Enjoying Life OTR

#45 AG Bear's Guide to Freedom, Fun, and Finding Joy on the Journey

• Cindy Tunstall, A.G. Bexar • Episode 45

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Climb aboard with us as we hit the road with AG Bear, an expediting trucker whose zest for the open road is infectious. His remarkable journey from overcoming personal demons to cruising the highways of all 48 contiguous states is as much a testament to the human spirit as it is a roadmap to trucking success. Whether you're a trucking rookie absorbing AG's sage advice or a seasoned pro nodding in agreement, this episode is packed with stories of icy Alaskan adventures, the bond between man and his dog on the long haul, and the everyday thrills of life behind the wheel.

Venture beneath the surface of trucking life as we share tales of turning a rig into a rolling residence and the camaraderie that blossoms in the unlikeliest of places. AG Bear's insights into the over-the-road (OTR) lifestyle reveal the delicate balance between the liberating call of the highway and the poignant pull of home. From adopting a high-energy, escape-artist pup named Loki to the transition into the role of an owner-operator, we navigate the expansive and deeply personal landscape of trucking, where every mile tells a story.

Finally, we journey into the practicalities and unexpected joys of trucker life, from constructing a mobile kitchen to discovering a haven for affordable dental care in Molar City. AG underscores the importance of accessible healthcare and the ways technology can make life on the road smoother, including tips for cost-effective transportation and leveraging social media to stay connected. Buckle up and tune in to an episode that is much more than a collection of road stories—it's a celebration of home, health, and happiness on the move.

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Enjoying Life OTR—because LIVING WELL is worth the effort. We’re sparking curiosity, adventure, & resilience while honoring drivers and embracing a healthier trucking life. Discover creative life hacks & practical strategies to make the most of your time on the road. Join the movement!Explore, enjoy the food, snap the pic, and share tips on saving money along the way.

This podcast is for new and veteran drivers looking to stay mentally, physically, and financially strong while embracing the freedom of the road. We bring you real stories, expert advice, & practical tools to help you thrive, not just survive, in the trucking life.

Connect with Us: Join the Enjoying Life OTR Facebook Group – Share your journey, find trip recommendations, & connect with fellow drivers. Follow our Facebook page – Get the latest podcast episodes, trucking tips, & entertaining content. Visit our website – Explore our journey, see community highlights, and access resources for a healthier, more balanced OTR life.

For questions or to be a guest, email our host, Cindy Tunstall at EnjoyingLifeOTR@gmail.com #HealthierTruckers #EnjoyingLifeOTR #TruckerWellness #OTRLife #WorkLifeBalance



Speaker 1:

Hey, this is Cindy Tunsil with the Joy in Life OTR. Welcome back. I can't wait for you to hear this episode. I've been so eager to talk to AG Bear. He and I have just crossed paths on social media and every now and then you just get a connection with somebody. You know that these are your people, right? He is truly in Joy in Life OTR and has so many great stories to share. We talked about bringing a pet onto the truck for the first time, cooking on the truck and really just why he feels so at home on the open road. You know this lifestyle isn't for everybody, but he truly loves it, so he's got a lot of tips to share that are really practical. We even talked about some of his finds for dental care and from ways to manage self-care on the road, and he's just got so much good stuff to share so I can't wait to get into it. So stay tuned. You're going to love this episode. Enjoying Life Over the Road, a community that champions adventure, innovation and well-being. Welcome to the show, ag.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I'm really glad to be here. I appreciate you bringing me on.

Speaker 1:

Well, I've been looking forward to this talk. I know your schedule. You've been busy, so thanks for taking the time out to spend time with us. Tell everybody a little bit about your schedule and what kind of freight you're running, what area of the country you're running, just so they can get to know you just a little bit before we dive in.

Speaker 2:

All righty Well, you're running. Just so they can get to know you just a little bit before we dive in. All righty Well, I do a specialized type of freight which is called expediting. We work under the contract for FedEx Custom Critical and we primarily run pharmaceutical freight. We do nuclear, we do explosives, and we do this in a 40-foot straight truck that has a reefer unit on it, because sometimes with the pharmaceuticals they have to be kept at a certain temperature throughout. Sometimes we've gotten as low as like negative 20 degrees where it has to stay frozen, things of that nature. And we run all 48 states. We had the pleasure this year of running up to Canada. We had a load that picked up in Colorado and had to go up to Canada close to Anchorage, and we did that in February. So that was a lot of fun because we had the opportunity to be ice road truckers for that load.

Speaker 1:

I love that yeah.

Speaker 2:

I was actually very scared. To be honest with you, it took a lot of preparation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was scared too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, because we didn't know what the weather was going to do, because we were able in February in Canada and in Alaska we were able to run that load with no blizzards, no major snowstorms, and there was one that had just happened and there was one that was coming. So we had that small window of opportunity to be able to get it there.

Speaker 1:

Just enough for you to make you nervous that it's coming.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, nervous was. You know nervous is a quite an understatement, but yeah it was. It was an adventure and that's what, for me, that's what it was all about, because I know that even in regular trucking there are very few drivers that get the opportunity to drive freight up to Alaska.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's true. Most people will say that they haven't been to Alaska. Yeah, they've never been to Alaska and Hawaii.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, out of the 50 states, 49 of them were drivable. So after 13 years, of course, I've done all 48. I was able to do the 49. So I was like man, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

I know that feels good. I love that. You said something on my social and you said you'll be hard pressed to find somebody who's enjoying life OTR more than I am, so tell me a little bit about that. What do you love about the lifestyle? And I'd love to hear some more of your adventures while you've been out there. So tell me a little bit about that statement.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I have to go back, and something that I've always told everybody is I had gone through years of addiction as a young person in the early 2000s, I ended up homeless, went through a few years of that because I was trying to become sober.

Speaker 2:

I finally was able to get sober. One thing that was such a blessing to me. I was in California. The shelter where I was staying at there were college students that they were law students and they would sit down with people who needed legal aid, who wanted to get their records expunged. By the grace of God, I had no record that I needed expunged, except for my driving, and so the students in this law program. They were able to go to each of the municipalities that I had had old tickets in and they were able to clean my driving record. What a blessing, yeah, so I did not know what a blessing that was going to be until years later I ended up on my feet.

Speaker 2:

I ended up going through that experience. I ended up going back to what I knew best, which was customer service. That was a couple of years which was very, very productive, very, very good. I decided, okay, I need to get more education, I need to do some things that I wanted to go to, which was international, and I worked in international logistics for this company. That's something that I would like to stay in.

