Hey! From Blue Heaven

Hey, from Blue Blue Heaven, Chapel Hill, NC...the Southern Side of Heaven.

Newbie here making a transition into my 3rd Career change of a lifetime.
Seems like every 15 years or so I have to remake my life.
But I'd rather be making those changes in America then any place else in the world.
1st 15 years as a restaurant owner.
2nd 15 years as a self employed carpenter.

I'm not new to hard work either.
At the age of 8 my dad had me working a 4 hour shift at the family restaurant.
My pay...ONE CANDY BAR!!!
Reading the horror stories about trucker pay at most of the OTR firms my dad would have made THE perfect company owner.

Just got accepted in the Truck Driving Training Program at Johnston Community College, Smithfield, NC.
It's an 8 week program.
Cost: $827
An unbelievably sweet deal...thanks taxpayers of NC.
Orientation is 7:30 am sharp next Monday.
Classes start Feb. 28 to April 27

Let the journey begin!

Cape Cod Drifter

 

Hey again from Blue Heaven,

Thanks GBNF & Rambler!

Rambler, your very intuitive I did indeed grow up on the lower Cape.
I have lived in Blue Heaven for the last 16.
I drifted south as an economic refugee when I was let go from a framing job on Christmas Eve in 1994.
Back then a huge building boom in the South provided opportunity for anyone able to lug a 2X4 or swing a hammer.
Times were good for a working man then.
But the current bad housing economy has turned self-employment as a wood butcher into an occupation no longer viable.
My business has slumped by 65-75% in the last 2 years.
I don't see a rebound on the horizon any time soon...possibly in our life time.

The good news is the future holds good prospects for a career in trucking.
Government stats show a growing shortage of over a quarter million truckers in the U. S.
The demand for truckers will grow by 9-13% over the next 8 years and beyond.
So I'm putting down my hammer and grabbing a class A-CDL.

GBNF what a surprise...we' re near neighbors.
I checked into going to the Truck Driving Program at Piedmont C.C. in your home town.
Piedmont's program is actually a private school run by SAGE connected to the college.
It' s an excellent 5 week program but at $4500 way to expensive for me.
SAGE is also connected to several other NC community colleges: Davidson, Wilmington and Isothermal come to mind.
Isothermal' s program apparently has a really good national reputation that draws students from as far away as Canada.
But again, the price was prohibitive.
I chose the Program at Johnston C.C. because it's the oldest trucking school in the U.S.(founded in 1949) and has a sterling reputation.
At $827 (which includes books) the price fit my budget.
I guess being the first trucking school it could be considered the Harvard of trucking schools.
I' m in the Ivy League now...I' ll try not to acquire an attitude.

The open road is calling.

Cape Cod Drifter