Remembering the good times

I remember flames out the stacks, but I like engines that go 1 million miles w/o an overhaul a lot better.
If only I was away from home for only 6 days....

 

Ahhhhhh....Yes!

It was great...Wasn't it?

 

Strolling in the Monfort lane, getting accurate bear reports, waiting for the bird dog to bark a warning. I must be a dinosaur.

 

cold bias ply tires on a winter morning, thumping on their flat spots, and then you go around a corner and it feels like you are on the worst cobblestone road ever, until they warm up.

 

Forgot about cold flat bottom tires. Cold farm tractor tires could beat you to death.

 

You mean back when drivers made money, and were respected. Back when a new truck costs less than 40,000 dollars. When you broke down people would stop to help. When you fill up the tanks you get a free meal, a Thermos full of good coffee and a hot shower! When the waitresses were cuter and more friendly. Back when other truckers were more courteous and the 4 wheelers flashed you more often and i not talkin about headlights!
I'm not that old but i remember those days when i use to ride with my father! Trucking was fun and profitable, and most importantly you're a part of a bigger brotherhood. But today none of that applies!

 

I was pleased today as I was cruising along a 2 lane, I passed a lone tractor trailer and he said "hey southbound theres a bear a mile down the road by that little market" his info was top notch and accurate, I slowed down and saved myself some money. Then as the day went on that was the only talk I had heard on the CB worth listening to...

 

Well here I go,Ill try to make this brief..I am only 36,However I do know about the good ole Days...Dad was fifty when I was born mom was thirty..Dad drove truck from 1943 t0 1979 out of minnesota..He done some logging also but mostly drove truck..I was born in 1973,in 1979 my family left minnesota and that was the last home my family had...we were transient and migrant workers untill 1992 traveled the usa in a old school bus or car or what ever we could get at the time.mostly west of the mississippi...working the fields from the rio grand valley of texas to arizona and southern california up to oregon and then to montana to cut posts and poles or haul scrap iron then in october leave montana and head south to do it all over again eventuall started working flea markets and swap meets along the way...then in 1991 i met a little sixteen year old homless girl at slab city in southern california..in march of 1992 i went custom harvesting i drove an old 1979 kenworth k100..custom harvested untill december of 1995,pulled an rgn from january of 1996 untill february of 2000 for a road crew doing road construction in california,utah,nevada,and arizona...in february of 2000 i moved to montana and that is the first house i lived in since 1979...our son was starting kindergarten now...in october of 2001 i received an award for driving one million miles without an accident..i was only 28...I was robbed at gun point in oklahoma city one month before this after unloading in the middle of the night...so i came home and quit trucking for a while...i could go on for a long time but what is important in that homeless girl i mentioned in the beginning of this story..her and i will be married 18 years in may..have a fifteen year old son and adopted twin baby girls they will be four in october...What were the good ole days...Im not sure yet...