Speaker 2:

And when I went to go to register for school and we had like the registration classes and things of that nature, I met a recruiter for a truck driving school. They were offering, and had offered to the students scholarships to go to their driving school so we would end up going yeah, we would end up going at no charge. But here's the part that actually got me going, so to speak. The guy was saying you know, there's a lot of truck drivers that they really enjoy their life on the road. Some actually live in their truck and they drive like all 48 states the lower 48. He drives like all 48 states the lower 48. When he told me that, when I heard that sentence some actually live in their truck it was like a light bulb went off for me.

Speaker 1:

Love that.

Speaker 2:

Yep, because in my experience I had already traveled so many different places. There's some type of people that they're very comfortable being in one place and they live in that place their whole life, and things of that nature. For me, I would get anxiety. I guess you would call it If I was. I always thought if I only go to this place then I would be okay, like I would find happiness. Or if I only went to that place, you know things of that nature. And that was my answer. I was like an over the road truck driver. You can live in your truck, so that takes care of housing. I was like sign me up, that's all I needed to do. Um, and that's what I did. I. I hit the road. I went through driving school. It took me just about three weeks. I kind of like bet the whole farm on this idea and this opportunity.

Speaker 2:

I had never been around trucks. Some people have grown around them their whole life. You know their dad or their uncles or something of that nature. They were all truck drivers, not me. I had never been around trucks. I didn't know the first thing about them, um, other than try to avoid them. You know, on the highway, things of that nature. So, moving that machine and and and, parking it and backing it up and making these turns, it was very, very difficult for me. Some people they just take to it like a seal to water or whatever that analogy is I struggled, I struggled and I struggled.

Speaker 2:

On my testing day, you know, going out with the trainer and going through the, you know, dmv test, you get three opportunities before you are just said no, it's not going to work. You know, no, you don't get to, you're not going to get your license. I was on my third opportunity and, um, I passed. That's great. I was under so much pressure, cindy, that it was like I had the weight of the world because I had bet everything on this. I had already, you know, let my roommate know I was, you know, leaving the, the apartment, you know, and so that they can get another roommate, I had already put my job. I mean, I just knew that this is where I wanted to go, knew that this is where I wanted to go, so, thankfully, I passed it.

Speaker 2:

On the third try, with lots of effort, with lots of you know, just, you know inner, inner determination, and I did this at 45 years old. I was about 42, 42 years old. So that was a lot of pressure in and of itself as well, because you get to the age where it's hard to start a new job. You know we have to, you know we yeah, we have to understand that there is ages about there. I knew going back to school that because the job that I had just worked at and they had hired a whole new staff and every single one of these were young kids 22, 23, just out of college. You know that's a heck of a lot more appealing to a lot of employers than you know somebody who's in their forties, who doesn't have a degree, things of that nature.

Speaker 1:

Well, I love your story. I'm 57. I run OTR but I have a box truck and I have my own authority, so it's my trucking company. My story is similar to yours.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know a lot about trucks but I wanted to get in the industry. I'm thinking about getting my CDL and I'm on the fence. I'm like I don't want to take a pay cut to get my CDL right now Cause that industry rates are horrible right now. So I'm in the same boat. I'm like when I want to do it, but I'm like I don't know if it's a good time to do it or not. But I love the industry and I love to travel.

Speaker 1:

I'm like you. I'm, after being here two years, I thought, you know, I'm feeling really antsy, like something is wrong, like all of a sudden I'm not loving it here and I could just feel the ground underneath me like shaking me up, going time to move, and I realized that my whole life, every couple years or so, I would move around, and so I was like I have that nomad spirit inside me. So I'm still in my house but I'm trucking now. So it's great, but it just it's not for everybody, but the personality that fits, that likes to travel and likes adventure, and it's just a wonderful life, I think. So I'm really grateful to get to share your story.

Speaker 2:

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said antsy, when you get antsy somewhere, because it's just one of those things that either you get antsy or you don't for being someplace too long. And the the interesting thing you know, when I would talk with my mom, um, at that time she would. She sat me down and was just like tell me, what is it you you know you want to do? And she was like, oh my God, I'm so worried. You're driving trucks, you know things are, so you know mom was a worry, work.

Speaker 2:

And I I told her. I said here's what I I foresee for my future mom. I said I foresee I need to get a job where and I wanted to become as soon as I got my CDL and I heard about owner ops and stuff like that. I wanted to become an owner op and I said because I want to run my schedule and the way that I would run it is I would just chase the good weather. And for me, chasing the good weather was trying to run in the southern states during the wintertime and trying to run in the northern states during the summertime.

Speaker 1:

And that was whoa there you go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you understand completely. I was like I just want to taste the good weather and, of course, in truck driving I got a really rude awakening because I wasn't able to do that. You know, it was like you're going where we're assigning you next.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, see, that's my problem with giving up my trucking company and getting my CDL. It's like I like the idea, there's some perks to it, but I'm giving up that freedom, getting to go where I want to go. It's like it's really difficult.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yep, yep, absolutely. So here's the thing Once I got in the truck, it was in a standard, you know, semi-truck standard cab. And once I got through training and I just I've always worked on the premise that that little CDL was gold to me and I said here's my little gold nugget, and it's going to be what I make it.

Speaker 2:

You know I was unencumbered. You know I was a single solo, by myself, and it was the start of an adventure and I knew it. I knew it deep inside that I was just like all right, this is going to be everything that I make. It it's going to, you know, be what I want it. I knew it deep inside that I was just like all right, this is going to be everything that I make it. It's going to be what I want it to be. Let's hit the road. It's very easy when you're going down the road as a new person, you know, as a new driver. It's pretty easy. When you're going down the road, the magic happens, so to speak, where you have to bump that dock.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. You know what horrifies me the most. It's so funny to think about this, but it's like at the end of my day, like pulling into a truck stop. It's like the docks aren't so scary because usually I'm alert, I'm still in my work mode, but I'm at the end of the shift and then there's all these drivers and it's compacted. And when I'm most tired, those are the times where I have to go.

Speaker 2:

You know, okay, focus just a few more minutes, but I always think that it's like those are like most horrifying driving events for me, please don't let me hit that rig.

