Graduated to a new forum

That's not as bad#@# as subduing a terrorist with a Narwhal tusk.

 

Wiley Sanders looked pretty good to me, except for the 10 weeks with a trainer making $0.16/mile training pay. Not a deal breaker, but definitely a factor in my decision. Is 10 weeks overkill for OTR training?

Stevens Transport has approved my application, but OTR refer is probably the least "best fit" for what I want out of my next career.

Schneider gets you out there making money in 17 days, but the pay is low, and is 17 days--including orientation--adequate training?. There are better options.

Superior Carriers I'm giving up on. My Driver Pulse application has had no activity in weeks, even though I applied for a specific tanker job in Mobile that stated new drivers were welcome. I called the terminal manager three times over two days to try to sell myself to her directly, but my calls haven't been returned. They pay $0.56/mile, but one recent graduate said he would go out for two weeks, then come home for a week or two (?!?). Too many drivers and not enough freight, maybe?

Anyway, I've decided on Cypress Transport Lines is the best fit for me. Most loads are pre-tarped. Guaranteed weekends home. $0.48/mile loaded, $0.40 empty. $500/week paid training. The only thing that is going to blow is the Greyhound trip to Jacksonville. As soon as I wind down my business, I'll go to orientation.

There is some delightful irony in that when I was in middle school and junior high school living in Jacksonville, all the boys--including me--had this obsession with semi trucks, and we manifested this obsession on the long bus rides to school. The game was to be the first to identify the make of the trucks we saw on the interstate, and we'd shout it out. It annoyed the heck out of the girls and the bus driver. Marmons were the special ones. We'd sing the song Convoy, and I remember the lyrics to this day:

"Was the dark of the moon, on the fifth of June, and a Kenworth haulin' logs.
Cabover Pete with a refer on, and a Jimmy hauling hogs.
We were heading for blah buh de blah about a mile out of Shakey-town.
I said Big Ben this here's the Rubber Duck, I'm about to put the hammer down."

I know. I'm showing my age.

So after graduating from Annapolis, eight years in the Marines flying in jets, a failed attempt to fit into corporate America, then 25 years as a one-man kitchen remodeling show--over 40 years after leaving Jacksonville--I'm heading back to become a truck driver.

Cosmic, right?

 

You must have lived in a crappy place. Everyone on my street knows each other by name, and we all try to help each other out, whether it's finding a lost cat, corralling a dog that got out of the fence, lending an air compressor to one neighbor so he can go put air in the tires of another neighbor, sharing vegetables out of the garden, giving away fresh eggs, lending tools, borrowing tractors, getting together for football games, fixing up a fence for an elderly neighbor, etc. We are always trying to look out for one another.

This is the panhandle. Other parts of Florida, especially south Florida, aren't as friendly. We lived in Coral Springs, north of Fort Lauderdale, for 6 months back in the early 90's and hated it. We decided to move back home to Pensacola. I got our sailboat out of storage the afternoon before leaving, filled it with whatever junk would fit, and prepared for my first round trip, a 4:00 a.m. departure. I woke up to a ticket on my truck for illegally parking a boat in the driveway. I'm assuming one of our neighbors turned us in. Talking about solidifying our decision if we had any doubts.