and I watched in amazement as I realized that this car was driving into the back trailer tires of this truck. Larry was sitting in the passenger’s seat and saw it as well. Then the car pulls away and pulls up to the truck driver’s window, stops the car and a black lady jumps out of her car and starts yelling at the truck driver. She was screaming at him that he had ran into her car!! We could hear her even back where we were. I said to Larry, “ You need to go tell that driver that we saw the whole thing and it was her that ran into him.” So Larry jumps out of the truck and runs up to the driver and says we saw the whole thing. Well, that did not make her happy and she started screaming some more, then must have realized that there wasn’t anything she could do about it and jumped back in her car and took off.

Larry came back to the truck and quickly wrote his name and our phone number on a piece of paper and we eased up to the Landstar driver and gave it to him. We told him if he needed a witness we would be there for him.

He just took off. We never saw him again, and we made it passed the merge point and were almost to the crest of the bridge and saw that the Sable was still 2 cars ahead of us, so we were keeping an eye on her. What we saw next was absolutely incredible and we realized she was up to no good.

Traffic in the right lane was almost at a complete stop. It was bumper to bumper. There was an Atlas Van Lines truck, with cars in front of him and cars in back of him. The Sable tried to nose her way in front of the truck. I got on the CB. “Atlas, Atlas, watch out. She’s going to hit you. Back off. She’s going to hit you.” I mean, we knew what she was up to. He saw her and laid on his horn, but she knew what she was doing. As she was trying to maneuver her way in front of him, she hooked her back bumper onto his left front and shredded her back right quarter panel, pulling off the bumper half way. Damage was done, so she stopped and got out of her car screaming at him that he ran into her.

Again, we were right there and we stopped next to them and Larry was out there telling her that he saw her run into the truck, but she yelled back that he didn’t know (….) and that the truck ran into her. Larry then pulled out his little phone camera and started taking pictures. She jumped in her car screaming racial slurs and got on her phone screaming at someone on the phone. Since I could see that my truck was blocking traffic I pulled up in front of the car, but really wanted to be back there with the drama.

Finally a traffic response vehicle came and told them they needed to get off the bridge so Larry and I took off. We figured if they needed anything, they had our number.

About an hour and half later we got a call from the Atlas driver. He said that the cop that finally showed up, gave her the ticket for failure to yield the right of way, he was not convinced with her story, especially, since the damage did not show what she was trying to say happened. At the point, she had four different stories going and tried to say that the Landstar truck had jack-knifed and hit her. He also said, that she was on the phone and the officer asked her who she was talking to and she said, “My Attorney. I’m going to sue this driver.” And the officer said, “Why, he didn’t do anything wrong.”, which made her angry at the cop. She got her ticket and took off.

He said we may get a call from his insurance company, so this might not be over.

I don’t know her motive, but I wonder if she’s tried this before. And I know she doesn’t even realize what consequences her actions have. Because of her own selfishness, she could ruin someone else’s life, and livelihood. It could mean that this driver could lose his job. Maybe no one got hurt, but any accident involving a truck has many consequences in terms of insurance, and a driver’s record.

Obsession With the Weather

I have to admit it - I've been obsessed with the weather lately. We've had 2 weeks of snow, ice, blizzards, and below freezing temperatures. I've snarled, griped, whined, moaned and complained. I know it doesn't change anything - the weather is still going to be bad. I think what it is with me, is fear. It really does scare me to be driving in it. I feel confident in my ability to drive, I feel confident in Larry's ability. We drive slow when needed, and park it when needed. We do all we can to be safe.
But there's always the unknown - that patch of black ice around the corner, or breaking loose going down a snowy hill. There's the car in front of me that just did 2, count them, 2 - 360's right in front of me. Or the ice built up on the windshield so bad that we need to pull over to scrape it off.
Usually by February I've driven in enough bad weather that I'm over the jitters and get through the spring nonsense just fine, but this year is proving to be very difficult. Maybe I'm getting too old for this, or maybe I've just seen too many trucks jack-knifed, in the median, in the ditches, and being hauled away this last month and have had enough for one season.

And maybe it's spring fever.

Needless to say, I was excited to get home this time - only to be met by - you got it - snow. Living in western Washington significant snowstorms are a little unusual for this time of year, and the fact that the snow stayed on the ground for 3 days is also unusual. I'm happy to say that today it is raining and that the snow is melting. And we are going back to work tomorrow. The forecast for next week for the upper United States? You got it, snow and cold. I can only pray to the dispatch gods to send us South!!

At Least It's Warm

Another day of sitting in the truck waiting for a load. At least we are in Southern California, where it's windy but the sun is warm and we can do away with coats and jackets for awhile. I'm not feeling too bad about the wait today, because according to the weather report it is snowing and cold on our route to Ohio. We'll just wait until things move out, thank you.
We try our best to avoid the storms, and we actually can do it to some extent. However, despite all our efforts, we still ended up going through 2 major storms this last week. I don't want to have to admit this, but I slept through both of them, because it was my sleep time, and it was Larry's turn to drive. So, I heard the stories the next morning, and gasped and oohed aahed appropriately. I mean, I went to bed with a starlit sky, and woke up to sunshine. Not that I didn't believe him. The evidence of snow and ice, and sand from the sand trucks, still covered much of the truck and trailer. But it was nice to be oblivious, snug under the covers. In a way it also means that I trust him and I trust his driving, and I am grateful that he got me through it safely,