Speaker 2:

Lord jesus, when you have a cdl as a new driver, I'm sorry, a cb radio as a new driver you're going to learn really quick to turn that thing off when you're getting to the truck stop. Because if you listen and I always call the CB the negative box it definitely serves its purpose. You know to know, you know what's going on on the highway with other drivers, or if you're in an accident they're going to say they'll even tell you ahead of time. You have a stop up ahead or your stop is like a mile long, there's an accident, the road is closed. It definitely serves its purpose. But that little CB turns into your worst fears as a new driver when you're at the truck stop and you're tired and it's in the nighttime because drivers are sitting in their truck looking what's going on, and then they'll start making fun of you look at that guy struggling and this and this and this, and turn off the cv.

Speaker 2:

Man, that's right, because you're that's gonna be my, be my first great tip. There you go, also out of necessity, because I did it with almost like zero dollars, you know. Starting out, so out of necessity, I realized that the truck stop is not your friend, and let me explain what I mean by that. Of course it's like at a convenience store. You pay a little bit of upcharge for the convenience, so your chips are going to be a little bit more expensive, your food's going to be a little more expensive, but at the truck stop, man, it is the markup. There is incredible Double and sometimes triple what you'll pay in the like in a grocery store, at Walmart or things like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, walmart is your friend.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Of course, you see, some trucks are parked there, you know. So there's some Walmarts that allow truck parking and so you can get out, you can go, you can, you know, get what you want, things of that nature. Well, the first thing that I did was buy a butane camp stove and a electric skillet very inexpensive and a few utensils, and I started off with a styrofoam cooler. I just bought very, very basic things at the beginning. I bought some eggs, I bought some bacon, I have bread and cold cuts for sandwiches, and I have bread and cold cuts for sandwiches.

Speaker 2:

In my past experience, in my past lives, so to speak, is like I was always like a foodie. I was always cooking. That was always my little therapy, you know. I really enjoyed that and I said if I can just cook in this truck, then I have that conquered. And I realized the truck stop wasn't my friend when it came to any type of foodstuffs. So I try to avoid that as much as possible, and so that's what I would do. I put stuff, you know, stop at the truck stop, get a little bag of ice, put it in the cooler for the day and have my food there cold, whatever was keeping and yeah, and and and I started my adventure that way and I realized right away that the smart truckers I saw truckers that took out their uh front seats and they had like a, a mini fridge there, you know, or their setup. And of course you, you start getting into on Facebook and at that time Facebook was the only primary social media got into trucker groups and I got, I found uh groups that were all about like cooking on the truck and things of that nature and I said these, this is my people, this is my tribe. Yeah, this is what I need to learn. And because I always had that sense of adventure, I just needed a way and I didn't know it at that time that the OTR life was the way to go. And what I meant by that was there were people that were obviously living otr, but at that point, in the very beginning, I said, man, all I ever needed was accommodations because you know, I had no issue in going here and going there.

Speaker 2:

And what's hard for a lot of drivers when they start out just like you kind of touched on c is the OTR life being out, three, three weeks being out, four weeks being out, you know, six weeks, you know they're, they have their spouse at home, they have their kids at home, they have their life at home. You know, um, they have, you know, extended family. In my case, I didn't have any of that. Once my mother passed away which she you know the one thing that she did was she said make me a promise. And I said what's that? And she said I want you, I want this to be the last time you start over, I want you to make this happen, I want you. And I promised her that and I said I can promise you that this is what I was waiting for.

Speaker 2:

I just knew it in my heart, I knew it in my soul, and so I said there's people that are living this life and I realized it right away of an OTR, over the road truck driver. And then there's people that are living this life well, that they're enjoying it. And, man, once I you know I there's nothing to me like getting up, getting ready for your shift and making your coffee and, you know, doing your pre-trip and you know things of that nature, and getting ready to go. I just enjoyed it. I just knew it was like an epiphany. I'm like I'm home.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love my people and that's it, and that's it. I said, no matter what, you know adversities on the highway, I just need to not have any accidents. I just because I realized right away that this was for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so Okay, I have a question for you Do you have a home base, or how does that work? Or where are you doing your reset? Well, now I do. Okay, I have a question for you Do you have a home base, or how does that?

Speaker 2:

work, or where are you doing your research? Well, now I do, but at the beginning, this is where I started learning how to enjoy this. So I was an over-the-road truck driver. I emphatically said to our management, our dispatch, you can literally send me anywhere, I want to go everywhere. At that point I'd probably been to about, let's say, 25, 30 of the States. So there was definitely still States that I wanted to visit and and um experience and and see. So but I was pulling this 53 foot trailer behind me.

Speaker 2:

The magic happened where the company that I worked for at that time and I'll go ahead and I'll say the company is Swift, because you know they hire all the newbies and they're known as like, oh my gosh, the Swift driver's coming down the road. You got to watch out for them. You know there are a lot of accidents and you know things of that nature. But the thing about Swift is that they're the largest at that time. I don't know if they still are they're the largest trucking company in the United States. So what that meant is that they had terminals all over the United States. So when you're able to stop at the terminal, that's a good place, you know, to grab like a shower, away from the truck stop. That's a good place, to you know, to do your resets. Shower away from the truck stop, that's a good place, to you know, to do your resets.

Speaker 2:

What I found out was, with my um cab uh, the bobtail part of the truck that I could leave that 53 foot truck there. And now you're in a bobtail and you were able to go places and I would. I started going to the mall, I started going to the movie theater, I started going to the big parking lots of Cracker Barrel, and that's where I would get my little enjoyment from on the road, being able to go. Obviously, I'd go to Walmart, stock up on whatever I needed, stock up on whatever I needed. And I just said, man, once I, once I, you know, unhook from that trailer, I, that was just like you can fit in a lot more places that you can't with the trailer. Yeah, so, yeah, big difference. And I was just like, every chance that I got, um would unhook from my trailer and leave it at the truck stop, you know, and because you can do that at some truck stops as well, and there's a master lock where you can lock your trailer.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, and my favorite terminal that I started driving at was in Fontana, california and California is. You know, I had lived there for a short time and things of that nature. It was like coming home, because that's where I had been, that's where I experienced being homeless. And so, yeah, at that time, what I what I did was, of course, I didn't have a house payment, I didn't car payments, since I didn't have any of those types of bills I would park my little truck in. I'd park my truck in Fontana and then I would go very close by. There is a town called Ontario where they have like a regional airport, and I would pick up a rental car. If I was going to be there for three days, if I was going to be there for over the weekend, if I was going to do my reset there, I would pick up a car, go out of service and I started hitting places that I had discovered.

Speaker 2:

Long Beach, for some reason. You either know if you like some place or you don't. Whenever I got to Long Beach, there's a vibe there that is just like I just knew once. Everything is, I go by energy with everything. I was like there's something about this place that I really, really like and, yeah, so I would get a room at the Motel 6. You know, I didn't have no big money, you know, so I had, like my little rent-a-car. I get a room at the Motel 6.

