Week 1: 5300 miles, 19 states

Friday night marked the first week we've been on the road as a team.  And in that time, we have logged 5338 miles (as of last night), been through 19 states (some more than once), and seen some of the most beautiful country in the world.  Once more, as I type this while riding through New Mexico, east on I-40, I cannot believe that I'm being paid to do this.  

This past week has not been without its frustrations and trials:  we have been adjusting to sleeping in a moving truck, never feeling rested enough, learning things about ourselves and each other that we didn't know before but which we must now get to know if we are to survive and thrive being together in an enclosed 12-square-foot space for extended periods of time.  We have tested our driving skills, endurance, and determination.

But we have met these challenges well and are enjoying this time on the road as much as anything we've ever done together in our 20 years of friendship.  

We got our road trip to California, too!  How cool is that?

One thing I've come to realize in the past week (among many) is that even though Terry and I are as unfettered as it is possible to be in this world, we still depend on others to make our lives work as we have chosen to have them work.  


Case in point:  Wednesday night, we were at a shipper to pick up the load we had going to California, and the security at this place would make anyone in the Homeland Security Department jealous.  In spite of having birth certificate, an old passport, fingerprints, and the correct answer to a question on Double Jeopardy, they still demanded more.  Terry had just gotten his Texas license and had the paper copy but not the one with the photo.  It had just arrived in the mail, and his mom was holding it for him with his other mail.  

But he needed it Wednesday night.  So, he calls his mom and explains the situation.  And, in spite of how late it was and the inconvenience of what was asked, she went to a place there in town and was able to fax a copy of the license with the photo to the shipper, and we were able to finally get clearance to get the load.  

And I have such people in my life, who, by all the small and large things they do, make what Terry and I are doing a practical possibility.

Thanks to all of you, from both of us.

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan

Life As A Blur

It is Tuesday morning about 1:30 as I type this sitting in the front of the truck.  We are parked at the Walmart in Defuniak Springs, Florida.  Terry is asleep, trying to catch up on some needed rest before we roll again.  

The past few days are lost in a haze of too many places and not enough sleep.  

Last Friday morning, we left Billy's house and headed for Arkansas to visit with Terry's daughter and her little boy.  Talk about adorable!  We took some pictures that we will probably post at some point.  We just had a delightful visit and I felt honored to have been included, if only by necessity.

Following our short visit, we drove the rest of the way into West Memphis, and stayed at the hotel Schneider uses for drivers there.  

Friday afternoon, after being trained on the new automatic clutch in the truck we were assigned, we met our STL, Julian, and had a nice talk with him to get acquainted.  I must say that if our future experience with Julian proves to be anything like our initial meeting, we are going to have a great relationship with him, and my own personal feeling is that a driver's relationship with their STL (dispatcher) is a major key to that driver's overall content or discontent as a driver for a particular company.

By 4:30 or 5:00 Friday afternoon, we had our first load assignment, and we were rolling.  We picked up a load in Jackson, Tennessee, going to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  

Initially, we planned to loosely try a 12 hour shift for each of us, with me generally doing midnight to noon and Terry doing noon to midnight.  He started driving Friday night, and we switched out around midnight.  

It was the first time either of us had slept in a moving truck.  Or tried to sleep.  I think our experience thus far with that is that we are able to doze for short periods of time, but it's a lot different, and will take a while to get used to.  

We delivered our load to Pennsylvania on Saturday.  Our second load was picking up in Pennsylvania and being delivered to Alachua, Florida.  We delivered that load yesterday morning and picked up a load in Dade City, Florida, that is going to Sealy, Texas.

Reflections from the first few days:  (1) being in a constant state of exhaustion and fatigue will be an ongoing challenge we will learn to manage; at this point, a couple of times (like now), we have just shut down completely so that we can at least have a chance to get some more substantive sleep and rest.   Schneider's mantra is certainly true:  "Nothing we do is worth getting hurt or hurting others."  

(2)  At the pace we are currently on, as long as the loads are available, we will be able to crank out as many miles as we can handle.  Hopefully that pattern will continue.

(3)  We have been able, in just the first few days, to see some of the most beautiful country anywhere.  Driving through the mountains of PA and Virginia, especially, was visually intoxicating.  And it reminded me just how much I've missed being on the road the past year or so.  

