Road Trip

.
Peeps, I am feeling a road trip.

One of the things I used to do for a living was drive a truck. I was never an over the road, long haul type. I drove a 35 ft long straight truck with 12 ft behind the rear axle. It was 13 and half feet high, with a deck out to the front bumper. That is the maximum size for a single axle truck. I delivered furniture to every hole in the wall and mud hole in four states.

Our "sales man" was apparently scared to go to a town that didn't have a "town square". He would drive to some hog wallow with a city limits sign (usually both on one post), drive around the square and sell a suit or two. Then it was off to the next mom and pop store to sell another one. The end result is a lot of stops and a long day when delivering the load.

A typical day would see me at the shop building furniture or loading the truck until about 1530. I would drive the truck home, have dinner with the family, get cleaned up grab my books and take the truck to school. I would be in class until 2200 and then drive way the heck to some where at the end of the world. That would generally take until about daybreak, I would nap until business hours, and then spend the day unloading as I worked my way back. I would generally get back in time to stop at school for my classes, then drive the truck home. My day was generally about thirty nine hours. I was doing this for about five dollars and hour. Those long days, when the truck was empty, and no longer balanced, I had to fight it down the mountain to home, my shoulders hurt so bad I would be on the edge of tears. The thing didn't have power steering, or AC or a radio. It was like being in solitary confinement, on the road. Those days, on overtime, the difference in my paycheck was two dollars an hour, after taxes.

I have lost count of the times that I pulled up to a store in the middle of no where, and found the only person inside was Grandma, who can't help unload. Then I was about two hundred fifteen pounds of muscle and bones, and would wrestle a sofa inside by myself.

Some of the places I have seen: Milwaukee NC, Yukon WV, Frog Level Va, Pumpkin Center NC, and last but not strangest, Bull Tail (population several). Now tell me I haven't been around. The three years I drove were some of the toughest I remember. Amazing as it sounds I still love it.

There is a lot of difference now, I go where I want, when I want. There is nothing like topping a hill, seeing the road ahead, run up through the gears, find the driving song that suits you the best, talk to another driver on the CB, and get on down the road.