coolest thing you've expeerienced while a driver

One of my favorite trips was 25 years ago to a farm in the middle of nowhere in oklahoma.Arrived about 11:30 am,backed up a driveway to unload part of the load on the customers carport.I grabbed my gloves and started up into the trailer when the customer(complete stranger) asked what I was doing.Told him I was going to help his guys unload.He said "B.S,thats what i pay them for,have you had lunch,yet?"I said no,that i would grab something later.He told me to come inside,where his wife had laid out enough food for a small buffet.We said a blessing,I enjoyed a fantastic meal and met some good people.It really blew my mind !!
There have been several times over the years when people have went out of their way to be nice,but this was my favorite.

 

well, i am a new driver to the trucking industry, so to me everything had been the coolest, ever since i was a lil kid, running around in dipars iv always wanted to be a trucker.
but anyway, now im finally in the driver seat, not yet a
" trucker ", it takes years of driving and experiencing things before ill concider myself a " trucker "
however, i had a run up in VT. running short haul, makining multi stops through out the state, and i usuallt run mon-fri, well, monday afternoon i got pulled over by a local, cause he said " you appear to be to long "
long story short, i was by 3feet, was put out of service for 48 hrs till i could produce the permits to continue.
so finally after waiting 2 days for ONE!! ONE!!! JUST ONE! permit to get me back to the " truck network " they have, i had run 84 all the way up to Cholchester to a store, and could not go any further cause i didnt have the permits to go on any further.
the owner of the store asked the last time i had a shower, which was on sunday night, so he insisted that i take a shower that he had put in just weeks prior to me going there, then he offered me some BBQ, which i refusd, he was kind enough to offer me a showe, i couldnt ask for anymore. got done with my shower, went to go talk to him and thank him, and found him in his office, where he had 2 plates of ribs, steak, hamburger and hot dogs, corn on the cob, and a salad all prepared for me, i was speachless. then his wife came in and asked if i wanted to use thier internet to surf the web., i couldnt accpet the offer, but thye insisted. so then i accepted. it was a furniture store, he instisted that i sit on $9,500 recliner and " relax " cause afterall, i was going nowhere till i had my permits.
after all the kindness they offered/insisted/and gave me he asked what my plans for the night where, told thim nothing, sitting in my truck and was going to be thinking of ways to get back at my disp.
they laughed, and she told me that i was going out with there daughter, apperently a county fair was going on to far away, and i absolutley could not accept. and they told me i had no choice, that i was going out with their daughter.... i was scared, figured she would be some kind of " nerd " or even worse if " mom n dad " where setting her up on a " blinde date ", if you would, she turned out to be a real fox, and quite the popular person in town, and we still tlk ever week ever since

just recently i was sent back up to VT, and again with out the permits, and i only mad 2 deliveries out of 20, but i m not running illegal, first stop was in sprinfield, and my #20 delivery, drove 100 and some miles, got to his store, unloaded my entire trailer just to get to his 2 itty bitty lil boxes burried at the nose of my trailer.
he gave me a day to never forget, and i gave him his delivery.....and got to see his daughter again
thats about the coolst thing iv done/seen/experienced so far.
and cant wait for more to come

 

I'll retract the last post.

The coolest things that have happened, are all the kids that get a kick out of seeing the rig all shiney and like the air horns..
The look on the kids faces when their parents ask to let them sit in the truck, and i let them.
and the old people that have came up to me and complimented me on the nice shiny truck as i was polishing it in carparks waiting for unloads.

 

Well, with all the bad and irritating and grueling things that truckers endure, I think most truckers have some kind of story (or a lot of them) that they have accumulated over the years that really gave them (me) a different perspective on mankind and the overall goodness and generosity of the human race. Perhaps we don't see it on the road so much these days......

 

I concur on the Hoover Dam. I must have run it 50 times. I used to run 95 from Reno to Vegas, then 93 to Phoenix and back. I allways looked forward to stoppin at the dam and takin some pics. Thanx to the diaper-heads one cool part of truckin the west is gone forever.

One other cool thing was an orca and her calf I saw while unloading anchor chains onto a Japanese ship at Bellingham Bay shipyard in Washington. The folks at the shipyard are so used to them they could care less. When I saw the whales, I ran to the end of the pier with my hard hat on and my camera in hand. The rigger hooking the chains got peaved at me for takin off. I thought "f him" "when in the hell am I gonna see this again?" They took their sweet time off-loading the last chain so I couldn't reload that day. I thought "WTF who gives a S" There are a hell of a lot worse places to get held over.

Good Luck n Good Truckin
RH
I know it's part of a Dave Dudley song. I'll think of a better one later.



Good Luck n Good Truckin
RH

 

When I go to military bases I like to tell the guys and gals how much I appreciate what they are doing. They eat it up. They like to see good looking rigs and it makes their day when we remember them. Also when I see a convoy of military trucks I pass all of them with my thumb up. They honk and wave and eat it up.. I remember when I was a truck driver in the army. I liked to see the fancier rigs that the civies had and wished I had one rather than that drab ole army truck...

 

The coolest thing I have experienced was at the Teddy Roosevelt Park Rest Area in North Dakota. The sun was setting over the badlands and there roaming through the empty rest area were about a dozen Buffalo. Me and my puppy just sat and watched them as they grazed by our truck. It was awesome.

Another funny thing that happens daily is the hilarious double takes people, mostly guys, give as I drive by and they see a younger woman driving. I dont know if its a look of awe or fear!

 

I drove team for Tri-State Motor Transit 1969-70. On a two-lane somewhere out west, I stopped for sheep being herded down the road by a couple of Native-Americans on horseback. They motioned me forward. As a city boy, I thought the sheep would be shoved by the front bumper, and some of them would be crowded under the trailer by other sheep. However, the herd parted as the truck moved slowly through the flock. Meanwhile, the Indians rode into the sage where they could not be photographed.

 

Go gettem' Globetrotter. I will be driving this time next year! I can't wait to see the look on all the men's faces!! My hubby drives for Werner. So far, he favorite thing has been the skyline of New York & Chicago at night. Don't get me wrong, he HATES to drive through there. But the skyline makes up for the headache.