Hello Everyone
Today I'm home for 11 hours, from 3pm friday to 2 am saturday, when my trainer will pick me up to get our load down in connecticut. Next week I should have sunday and monday at home.
Various remarks on my trucking exp so far
I've beem though Connecticut, NY, NJ, Pa, ohio, WVa, Va, NC, SC, Tennessee, arkansas, miss, florida, Ga, the carolinas, alabama, texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Ca, nevada, utah, colorado, and probably a few others I slept though or am just too tired too tired to remember right now.
Team driving sucks monkey butt, particularly if you cannot sleep in a moving truck. Last night I managed aboiut four hours, my record. I am very very fatigued right now and I should really be sleeping, but I've been dying to visit SGland.
I've seen Javelinas, a number of flattened jackrabbits, some pronghorn antelopes, and a lot of black angus cattle. No buffalo or large tarantulas. A road killed cow elk may be the first real elk i've seen in real life.
My trainer is a bull headed workaholic who at 47 or so has about halfway killed himself by working too much, He has 700k on his 04 freightlliner columbia. He is intelligent and a decent person, but his outlook on things is very basic, he really understands concrete things and numbers. Not so much about the more subtle and nonconformist and remarkable sorts of human possiblities. He works and hags out in sports bars for his rare breaks. Before christmas is was out for 107 straigh days. hasn't taken 5 days off in 5 years.
I'm sort of unfortunate to get this guy because if it were possible his truck would never stop moving, but his health is failing and he got tired of burning out students 2 weeks into their tour with him, so he's backed off and he's let me stay overnight in a hotel room three times so far, and probably again this sunday.
I really want to become an owner operator, but Swift doesn't look all that hot as a means of getting there, from people I've talked to about it. YOu need to work a lot to pay for a new truck. There is money to be made in trucking and it will take some carful planning to posiiton myself to get at it, but I think I can get there; Knowledge is power and I'll just have to slurp up as much as I can where I can find it. RIght at the moment the best plan for owning a truck appears to be the one suggested to me by Beastus Maximus, buy a million mile kenworth or peterbilt and have the engine rebuilt and a new transmission put in. Only thing about that is that those trucks seldom are seen for less than about 35k in any condiiton. I'll probably buy a Freghtlliner Classic XL for 10 or 15k less and do that, or maybe buy one with a few miles left of life in the engine, and putting the first dollars I earn with the truck into bringing it up to near-new condtion, if possible.
Being confined to a team truck for days on end really makes you appreciate the simple things in lilfe. IT makes just lying in bed watching tv a decadent, luxurious thing. It's really, really, nice to have my cats here on my bed with me, and they are what I miss most. IT will be a vast improvement when I'm in a solo truck and get a laptop computer, so I can sleep in a stationary truck and keep in touch with the world.
Team drivers generally are assigned the cross country loads, but In a team I don't think you'll have much time to wander around to see things. I've been trough some small towns in the far west where the biggest business was the truck stop. In a slo truck I expect that I shall have as least somewhat more opportunity to wander around these places, stretch my legs bit and take in the grandeur that that west offers those who are able to get out there to see it.
Earlier this week I did get the opportunity wander around richmond Va a bit and I had a nice time. My trainer kept getting honked at as he was bobtailling around, but I ran into friendlier virginians, two of them pressed books of tourist infromation into my hands. everything in downtown richmond is closed by 6 or 7pm on monday nights and I was starting to think the city was a lost cause for night life, but I wandered down main street past the trains station and I found some more goings on, as I was looking for a coffee shop. I wandered into a funky gift shop called the House of Lukaya, heavily incense scented inside, run by a gorgeous young black woman by the name of Lucretia. Trucking as a rather overwhelming experience to get into and I had no idea how lonely I was until she just asked me where I was from and I explained that I was an apprentice truck driver from mass and ended up talking to her for maybe 3/4 of an hour and spending the rest of the week imagining various sensual encounters I'd like to have with her, which rather reminds me of a thought pattern more characteristic of my self of 15 years ago.
I wasn't too far off in how I had imagined what this experience would be like. I have seen some jaw dropping scinery and been massivly sleep deprived.
unexpected things
Utah has been the most breathtaking state so far, in terms of the landscape.
If you're wearing earplugs to try and get some sleep, when you're climbing up the high mountains in the rockies the pressure equalization will push them out of your ears. Weird sensation.
I kind of thought being an owner op would pay more than it appears to, but I guess not every place will suck as much a swift does in that particular respect.
What I gather about swift is that it is rather a mixed bag. There are experience drivers there who could work anywhere but for various reason Swift is good enough for them.
I'm sure there are other things I'll remember, but Ill throw them in next weekend if I still remember them.
Being a buddhist has helped me deal with this experience because I know that It will pass. Sometimes I'm in very ugly places and sometimes in very beautiful ones. I've been thinking a lot about the premise of the Diamond Sutra, that every point in the universe is a diamond that reflects every other point in the universe. YOu just have to keep your head. You can get stuck for a while with guys like this character who's training me, or let yourself get burned out on the ugliness of the average truck drivers that populate the truck stops, but just let being flow and it will bring you to beautul places like southern utah and across the paths of beautiful women like Lucretia.
The motivations of an eagle and of an ox differ. an ox will break himself pulling against resistance, and an eagle will soar. even if they're doing ostensibly the same job. I don't particularly want to be a company driver for however long it's going to take me to get past that level. But an eagle does not tell the wind which way to blow. The time to begin to soar is now. Or at least when I'm done with training.
Enough for now, I'll write more next time.
I miss this place when I'm away. I haven't found much in the way of internet kiosks at truck stops, not that I would have time for them anyway.
Whatever. Love and kisses to all.
