#52 - Grit, Gears & Gallop: The Wild Life of a Woman Who Never Slows Down w/Rachel Shackelford

From the dusty trails of endurance horse racing to the treacherous mountain roads of logging country, Rachel Shackleford's life story reads like an adventure novel. Known online as "SS Trekking Babe," Rachel takes us through her remarkable journey of reinvention that led her from being a homeschooled horse trainer to becoming one of the few female lowboy drivers in the trucking industry.

Growing up in Auburn, California, Rachel's unconventional education gave her practical skills that would later become invaluable. When health challenges including Hashimoto's disease forced her to abandon horse training, she made a bold pivot into professional trucking. Starting in the logging industry - arguably one of the most demanding sectors of trucking - Rachel quickly earned respect by mastering skills many drivers take years to develop.

Throughout our conversation, Rachel shares hair-raising stories from the road: navigating 80,000-pound loads down narrow mountain paths, encountering suspicious situations at isolated landfills, and developing safety protocols as a woman traveling alone. Her experiences highlight not just the technical challenges of trucking but also the unique perspective she brings to a male-dominated field.

What stands out most is Rachel's philosophy toward fear and discomfort. "When I fear something, on the other side of that is freedom, so I'm going to just push straight through it," she explains. This mindset has served her through career transitions, technical challenges on the road, and in competition as an endurance horse racer riding distances of 25-100 miles.

Rachel's story is a powerful reminder that our greatest growth often comes from embracing challenges rather than avoiding them. Her willingness to step outside her comfort zone and pursue unexpected paths offers inspiration for anyone feeling stuck or seeking change in their own life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Rachel's Journey
• 7:15 Childhood and Homeschooling Experiences
• 17:00 The Value of Trade Skills and Practical Education
• 28:32 From Horse Training to Navigating Career Changes
• 40:18 Getting into Trucking and Logging Industry
• 56:12 Life Stories from the Logging Roads
• 1:08:45 Heavy Haul and Equipment Transport
• 1:21:23 Safety and Challenges for Women Truckers
• 1:35:28 Road Stories and Close Calls
• 1:46:10 Truck Driver Pet Peeves and Road Etiquette
• 1:56:25 Endurance Horse Racing and Athletic Pursuits

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

well, thank you, rachel, for joining. I know you're just rolling through, yep, literally you're like hey, change your plans, I'm coming through tonight. I was like, fuck it, we're gonna do it, we're gonna run an episode anyway. So, um, I've never met you before you came referred, I think, by mckenzie. Yeah, okay yeah yeah, yeah, it was either that or randy. I wasn't sure because ran he's another buddy of mine.

Speaker 1: 0:32

But um well, thank you for coming on, thanks for having me yeah and we're just gonna shoot the shit, because you filled out your form and it was absolutely fascinating. You have. You've done everything from horses training horses. You run marathons, which that would be my absolute nightmare torture if I had to run anything over probably a mile.

Speaker 2: 0:52

So it's, it's on the horse. I'm riding more of this thing. So I don't run marathons, it's. I do endurance racing on horseback. So my horses are running any from from 25 to a hundred miles, so I'm riding them. So I'm not doing the running part, because that's a way I would never do that.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Okay, I mean it doesn't change anything, and for me it'd still be miserable and my cardio is not that great Flattered, but it's not. You show up and I'm like she runs 100 miles. Huh, no, I didn't think that, no, but you've done everything, everything you're. I mean you drive a big rig. Now, what's the name of your? Your um social pages.

Speaker 2: 1:25

So uh ss trekking, babe, okay, originated because my last name's shackleford and everyone I got the nickname of the shack show because my life has literally been a shit show, so everyone's like it's the shack show, not the shit show. So, okay, everyone calls me the shack show. So I wanted to incorporate that into my trekking page and then then little did I know that that would literally be the curse that I needed for the rest of my entertainment, because it has been nonstop either a hurdle or a wall or a detour or some kind of MacGyvering something. So it's built me over the years, character-wise for sure.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Oh, and that industry, which I can't wait to dive into, is fascinating to me, being on the road. I'm on the road a lot. I. I tell the wife all the time like when we're done with the kids, hopefully they never move out, but one day, if they do, I was like I just want to get my cdl because I have we'll, we'll get a meeting somewhere and it's 14 hours drive from here. We're like, well, let's just take the kids and we'll road trip it.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Pack your shit. We're leaving in the morning and we'll just we'll bust out like a 14, 18 hour day to get somewhere, cause we drive as a family. I'm like God we should just do this where we're making money off of it. But, um, okay, so I'm I'm pumped over this one because this is going to be a good one. So why don't we just start with childhood? Where'd you grow up and how was your childhood?

Speaker 2: 2:41

So I was raised in Auburn, california. So for those that don't know California, it's above Sacramento, like in between the foothills between Sacramento and Tahoe. Everyone usually knows where that is. If you tell people you live in Sacramento they're like holy crap, you live in the ghetto. And if you tell them you live in Tahoe they're like damn, you're rich. So in between that and I was raised Christian. I was raised Christian. I had awesome parents. Older sister was raised with animals horses, dogs, cats, wild turkey, a tortoise, like just you know little random animals, a boa snake.

Speaker 1: 3:15

This is the exact childhood. If you go through any childhood of my footage of my wife, she'll make it. There's a turkey, there's tortoises all over, because people used to just drop them over our fence. My parents, like, rescued a couple of them. Oh's tortoises, it's just yuck All over, because people used to just drop them over our fence. Because my parents rescued a couple of them oh my gosh, I've grown snakes everywhere. Hilarious Everything I've lived this life.

Speaker 2: 3:30

And I was raised, homeschooled. I was bullied when I was younger, in first grade, kindergarten, first grade. I never really got along with. The girls was like, turn it into a man, we're going to raise you like one, really. So I kind of gravitated more towards my dad and I loved being outdoors and doing all that kind of stuff. So I had a great childhood. I was homeschooled, I got to play with my animals, I got to ride my horses, I got to travel. My dad got into endurance racing and that's how I got into it, but he got into it when I was really young, I was two. So my sister, my older sister, would compete and I would go along and we would take the rv and the horse trailer and we would travel all over the us for endurance races I didn't know this was a thing yeah, nobody knows it's a thing because there's no money in it, like everyone's like oh yeah, do you guys win anything?

Speaker 2: 4:21

and I'm like like a t-shirt that I have to pay for after I finish.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Part of my fees? Yeah, exactly Part of the dues I sign up for. Do you?

Speaker 2: 4:28

like this t-shirt that's got a horse on it, like it's super cool but it's not. It's interesting because the horse side of it is you know you live with your animals, right? So endurance racing isn't like. You know, you pay the trainer a bunch of money and you wear the super cool outfit, or it's not clicky at all, like nobody cares what you drive, what rig you show up in, how much you paid for your horse. All they care about is that you take care of your animal and it's like that animal is like a part of the family.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So that's more of a passion sport.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Yeah, it's like a hobby and it's crazy because I'm like one of the younger generation in it. I was raised, you know, I started racing when I was seven, but all of the people in endurance are like in their sixties and seventies and eighties.

Speaker 1: 5:10

There's 80 year old people out here doing a hundred mile race on horses 82 years old and he still wins hundreds all the time.

Speaker 2: 5:16

Yeah, it's nuts. I'm like these people are nuts. Like I can barely get out of bed some mornings. I'm like there's no way I can ride a horse at that age that competitively. Like it's insane. These people, this is their retirement, these are their babies. So I was raised going to these endurance races. Growing up, that was my sport. I played softball and I think my mom made me go on this like basketball team, for like, I played bench the whole time because I absolutely sucked at it and I was a socializer. Yeah, I'm like this is great. I wasn't your typical homeschool kid but my social aspect was with a lot of older people, so that's part about homeschool, though.

Speaker 1: 5:51

That is the greatest part and that's what I whenever. When you get that old, how do your kids socialize? I always explain it to people when it comes to homeschool. When's the one, when's the last time that you hung out in a room with the same age peers as you, ever besides public school? Yeah and two. It's like I don't want my kids hanging out with a hundred other 16 year olds all day. They have all the problems bringing everything from home to school, looking up, searching no parental vision on anything these days. I want that control and I feel that when you have that, at least it could come to us for the questions.

Speaker 1: 6:31

And at the same time, it's like I would rather my kids be associating with adults and learning, learning skills and communication and all everything else that comes along with it, versus sitting in a classroom all day, can't even talk to their peers.

Speaker 2: 6:43

Well, and that's the wild thing too, because now, obviously, as society is changing and things are happening around the world like we are realizing that trade schools and different things and people that have the entrepreneurship and didn't do good in school I have dyslexia, I have ADD.

Speaker 2: 6:55

I was an absolute hellion for my mother to do homeschooled with. Okay, like I hated her at certain points because I was so frustrated with school and luckily she saw that I was struggling with it and she was able to help me through that and allow me more time with my horses, more time outside with working with my hands with my dad and doing stuff like that. But it's. It gave me so much responsibility as a younger child. So when I grew up, I had my priorities straight and I was able to do my chores and I was able to functional as an adult with stress or things like that, because I was able to adapt and overcome and pivot and not just have it a nine to five, a certain schedule, everything my way. Like I actually learned how to navigate through life from a young age during the little things that I was doing that kids don't get nowadays ever Zero.