Speaker 2:

And my favorite thing to do is finding like local coffee houses and, you know, things of that nature Our local farmers markets. One thing that I ended up absolutely falling in love with in Los Angeles, the downtown terminal market, is LA Central Market is actually the name of it, and they have like food vendors from all over the world. You can get like thai food, you can get guatemalan food, you can get mexican food, you know. So they have all this type of food, they have all these types of fresh vegetables. So things of that nature was my mean, the truck driving was my means to an end. It was my way to be able to get to experience those types of things in the different parts of the country where I went to, once again making life on the road enjoyable.

Speaker 1:

I love that.

Speaker 2:

The time came, you know, and it happens, you know you get a little bit lonely and things of that nature. And I had my, my, one of my trucking buddies. It was so funny because he says you need to get a dog. He was like, forget about you know, social life or anything like that. He says you already enjoy your life on the road. He says you really need to get a dog. And I thought, huh. The only reason why that really struck me a little bit was because I had never owned a dog and I didn't have one, you know, growing up, and I never had, you know like there was, you know there was a family dog when I was young, very, very young, and for some reason, after that family dog passed that we had, you know, nobody got another one, you know. So I literally grew up and then, of course, through my you know twenties and into my thirties, I never had a dog and I thought, wow, I think I'll do that. You know, it was just like okay, cause I see a lot of truck drivers, you know, at the truck stop or the shipper receiver and they're walking their dog and I was like, once again, a little epiphany happened, of course I, I thought about it and I was like, you know, I want to get a rescue dog. I don't want to try to get, you know, one at pet supply or anything like that. So I had a friend of mine and she said let's go to the local shelter. And this is a funny story, cindy, because we go to the dog shelter. Everybody who's ever been to one we'll know this. You know all these doggies are, you know they're coming to the well. Of course they're in all different stages. Some are, you know, recovery, some are strays, some are, you know, been abused or whatever. But in general the doggies will come and jump at you and like pick me, pick me. And there was. You, you know, and I knew I needed something that was manageable, like a smaller dog. And you know, just at that particular shelter, that particular time, there wasn't like a whole lot of choices and I saw this. I saw this little guy, um, and he was like lots of energy and stuff like that. And the lady that was walking me through, she ended up becoming a very good friend later on, but the lady that was walking me through, she ended up becoming a very good friend later on.

Speaker 2:

But the lady that was walking me through. She would give me the story of the different dogs. You know, this one's a stray, this one had, like you know, their, their parent, passed away and, you know, brought in. You know all these different stories, yeah, and so we get to this one dog that he is a rat terrier and a, oh my gosh, I'm going to forget what the other mix he is, but it's another high energy mix. It's slipping my mind at the moment, our old age. It's another high, a rat terrier, and I'll think of it when I get it. High energy dog. And she says, oh, she said this guy. She says I really uh, uh, he really touches my heart. I'm like, why is that? And she said because he's been returned three times. And I was like, why? And she says, oh, because he's an escape artist. And she says you had to really be careful with this one because he'll find a way up over or through a fence, up over or through anything. And I was like, oh my God, he's like a little nomad. Yeah, jack Russell, that's the other. So he's a rat terror, jack Russell mix. So anybody that knows anything about the Jack Russells, they know how, how high energy they are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I had no idea what I was getting into when she told me that he had been returned. Those times I was like, oh, nobody wants him. I was like I know what that feels like, you know, and so I you know. I was like, let's try it out. She takes me to the little pendant area where you get to meet your doggie and interact with your doggie. That dog hadn't didn't want nothing to do with me. He was like, running around the pen, he started climbing up on the the fence of the pen. It was all enclosed but he wasn't getting anywhere. And she said do you see what I mean? And I was like, oh my God. I was like I know what it's like to want to get out of where you are. I know what it's like that nobody wants you. And just energetically and spiritually I was like I'll take him.

Speaker 1:

Oh.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I'll take him. And I told him I was like I was like little man, nobody wants me either. I've been returned. I know the feeling. I know what it's like to want to get out of where you are. You can get you, get out of the trap. I was like you're hitting the road with me and uh, wow. And in the, in the very beginning, uh, I'll remember one time that I mean he would jump like all over the truck, he would let me leash him and walk him and things like that.

Speaker 2:

But I learned within the first week what she was talking about because, of course, since I was cooking on my truck and those trucks had no sinks or you know running water or anything like that, inside those small cabs in order to live on the road, you learn how to wash dishes, you know, with a bottle of water and you know a little bit of soap and things like that, and I would do it right outside my cab.

Speaker 2:

The first time I did it with my dog. His name was wilson when I adopted him, but I had always liked the, the character and the nordic god lo and so right I. That was his name. I named him Loki. I learned how fitting that name was because, if anybody knows anything about Nordic mythology, loki is the trickster, god you know, he and, and he's known, as you know, pulling tricks and and and things of that nature. And I named my little doggy correctly because the first time that I slipped up as a new dog owner and I was doing the dishes, um, I was in the semi truck. So you know it's, it's quite a bit high off off the, off the off the road. Um, I turned my back to you know, to rinse these dishes and rinse out the water, and I saw a little white cloud go up and over me and that was Loki and he escaped out of the truck in a truck stop in the afternoon towards the evening.

Speaker 2:

You and I just discussed it. We know how busy it is and be more tired and everything like that. And I was in flip-flops and you know T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops because it was the end of my day and stuff like that. And I had just finished dinner and Loki literally just took off running and there I go running right after him and I was just like no, and so he's running through the truck stop, which means trucks are moving and I thought I do not want to see this dog get squished, you know, and I was just, like you know, running around.

Speaker 2:

Well, thankfully, you know, it was like a game to him, because he would stop every now and again, I'd catch my breath and then he'd take off running right when I was close to him. It was like a game and I was like we're not playing a game, you're going to get killed. Oh, no Things of that nature.

Speaker 2:

He's having his best day. Yeah, he's having his best day. Watching me sweat it out. My biggest fear was that he was going to leave the parking lot and head out right to the highway yeah, right to the highway, yeah. And I was just like no, no, no. So a driver was walking outside of the store. He was like, hey, you know, come here, baby, and loki went right up to the driver and started like acting like he was his best friend.

Speaker 2:

The driver was able to get him and then he's just looking and the driver's just looking at me like you're not controlling your dog, and I was like he. He jumped out of the truck, out of the cab. You know was. That was just, and he did that a couple of times. I went through a frustration where I was just like this dog. I understand why he was returned.