Today I'm home for 11 hours, from 3pm friday to 2 am saturday, when my trainer will pick me up to get our load down in connecticut. Next week I should have sunday and monday at home.
Various remarks on my trucking exp so far
I've beem though Connecticut, NY, NJ, Pa, ohio, WVa, Va, NC, SC, Tennessee, arkansas, miss, florida, Ga, the carolinas, alabama, texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Ca, nevada, utah, colorado, and probably a few others I slept though or am just too tired too tired to remember right now.
Team driving sucks monkey butt, particularly if you cannot sleep in a moving truck. Last night I managed aboiut four hours, my record. I am very very fatigued right now and I should really be sleeping, but I've been dying to visit SGland.
I've seen Javelinas, a number of flattened jackrabbits, some pronghorn antelopes, and a lot of black angus cattle. No buffalo or large tarantulas. A road killed cow elk may be the first real elk i've seen in real life.
My trainer is a bull headed workaholic who at 47 or so has about halfway killed himself by working too much, He has 700k on his 04 freightlliner columbia. He is intelligent and a decent person, but his outlook on things is very basic, he really understands concrete things and numbers. Not so much about the more subtle and nonconformist and remarkable sorts of human possiblities. He works and hags out in sports bars for his rare breaks. Before christmas is was out for 107 straigh days. hasn't taken 5 days off in 5 years.
I'm sort of unfortunate to get this guy because if it were possible his truck would never stop moving, but his health is failing and he got tired of burning out students 2 weeks into their tour with him, so he's backed off and he's let me stay overnight in a hotel room three times so far, and probably again this sunday.
I really want to become an owner operator, but Swift doesn't look all that hot as a means of getting there, from people I've talked to about it. YOu need to work a lot to pay for a new truck. There is money to be made in trucking and it will take some carful planning to posiiton myself to get at it, but I think I can get there; Knowledge is power and I'll just have to slurp up as much as I can where I can find it. RIght at the moment the best plan for owning a truck appears to be the one suggested to me by Beastus Maximus, buy a million mile kenworth or peterbilt and have the engine rebuilt and a new transmission put in. Only thing about that is that those trucks seldom are seen for less than about 35k in any condiiton. I'll probably buy a Freghtlliner Classic XL for 10 or 15k less and do that, or maybe buy one with a few miles left of life in the engine, and putting the first dollars I earn with the truck into bringing it up to near-new condtion, if possible.
Being confined to a team truck for days on end really makes you appreciate the simple things in lilfe. IT makes just lying in bed watching tv a decadent, luxurious thing. It's really, really, nice to have my cats here on my bed with me, and they are what I miss most. IT will be a vast improvement when I'm in a solo truck and get a laptop computer, so I can sleep in a stationary truck and keep in touch with the world.
Team drivers generally are assigned the cross country loads, but In a team I don't think you'll have much time to wander around to see things. I've been trough some small towns in the far west where the biggest business was the truck stop. In a slo truck I expect that I shall have as least somewhat more opportunity to wander around these places, stretch my legs bit and take in the grandeur that that west offers those who are able to get out there to see it.
Earlier this week I did get the opportunity wander around richmond Va a bit and I had a nice time. My trainer kept getting honked at as he was bobtailling around, but I ran into friendlier virginians, two of them pressed books of tourist infromation into my hands. everything in downtown richmond is closed by 6 or 7pm on monday nights and I was starting to think the city was a lost cause for night life, but I wandered down main street past the trains station and I found some more goings on, as I was looking for a coffee shop. I wandered into a funky gift shop called the House of Lukaya, heavily incense scented inside, run by a gorgeous young black woman by the name of Lucretia. Trucking as a rather overwhelming experience to get into and I had no idea how lonely I was until she just asked me where I was from and I explained that I was an apprentice truck driver from mass and ended up talking to her for maybe 3/4 of an hour and spending the rest of the week imagining various sensual encounters I'd like to have with her, which rather reminds me of a thought pattern more characteristic of my self of 15 years ago.
I wasn't too far off in how I had imagined what this experience would be like. I have seen some jaw dropping scinery and been massivly sleep deprived.
unexpected things
Utah has been the most breathtaking state so far, in terms of the landscape.
If you're wearing earplugs to try and get some sleep, when you're climbing up the high mountains in the rockies the pressure equalization will push them out of your ears. Weird sensation.
I kind of thought being an owner op would pay more than it appears to, but I guess not every place will suck as much a swift does in that particular respect.
What I gather about swift is that it is rather a mixed bag. There are experience drivers there who could work anywhere but for various reason Swift is good enough for them.
I'm sure there are other things I'll remember, but Ill throw them in next weekend if I still remember them.
Being a buddhist has helped me deal with this experience because I know that It will pass. Sometimes I'm in very ugly places and sometimes in very beautiful ones. I've been thinking a lot about the premise of the Diamond Sutra, that every point in the universe is a diamond that reflects every other point in the universe. YOu just have to keep your head. You can get stuck for a while with guys like this character who's training me, or let yourself get burned out on the ugliness of the average truck drivers that populate the truck stops, but just let being flow and it will bring you to beautul places like southern utah and across the paths of beautiful women like Lucretia.
The motivations of an eagle and of an ox differ. an ox will break himself pulling against resistance, and an eagle will soar. even if they're doing ostensibly the same job. I don't particularly want to be a company driver for however long it's going to take me to get past that level. But an eagle does not tell the wind which way to blow. The time to begin to soar is now. Or at least when I'm done with training.
Enough for now, I'll write more next time.
I miss this place when I'm away. I haven't found much in the way of internet kiosks at truck stops, not that I would have time for them anyway.
Whatever. Love and kisses to all.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
Your new profile pic makes me think of the expression the Devil would have if you were playing chess for your soul against her and she was about to say "checkmate",
fucking brilliant, baby