Tell us about your first solo trip

in 1968,a 1965 pete conv,1962 40 ft. meat railer, omaha nebraska to LA, backhaul salinas calf. back to omaha. south of salt lake the interstate was not done all the way. you would run 4 lane for awhile then had to get off and run 2 lane for awhile. the trucks back then look cool but were a real pain to drive. no a/c,no power steering,no air ride,dim headlights,no heat in the 36 inch sleeper, and you could reach across the cab and roll down the right side window. old drivers talk about the good days but it was not so good sometimes. be safe out there

 

I have a couple with the way I grew up. I was driving dad's truck around the house when I was about 12. He'd let me turn it around and park it for him and when I could go with him I'd drive the 2 miles of dirt road to the blacktop learning how to shift just dreaming of the days I could put it in the big hole and that day would come before either of us planned. At 14 We were taking a couple loads of cattle to rocky ford from Oklahoma and then to Douglas az for a reload off the border. Dad got sick as a dog after we unloaded in rocky ford and since I had someone to follow he didn't have much choice but to open the flood gates and let me run. I don't know how much I drove that night but just remember sleeping a little then driving some more and remember the lack of fm stations the further south we went. We got loaded and headed to west Texas and the bag phone rang wanting us in Georgia with his regular customer as soon as we could get there. I still remember other drivers commenting when I passed them on i40 with dad in the bunk and from then on if there was a lot going on his boss would ask if I was with him cause he was gonna need me. I did that every chance I could till high school when I discovered girls and beer then I only went if I could skip school to go
Now to my first solo trip I was 18 and loaded in northeast ok back to hooker ok. After I got loaded I was going back through the little town to the main highway when I saw a pretty girl pull up to a stop sign on a cross street (keep in mind I'm still in high school and looking at girls) and I was approaching several rr tracks but I was busy looking. When I look up I see the lights are flashing and the cross arms are on the way down so I try to shut it down but didn't get stopped till I was almost on the tracks. The cross sign landed between sleeper and trailer but I was way to close for the train to clear but had time so I put it in low and broke the arm off and right as I get out of the way a local turned the corner in front of me and saw it all. No ticket issued. He just took my info for the rr company to collect damages if they wanted to but never heard from them either. No damage or scratch anywhere and no tickets but I was nervous as hell.
I bought my first truck when I was 20 to run grain and feed in ok till I was 21 then planned on hauling cattle with the big boys. Back then (maybe they still do it this way but it was back in 2000) I had a cdl at 18 but had a intrastate restriction on it till 21 but I found a loophole for Oklahoma. We have custom harvesters come through every year and if I worked for one I had to leave the state so I went to my local dmv and told them I worked for harvesters and they pulled the restrictions and issued a new license. I did a few hauls out to the Texas panhandle like that but nothing to far out until a neighbor called needing a truck in okeechobee fl and had a trailer sitting for me if I wanted it. This is the same guy that I followed that night dad got sick so he knew I had the experience to do it. I jumped on it and headed southeast. Taking my time as I had plenty of time to get there and I was ahead of his trucks by several hundred miles everything was going good till I got to ozark al when a AHP thought I was driving a little fast. He checks my window tint and it was to dark. Checks my license and noticed I had a birthday coming up then realized I was gonna be 21 in a couple weeks. Don't really remember all of the conversation just that he was surprised I was so young but could tell I knew how to drive so he let me go to a fuel stop north of Dothan and I was to pull it in there after he wrote me the window tint citation. I went in and ate some dinner trying to figure out how in the hell I was gonna get out of this. Called the other trucks and they were running across i10 and gonna drop a trailer to get me down there but that was gonna be several hours. I asked around any team drivers I could find headed south but no luck there. After a couple hours I decided hell with it and took off again. I don't think I've ever watched my mirrors so hard since then. Going around that Dothan loop I had a few locals doing what they're normal deal but upon first sight it was hard not to panic. I never had any issues the rest of the way on that run from okeechobee to west Texas back to ok but it helped me decide to wait till I turned 21 to try that again

 

I first posted this about 5 years ago.