Speaker 1:

I understood that.

Speaker 2:

And the one thing, the one thing that the lady told me was he has a home here, so if it doesn't work out, don't feel bad, just please bring him back, because he has a home here. She said, yeah, it was a no-kill shelter. And she said so if it doesn't work out, don't feel bad, just bring him back, please. She said, you know, don't, yeah, don't abandon him. I'm not gonna lie. I just thought what happens if he because he ended up getting loose a couple times from me. One of the times and I found this out about loki right away was you see all these nice dogs that the truck drivers are walking, you know, and and at the end of their shift, loki had little man syndrome. He saw, he saw any dog and he wanted to attack them. And so there I am, pulling them on his leash.

Speaker 2:

And one day he saw this little you know, let's call it a shih tzu or something Some little designer dog with a truck driver and he's like going back and forth and he turns around and he bites right through that leash that I had. It was one of those extended leash which is the worst thing in the world to have, I found out and he bit right through it. Oh, my word, he bit right through it. Oh my word, he bit right through it and he was off and he hit that little designer dog so hard that they flipped a couple of times and there we are. You know, I'm running after him again and I was like, oh no, you know, and he's, you know, attacking this little dog man. Once I got him loose I said okay, so this one's dog aggressive, he doesn't want to be in the truck, he doesn't. You know we're not, you know we were not bonding, and I would tell this dog is like, please give me a reason to keep you, because you know, I know and you know.

Speaker 2:

I got to the point where at one point I literally was in tears because I thought what am I not doing? This dog hates me, you know. I know that he's just going to go back to a shelter and everything. And I just would talk to him and I was like give me a reason to make this work, that we can endure this and stuff. And I can tell you, 12 years later, that Loki is still on the truck with me.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, you guys found a way to make it work.

Speaker 2:

We found a way to make it work. I didn't give up on him and I was like you know what, buddy, I'm not going to give up on you. And I just, yeah, I just said, well, yeah, he's a sweet old man now but man, he was hell on wheels when he was young, but he a good trucker dog, that that. And and the one thing is is that the the year later that I, that I got him which I don't know what the hell I was thinking but another dog, she touched my heart. You know um same thing.

Speaker 2:

Situation when, when I got her, she was emaciated. She was thrown away and I was told she may not even, you know, live very long because you know she's on a trying to recover. You know, she was emaciated. She was so emaciated that when she would walk, her little hip would fall to the side, back to back. I mean, that's how emaciated she was, a little chihuahua. And I said I'll take her. And they said no, no, no, she's not up for adoption, you know, because we don't even think she's going to survive. I said, well, if she ends up passing away, she can pass away with me. And she was just so skittish and she's a little chihuahua Same thing. I just said you know what little girl you have a place here with me. I didn't want or need another dog, to be honest with you, but her little situation just touched my heart and I said okay, you will be my Freya. And if anybody knows anything about Nordic mythology, once again Freya is the goddess of love and this little girl, something, just told me she's my little Freya.

Speaker 2:

And again, all these years later, she's still on the truck with me too. So I have Loki and I have Freya, and Freya is just the biggest little love bug. Everybody knows that Chihuahuas get attached to you, but he's horrified of trucks and horrified of trucks. When we go through the truck stop, you know, I have to pick her up and take her through the trucks to get her to the little grassy area. And you know, coming back to the truck, she wants to get picked up right away and I was like that's okay, little girl, you know I'll work with you, you know. So that's our little thing was Loki and Freya. We hit the road together.

Speaker 1:

Okay, AJ, I want to change gears just a little bit. So I know you started as a solo driver. Are you driving team now? Because I know you said your schedule was 7 pm to 7 am, which is the opposite of mine. So I thought, okay, obviously a team driver. Are you riding with the team now, or how is that working?

Speaker 2:

Well, I am riding with the team I went through. Let's go back to the period of when I wanted to become an owner-operator. I did, actually after like a year and a half, which if anybody's a truck driver they're going to kind of laugh at because you know they think an owner operator at a year and a half. You don't know anything, you know this and that nature, but I just knew that I wanted a little bit more autonomy in my schedule and, um, very respectfully, I'll tell you and I'll tell your audience. You know I'm a gay man and I had the opportunity to socialize, you know, off the road, you know, just like I told you, I grabbed a little rental car and that allowed me to, you know, have maintain a social life as well. And I got to the point as an owner operator. And this is the first time that I teamed, that I hired a driver operator and this is the first time that I teamed that I hired a driver, and the driver that I hired opened me up to the whole opportunity of doing coast to coast. You know you can do a lot more miles and you know things of that nature, and my first team experience was with a driver that I hired and that worked out really well because I learned how to run the truck like more like a machine. I would call it a like a little factory, like a little 24 hour factory, because, man, you know you're running to the next load and given the next load and we would do coast to coast loads and we started doing uh. I got into a situation where I started doing that with FedEx and the uh FedEx loads were really nice because they were already preloaded trucks. You just pick them up and they'd want it.

Speaker 2:

You know, like New Jersey to Washington State, I had an affinity for nighttime. I was always a night owl, and so it ended up being that, you know, we would be able to pick our schedules and and uh, sometimes, you know the schedules would uh take you into, like if you were driving at night. So you go through a period of time where your schedule was during the day, because you're just going by the hours that you have, right, and um, we, we figured it out and we ended up running that truck like a nice little factory. Um in time, you know, the the driver that I hired was wanting to get back on their feet too. So uh ended up working out really well, but in time I ended up meeting um, another truck driver, um, who I started dating, and uh, who came onto the truck, um, and ended up replacing the driver that I had worked with, and the driver that I had worked with went on and got another job, and so then I started driving with the driver that I was dating, and the one thing that I'll tell you about that situation is, if you a normal let's quote, unquote normal regular folks, you know they date someone, they go to nice dinners, they go to the movies and everybody goes home, you know, to their own perspective places.

Speaker 2:

You know we, for whatever reason, just jumped right in and, like man, you want to team with me, yeah, I want to team with you and things of that nature in. And you're like man, you want to team with me? Yeah, I want to team with you and things of that nature. Wow, and yeah. So it was just like. You find out really quick who it is that you're with when you're living in a little box, when you're 24-7 with them and when you can't go anywhere there's nowhere to go. You find out really quick how compatible you are with somebody.

Speaker 1:

That you're dating? Does it take long to figure it out?