(4)  Our route through Florida put us in the path of one of our oldest mutual friends, Van, and we were able to stop yesterday and spend a few minutes visiting with him over coffee.  It was very enjoyable.  We also passed through near where my Dad lives (which is why we initially stopped here in Defuniak Springs), so I was able to spend some good time with him and his wife. I was at the end of my day anyway, so it was a logical place to stop.

I have remarked several times to Terry how fortunate I feel:  what other job could I possibly have which would enable me to get paid for something I love to do (drive), see some of the most beautiful country around, and run across people I love and care about?   I realize that much of the reason I am able to enjoy this experience so much is that I am free of most of the obligations that almost all drivers have in balancing family responsibilities and that sort of thing.  

I am a lucky man.  A blessed man.  

For me, one of the elements of this whole teaming experience that makes everything else possible is the fact that I have a fellow-driver whom I know well and get along with well.  I know there are going to be times we'd love to throw each other from the truck and then back up to make sure the job is complete (sorry, but it's true), but I don't think two people in this situation could have been matched more suitably.  

(What's that?  Stop typing so loudly so you can sleep?  Well, if you would quit snoring so loudly, maybe I'd be asleep right now instead of up here typing!  What was that?  Well, just go ahead and try!)

To be continued . . .

Dallas to California to Arkansas in 15 minutes

Yesterday we got a lesson (if we needed one) in how quickly things can change in the world of truck driving.  I finished up my orientation, and Terry and I were on track to get our truck in Dallas sometime this weekend.

However, at the end of my last class when truck assignments were being given out, I learned that Terry and I are getting a new truck with an automatic transmission.  We were supposed to go to Houston to receive some training for that and then we were going to drive a rental car out to French Camp, California, to pick up our truck.  

We won the grand prize!   Not only were we getting a new truck, but it had an automatic transmission (which most drivers love, and which Schneider has few of) and they were giving us a road trip to California to boot!  

Terry wasn't there, and since this new development put a wrinkle in our original plans (we were both going to be somewhere else on Friday), I asked my instructor if it would be possible to do the training on the weekend or on Monday, and he said he'd work it out.  Then it was time for our lunch break.

I had just enough time to call Terry and leave a voicemail about our good fortune when I saw Mike (the wonderful instructor for my orientation) and he told me everything had changed.  Our good fortune had been unwound because of the fact that we could not be in Houston on Friday.  I told Mike that if I had known that, we would have changed our plans to be in Houston.

By that time Terry had gotten to the OC, and we called our new dispatcher (called an STL at Schneider), told him what was going on, and in the end, worked it out to still get a new truck, but we are picking it up in West Memphis, Arkansas, which is where our STL is based also.

So instead of having 3 or 4 days to get things ready, we had 3 or 4 hours.  Talk about stress -- I just had to almost-randomly choose things to take with us and put the rest in storage until we can get back through Dallas to go through things more formally.  And by then, we'll have an idea of just how much room we've got and what we really need in the truck.

We put everything we are initially taking in the truck into the back of Terry's pickup, and we left late yesterday afternoon.   We stopped last night in Blossom, Texas, where we saw a mutual friend we've known for over 20 years.  (Billy and Corey:  thanks for your hospitality; we really enjoyed our short visit!)

Later this morning (it's 3:30 am on Thursday as I type this), we'll go up to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, visit with Terry's daughter and her family, and then go down to West Memphis, Arkansas, where we will pick up our truck on Friday afternoon.

So, in theory at least, we could be rolling on our first load tomorrow afternoon.

Where do you think we'll go first?  Will we get our California road trip after all?  

Wherever we go, we should make good time.  After all, we went from Dallas to California and then to Arkansas in 15 minutes yesterday.  

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan

What time is it? Where am I?

It is early Wednesday morning as I type this.  The last day of orientation.  We should be on the road sometime this weekend if all goes according to plan.

I woke up early -- about 1:30 and knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, so I got up, showered, and drove on over here to the OC (Schneider lingo for "Operating Center" -- what they call their terminals or service facilities) to do some laundry and catch up on e-mail and some journal writing and maybe post this blog entry.

Waking up so early prompts thinking about time and its relationship to life in a truck and as a truck driver.  