38 years ago today I tried to deliver my first load. I was barely 20 years old, sitting in Baltimore at a closed
receiver, with a flat tire on my steering, loaded with sweet corn on a dry box [ no reefer ] , needing 3,000 # ice ASAP, on a HOT holiday.
I live in Florida, was just a kid, but had been around trucks all my life. Dad was a trucker, and in the produce business. The summer I turned 20 years old, we bought a Kenworth for me to learn to truck. Paid $15,500 for a 1970 cab-over. 3 year old truck with a 903 Cummins, it was a V-8. 13 speed, torsion bar suspension. Nice truck, and as dad said, it would outrun the word of God.Very fast.Bought a 40 foot Great Dane dry box.
Well,I learned to drive it around the county for a few days, and then Dad called me one morning. He was in North Carolina, working a produce deal, and needed a truck for a load the next day.Told me to be there the next morning.
I bought me a new black cowboy hat, cashed a check at the bank for 200 bucks [ fuel was only about 30 cents a gallon ], and left Florida for Eastern North Carolina.
The Interstate was not yet completed, so some of the dead head 650 mile trip was on backroads. Not all 4 lanes.
Got there the next morning, July 3, shipper told me to go to a farm and load 900 boxes sweet corn from a hydo-cooler, then go top-ice it at the ice-house. Remember, no refrigeration unit on my trailer.The shipper said he would usually not load a dry box with perishable sweet corn, but knew me and was OK with it.
Finally got loaded and iced about dark, and he told me to head towards Baltimore, for a 6 am appointment at A & P . And yea tomorrow was a holiday, but they DO receive.Shipper had double checked.
Left out for the 300 mile trip,AC quit, all on backroads, finally found place about 5 am in downtown Baltimore.Very bad area. Remember, no cell phones, no GPS,very few CB,s. Hard to get info.
Anyway, get there and the guard laughs and says no receiving until tomorrow, today is a holiday. I knew that was going to happen.
Walk back to truck, flat on steering on drivers side.
Still had about 100 bucks left, but finding a tire repair shop that made road calls on a holiday in downtown Baltimore ? Finally found one, got new tube put in for only $45. Remember this was 1973.
Well, produce buyer had screwed up,and I was sitting with a load of VERY perishable sweet corn that required ice.Needed at least a ton blown on top.
Dad finally found an open ice house in Wilmington, Delaware,and they sent me there. But they were closing early so I had to hammer down. Finally get there,the workers were mad because they had to wait on me.Anyway,blew ice on the corn, and headed back to Baltimore. I was getting tired, but knew if I screwed up there would be trouble. At 20 years old, I still had to prove myself.
Maryland scale sign said closed, but I saw a cop car at the scale house, so I pulled in. Officer quickly yelled at me the sign said closed, and I had better leave quickly. Yessir, I replied. Do not believe I had ever seen a log book at the time.
Getting back to A&P in Baltimore about midnight, I thought about my cash. Remember, this was before credit cards,fuel cards, ATM's. No way to get more cash. And very hard to communicate with no cell phones. Had to locate a pay phone, and hang around while you got a callback.
Check in at gate next morning at 6 am,new guard tells me I should have been there at midnight,they had a message to give me a door ASAP. Nobody told me.
First time I had to back in a door between trailers. Other drivers helped, and I finally bumped the dock.
Could not afford the $25.00 lumper fee, so started unloading it myself. The forklift operator was slow about keeping the pallets pulled out of the door,and the corn was getting warmer. I gave the operator a dollar [ yes, a WHOLE dollar ] , and he got in a hurry.
That first load taught me a lot.
All of this for a load that paid 350 bucks. Not much even back then.
People will give you wrong information,trucks break down, law enforcement can be a- holes,you get tired, everyone wants money from you,rates are cheap. and things just plain go wrong. Trucking is trucking.
In the past 38 years, I have nearly always been involved with trucking. Either driving, having a driver on one as I farmed, or running several. I was always an independent, never would lease to the big guys.
I posted this long account so newer hands could see trucking has not changed, and never will.
But I still enjoy it.​

07.04.2011 & 07.04.99

 

jbatmick toward the end just quit enjoying it. miss old friends but that is about it anymore. when i was a young trucker old truckers would tell you know when it is time to retire,and there were right. b safe out there oh yeah that old 65 was the first truck i ever owned

 

My first trip was to the Bay area, crossed Donner WB, at night, in a blizzard, with chains. Let me tell you how it snows in the Sierras: Heavy and hard. It's easy to understand how the Donner Party ended up the Donner Party.

The ol' geezer standing in the airlock at Boomtown told me only a fool would chain-up to drive into trouble.

I thought, what the hell does he know? An hour later I was wearing my knees out kicking myself in the pass.

 

Exactly...if the "Chain law" came into effect......Then the "Motel law" became enacted....period...drove for many years and like you "learned" how to put them on...but never did.

 

I'll let you know in a few weeks. Will be heading out to ND in a week or so to start out with Magnum.

 

These are the stories that got me into trucking, being 22 got my cdl at 18, the legal age in ME I never found a job till 21 driving straight truck, part being I love Maine and rather not go over the road, did that for a year before the company would put me on local semi work. Iv only been running flatbed for 3 months but man everything that made me want to get into driving truck seems to be long gone! In this company there is still an option for me to go otr at anytime for any amount of time if I want but this year and age I'm loving my local gig even though my initial thought was to see the country, I guess I can getyself into just as much trouble if not more running the northeast daycab wise