It's taken a lifetime to get here.

At thirteen years of age, I rode around the country in the summer of 1971 aboard my uncle's Mayflower truck and loved every minute of it. In the early '80s, I came out of trucking school and signed on with "Dollar Trucks" for nine cents a mile, (yeah, .09cpm). First trip out ended in a multiple fatality accident caused by my trainer that ended two lives and a career before it even started. Came home. Got a college education. Lotta good that did. The fever was still there though. Started driving buses, city buses in Denver. I've been told driving a truck is a whole different experience; I certainly hope they're right! Surely no truck is ever loaded with drunken homeless people trying not to fight with armed gang bangers while hookers make a living in the far back seat while being careful not to catch the interest of screaming children trying to get their cell-phone yakking parents' attention while a crack head tries to take control of my 60 foot, articulated bus loaded with eighty passengers in the fast lane of a jammed freeway at 65 m.p.h.

Yep. Been there. Done that.

No, it didn't all happen at once, but it did all happen at least once. So I'm back to try driving trucks one more time. I don't have the long-haul interstate experience, but I have logged over a million commercial accident/ticket free miles over the course of thirty years. I've done every kind of weather in every kind of traffic, mountains and all, with thousands and thousands of passengers holding their cell phones with their thumbs poised over the speed dial number of a personal injury attorney, just waiting for me to make a mistake. Once a friend of mine had a minor accident in the snow with eighteen souls on board. By the end of the day, over a hundred people had walked into ERs around the city claiming to be injured on that bus. Moved to a smaller, saner town. Still have the fever.

All of you seem like a much friendlier crowd. I think it's time for me to come home to where I've always belonged: the open highway. I promise to play nice. And I certainly plan to listen to all you veterans out there. I'll bet you have even better stories than mine. Oh, and by the way: Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) is always looking for good drivers who want to be home every day. I know they need at least one right now.

 

Hello Chinatown! Now I know I'm talking to a pro. You correctly identified that company. Don't tell me you are one of the survivors of Ft. Scott. Wow!