So...we hear a lot of negative

Drove my first semi in the late 60's,bought my own in 1974,stayed with it till I retired comfortably two years ago.Ups and downs,but mostly ups,......... I wouldn't sell my memories for a million bucks.

 

it boosted my self-esteem/self-respect. every time i tell a girl i'm a long haul trucker, their eyes glow with curiosity and they get all excited. they never did that when I was working in a kitchen, in fact a lot of them got up and walked away from me the minute they found out I was a dishwasher.

 

Former college teacher here. At the tender age of 62 I decided to go to trucking school. That was 4 years ago. Since then I've had many interesting driving jobs and get new job offers every week. In the summer I haul jet A fuel for firefighting helicopters. We chase the nation's forest fires all over the lower 48. Last year I had to actually outrun a fast-moving fire with my 6000 gallons of jet fuel.

I've driven doubles up and down the west coast and into Canada, and I just landed a job hauling big boats in a new Peterbuilt---yeehaw. I'll be OTR for a while from west to east and west to south. I can't imagine any vocation for a guy my age that would provide as much interesting diversity.

If you demand it, you can retain your sense of dignity in this profession. I've walked away from two jobs now without blinking just because they were flaky companies that I didn't want to deal with. The satisfaction you get from a job that pays well, lets you see the world, think and solve problems on your own with nobody over your shoulder, experience new people, new horizons, and dare tell that idiot boss to blank-off whenever you want is, I think, exceedingly satisfying. This profession allows you to breathe freely, in the fullness of power, joy, volition.

 

Well said.

I do hope you weren't in a governed truck trying to outrun the wild fire while hauling jet fuel!!!

 

LoL ! Bingo! But it might also have been a matter of perception---the truck seemed to be moving in super-slow-motion while the fire seemed to be rapidly gaining on me, screaming loudly, trees popping like grenades while it sprinted at a 45 degree angle along the steep mountain road toward the truck. I didn't know fires could move that fast !

In my my minds-eye I can still see the look that the state policeman gave me as he moved the road cones to let me by when I first entered the now closed road . As he spotted the big "JET-A FUEL" letters on the side of my tanker he kinda ####ed his head to the side and bemusedly squinted at me as I rolled through without stopping as if to say, "Are you serious, dude?"
I wouldn't sell the memory for a million bucks. That's trucking!

 

I had a good friend that lived in Icicle Canyon near Leavenworth, WA. He built a beautiful cabin/mansion out in the middle of the woods. Nearest neighbors were a couple of miles away, but everything in "the canyon" had everybody else's phone number in case of emergency.

He got a panicked call from his nearest neighbor, two miles downstream. There was a fire (started when he was chain sawing fire wood). By the time my friend and others raced to the bridge crossing Icicle River, the fire crowned in a line of pine trees stretching up Rat Creek Ridge. Wind was hard from the west and the fire raced south up Rat Creek Ridge in one minute to the summit.

One minute to cover two horizontal miles and a vertical mile. It created a fire tornado hundreds of feet in the air, with heat so intense from a quarter mile away at the base everyone had to take cover behind their vehicles. The paint on the fire side was gone, and almost to the point of combustion.

After reaching the summit the west wind took that north to south fire toward Leavenworth. It burned for days and ran for miles.

 

I am a retired Proctologist. And PattyJ said that if I like working with ######## I should apply at K&B Transportation in South Sioux City, NE. She was right.


Any bets on how long this will be up before it is taken down.

 

143 minutes...

 

Ill take the low on that bet

 

Wow. Great descriptive writing there, Lep.
I don't know those particular areas but I have been to Leavenworth many times. Beautiful area and I can see how those tall peaks would reek havoc with fire.