Speaker 1: 7:45

And you mentioned stress, like we've we've talked about it as parents like, hey, maybe we're putting too much stress on them, you know, cause we they've competitive, fought and you know we they have to have something going on. Like she runs, obviously, the podcast and you know, our little ones got her little bakery. But we I, we always look at her like the world doesn't give a fuck how stressed you are. They don't care about your anxiety, no one cares, and the world's gonna chew you up and spit you out. But if, like you know, she's a great example, she'll listen to her friends talking and she comes home she's like I can't relate to any of their stress problems.

Speaker 1: 8:19

She's like they're worried over a test. She's like I had to go to a tournament and fight six boys. Oh, my gosh, holy hell. We're like, yeah, you got a kid. I mean we're over here. Like, oh, my god, please don't die. And she's, you know, so the the stress levels. Now she's able to process like, oh, this is nothing on my level of stress, and so that's been something that we really appreciate and seeing the level of maturity that comes out of like a homeschooled kid, ready for the real world.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Well, some of them just thrive because you know when you're putting that box and you're putting that environment with school and the stresses and stuff. It's like I look at girls now at school, right, and I'm like I would be the weird kid literally with like polka dot leggings and like literally I'm like there's no way I would fit in nowadays. I would be like the weirdo in the corner, like are you kidding me? Right now it is a fashion show showing up to school nowadays and I'm like I always my knee, my knees always had scabs on them. You know, like I was in the dirt 24 seven. I was a total tomboy and I yeah, I just I can't imagine the stresses now that kids have to deal with with going to school and all the other things that they have, which is just pressure of your, just your, everyday.

Speaker 1: 9:28

What do you guys call it fit? Yeah, the fit check I could never so it's like you get these kids and now you're getting made fun of because your your shoes or you don't have the brand new whatever that's out now, and now that instead of going to school and learning that that's what you're, that's what you're worried about, it's like I don't want my kids to have to deal with that shit.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Granted, you're going to learn a lot in public school, but and then, at the same time, when you mentioned how it was really tough for your, your mom, to wrangle you for a bit, imagine being that kid sitting in a classroom, locked into a seat all day. Oh, he's got ADHD. Oh, they got this, they got these problems. They just need to be able to move. Our little one there's. I don't know how she would sit in a classroom, and she does. She did before we pulled her out.

Speaker 2: 10:11

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Was a great student there, but she's just that kid that has to move, has the fidget, and then, once you learn how, standing there, walking around, having an activity every 15 minutes or a snack or something like that Going for a walk.

Speaker 2: 10:30

And when I trained horses and when I would coach clients and people and things like that to communicate with their horse, it was like teaching them with their child, right Like I don't have kids, but I can relate to a sense and to an extent.

Speaker 2: 10:44

Right, I'm not saying having animals is having kids, because it's totally not. I could never be a parent you guys are amazing at parents right Like I can't do that. I have an animal that will keep itself alive, right, but I equate teaching them the personalities and how to communicate with their animal in a way that you know it helps them both, so they're not fighting for 50 miles down the trail because they don't speak the same language or they have different personality conflicts and things like that. So it's just very different. With me being homeschooled, my parents are able to read me, I'm able to read the animals and help the people and go back and forth, and so it was more of like a personality thing, because you can either learn visually, auditorily, you know, by doing hands-on, and I think that is something that needs to be equated into schools and things like that, which, unfortunately, never will.

Speaker 1: 11:31

They took away shop. They took away home ec.

Speaker 2: 11:33

Welding wood.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Yeah, all of it. And now you know. You look at these kids now and they don't know this stuff even exists. They don't know this stuff even exists. And the blue-collar trade world is the most incredible path you can take, like Idaho, we have a program here. I think we were the first in the nation. They're trying to get it through all the states. They got this team and they're lobbying. But anyways, instead of high school, these kids are going and they're graduating high school as an apprentice for linemen, welders. They have every trade that you can do, but instead of going through high school, you go straight to that school and said and that's your high school, but these kids are graduating and they're walking straight on to a utility company making 80 to 100 grand a year. Why on to a utility company making 80 to 100?

Speaker 2: 12:28

grand a year. Why the fuck are we not promoting that? Yeah, why aren't we pushing that?

Speaker 1: 12:29

I live in the wrong state. It's a great. It's a great program. It's pretty new, it's only a few years old, I believe. But yeah, it's like why? Why is that not an option? We sit here and we talk about our youth and the education and blah, blah, blah. Why are we not funding that type of stuff or bringing the trades back to schools and giving these kids an opportunity to learn something, because they just they don't know. I think we were, I was, I did home ec, I did shop, but after that I mean it was gone and they don't do it anymore, and so it's. It's incredible to be able to show your kids and to learn so many different things, just being home all day and being able to troubleshoot, problem solve, figure it out, try everything you can before you come and get us.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Well, and also too, I think it has a lot to do with the personality of the person, right and like where your true calling comes from. So I was raised Christian and having being able to have a faith when I was younger and have that kind of purpose and have a connection in my own walk with Christ, it really helped structure what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be, and it kind of set me on that path. And then as I got older I got you know I'm like okay, what do I want to do? I love horses and I was like the weird horse girl so like I guess I'll do that as my career. You know, and usually you know, everyone asks you what you want to be when you're younger and these kids are like an astronaut and a fireman and a cop. It's like there's so many more jobs than just that and those are the only ones that they're showing. So if you fail one of those areas I wanted to be a cop my entire life I was like yes, I'll totally do it.

Speaker 2: 14:13

So I got on with their program and for three years I was at the CHP place three times a week training with. They had like apprentice program kind of yeah, it was really awesome. So I was out there training. I was out there doing PT, running my mile, doing my pushups, doing everything like, oh, this is awesome. Well, you have to pass a written test to get in right. It's more than just the physical and the psych and all that other stuff, and I couldn't pass it. I tried, I did five attempts.

Speaker 2: 14:34

And the last test that I did, I was one point away from passing and I'm like God has slammed this door in my face so many times. I'm going to times I'm gonna go jump through the window and find something else to do, like I clearly and my mom was like rachel, what if you were to be the one that, like you, were the one that failed the most times and got in? I'm like mom, you're so cute.

Speaker 2: 14:54

Yeah, right, I feel like I'd rather not, because then if I did do that, my partner would be like how do I get stuck with this?

Speaker 1: 15:02

yeah, yeah, right. Then the word gets out like oh'm, like, oh God, we got Rachel again, exactly. But I've been that guy. You could ask me any question. My teachers used to get so frustrated with me because I would just bomb half the test and they're like they'd sit me down after and be like I know, you know this. It's that I can't comprehend. From reading to answering, I've all. It's even my wife, even my wife, just helping me through.

Speaker 2: 15:29

She's like baby. You know this and I'm like.

Speaker 1: 15:31

I know, I know it, I know, but I'm a fucking retard and from from question to answer, from a to D, everything goes to shit. I can't explain it. It's been like that my whole life and so you know I'm just like whatever. So, but it's, that's one of those things when you, you, when you're able to figure that out with your kid and be able to focus on those different points, and and it just teaches you so many different things.

Speaker 2: 15:53

So no, it's, it's wild. And you know it was interesting cause I got to like my dad. We um my parents were in the airline industry growing up, so, like my mom and my dad were both born in Germany and they were um military kids.

Speaker 1: 16:08

I was going to ask if they're military yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:09

They're military kids. I'm like, oh cool, maybe I can be on this podcast because they're military. No, um, so they were military kids and my papa was in the air force and my um, my dad's side of the family I don't know my dad's side of the family, I don't know because they were deceased before I came along but they were super, super high up the chain of command. So very military background in as far as like them being raised. And so my dad he ended up being a captain for American Airlines for many years before he had a heart attack and had to retire. But my dad is also like me. He's very ADD, but he's also very entrepreneurship as well. So I mean we had a cabinet shop, we remodeled houses. He had a landscape company.

Speaker 2: 16:49

I mean I was out there with a surveying, like you know, like laying out the thing for the barn. I mean I was doing fencing, I was doing irrigation. There wasn't anything that I wouldn't do, from radiant heating to the roofing Like I loved it. And I wish I actually took Spanish seriously, because I would love to know all the shit that was talked by all of the guys that were working Right, as I'm like just my dad's shadow, trying to walk around like figure stuff out. But it was cool because, like some of the guys that my dad had worked for him like they were into rock crawling or whatever I'm like can you guys teach me how to drive stick? Like I want to drive truck Right, and then you know I would operate the tractor at six years old.

Speaker 2: 17:23

You know B20 Kubota just why not? You know burying my Guinea pig, learning how to use the backhoe I mean, it was just certain stuff. We had a Mandarin orchard. I mean there was so many different things that I got to experience and learn because I wanted to be outside and I enjoyed learning, but I hated learning in the classroom, but I had. I love learning and that's the one thing I love to do and that keeps me driven. And it's also a curse too, because I want to do everything, I want to learn everything and I love sucking at something new. Like it's so fun to be that vulnerable or that you know you have no ego and you just want to learn something so bad that you're wanting to understand it and you're okay with not being good at it and you just want to keep going and then when you perfect that, you're like all right, what's next?

Speaker 1: 18:08

I feel like that's most people's fears and that's what holds them back. Is what you excel at and what you thrive for. That's what scares people and stops so many people from starting and just going.

