HOMECOMING AT LAST

The life of a trucker, especially if they are long haul also called cross-country can be exciting, stressful, interesting and most certainly challenging as well as lonely. That’s just a few adjectives that describe this job. There are many jobs/careers that are unique. The people who chose these jobs are usually not inclined to be satisfied with a mundane office job.

One thing most drivers learn, is to love seeing the sign that says home is just around the corner. For me, that was the state of California, the northern part. As much as I loved seeing the rest of the country and its varied landscape, when I crossed the state line after two or three weeks on the road, a warm feeling surged through me as I headed down I-5 toward Yreka, (picture below). I didn’t realize until years later that, although the three week runs qualified me as a long hauler, there were new drivers out there that were gone for months at a time. I’m sure I wouldn’t have stayed had that happened to me.

I’ve heard companies complain endlessly about the driver turnover, roughly 99%, no I’m not kidding. It doesn’t take long for someone to realize the “getting paid to see the country” isn’t quite what they thought it was, so they may change companies a couple of times before they realize it’s the same ol’, same ol’. General rule of thumb for drivers is hurry up and wait meaning every load has to be there yesterday and for sure there’s a load waiting for you to pick it up as soon as you get there, not. You have a special occasion, no problem, just let know in good time and . . . .somehow it never gets any further.

Thankfully I enjoyed driving my rig although, had I known how much in demand good, safe drivers were, I’d have asked for more money. At any rate, the same thing happened when I saw Sacramento’s water tower as I drove up from the Los Angeles area, (a warm glow of I’m almost home) which is, of course, part of California. But it’s also a collection of small cities, a lot of small cities. The map book I had at the time showed a total of 140 cities for the area which didn’t include all of Los Angeles, but with a population of 10 then (now 18) million plus in 2005 (2020) it’s so different it almost makes California seem like two separate states.