Am I really gonna due this all over again?

1975 a college friend asks if I would like to go see LA as a rider in his Kwhopper, sure why not? After watching what he does from Albuquerque to Kingman he asks if I want to give it a try, 9 speed, detroit 430 fuel squeezer, I say of course and take off from the shoulder making it thru the low side 1-4, 6 times before getting the splitter and 5th... Not much traffic at 1 am on I 40 back in those days, and what did go by was more of a blur than anything else... friend says to wake him when I get to Needles, (big hill) but by then a few of his cronies have caught us and have decided they will talk me over the big hill and let him sleep. Big ol detroit pulls away from the cummins they are piloting so when I get to the top they say just ease on down the backside towards Barstow. Yea 73,200# easing of the big hill going west, soon I am out of gears and they shout out to put it in the big hole???? Hit the bottom of the hill somewhere in the 100+ range just gliding in neutral. Friend wakes up in Barstow and wants to know How we got there?
Nine years later I have my own truck, all the good tales, hunts point, cabbage, oak creek canyon, chelsea two truck strikes some friends that have gotten killed in trucks and enough to decide to pursue something else. So I sell Navistar for a short period and then move away from the I 40 corridor. Real estate, mortgages, etc. for the last 24 years, but have never forgotten the life on the road.

Now I want to do it again..... but thru choices have only a cdl b etc, and the 5,000. dollars to get up close and personal with a truck seems crazy.

After logging a million miles plus driving all 48 that I trucked through including Canada, pulling a reefer you would think somewhere there might be a company that would let you take the test, show your skills and prove you are a qualified applicant, without starting from the very basics..... Is it possible or does anyone know of such a company.