Speaker 2: 18:13

It's a sick addiction of adrenaline. To be completely honest, when I fear something, I'm like, okay, well, on the other side of that is freedom, so I'm going to just push straight through it, and the the I'm going to get the reward, the faster I get through it. So that's shown in many areas of my life. But yeah, one of those is like different jobs, right. Like just going through different things and not being satisfied with something and wanting to do the next, or like being scared to do it and be like all right, well, what's going to be on the other side of it? That's going to be the. The reward is going to be so much greater.

Speaker 1: 18:43

That's a great mindset. That is a great mindset to have because, I mean, I'm sure you have experienced so much. Because what would normally scare somebody like, oh no, I'm not going to learn how to downhill mountain bike ride or ride, how do I learn to ride this horse a hundred miles through a desert or wherever you're racing? Those people be like, yeah, no, I'm good, but you're like, all right, let's, let's.

Speaker 2: 19:01

On the other end of this, it's a reward, you know, and I honestly think I've learned that from the horses that I've ridden and been privileged to work with, because some of the horses that I worked with I mean nobody wanted to touch them because they're absolutely insane and, you know, had different traumas or issues or things, but honestly those were the best ones because they had had so much heart to give. Once you earned their trust and got to a point where you can communicate with them, it was like, oh my gosh, they just unleashed everything. So I just I kind of learned a little bit more, I mean, honestly, from the animals. You know they're prey animals. I've been working with prey animals my whole life. They're fear driven. So being able to work with something like that and see them and how they've evolved, with different training and stuff, has helped me in my personal life evolve as well.

Speaker 1: 19:46

That's incredible. So after the cop thing didn't work out, where'd you go from there?

Speaker 2: 19:53

So I always fell back on horse training when I was when I was younger. I was 16. I started working and riding other people's horses and like, hey, can I ride your horse? You know, can I do whatever? Can I help around the barn, whatever it was? I wanted to get into showing and different things and so I would ride for other people. And then I started working with horse rescues because nobody's like oh yeah, some 16 year old kid's going to come train my horse, like cool story, bro. Um, so I would go to rescues cause nobody wanted to work with those horses. They're like yeah, hey, so I have this little liability form and you can do whatever you want that one will kick the shit out of you, that one will bite you.

Speaker 1: 20:26

But here you go, kid, have at it.

Speaker 2: 20:28

So I worked with a lot of rescue horses and I loved it because it was challenging. For sure. You had to figure out their story. You don't know their background, you don't know their traumas or their triggers or anything, so it was like working with a ticking time bomb. You didn't really know. And so I was able to to kind of find my niche with that and I really enjoyed it. And so, um, when the cop thing didn't work out, I went back to horse training and I had my little side business and I tried.

Speaker 2: 20:54

You know, when I was younger, for whatever reason, I never really felt like horse training was like I'm going to be a horse trainer, professional horse trainer. I didn't think it was like an actual, like career or job, right, so I'm like, okay, well, I eventually have to get a big girl job, like I can't just be at the barn every single day, you know. And I never really realized that that could be something that I could just do forever, right, because it does. I mean it took me years to build up my clientele and be able to have a stable income from that, but it still wasn't like. I knew I wanted to do more stuff and it wasn't gonna fund that, so I needed to find something else. So I was an estimator for collision.

Speaker 2: 21:30

I tried that for a little bit, then I got so horrible and it was so hard because everyone comes in and they're pissed off, right, they got hit their deductibles like big or whatever. And then they look at me and they're like, what the fuck do you know about cars, right? And I and I'm like I'd get my paper ready Like okay, I'm going to go out with you. And they're like, really Like you, is there a guy that knows like cars, right? So I dealt with that, which was awesome, you know. I'm like no, it's me motherfucker, you know.

Speaker 1: 21:57

So I keep talking shit. And then I, we did nothing.

Speaker 2: 22:01

So it was interesting dealing with some. But I had an awesome boss at the time and she was a super. I actually knew her from Endurance and she's actually here in Idaho and she's like the head honcho of her shop now and she's amazing and so she taught me a lot of grace through that and yeah, it was awesome. But I just I hated being in the office Like I love being around the cars and learning. But I just I hated being in the office, like I love being around the cars and learning. But I'm like, okay, I'm done. Like I plateaued this is numbers aren't my thing, dyslexia, like it's just it was a shit show. So her and I both knew I needed to go. It's a mutual, a mutual understanding.

Speaker 1: 22:39

She's like I love you.

Speaker 2: 22:41

Rachel, but this is not your job. And I went back to horse training and anything. I did HVAC for a while. Yeah, yeah, I swear I did HVAC. Well, actually, I fucked up on my taxes and I put too many dependents down and then I didn't like recorrect it. So then I owed a shit job doing HVAC at night and then I was doing horses on the side and then I was doing collision.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Yeah, it was a whole thing another reason why just hire a really good tax lady and she'll take all of your problems away you didn't get that lesson in homeschool, though.

Speaker 1: 23:15

No, I didn't oh my gosh, that's hilarious, I can balance my checkbook.

Speaker 2: 23:21

So I went back to horses and I kept going back to horses every single job I had and I was like dang, like horses are just so easy. It's something I knew. I was comfortable, but I didn't like being in that comfortability because I do. I enjoy being outside of my comfort zone to an extent, but I just want to live in comfort the entire time, like it was fun and it was exciting, but it was my hobby for so long that when it became my profession I didn't like it.

Speaker 2: 23:46

Always I couldn't spend time with my own horses. I was spending time with your horse, that horse, whatever, and I couldn't enjoy my own horses. So it really kind of took its toll on me and I started to lose my spark with it, and so my health got really bad.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Oh so.

Speaker 2: 24:06

And so I had a hypothyroid problem since I was younger Kind of went undiagnosed for a while and I started gaining weight and I started having like brain fog and just certain things weren't clicking right. And so I went and you know, our lovely health care system is just so great at telling you everything that you don't have. Um, and my mom was really conscious about nutrition and things like that and she did all the research and she'd help me with that. Um, my Nana had it, so it skips a generation anyway.

Speaker 2: 24:33

Yeah so like we kind of knew what I had and, um, I went on pills for it and it just I don't know it didn't really help that much. Um then it got further diagnosed as Hashimoto's. So Hashimoto's is just like an autoimmune and I'm like, oh my God, I have a disease. No it it hit me hard and to the point where I couldn't control my heart rate. I was having um heart issues. I was having issues with controlling not only my heart rate, but like I would get chronic headaches. I could get out of bed, I had horrible body fatigue, like it was literally my body was going through a storm and I couldn't train horses anymore.

Speaker 2: 25:08

I couldn't go out and give lessons, I had zero energy, I had no drive, I got depression, I couldn't get out of bed and I'm sure the narcissistic relationship I was in probably didn't help out with that. But on top of that she's like yes, that's a whole nother podcast topic, all right we're gonna schedule that one.

Speaker 1: 25:27

We're gonna talk relationships. How many?

Speaker 2: 25:30

topics do you want to hit tonight?

Speaker 1: 25:32

all of them no.

Speaker 2: 25:33

So it was, my body was going through a lot and so the stress of it all. I could not, I couldn't get out of bed and I was like how am I gonna survive? How am I gonna feed my horses? How am I gonna? How am I going to survive? How am I going to feed my horses? How am I going to work? How am I going to make money? Like if I have a headache? Like what can I do if I'm sick? And it dawned on me I was like Rachel, you know how to drive the shit out of a truck and trailer. Like I've been driving a truck and trailer since I was little, when I was 14, my dad'm gonna take a nap, you know.

Speaker 2: 26:11

And then he'd wake up and he's like, all right, where are we Show me on the map? And so I'm like driving and I'm like, ah, I think we young age Good for your dad. Yeah, oh, he was awesome with that. You know, he was like the one like. You know, you're like holding the flashlight or you're backing up the truck and trailer and you can tell you're like dad never yelled at you, right, because he like fucked up a million times. Oh, no, my dad was. He was excellent at teaching me that. Oh really, oh, yeah, no. And because I had experience with driving, I was comfortable. We'd show up to horse races and people would need their rigs helped, parked, and I'm like I got it, no problem. So I'm like I thought it was cool when I was younger and we were driving to these races, like the semis going by, like what little kid doesn't love semis?

Speaker 2: 26:59

You're like yeah get on the horn. And I thought to myself when I was younger like I'd always love to drive one of those someday. Little did I know fast forward when I'm in bed thinking I'm going to die, like that's what I was going to choose. But at the time, like yeah, that's cool, but I had no clue. And I don't come from a trucking family. Like my dad fought me when I was younger when I wanted him to buy a diesel. He's like no, we're going to get a V10. I'm like dad, that's so gay. Like why can't we get a diesel? So I decided I'm like fuck it, I'm going to go to trucking school.

Speaker 1: 27:29

No shit.

Speaker 2: 27:29

Yeah. So I got a grant through the state and they paid for my trucking school and I was like, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to enter this venture that I know absolutely nothing about but I think it's so cool and my thing going into trucking is, of course, right like I'm a numbers person. So I'm like, all right, I'm like googling like what's the highest paying trucking job? Right, it's like ice road truckers pops up, and then like heavy equipment right, like low beds, and I was like I know tractors, I know equipment, that's what I want to do. I want to be a love a driver. Really, yeah, like, just like that, and I'm like that's what I want to do I want to be a love of driver Really.