Speaker 2:

Not at all. And the one thing that I will tell you was my co-driver, my guy that I'm dating. He had that same antsy adventurous I can't be in one place too long spirit, so so, yes, it was. It was a great yeah, and and the one thing that he didn't have was how to live well on the road. Um, I'll be very honest with you, and I started by telling him I said we're at the truck stop, do you? And his name is kyle. I said you're at the we're at the truck stop. I was like do you see 75 of these folks that we're at the truck stop with? They don't have the, the, the kitchen setup that we have. You know they're eating. You know they're going into the restaurant. They're eating. You know the truck stop food. I said you, we need to be very grateful that we have this food, because I, I, I turned out to be the little king of one pot, uh, or one pan meals. You know everything just in that one electric skillet or that one thing.

Speaker 2:

Yep, uh, the french press. We never get there, you know. Obviously I already had that, you know, but I would make my little espressos in the mocha pot, um, a little French French press. Because once again it goes back to being a foodie and a coffee connoisseur 15 different ways to make coffee and I love them all, to be honest with you. So it's just like you know, it made it, it started and I and I would tell them let's grab that rental car, let's grab, you know, that opportunity, let's park the truck. Here's the thing, cindy. I started seeing obviously there's regular trucks, there's flatbed trucks, there's reefer trucks. So I started seeing there's all these different, you know, options in the truck driving community. But once again, a little epiphany happened when I saw the box trucks that were going down the road. Yeah, and I was just like how the heck do you get into that? Because that's a whole lot easier to park in a truck stop.

Speaker 2:

And I have to worry about, you know, about bumping. And then I said those people can go anywhere. They have a small truck, it's just like it looks like just like a bobtail you know a little bit longer than that and and I decided right there and then that I was going to find out how to get into that. Uh, kyle was exactly the same way. He was on board with it. So we uh found expediting um in and and the one thing about it was those smaller trucks, the box trucks.

Speaker 2:

They come in every variation, just like the semi truck does. You know, everybody has seen that one semi truck going down the road that has like a super, super long cab on it and it's like an apartment that they're pulling with their truck. I started seeing these little trucks and when I did my research online, I was like they have running water, they have the little bit of extra space, it's a sleeper cab, an extended sleeper cab, and I was just like sign me up, man, you know, to get more space to be able to cook in and things like that. They come equipped with a little bed up. Man, you get more space to be able to cook in and things like that. They have become equipped with a little bed and you can pick up the bed and it becomes a dinette set underneath. It's like a Murphy bed and perfect. At that time the only thing they didn't have was a bathroom and a shower.

Speaker 2:

That's where the specialized freight comes in the expediting freight we ended up getting into expediting, and one thing that really benefited us was the more endorsements on your license that you get, the more access to different types of freight that it gives you. So there's one endorsement that's called Hazmat. You get to understand really quick that you have to take a lot of care with that. So I was like, okay, once you get that endorsement, then you get the dispatcher calling you for more loads because there's more types of loads that you can take. And then another one that we have is a tanker endorsement, because some of the containers that we carry are full of liquid and so they require a tanker endorsement.

Speaker 2:

We got that. We got a doubles endorsement and we did this together. And we got a TSA endorsement. When you're a hazmat driver. Nowadays, since it is the same government department, back in the day you used to have a hazmat and then separately you'd have to go through TSA. Now they've combined that that when you have your hazmat, you're automatically with your CDL license that is hazmat endorsed, you're automatically registered with the TSA, which actually, once again going back to our theme, enjoying life over the road Whenever you get to take a flight somewhere, having that Hazmat endorsement on your CDL, you can go to the TSA pre-check because your CDL number is the TSA pre-check known traveler ID number as well.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, yes, awesome, yes, great.

Speaker 2:

I'm the type of person that's enjoying my life over the road, finding things out like that. I was like, yes, because, man, we do that and we take flights and things of that nature. So in time, over the road, you find the places where you enjoy stopping. And one thing that I'm going to give you an example, like whenever we're on the East Coast let me go back really quick. So you had to ask me about, you know, our home base and home life and things like that. I think it's important to talk about that as well, home life and things like that. I think it's important to talk about that as well because at that time, you know, my spouse didn't have he was, you know, jumping around in life as well and but he had, you know, his family that were, you know, helping him out and supporting him and you know he just, you know, kind of floundered a little bit, you know, in different areas and stuff like that. So we did not have a home base. Home base, you know, we'd stop at his, at his family's house in Pennsylvania. We'd stop and visit his sister and I had, you know, one niece that I had kept in contact with, you know, for many, many years that slowly but surely and this was like the biggest blessing for me like I would visit my niece in Texas and slowly but surely I started reconnecting, like with her mom, which is my sister, I started reconnecting with another sister, and so then that gave me more people to visit, and so that's what we did. We lived in our truck for a few years and we would just take time off wherever we felt like we wanted to take time off, whether it be in Oregon to visit his sister, whether it be in Columbus to visit my friends, whether it be. And so you end up finding, like your little favorite places around the country that you would like to get back to.

Speaker 2:

I fell in love with upstate New York, going to different places in our area. I fell in love with the Finger Lakes region of New York, upstate New York, the Finger Lakes region, for those that don't know, is also the wine region of New York, where it has the majority of the wineries of New York, where it has the majority of the wineries, and so you're talking about, you know, five humongous, you know lakes. The only lakes that are larger than the Finger Lakes are the Great Lakes, and so you're talking about five. You know humongous lakes and tons of wineries, tons of small little cute towns, tons of local little farmers markets. And I was like, sign me up, I love this place, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 2:

But then we was like, okay, so what are we going to end up getting you know with our you know small budget and realize that you know we're on the road all the time. So we wanted something close to the parents so that you know they can. You know, kind of keep an eye or, you know, help us whenever we needed there. And what ended up working for us was I bought in cash, tight, unseen. I just did a video walkthrough but I bought a mobile home that I was able to buy it for nine right under $10,000, $9,000 and change Through a video call. Something just told me was that you know what? I know that they have stigmas attached to them. You know mobile home parks, you know. But it was within my budget and I said that's exactly what I need. That's what we need is a small place to call home. Exactly what I need, that's what we need is a small place to call home.

Speaker 2:

We were so fortunate in making that buy in that little mobile home park that's literally in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 2:

It is in a hamlet that doesn't have not even a traffic light in the hamlet proper. The reason why it turned out to be such a blessing to us is because the manager the guy who walked us through the video call and stuff like that he lives literally right across from us. As part of his manager type stuff that he does, he does the public areas of the grounds, maintaining it, and for a little bit of a fee during the springtime we're able to pay him and he keeps, you know, the yard all in nice and intact. And you know, he has turned out to be just like the greatest neighbor we're able to call him that. Hey, we're getting something delivered which we have mailbox with UPS, but there are some things that have to go to the house, whether it be like a medication or you know something of that nature. Whatever it does, yeah, yeah, he'll grab that thing and, just, you know, bring it in the house and you know, and leave it and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

That's so great, so helpful.

