Last episode of…….Truck Driving Fridays….

Well I told you I’d just do 6 weeks or so of them and this is my last one. This one for me is sad because it was the ending of something I enjoyed so much. We trucked for 8 years and Jim hated it for at least 7 of them. It really wasn’t the life he wanted but it wasn’t something he wanted to give up right away either. We learned so much out there. Jim was able to bring back such great knowledge for his family business. I’m not sure what I brought back with me, I think I just learned everything there was and have uses it all since so can’t really pinpoint one certain thing. I know I learn independence out there. When it’s just you and the truck there’s no one telling you to get moving, you just know that if you stop you stop making money. You need money to make the payments, insurance, plates, taxes, pro-rated stamps and so much more. There’s permits, fees, fines and more. You want to eat and sleep and not always in a truck stop. You want to play a bit on weekends and not just live in your truck looking out the fish bowl window. So you run, you drive your little heart out and for me I enjoyed it so much. For well over a million miles I drove. Not an accident and really about 5 speeding tickets. One over weight and one over width ticket. Lots and lots of wonderful people met and made friends with. Lots of times I wish I was home but oh so ready to go back out after a few days.

I never knew what was coming. Jim and his dad had been talking but Jim never really said a lot about these calls. I guess Steven was leaving to go into the service and Jim’s dad need him back to help with the family business. Before I knew it Jim had sold our semi and bought a one-ton truck and we were hauling campers for Morgan Drive Away. I think in less then a months time the rug was pulled out from under me and life changed. I don’t remember to many conversations asking me what I thought or felt because Jim knew. He also knew you can’t take the truck away from me and just stop so he thought hauling campers for a few months would help me adjust to no truck. It never really worked. I did know that you can’t be a team if one of those team mates is unhappy and since he was my hubby and he really wanted to go work back his with dad what was I suppose to do? We quit. I cried, I am crying now…after almost 20 years it still hurts…but it’s life and had to be. Jim went back to work with his dad, he was happy. I had to find a job around home so tried a few things but ended up going back to my second favorite job, working at the nursing home. But I couldn’t get driving out of my system so I went back to driving truck just after I had Michael. It wasn’t anything grand or all the time but I was able to drive on Saturdays/Sundays delivering peat. Peat is the stuff you use in your potted plants, they use it on golf courses, lawns and much more. I would get up at 4:00, take care of Mike, pump my breast milk, drop him off at grandma’s,drive to Tamarack, get in my truck, pick up my load and for the day be back where I wanted to be. I took Mike a few times in the truck but it’s not easy with an infant, Jim rode with me a time or two but he wasn’t in his element so it was just me. For two summers I did that until the company went under and I was done. I guess really done because other then helping family haul this or that around I haven’t been back in a truck for a very long time. I miss it to this day. If it was ever possible I think I would jump right back into the truck and off I’d go. But I don’t think that will ever happen again but I have memories, I have shared a few with you and I hope that all of you have had or are having a life that you enjoyed or are enjoying so much that you can share it with others.

I now have my daycare little ones and this is the job for me. I love them all to death and can’t imagine being without them. They are my life and wouldn’t in a million years trade them for anything, even driving truck…that is for now, one day they won’t need me, Mike will be grown up and out on his own, Jim will be full owner of the store and then….just maybe there will be a red International truck out on the road again with a lady driver with the biggest grin on her face doing just what makes her happy, DRIVING TRUCK!!!

Take care my friends. Have a terrific day. God Bless!!!