Speaker 2: 28:04

Yeah, like just like that, and I'm like that's what I want to do, cause that's low boys.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Low boys are are just like the hazard that comes with it. Cause obviously you're not. You're not just like towing a trailer full of fucking TVs Like you got loaders, you got escalators and you're moving over your equipment.

Speaker 2: 28:19

So low know you're, it's heavy haul so you're doing. And not every load is a heavy haul, load so a heavy haul. So truck drivers are allowed 80 000 pounds for their truck, the trailer and whatever they're carrying right, the commodity how the fuck are you missing? We'll get to that real quick. The add it's you have it. You totally have it.

Speaker 1: 28:37

Well, you're you do this, and I just see that one was shorter, so you don't have a fingernail on it. So yeah, I'm gonna ask welcome to wild chaos, so. But I just see that one was shorter, so you don't have a fingernail on it. So yeah, I'm going to ask Welcome to Wild Chaos, joe. We're going to take a pivot moment real quick. So then I started my career howling, though.

Speaker 2: 28:54

Before I started my professional driving career, I wasn't so great at it. I got into the side-by-sides like Can-Am Polaris right, so my finger came off. In Can-Am I was racing one of our friends and he races them professionally, you don't and I don't, clearly, clearly, I don't he still has all of his digits and we had just gotten like Can-Am was brand new, like maybe three days or something Right.

Speaker 2: 29:24

And you have to put like um, they have like a breaking the engine and key Right, so it can only go like 45 miles an hour. So me, being the cocky person that I was back then, um, I'm like, all right, let's race. Right. So we're doing laps, just put miles on on the motor and you can only go 45 miles an hour. So at this point it's like skill right.

Speaker 2: 29:42

So I like got on the inside of one of the turns and I was like, yeah, this is awesome. And I did that like twice. He was probably just letting me do it the entire time. Well, the next one, he pushed me out and I was on the outside where all the rats were. So I got into the rats and it just started going and because I had my hand like this in the steering wheel, when it hit and I flipped, my hand went through and it cut this and this finger was like completely like in half, like hot dog, so I'm upside down.

Speaker 2: 30:10

My boyfriend at the time comes running over. I was like, oh my God, are you okay? And I'm like can you find my finger? And he's like, wait what? And I'm like can you find my finger? And he's like don't look at it. And he like grabs his sweatshirt and takes it off and puts it around and wraps it around, and I'm like he's like hold pressure, you know. And he's like flipping the car over and I'm like I just Did you ever find your finger? No, it's gone.

Speaker 1: 30:39

A lucky coyote had a nice little tasty snack out there, a little Vienna sausage.

Speaker 2: 30:43

Yeah, it was so bad, I was pissed, I was so mad, so Did you feel it? You know what? It was a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure, okay, it was a lot of pressure. Okay, I mean like that's, I've never had something like ripped off my body before.

Speaker 1: 30:56

Was it pinched or ripped?

Speaker 2: 30:57

I think it was ripped so it was bleeding a lot yeah. Oh yeah, it was like it was squirting out it was it was really exciting.

Speaker 2: 31:03

It was, it was, it was bad. And so then the paramedics that came out were like the firefighter paramedics. They went to Justin, he got me into his and then we went back to where the trailers and the trucks are parked and so I'm back here, the ambulance is up there, so it is taking them fucking forever to get to me. And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me right now? Like you guys don't know GPS? Like is everyone has service. It's not that, like we told them we're at the parking lot. So they come over and the fire department got to me first because the paramedics went over there.

Speaker 2: 31:36

Anyway, it was a shit show. They came over and they're like unwrap it, put water in there trying to sterilize it, right. And I'm like, can somebody give me some fucking pain pills? Like I am going to lose my mind, like this hurts and I'm not crying, but I'm like going to freak out on somebody, like can somebody? And they're like no, we can't. There's a new law because I guess apparently somebody was like stealing morphine or something in the thing, so it's a whole lot. So they can't give it to me until I'm like almost at the hospital or at the hospital. So anyway, then they wrap my hand back up, and then the paramedics finally got there firefighter paramedics, though, anyway. So I get into the firefighter paramedics thing and this guy's like all tatted up and he's in there and like talking to me, and I'm like can you fucking stick a needle in me and give me something, like I need something. And I'm like and here's my phone, and can you take a really good before picture?

Speaker 1: 32:24

no shit, you have a picture of this. Yeah, oh yeah, I want it. Oh yeah, putting it over the video. We're gonna splice this into the video. Is it just like a hamburger?

Speaker 2: 32:33

oh no, you can see the bone. You can see the bone and this is like completely split for you so he got an amazing before picture. Okay, whoever that was, I don't know if he's listening like thank you so much. And also, too, I'm sorry. I've had a lot of ivs before and this guy on the bumpiest road like going mach 5, I didn't even feel it like the smoothest entry. I'm like you are better than any nurse I have ever had. I just want to let you know that.

Speaker 1: 32:58

He's probably some military like vet and just right Totally Every day.

Speaker 2: 33:03

So that was my finger story. And I was, yeah, training horse at the time. I still got into it. Sorry, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 33:08

We, just we. I mean we took a hard, hard turn, turn on that one.

Speaker 2: 33:13

Yeah, so when I tell people I'm like, don't worry, I'm a professional, but I just, you know, the big rigs, more wheels are better.

Speaker 1: 33:18

I think we were talking about low boys before.

Speaker 2: 33:21

Okay, sorry, I totally just legally you're allowed 80 000 pounds for your truck, your trailer, your commodity, whatever you're hauling heavy haul, you have permitted loads right, so you've got more, usually axles. You have um, a lower trailer so you can haul a lot heavier stuff and have it a little bit more equally loaded, and you're hauling over 80,000 pounds. I mean up to 400,000 pounds is the big boys. It's insane. So it's a lot of weight. It's a lot of responsibility. You know tying down something it has to have. You know your chains have to be weighted correctly to your whatever you're hauling. It's a lot, lot of responsibility, especially like the oversized loads. You have to know roads and all these things that I had no idea when I got into it. I'm just like that makes a lot of money. That's what I want to do and that looks super cool and badass and I know how to drive a tractor, so that's great.

Speaker 2: 34:09

A b20 kubota is like the tiniest tractor you could possibly imagine, so that like tractors now, like they have computers joysticks totally different, right, I'm like how the fuck do I operate this thing?

Speaker 2: 34:22

so I went to school. Um, there was, uh, everyone in my class dropped out within two weeks. They were scared, they couldn't drive, they didn't want to drive stick like. I don't even know the caliber of male species that were in there, but they were they. They all dropped out within like two weeks were you the only woman in the class so I had the instructor, another instructor and the mechanic and you and me in the whole class for five weeks

Speaker 2: 34:52

that's pretty and I asked single question. I had so much drive time and I'm like hell yes.

Speaker 1: 35:00

You're not rotating or anything.

Speaker 2: 35:01

I was stoked so I was so happy. I was like this is awesome. So I learned so much stuff. I learned load securement. I learned forklift stuff. I learned water truck. I learned so much and I loved it. And my instructor was an old pipeline guy. So, and I loved it and my instructor was an old pipeline guy. So he's like Rach, you need to get into pipeline Pipeline's where the money's at. You know all that stuff. You want to travel, do whatever, because I didn't really know what I was going to do Just moving pipe.

Speaker 2: 35:26

Moving pipe moving equipment like hauling water, doing anything so like on pipeline. You have multiple jobs as the driver. You can drive like the pickup and the porta potties around which I also have done um on a pipeline job. Then you can hop in the dump trailer um or the dump truck, then hop in the water truck, then hop in the low bed and move equipment because you're certified in all you're certified in all of it.

Speaker 2: 35:47

So you, just you do all of the truck driving jobs. Whatever they need on the job, you're like the go-to person. So still to this day he will call me and be like hey, rach, you want to go on this job, like this one's. You know he's got connections all over so like I can go work in alaska from a connection from him, like it's, it's pretty awesome, he's amazing, he's been an amazing mentor. Um, so yeah, I went to school and I got into trucking and when I got out I'm like sweet, I'm gonna go get that over six figure job like this is gonna be amazing. Yeah, nobody's gonna hire you. When you, they're like cool, you did five weeks of school like you don't know shit.

Speaker 1: 36:22

I'm like no, you don't understand.

Speaker 2: 36:23

Like I drive a truck and trailer, like oh, you drive horses, that's cute. Like you still don't know anything. So I am. I finally ended up at um, this logging company, and the uh spi inI in Lincoln, okay, yep, sierra Pacific industries, and um Dirk was the boss there and it's so funny Everyone calls him like grandpa Okay, cause he's like this old grouchy man and nothing phases him. And I went up to interview with him and um, you know he used to haul cows and stuff like that and so he's a rancher and he's, he knows the lingo and old boy.

Speaker 2: 36:55

He's a good old boy, so he's like all right. So you drive horses, have hauled horses and cross country and whatever he's like, I'll give you a shot. Okay, so we go in the Peterbilt and I learned in a Freightliner and a Freightliner is like to people that don't know trucking, it's like being in a Kia versus a Corvette. Okay, I was in the Kia, the Freightliner is what I learned in, and I'm about to hop into a Corvette and I have no clue what the hell I'm doing. So the Kia had 10 gears, the Corvette's got 18, and I'm like totally different. So I'm like so much more powered, like everything's different. So he hops in to do a test drive and I've only ever been in a 10 speed speed. So I'm grinding every gear like it was so bad. It was so bad. He's like you'll eventually get it.