Every truck driver's life is regulated by a clock to an extent not seen in many other occupations. There are delivery times, pick-up appointments, and driving time.  There are very strict rules in place governing every aspect of our lives:  how much time we can drive, how much time we must be away from driving; every moment of my life as a truck driver, driving or not, working or not, awake or sleeping -- every single moment -- must be properly accounted for and documented.  My life is bounded and governed by time to an incredible extent.

At the same time, the particular time at any given moment is almost meaningless as far as how it determines the way I live my life.  For most people, in general, morning denotes the start of their day, they work or fulfill other obligations of their lives, and then their day ends in a generally similar fashion as dark falls.  Even someone on a different schedule (like someone working at night) has a routine that is governed in large part by patterns of the clock.  

For me, those boundaries are blurred (especially when I first wake up!) and largely irrelevant.  I may wake up this morning with the rest of the world at dawn, but the next day may find me in the middle of my sleep at the same time.  "Morning" for me may come at dawn, or it may come at 3:00 in the afternoon.

My life as it relates to time is a paradox on this level:  every moment of my life is driven by its demands, and yet what it signifies is meaningless in many ways.  I've got to be somewhere at an exact time, but just because it's morning doesn't mean I get up and begin my life's routines.

Just as time takes on different significance for me when I become a truck driver, location has a similar quality of displacement to it.   Where I am at is very important in some ways, and totally unimportant in others.  For me, the idea of "home" is vague and indefinite.  The truck really is where I live.  I have a mailing address in Georgia, but that isn't what defines the idea of "home" for me these days.   

I don't know what does.  And yet, I'm content.  Perhaps more content than ever in my life.  

The words to a wonderful Alison Krauss song titled "Gravity" is perhaps the theme of my life right now.

Not being able to attach the meaning of my life to particular rhythms of the clock and certain locations forces me to dig deeper for what my life really consists of, how I define myself, the boundaries that determine my place in the universe.  And I become wiser, get to know myself a little more honestly, and am able to more clearly see what is really important to me.

Then I know what time it is and where I am.

Once Upon A Time: New Beginnings

We didn't start out to become truck drivers.  Twenty years ago when we first met, we were in college, young, idealistic, determined to change the world.  Our paths followed a similar course for a few years, and then diverged through various changes, including marriage and (for Terry) kids.  

There were years when we lost touch with one another, but sooner or later the connection was renewed, and we picked right up where we left off -- you've perhaps had friendships like that; they are a thing to be treasured.

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago:  I was newly divorced after 10 years of marriage (the vast majority of which were happy years; we are still on good terms), and decided to do something I always thought I'd love:  drive a truck.  I went through training provided by Schneider, well respected in many quarters for their emphasis on safety.  

I drove for Schneider for a year (and loved it just like I thought I would) before I decided to move back to Georgia where I grew up to help take care of my grandmother.  While I was there, I drove for a local company which let me be around enough to help as much as I could.   

About the time I started driving for Schneider, Terry was involved in a farm he had started that served as a residential placement for clients with special needs.  When that ended, he did social work for a while, but was intrigued by the idea of driving a truck because I wouldn't shut up talking about how much I loved it.

Last year, he also decided to give driving a try, and went to work for Schneider.  Almost right away, he suggested in passing that it might work out for us to drive as a team one day.

That planted a seed that we watered through conversation and consideration over the past year. When things reached a point for me where my being there didn't really matter any longer as far as caring for my grandmother, we decided that the time was right.  

And so I find myself sitting in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas, on this Saturday night beginning this blog (a new experience for me, and right now it's just an experiment).  Terry is taking some time to spend with his family, and I am about to go through four days of orientation with Schneider.

Then our adventures begin.  

You are invited along -- ride as often and as far as you want, and we'll stop and let you out whenever you get tired of the sound of the tires on the pavement.  Comments and feedback are welcome.  

Oh yes, one other thing:  the name.  When we first started talking about teaming, we talked about the possibility of one day getting our own truck if our friendship survives long enough to get that far.  So the question came up:  what to call our company?  

After a rather lame suggestion from me, Terry hit the magic the first time:  "How about Lonesome Dove Transport or Lonesome Dove Express or something like that?"

And it has stuck since then.  I adopted Lonesome Dove Xpress for this blog because I had the idea for the "Xpress-ions" part of the title.  

I've wanted to do a blog for a while, and this seemed like a great time to begin.  

Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . .
Allan