Speaker 2:

And he turned on it. So that actually allowed us to have a home base and a home life which, once you're on the truck for a while, you know anything, everything, once you're doing it for long enough, you know, can become tedious and everything you know can become a little bit of burnout. For me, to be very, very honest, I don't experience that, because I went through so much housing, insecurity. Um, before trucking that man, you know, I was kind of like institutionalized, if that's the right word to be, like an over the road driver, because I was always. It was my home and that's exactly what I made it and I, and I said this is my little home on wheels. Little did I know that I was ahead of the trend because I call it now this is like my version of van life, but in an expedite truck.

Speaker 1:

This is all yeah, you know so.

Speaker 2:

I also call it my remote job because I work from home and you know, in my little eight, in my little eight to 10 hours, I just have to move the truck along to another location, but I'm still working from home because as soon as my shift's over, you know, uh, uh, home life starts for me.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I love the rhythm of life that you have. I love that you have a home base. It's just, it's a break up the routine a little bit and, um, I really love the way you're taking advantage of the opportunity to travel and, um, it just really feels like you found your. You know the right thing for you and so I just love, I love your story.

Speaker 2:

Hey, can I switch gears just a little bit? Absolutely, absolutely. As you can tell, I can talk anybody's ear off.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's good that I'm enjoying your stories and I love hearing your heart and I love hearing you making the most of the opportunity to travel out there. So I think those are all great. I've enjoyed every bit of the things that you've shared. Okay, so I saw a post recently that I think you posted in Enjoying Life OTR Facebook group about a place where you found with some dental care and honestly, I think there's a place where you know really dental care and all of our you know taking care of our bodies and you know we don't have a home base usually and you know some of that's very common for many drivers to not, you know, neglect these things and you put you made a post in my group about dental care. Can you tell our audience a little bit about that?

Speaker 2:

And you know I have a gazillion questions about that- oh, I'm happy to touch on that because let's get back to the bigger picture outside of dental care, which is our health, our overall health, and the one thing that it made the greatest big impression on me was let's go back to my mom. She did not have health insurance, but her and her husband her husband was from Mexico and her and her husband would go to Mexico when they would go visit his family and she started visiting the dentist there and it was at a reduced price and she was able to get the dental care that she couldn't afford in the United States. And, you know, she ended up getting, like you know, a bridge and a crown. And you know, at that time it was like you know, just for you know, like let, it was like you know, just for you know, like, let's say, like less than a hundred dollars or that type of stuff, and she came back looking like a million bucks, you know, and yeah, and so I never forgot about that. And one day, when I was scrolling through Facebook because you know, obviously tons of time on my hands, so social media has started becoming my thing One time I came across this post on YouTube about Molar City.

Speaker 2:

I'm like what's Molar City and they're like you know Molar City. You have to go there. Molar City is obviously the town's moniker is a town that is 100% dedicated to dental care. There's 300 dental offices in this little town that is very close to Yuma. It's actually on the Ketchum Indian Reservation, the US-Mexico border crossing, and anybody that looks that up Muller City and sees what it's about. It's a little town where Americans and tons of Canadians snowbirds especially go to get dental care.

Speaker 2:

Almost everybody you encounter there speaks English. Everybody you encounter there speaks English. And they have at the Indian Reservation. They have a huge parking lot where you can just go and pay whatever the parking fee is and walk across and as soon as you walk across you have a lot of people. They are not high pressure, by the way, but they'll ask you what can I help you with? You need dental, you need optical, you need optical, you need pharmacy and, the same way that the dental services are less expensive, the pharmacy where you can get access to there's things that you can get access to prescription drugs that they do not you need a prescription for in the United States that you can buy there at a discounted rate. And people kind of worry like oh, aren't you worried about getting medicine in Mexico, or anything like that. I mean, these are legit pharmacies or everything is fine.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I have a question. Let me jump in here real quick.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so how did you?

Speaker 1:

go. I mean, I know you've had some dental work done personally, so your smile looks great, by the way. Oh, thank you. So how did you go about choosing one? I mean in like are you reading Google reviews? Or like how do you know you're not getting?

Speaker 2:

there's a website that I visited and it's called dental departurescom.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And obviously I was very nervous about choosing one because once again, thank you for asking me that question there's 300 plus dentists to choose from. You know you don't want to. You know, um, and well, and initially, what I was going to the dentist for I was I. I had always, as a younger person, working in, you know, with corporate america, I had had insurance, and so I always kept up with my, with my dental care, you know, cleaning every six months and you know I had just a couple cavities, nothing major, and I didn't have any need for major work. So I consider myself very fortunate.

Speaker 2:

I found this website, dental Departures. You put in there, basically where you're going, and it lists ratings for dentists in the different towns where you're going. I mean, I now know that people fly to Turkey, people fly to different parts of Mexico, people fly, you know, the Europeans. A lot of them go to Turkey or a lot of them go to different places or whatever. So it's a worldwide website, but it also covers Mexico and it covers, like, dentists in the United States as well, and it ranks them and it tells you their specialties and you know. So it's a really good resource. That's how I found my first dentist.

Speaker 1:

That's how I found my first dentist. That's how I did it. That's how I found my first dentist. Love that. That's a great tip. Even if somebody's not in that area at Mulder City, you know finding somewhere else, you know if they're having a dental emergency, or you know their crown broke and they're in, you know, pennsylvania, when their home base is in California. You know so great resource. That's a great tip for our drivers. So thank you for sharing that Love. That Certainly Okay. So do you need a passport to walk over the border? I mean, how does that work?

Speaker 2:

And I don't know if it's still in effect, because it's just not my situation. You used to be able just to walk across with your driver's license and your birth certificate. Okay, if I'm not mistaken, and any drivers can post this on your social media enjoying Life OTR, if I'm not mistaken, that's still a fact, but if I'm mistaken, please somebody post and let us know. I ended up getting my passport before I came into truck driving, right, and so I had my passport already and then, in time, I got my real ID situation when I got my hazmat. So I've never had to worry about, you know, crossing borders or you know anything like that. But my understanding is you still can do it with your driver's license. If you walk across, not flying, your driver's license and a birth certificate or the real ID absolutely works for you to walk back and forth along with the passport.