Speaker 2: 37:41

And, um, he took me up and he's like all right, are you familiar with windy roads? Because logging like is no, no joke. You are on cliffs, you're on 90, you know narrow roads, you have no service. Yeah, really, snow, mud, ice, whatever. Like you have to figure it out. There's nobody out there to help you. So he's like we're gonna go up this little highway and you know it's windy and twisty and stuff. And I was like, yeah, I drive that every day Like game, let's do it. So he took me on a test drive and he's all right, I'll give you a shot.

Speaker 2: 38:05

Really yeah, so he gave me a shot and he hired me on the spot and um the quickest I think it was a week and a half that I had and my trainer, ashley she's female and she's like their top driver.

Speaker 2: 38:21

Of course, her and I got along so well and we had an amazing time. So, yeah, she taught me everything I knew. We you know, we had toothbrushes out there while we're waiting on the landings to get loaded with logs and we're scrubbing our trucks and detailing them. I mean like, and she taught me more about the trucks and I felt so invited by her and so I was um. The place that I was at, there was like 20 drivers and her and I were the only females.

Speaker 1: 38:45

No kidding. Yeah, so it was really cool, that's a pretty sketch, cause I do a lot of hunting over on the coast and we were in well those guys will come around those corners.

Speaker 2: 38:57

Hauling ass.

Speaker 1: 38:58

They don't move.

Speaker 2: 38:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:59

They're not moving for you.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:01

And you hear them coming. You're like running back to your truck like fuck, I left it. I'm on the road trying to get it back. Get it off the road. Don't give a shit. No Time is money.

Speaker 2: 39:10

It was cool because sometimes I sometimes I'm a night owl, my cortisol is all weird, so, like my time where I'm most awake is at night, right, so I would get to the yard at midnight and then I'd get my truck. I'd get to the landing at three, get loaded by four, come back, do another rotation. I didn't get home till seven at night. You know I 16, 17, 18 hour days. That's normal.

Speaker 1: 39:34

Are you getting paid by the load or is it a salary it hour?

Speaker 2: 39:35

days. That's normal. Are you getting paid by the load or is it a salary? It's an hourly yeah, hourly position. Yeah, so you work, it was. It was a weird pay scale, like they'd pay you like regular time for 40 hours than anything after. That was like time and a half. So you know you're doing 80 hour weeks, no problem, but yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:47

So you're banking out there, yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:49

So and it was. It was different because it was just me in the truck. So I had a lot Talk about podcasts, I got lists, I listened to, right, you know, you don't really have much going on and I got. I got so thin because I didn't. I didn't have time to eat. I had a gallon jug of water and you're out there throwing chain, throwing wrappers, you know, checking your load, getting an out and out of the truck.

Speaker 2: 40:16

You're doing so many different things that you don't really have time. You don't have downtime. And out of the truck, You're doing so many different things that you don't really have time. You don't have downtime. And then when I got off, I went to the gym because I was like still like needed to wind down for the day, and then I went home and I slept. So I literally was like a rail when I was working. It looked like a fricking tweaker. I'm like I can't do this anymore. I'm getting three hours of sleep five days a week and then I'm like sleeping on the weekends and I'm exhausted. My dog thinks I'm dead, Like I haven't touched my horses in months.

Speaker 1: 40:38

So that's a rough life.

Speaker 2: 40:40

It wore on me, so I needed something different. I'm like okay, I'm done with logging. Like I love it.

Speaker 1: 40:44

How long did you do the logging for?

Speaker 2: 40:46

I did it for a little under a year, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:49

Was there any close calls out there? Cause you hear stories of of trucks coming around and head on.

Speaker 2: 40:53

I mean we had a couple of rollovers. When I was there, I came up um I came up um it was up near quincy chester area hunting area um, and I was the first on scene on a log truck that had rolled over really and um. I didn't know. I was first on scene like full load I full load, okay, and I didn't.

Speaker 2: 41:12

It was one of those like I don't know, when you have accidents happen or things like that, like it's almost like a like you don't really comprehend what's happening, right, and so I had never really been on scene in an accident before. So I immediately got out of my truck and I ran over to see if the guy was in the cabin. He was, and he was knocked out.

Speaker 1: 41:29

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 41:29

And I was freaking out because it was completely over on the side. He was a private guy, he wasn't a part of our company, so I didn't know him and I'm like, are you alive, are you dead? Like I have no idea. So I'm like banging on the window, like freaking out, like okay, is he going to come to? Like is the truck leaking fuel out? Like what's going on? Logs were over. Luckily he got so lucky, it didn. Their loggers were coming around the corner at the same time and they ran in.

Speaker 2: 41:56

I think I was there maybe 10 minutes before anybody else arrived and then we just completely swarmed them and he was alive, he was awake and we got him out and he had just like a minor head injury, but he got so lucky. And these guys, they're older and a lot of these guys behind the wheel, they're not the healthiest. So it's just, you never know. And there was a couple of rollovers, like I said when I was working. But yeah, there was dangerous close calls. I remember my first load was freaking, fully loaded, it was on ice and I rolled freaking back. I had three attempts to make it up the hill and all I have is CB. Right, I have a CB radio. That maybe makes it a couple miles right.

Speaker 2: 42:38

Which you're calling in checkpoints, when you get service Totally and I'm like fuck, I'm still here and, like you know, ashley's already passed the point so she can't hear me. And I'm like, ah, you know, you got somebody coming up your ass too, yeah, so I made it up this hill and I'm like, oh, I'm so fucked, like I am so fucked Because, like I know, right over the edge is like a drop off right. So I'm like, okay, I got this.

Speaker 2: 43:04

I got this, like the second time I did it and I was like a little hesitant, nervous, and I slid back again and I'm like, oh shit, forth with my steer tires, like trying to get traction and thank God I did, but I'm like trying, not, I'm like grinding gears trying to get through it. I was so scared and then I was fine and actually I still have videos on my phone of me. I would record myself on some of the landings because they're so fucking crazy. The roads that they wanted us to go down was like a mudslide.

Speaker 2: 43:34

I'm like you know, and our, our logging trucks are set up where they have bunks on the truck and then we have a trailer that comes off and then it sits in between our bunks so we can have pretty much like a bobtail truck almost going up there and then the loader will take the trailer off and connect it. So half the time we're going to these landings just driving the truck with the trailer on but coming out obviously then we have this huge, long trailer. So coming down to one of the landings, I'm like how the fuck am I gonna get out of here loaded, like there is no way, there's no way. So I literally recorded myself. I'm like if I die, this is what I was doing, like it was insane. And of course, ashley and I would send each other these videos and you know, we'd talk amongst ourselves like how crazy it is, because nobody would believe us.

Speaker 1: 44:15

Well, because, because they build these landings and for people listening, it would be where they would pull the logs up to or where it's stacked.

Speaker 2: 44:21

And build like a deck.

Speaker 1: 44:22

I'm stacked for you and all that. But like those landings, they just push enough dirt over the edge that it just holds. And then you look down and it's straight to the bottom.

Speaker 2: 44:33

And you know, it's not like you have gravel, it's not like you have anything like this is soft dirt. So in the morning it's ice, right, so then later in the day it just turns into slush and oh my God, yeah, no, there's been. Yeah, good old logging days. I had a lot of different close calls, for sure, but those landings they taught me how to drive, though Like I knew how to drive, though, like I knew how to drive, oh, you went straight to varsity, I would feel I would feel out of.

Speaker 1: 45:00

I don't know much about the trucking world, but what I do know, I would say loggers working out on the coast, that's big, that's big leagues. I mean just just the sheer you've. You make one little mistake and you're off, and there's no like oops, oops, I got a little little strip that's going to remind me that when I'm drifting mistake and you're off and there's no like oops, oops, I got a little little strip that's gonna remind me that when I'm drifting, I mean, you're straight death yeah you learn real quick yeah, no, real, real fast.

Speaker 2: 45:25

I mean, it's literally separating a sink or swim like.

Speaker 1: 45:27

You went from getting licensed, you got your, your cdl yep, and your first job was working for a log company.

Speaker 2: 45:32

Three weeks later, yeah I mean damn dude, you just were like fuck it, I'm going, I'm gonna learn and it's so funny, I didn't want to be a log company.

Speaker 1: 45:36

Three weeks later, yeah, I mean, damn dude, you just were like fuck it, I'm going, I'm going to learn.

Speaker 2: 45:38

And it's so funny. I didn't want to be a logger. I'm like I don't want to haul logs Like that's weird, like this, because I'd see them all day long right and like their trucks don't look cool. Whatever existed of they'd have a lot more respect for it facts.

Speaker 1: 45:57

I didn't really ever really think of it. You know, I'm from upstate new york.

Speaker 1: 46:00

I mean, we have some on the east coast, but not like the west coast yeah and then when I was working for a buddy out there for a couple years and we we lived on on these in these logging companies, like on their land, pretty much we're out there all season. Yeah, it's wild. I mean the loggers alone. Those motherfuckers are just, and they're all older too. They're all older. Just run me into the dirt. I'd be watching them from one side or the other. I'd be looking over at a cut. I'm just watching these guys and they're fucking yanking shit up. These dudes are throwing cables and, yeah, the trucks are loading and it's just an operation and I would just sit back and watch and be like dude. Nobody gives loggers enough credit and the drivers. That whole operation is like this, just non-talked about yeah industry.

