Scared to death of Heights...can I drive a truck?

Some of the interchanges in Texas are bad, shoot you up and around a pretty good curve and are pretty high, the long skinny mountain roads generally don't happen, at least for me, but if you really want to be a trucker figure out how to overcome your fear, if it's what you really want, you will find a way to overcome it

 

Oh man....Those Texas flyover ramps are really "crazy"..........

The Dallas high five and Houstons flyover ramps are insane

 

I had never laid eyes on a mountain before being a driver, and my 3rd load ever ran out to VA. I'm scared of heights pretty bad as well, and suddenly I'm in WV on bridges that seemed to span peaks. I would look over the side, and when I couldn't see the bottom I think I clenched so hard I put a divot in my seat. The rest of that trip, I basically kept going between admiring the beauty of the mountains, being scared of the heights, and remembering I still had a job to do. After that trip, Heights still bug me, but I learned to concentrate only on the physical pavement you are about to drive over, and to block out all things outside of the bridge or mountainside I'm on. Some days I can block that out better than others, and some days I can overcome my fear and take that very brief glance out over whatever I'm crossing and take it all in.

 

First picture is Oakland Bay Bridge into San Francisco CA. Second picture it Cabbage Hill in Oregon on I-84

 

I've done both in a truck and both on a Harley.
Used to do cabbage every week running to Boise and back,got to be old hat after a while.
The tricky part of I-84 is the curves by the cement plant at Lime East of Baker City.
l 'd see roll overs there about every other week, truckers going too fast.

 

You're always on the ground

 

Cabbage hill again this is like a 20MPH hill is 6% downhill and 6% is the stepest you get on highway, maybe 7% these are 7 miles down hill at 6% you are only going like 25MPH down this hill This last picture is the same Rainbow Bridge in LA. it's a high bridge but does not look so bad from this view

 

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't I-64 into VA a 5mi long 8% grade when you go over Sandy?

 

No one follows the advised speeds on cabbage, I watch guys fly down it doing 60 plus all the time, I usually go around 30 and my jake holds my speed back just fine, meanwhile I get yelled at by the super truckers for going to slow,of course I've only been over it in good conditions, I have yet to do it in slick conditions but I imagine it'd be "fun"...also heard if you go over 35 on it and get caught it's a huge ticket

 

Here's another I cross usually every week, between Longview, WA and Rainier, OR is the Lewis & Clark bridge.
Coming West on highway 30 there's a 7% grade just before the 25mph exit to the bridge, real fun at 104,500 lbs lol.