Speaker 1:

I know people are going to wonder that. So that's good, that's helpful. Well, I just want to say thank you for so much for coming on and sharing your journey. You have anything else you want to share before we wrap up Any favorite adventures or favorite memories on the road or any places that we should be sure to visit.

Speaker 2:

Every area that the driver visits. You can do your time there in the truck stop, or nowadays everybody knows about Uber. You know the Uber will pick you up from the truck stop and take you anywhere you want to go. What we use now primarily is an app called Turo, and Turo lets you rent local people's cars. So it's obviously in big cities and bigger cities where we'll rent from a person instead of, like a Avis or you know budget or something like that from the actual person to the app, and we found that very, very helpful as well. How does the cost.

Speaker 1:

Compare with that to renting a car. I'm sure it's very depending on the kind of car you get.

Speaker 2:

Yep, it's very, very similar in cost. However, there are older cars that maybe not be the first pick that you can get a car for like $25 a day. By the time you put insurance and their fee on it, that car might be $45 for the day. So that's in the same range as a rental car.

Speaker 1:

But you're not having to go Well, even if you think about doing Uber, it's like you might pay. You know, if you're Ubering all day, it's like that racks up really quick and that gives you a lot more flexibility. I love this tip. This is a great idea.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I'll give you a quick example. We? I'll give you a quick example. We were in Tacoma, washington, just like a week and a half ago, and the rental cars were kind of like outrageous. They were not a whole lot available Like in the economy. They were already all sold out and so was the churros. They were like $75 plus a day and we were there for the weekend and I was like I just don't want to pay that. So I realized I'm not really going anywhere. But just to go to the places where I had to go, like Dollar Tree and Walmart, I had to get an Uber to go back and forth and that racked up about $60 that day, just an Uber, or $70, something to that nature. So you definitely always want to plan ahead and, like I said, it's more in the bigger cities where you have the better prices for things like that.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a great tip. That's very good, because I know a lot of drivers don't think about these options. So, and you know, especially you know a driver that's maybe a little bit older, maybe not on social media as much, or you know, looking at options and even for a driver to try Uber for the first time, I'm always just like, just try it one time, you know, get over that hump, rip the bandaid off, make the Uber call, and you know, just to do it, just to, it just opens up so many more opportunities to get to go in and explore.

Speaker 2:

I'll tell you what I found out. That's really good too Sometimes, especially since you're going to go to Walmart anyway. Let's get into a lot of like more modern day. At 55 years old, I decided many years ago that I was going to do everything I could to keep up with technology. Sometimes, as an older person, it scares people where they're just like, oh, I don't want to do. That man with me is like I want to do everything I download, even now AI chat and all the so here's.

Speaker 2:

Here's the other thing that a lot of drivers do now is Uber doesn't only pick you up, but it also will deliver you groceries. You have Uber Eats. You have, you know, doordash, yeah, instacart All of those can bring groceries and, of course, you're paying a premium for that, an extra premium. But if you're one of these drivers that have the 53 trailer, you know, and you can't make it, you can't pull into the aldi, so you can't pull in. You know there's not a walmart in your area. You can actually just go on uber eats or you know any of those apps and bring the groceries to you.

Speaker 2:

That's a, that's a pro tip, but I had one other one that I was thinking of as well. Oh, one thing that I really enjoy doing is I have a Walmart plus account, and what I'll do is I'll order all my groceries and I'll put my truck there in a Walmart, and they're already done for me. All I have to do is pick them up, and so, since Walmart has the pickup service, that works with the truck too, or if you're finding something that's not available in the store, you can always and you know you're going to be in that town you can always ship to store, and with Amazon, amazon has so many more locations where you can ship it to the Amazon lock boxes.

Speaker 2:

Yes, great tip, another great tip, very helpful so that way you can get in on Amazon and after a while you realize that you don't need to get home to get those essential services.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

And yep. So that really helps. Let's go back to the theme of our show. That really helps enjoying life. Otr.

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming on. So much wisdom, you share so much life experience and I love the way you're doing life out there. It's so great. I'm so grateful that we crossed paths on social media. Hey, just speaking of social media, if somebody wants to get in touch with you or follow your journey, how can they reach out to you? You want to tell your socials.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I have only one social and it's across the platforms. I'm an older driver that enjoys TikTok, so on all my socials it's A-G, and then Bear, which is the Latin version of it, but it's B-E-X-A-R, so it's A-G-B-E-X-A-R on Instagram, facebook and TikTok.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, well, thanks so much for coming on the show. So such a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for having me, it was fun. Yeah, I'm glad you're also in the enjoying life otr facebook group so people can connect with you there too. So I'm so grateful that you shared please post lots of pictures all your tips in my group. I'd love for you to be able to do that. I'll put you on there as a group expert, because you definitely are oh, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that. I appreciate that because I really do enjoy promoting. You know, I always say and in closing I'll say this I always say there's only, there's only two ways to approach everything in life. You're either going to look for the negative or you're going to look for the positive. And for me, um, I try to make, I look for the silver lining in everything. And this is a life that we have, this life we chosen, so I want to make it as comfortable as possible, as peaceful as possible and as enjoyable as possible.

Speaker 2:

Um, the last thing I'll say is one of the things that you can do. If you have a 53 foot trailers, you can Bob tail to planet fitness. They have 24 hour locations. It's a great place to get a shower after a great workout and, um. So, yeah, you can do that as well, and that really helps your mental attitude, because the more you're taking care of your health and you have access to all those services over the road, that's going to give you a more positive outlook and it definitely helps make life on the road enjoyable.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Many of those Planet Fitness will let you stay overnight too. You just, of course, got to check with the management, but many of those have overnight parking option available too, so it's another great tip. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, cindy. I can't wait to keep up with you on your social media and in your group, and it was very nice meeting you. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a wrap for this week. I can't wait for you to hear next week's show. It's going to be the Healthier Trucker segment with Melinda Fox Wellington. She's got another great guest coming on and they're going to be encouraging, inspiring. She's breaking the myth that trucking has to be an unhealthy lifestyle and she's giving us practical tips and ways to make it work. So stay tuned for that. Can't wait to connect with you there. Hey, be sure to join our Facebook groups. Melinda's group is Healthier Truckers and my group is Enjoying Life, otr. So we want you to be a part of those communities. A lot of great things are happening there. We want you to join us. Well, that's it. Y'all take care, be safe out there and, by all means, enjoy the journey.

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Cindy Tunstall

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