Speaker 1: 46:49

That is just the.

Speaker 2: 46:51

I mean, god, dude these motherfuckers you know, it's interesting because, like, everyone has a certain like as far as trucking right, like everyone just thinks of, like you know, the Walmart drivers are like, oh, you're a truck driver. They just imagine like a semi with a sleeper and like a freaking Walmart right. But like I feel like the top leagues of the truckers are loggers, low bettors and bull haulers, because those are the ones that are running 24-7. Bull haulers.

Speaker 1: 47:17

So, like the guys that hauled cows, oh, okay, yeah, the cattle trailers, double stacked ones, yep.

Speaker 2: 47:22

Okay, I mean that's insane. I've got a couple of buddies that do that and it's wild their stories and like low bedding with the heavy equipment and stuff. There's crazy stories, they're in logging. I mean it's all a totally different mindset of driver that you have to be 24-7. When you're running on minimal sleep and minimal instructions or minimal things, Like when I would get my text message from a landing, like where I was going. It wasn't like okay, here's your Google map and here's your instructions. It's like turn left here and then turn right here at this tree and then when you see the flag on the right-hand, side.

Speaker 1: 47:54

at mile four you get to the crossroad and then if you see the big boulder on the right side, oh my god, yeah, there was a I.

Speaker 2: 47:59

There was some meme that I posted a while ago and it was so funny. It was like um, do I turn right or left?

Speaker 1: 48:04

and the passenger was like yes, like that is how logging instructions I mean, at least where we were hunting and guiding out there, there was no service like you would get. You wouldn't learn where. So you would sit and park and you'd be like, hey, call me when you're right, and you would sit until you get a phone call and you know you'd wait. But there's, I mean you, you get out there and I mean I would be on onyx, like where are the? And I'd have clients and I'd be like, yeah, yeah, just keep glassing out there and I'll be like I don't know where I'm at, you know it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 48:33

So my, my shit shown is came into my trucking because the mechanic, robert, bless his heart. I still text him to this day whenever I have a mechanic issue. Or like my check engine light comes on, I like send it to him and he's like, oh, I'm so happy I'm not working on your truck anymore, but like my truck literally was the lemon, like any problem, transmission wise, temp wise, but anything that would go wrong with that thing it would have a problem only with me and Robert's. Like I swear you're cursed, like it's only you you touch that truck it's going to have a problem.

Speaker 1: 49:01

But you're learning.

Speaker 2: 49:02

I'm learning, right, you're learning. So I got Nick them like the sunshine, like this little light of mine, like that, literally was my thing because my check engine light was on all the time. Yeah, yeah of work. My last day of work, my freaking truck broke down on me, I was stuck at the landing for hours On my last day. Yeah, I'm like mother effer.

Speaker 1: 49:24

Because landings could be hours from hardball Hours.

Speaker 2: 49:29

So a typical landing would be anywhere from like two and a half to three and a half hours from the mill and we would go to different mills. So like I would leave lincoln and I would travel up to chester and like get loaded there and then I would. So that was like three hours, and then I would continue on to quincy and then drop a load of logs there. Then I would come back to chester and then get a different load of logs and I would go to like orville and then I would go grab a load there. So I was shuffling loads all over the place. Either I was getting them from another mill to bring them to another mill, or a different landing to a different landing. So we always had different things that were going. So typically I would run two to three loads a day is what I could do.

Speaker 1: 50:07

That's what. I was just going to ask yeah, but I mean somebody listening like, oh, only two to three loads. But I mean you're a couple hours in, we have to think about it. You know these people, we have to think about it.

Speaker 2: 50:15

These people that are on the road trucking, they'll do 1,500 miles a week. Maybe I was doing anywhere from 300 to 500 miles a day. So we're doubling that a week. So these on-the-road truckers some of them do get in a lot more miles and stuff, but because we're ag, we can drive for 14 hours versus just 11. And we can really hammer in the miles with certain things. Oh shit. So all the people are like, oh, over the road I'm like, yeah, I literally did twice of what you did in like the half amount of time and then more your experience is just it really, as a logging is like five years on the road.

Speaker 2: 50:51

Pretty much. Yeah, you learn everything and even it's crazy because, like, even on the road you don't experience the things with breakdowns, chaining up mountain driving, traffic, driving loaded, like you don't experience the things that you do out in the woods and out in the mountains in such a short period of time. Because I'm going through, you know, we have a canyon called Highway 49. That's very windy, twisty, whatever, and it gets pretty backed up sometimes. Like you know, it's the only way to connect cool to Auburn. So you know you get traffic, you get all kinds of stuff. So you have to learn how to manage your brakes down the hill. You have to learn how to, you know, go in and out of the lines. If you have somebody coming up with a gooseneck and they have to cover the lane, they're in your lane now Cool. Now you have to figure out something. So it's just. It gives you so much more experience in the short amount of time. So a lot of people that have come to me from my page and known about trucking they're like oh.

Speaker 2: 51:41

I want to get into what you're doing. Like, what do I do? I'm like, okay, well, usually in order to get into low bed and equipment and stuff, you have to have a lot of experience and you need good driving experience and you need I mean, you can't prepare for everything, but you have to have that MacGyver type of mindset and I'm like go log, because guess what, when you're out in the middle of nowhere and you can't figure something out if you don't have Wi-Fi for YouTube but you don't have service, you have to literally figure out how the fuck to make it happen.

Speaker 1: 52:06

And I have had to.

Speaker 2: 52:08

MacGyver, so much shit from like. I got a big rock stuck in my dual tire right so I had to wrap a chain around it and then tie it to my bunk and then, like I would roll forward or roll backwards right, I've had logs that slid down, because usually only so. We call them wrappers and that's pretty much the wire cable that is um attached to chain that you can uh wind her down.

Speaker 2: 52:29

So you usually put one or two on, you know when they load you, and then you get the fuck out of the way so the next person can come. Because it's like it's a fast thing, I threw a couple wrappers on. I went down this hill. There was a lot of, you know, water bores, so my truck hopped a little bit. Even though I'm going two miles an hour, I'm super loaded. So it hopped a little bit and the log slid down and it almost came through my cab and I'm like, well, I can't just be like, hey, loader guy, can you come down here and like redo that? So I had to get another chain and like wrap those, suck them back. Like I had a whole, a whole orchestra of shit to deal with so I could get home legally and not die so and like I don't have service, I don't have anything, nothing out there, but it was cool because, like a lot of the loggers, you know these loader guys.

Speaker 2: 53:13

They're super old, they've been up there forever. So they see a female walk on the job site and they're like are you lost, darling? But they would treat me like their granddaughter. They would come down and they'd be like here, let me show you something. And I loved it. I ate it up. I'm like thank you, please teach me so I don't look like a freaking idiot out here. So they were so sweet and kind to us and we like kind of like brightened their day, like Ashley and I were like the favorites.

Speaker 1: 53:36

We were not just some fat, grumpy old man showing up. It's nice to see the woman on a job site every now and then. They're like oh shit, there's women out here we were always so happy and like you know.

Speaker 2: 53:45

So they were like how's your? You know they wanted to chit chat. They were so sweet. All the other truck drivers are like fuck you guys. Secretly, of course, yeah, but it was, it was cool. So, yeah, I, I enjoyed logging. I still. It's so near and dear to my heart. I would do it in a heartbeat, honestly, if I could again. It's just the hours I can't do, the hours I just I can't. It's too hard on my body, it's too hard on my animals, it's. I would never have a life, I wouldn't be able to do snowmobiling on a weekend or anything like that, if I still was logging so'd you transition to after that?

Speaker 2: 54:18

So after that COVID hit.

Speaker 1: 54:20

Okay.

Speaker 2: 54:21

Yeah, so COVID hit and we actually we worked through COVID, but COVID hit because we were kind of getting slow because of weather, yeah, so I started going around. I'm like, all right, what's next? What do I need to do next to get to low bedding, right, like that was my, that's my goal. And one of my instructors is like Rachel, you're not going to get there for like seven years. Like five to seven years is usually when somebody starts transitioning to low bed and I'm like well, hold my beer.

Speaker 2: 54:57

So I called a bunch of different companies and I'm like, hey, can I do a ride along? Can I do a ride along, like I want to. I want to know what is in detail of this, you know. And they're like, a lot of companies are like oh no, you know, because COVID and things like that.

Speaker 2: 55:05

So I landed on a small construction company that was close to where I lived and they're like, yeah, we have a bunch of small equipment, we run a dump truck and, you know, a pup trailer and we have a tilt deck and we have, you know, a triple axle, whatever. And you know what? Do you know, come in and do resume. They're like we only really need weekend work. Or you know, here and there I'm like I'm down, I'll do it. So I started doing that in between, being slow for logging, when I was still logging. About six months in, when I was logging, I started working for this other company too, and then, when I left logging, I went full time with them. I learned how to be an operator. We did small bridges, we did all kinds of different fun cool things.

Speaker 2: 55:45

I learned how to be in the shop and do different things with piping and it was really cool. I got to learn a little bit more, just not only hauling the equipment but actually utilizing it on a job side. So I did that for about a year and that was super fun and I learned a ton. I got to drive water track and a dump trailer and a pup trailer and like all of these different things.

Speaker 2: 56:04

Right, it wasn't no low bed or you know something cool, but I was learning and I got to be familiar with the equipment. And smaller equipment is actually sketchier to load on the trailer than the other stuff, yeah Cause it's like I don't know how to describe it but when you're in a smaller piece of equipment, if you tip over, like you're tipping over, when you're in a big piece of equipment that's bigger than the trailer, like there's not much movement there, right, and it's so much bigger and larger so you can't really get hurt.

Speaker 1: 56:33

We're like in a littleie.

Speaker 2: 56:35

That's like way more sketch. So I got to be familiar with the small stuff and, yeah, I love my crew. It was amazing. I had the best crew ever and they're still all my friends, still keep in touch with everybody. And then after that I'm like, okay, what's next? What can I do next? And the transition from that to my next job I got into. From that to my next job I got into.

Speaker 2: 57:04

I called around and it was a friend of a friend that, like through Instagram, believe it, of all places, and I had a mutual friend that was working as a low bed driver for this company and he's like the owner of the company. I was messaging back and forth and he's like, hey, why don't you come out here and you know, hop in one of the trucks or something on a job site and you know we can show you around. I'm like, oh my gosh, that would be so cool. So I had it all lined up to do it. And then I got called into logging the next day or not logging, I'm sorry. I got called in my other job the next day. So I wanted to help me with the position, but he knew I wasn't ready to start hauling equipment like bigger equipment.

Speaker 2: 57:40

So when I got hired on um with the next company that would they did a lot of heavy haul stuff Um, he literally threw me to the wolves, was like, okay, you're going to go out and you're going to pick up this from auction, you know, with just a regular truck and trailer. And so I'm like I can do that, no problem. So I'd go pick up, you know, gooseneck and a truck and trailer at auction. And then it was okay, you're gonna go pick a big rig up at auctions. Then I picked a big, right, you know, I'd fly out, pick up the big rig, drive at home and like these auction finds, man, oh my god, the sensors are plugged. The turbo went out like literally they're from like oil fields, right. So the guys have been spitting on the floor for like a year.

Speaker 2: 58:17

It was like the nastiest shit and nobody wanted to do it, but I'm like I will totally do it. Like, give me road time. Like, give me road time. So I got really, really lucky and I got to have that road time and I was so thankful for the work, even though it sucked at the time. I was like this is awesome. So I was documenting everything. Sucked at the time. I was like this is awesome. So I was documenting everything.

Speaker 2: 58:39

I'm on Instagram like I'm in this hotel and there's like four cockroaches. Like on the ground, like I just everything I did. I'm like I will freaking, make it right. Like I'm like eating my cup of soup with, like my toothpaste. That's like almost completely out, made that into a spoon and like eating like I was just I had a blast. I had an absolute blast. I was the first person to laugh at myself and then all the mechanic troubles I like posted on everything I'm like.

Speaker 2: 59:01

And so I started meeting people and my page started growing to different people and so, like I started meeting people and then they're like hey, well, my buddy has a shop outside of like Albuquerque or Texas or whatever, and I was like, oh shoot, that's awesome. Or you know, I had a tire come off and I needed to park the trailer somewhere overnight to then go get a hotel, like oh, my buddy's got a construction field over here. So I realized I'm like man, trekking people are awesome. Like somebody knows, somebody knows somebody. So then I'm like this is actually really cool. So I started networking a ton of like hey, how can I help people, how can you help me, how can I help you? Like, how can everybody help each other? In the different industries that we were in, it was really cool. So I always felt on the road. I felt like I always had a safe place somewhere close by yeah.

Speaker 1: 59:45

Which is pretty cool, especially being a woman on the road and you're not.

Speaker 2: 59:51

I'm not your typical truck driver.

Speaker 1: 59:53

You're a little thing. We were sitting up here trying to like adjust cameras and we're like nobody's shorter than mom, so we'll adjust it to. And then you come, and you come to the house. I'm like gosh, same height, like perfect. Yes, you're a tiny little thing on the road doing this. I mean that. So it's good to have a network.

Speaker 2: 1:00:11

It's really good to have a network of people and it's like it's just such a different community I mean the trucker community is, for the most part, are amazing people. They're in their trucks 24, seven. Like. We all have a respect for the road and everyone we share it with and we also understand that we're on the road usually more than worth our families or our time or our hobbies or whatever we're doing. So you know, when we're at work we enjoy work and we enjoy working with the people that we have and we see and we connect with and we understand those struggles of being behind the wheel forever or dealing with certain things right.

Speaker 2: 1:00:45

Like the road can be such a healing place, especially when I was going back and forth in auctions and things like that. Like I was going through you know I, you know death of an animal, you know death of a family member, like that kind of stuff wears on you. So when you have that time to just sit with yourself and have the open road, you can process a lot of things. So it was really healing for me. It was really really healing for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. And then as I got more responsibility with hauling bigger things and could show that I could MacGyver things Like. My boss sent me out to go pick up a triple axle service truck.

Speaker 1: 1:01:20

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:01:21

So it's this big, huge service truck, big Peterbilt, and I mean it's got a welder on it and all kinds of stuff and you don't really see those. Not every single door on that damn thing did not latch. I had like 57 bungee cords on this thing, okay, and I'm the most mechanically uninclined person to ever be driving this vehicle and I'm like I've got to buy more bungee cords like this thing looked like the flintstone thing coming down the highway yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:01:45

So I was just oh man, oh man. So many stories and so many things. But it was cool because it built my character. Like I'd be broke down on the side of the road. I'd have to figure out how to do it. I lost my clutch sensor in Utah and I was coming down and I literally had like no Jake break. I'm like I'm fucked, like I was loaded heavy with an excavator. I'm like I'm going to die. So I get on YouTube figured out how to do it. I'm in the Home Depot parking lot $5 later I got some parts and bolts and I'm up there under the truck like fixing it. I was like, yes, I felt so cool after I did that Cause I'm like I'm a mechanic I'm totally not, but I felt like it. I was like I could conquer the world because I figured out something on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 1:02:24

Good for you, I mean YouTube, certified Totally I'm like.

Speaker 2: 1:02:28

is this how guys know everything Like and they learn stuff? It's the guy Bible. It's amazing, I learned it now. I don't want to do that. I would much rather call somebody to have something done, because, you know, probably with my brake system I shouldn't take my life in my own hands.

Speaker 1: 1:02:42

Especially through Utah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:43

Yeah, but granted, I just I learned a lot of stuff and I'm like I'm not, I don't have an ego, I do not. You know, I came back to the yard one day and I had to load up a loader at a job site and you know, the hydrostatic steering makes it difficult because they turn and pivot. I couldn't freaking get this thing straight on the trailer to save my life. It was getting dark so I'm like looking around and I was like, oh, there's caution tape. I made myself a fucking runway. I tied the caution tape to the edge of each trailer, like on the edge of my trailer, and I ran it down and I put cones so I literally had a runway to run on and I got back to the yard and everyone's like, damn, that's the straightest I've ever seen. One of those. I'm like, yeah, I know, first try, first try, just say it. I struggled for 45 minutes, okay, but also too like. That was.

Speaker 2: 1:03:30

One thing that was hard for me to learn is because at the time you know my boss, he didn't have time to train me on everything. So the first time I ever got into a dozer was when I was unloading it at a job site. I had never driven it before. I'm like cool, I'm either going to like leave the teeth down and like rake the freaking back of the trailer or like what do I do? And all these guys are staring at me because I'm a little pink little vest like an idiot. So I learned that real quick. I'm like I'm going to look like a man, I'm going to dress like a man, like no attention.

Speaker 1: 1:04:03

Does that help out there? I mean as a woman, if you show, I just can't. The only reason I asked is because I came across this chick and her like her whole rig's pink and everything's pink and I was like god, I bet you she gets so much unwanted attention just driving that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:21

You know it's interesting. I this is uh, I have a hard. Let me just tell you how I really feel. I have a hard time with some females that present it that way because they're out there in leggings, they're out there doing whatever they do, right, and it's like I respect the person because of the job yeah and you need to dress accordingly, right?

Speaker 2: 1:04:43

so like, yeah, I have a pink construction vest, okay, cool, so I don't wear it anymore. But like, I like to dress like I'm one of them, right? I don't want to be like I'm different, I'm a girl, please treat me differently. Like I don't want that. I come to a job site and I'm like, hey, if you have a certain way of doing something, please let me know. Like I'd love to learn it.

Speaker 2: 1:05:01

I'd love to know it and I go in there humbly. I don't go in there like I know everything. I'm a chick industry. It's that way for a flippin reason. Like I don't want to change it or make it girly or whatever. Like yeah, chicks can do stuff too, but at the same time, like I don't know, I just feel like some girls femalize it way too much than it needs to be well, I feel it's more of like an attention thing absolutely, versus like a skill I don't know.

Speaker 2: 1:05:37

I would much rather be respected for how I do a job and what I do on that job, versus like what I look like on that job, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:05:45

And that'll get you. I feel so much farther because, when it comes to hey, we need somebody to come and grab this. Oh, hey, the blonde that was lost and had to help in all her bullshit, bedazzled truck.

Speaker 2: 1:05:57

I don't want to be like no, I have my handle in the back of my truck, ss Truckin' Babe. It's literally a mudflap gal with the freaking two stacks. Cool, I just have my little thing. I don't have the pink or the purple or whatever. That's the other thing, construction. They don't have many colors to choose from. Do you want to be an orange cone today or a yellow cone?

Speaker 1: 1:06:21

No.

Speaker 2: 1:06:21

I just I blend in and I try to just be like one of the guys, but not to the sense of being one of them, if that makes sense. I just, I just try to be another person on the job site.

Speaker 1: 1:06:31

I feel like that's the best way to attack it. It's when you come in like, hey, I am woman, hear me roar, like you know, know, being a girl dad, I tell you you could do anything. Yeah, there's limits. But like, don't come in just because you're this and yeah, because you're this race or sex or whatever, you should get special privileges. Just take the job as it is.

Speaker 2: 1:06:47

You know, it's interesting because, like, um, my boss sent me out to a lot of the auction yards because they would try to wheel and deal the guys right and then they they wouldn't pick up the right thing. Or you know, for instance, like a welder would be on the truck in the picture and then they'd get there and the welder's not there, you know, and taking it home and different things, and so I would actually be a lot more thorough with that.

Speaker 1: 1:07:06

Right, like female, we double check everything everything, yep nothing so, um, we're a little bit more thorough guys gonna walk out there be like oh here, like oh, here's the keys, cool yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07:17

And like not even think of it Right.

Speaker 1: 1:07:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:07:19

So I I got picked because of I would pay attention closer to detail and do those things Also, too, like the guys are a lot more reluctant to help you, so you're not going to be at the last of the list. They're like, oh, female, hey, what do you need, right? So I kind of learned this. So I started going to the auctions like right before they closed, so they would hurry and hustle to help me, and then they wouldn't stand there and watch me forever, they'd go home.

Speaker 2: 1:07:43

So then I had time to do whatever I wanted to do, so you're left in the yard by yourself, so I'm left alone Right Same with the job sites. I'm like can I get there before, like the this machine before? I don't want to like fall off the trailer or like mess up something or like oops, so I'm like.

Speaker 2: 1:07:59

I don't want them to watch me struggle Right, but I mean everyone's super helpful. The construction industry, like I love all the guys I work with. I haven't come across one that I don't like or that I couldn't get along well with or working like. Everyone is super respectful.

Speaker 2: 1:08:15

And they just I mean they want to help, Right, I couldn't get along well with, or working like everyone is super respectful, um, and they just I mean they want to help, right, they're not going to let you struggle, cause they're like, all right, it's taking you like 10 minutes to do this, you can get it done in five, like, let me help you out, let's get going. So it's, it's awesome. So, yeah, I wanted something a little bit more, and so I kept going and I got into a pipeline job.

Speaker 1: 1:08:40

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:08:40

And so I worked up in Tahoe for, uh, we had three years, that was, I only worked the two years. But it was different working with, like a pipe crew and I was in the water truck, then I was in the dump truck, then I was hauling pipe and doing different things and it was fun playing all those hats and learning. You know, these crews are from everywhere. So, like some are from Texas, some are from, you know, minnesota. So it's like Miss Rachel, it's like yes, ma'am, and I'm like, oh, I'm not used to this, you know where are you from?

Speaker 2: 1:09:08

Exactly so it was. It was really cool. I was like the littlezers on the fire line, yeah, and she's this itty bitty little blonde right and she's just be bopping around and she's like the loader operator and I'm like who is this chick? She's like, oh, yeah, I do fire. I'm like like what? And she's like, oh, I drive dozer. I'm like I cut line and I'm like Like that's a thing that is so cool. So, anyway, it was pretty cool. So then that kind of perked my interest in that. And then this last year I got to get on with fire, so I got to actually haul equipment in.

Speaker 1: 1:09:44

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:09:44

Yeah, so I like I just kept kind of I don't know, just getting inspired by different people and different things and like learning more. There's so many different trucking jobs.

Speaker 1: 1:09:54

What a cool career to be able to learn. You're like, oh, that looks cool. Completely pivot to that for until you're over it and find something else, you're like, oh, that looks even cooler. So you're constantly, constantly moving. So I mean, the low-boying thing was that kind of your. I mean, obviously, with the auctions you're hauling some pretty big shit. You were just good with that, I was good with that and I did.

Speaker 2: 1:10:18

After the auctions the market kind of changed Um, the company that I worked for, um, they specialize not only in trucking um, but they also specialized in um equipment rentals. So a lot of the time I was then more local and I was just taking machines to and from different job sites, right Um. And so, uh, after I was on the road doing more um, you know, hauling from auctions to bring stuff home, obviously loads got cheaper, diesel got more expensive, so it was easier to just hire a broker to go grab stuff and bring it back than it was to send me. And then I started I'm like, okay, I'm only gonna stay at marriott. It's like I can't deal with these hotels anymore.

Speaker 1: 1:10:56

That have like cockroaches all over the place. What's it like being on the road? Can we talk about the okay, I don't know how to sound. I don't want to sound like an asshole or or a racist but give it to me there's a lot of foreigners that are truck drivers and it's difficult I don't know how to say this.

Speaker 2: 1:11:19

It's difficult because I'm on the road a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:11:21

I, just I, I I'm in truck stops, I'm in gas stations, I'm in hotels and I can see the difference in quality of drivers and I, I don't think they're more of the low boy personal. They're like the fedex walmart haul. What's it like?

Speaker 2: 1:11:39

Being around that 24-7?

Speaker 1: 1:11:41

Especially as a woman, I feel like truck drivers that have been born and raised here. They'll show a little bit more respect. But there's a lot of Arabs. Their respect of women's different and they're in the same field. I don't even know if this is a thing. I'm not even trying to make it a thing. I've always had same field. I don't know. I don't even know if this is a thing. I'm not even trying to make it a thing.

Speaker 2: 1:11:58

but I always had this question I get where you're going, okay. So I'm obviously in a daycap, right, I don't have a sleeper cap, so you can see shit, everything, you can see everything. We can't have tinted windows, anything like that, right. So I like to drive at night, so people don't know I'm a fricking. There ain't no other truck driver at the Marriott. I'll tell you that much right now. You know what I mean. So I'm not, you know, staying at truck stops, at the gas stations and things like that, but I am having to fill up with them and I am having to obviously pass them on the side of the road and X, y, z.

Speaker 2: 1:12:30

It is very difficult being out there on the road with them because one, some of them, they don't know our language, right, and there are a lot of foreigners and it is difficult because there is such a culture difference. Like even simple road mannerisms. If you learn anything tonight, okay, like merging, okay, merging, learning how to use your jake brake. Don't blow up your shit. All these guys are in automatics, so they can't, they're not taking care of their truck. They don't care up your shit. All these guys are in automatics, so they can't, they're not. They're not taking care of their truck, they don't care, they're just company driver. They hop in, they sleep in it, whatever. Some of them are absolutely disgusting. Other ones they actually take care of and take pride of their trucks.

Speaker 2: 1:13:06

right, it depends on the company and things like that if it's their rig right, but a lot of the time, like I, I just, oh my god, yeah, no, it was difficult, it was really difficult because I, you know I'd get into the trucker stops. Now, mind you, I'm not hauling in leggings, right, but if I'm gonna be going to mississippi, like I don't want to be wearing my wranglers the entire time I'm out there, right, so like I want some comfort, but I'm not gonna look like I just woke up.

Speaker 2: 1:13:30

And then there's also a certain dress, right, like I can't look presentable, because if I look presentable then I don't look like the person driving the truck. I look like the flipping lot lizard, right. Oh yeah, yeah, that definitely happens out there. So you have.

Speaker 1: 1:13:46

So here you are driving a truck and dudes are like yo, how much I'm like I'm driving the truck, like who can park next to you?

Speaker 2: 1:13:52

Yeah, like I'm in that, I'm not coming in yours. Yeah, no, I mean that I'm not coming in yours, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:13:55

No shit.

Speaker 2: 1:13:56

No, that was a thing, that was totally a thing. So like I'm like okay, if I dress homeless, then I look like I'm a prostitute. If I don't dress homeless, then I look like I'm a prostitute. I'm like cool, what do I do? Like put my hair up in a bun Like I don't have, I all.

Speaker 2: 1:14:15

Ever, Not like I'm trying to, but like I don't know. I'm not your. I don't wear makeup every day. Like I don't. The only thing I do is like I wash my hair and I get lash extensions done Okay, and I put sunscreen on Okay. Like that's literally my resume for my entire life. So like I'm not one of those that dresses up or does anything either. I'm a t-shirt, jeans, boots type of chick yeah, but out in the work field, yeah, it's just, it's different. They, they look at you and then they're like okay, like is she from around here, she not from around here? Like it's just, you get looks and judgy things and it's, it's weird. So I always carry and when I, ever, when I stop, like there's a certain I, I have developed a method, so I do not get taken like literally.

Speaker 2: 1:15:05

Smart like I have developed a method that I can stay safe on the road and my parents can sleep at night knowing that.

Speaker 1: 1:15:10

Okay, all right. So for for all those females out there that are all the female listeners that we don't have um, we're gonna get some more, I promise, yeah you have enough manly men on here.

Speaker 2: 1:15:22

I feel like you should have a good following mckenzie.

Speaker 1: 1:15:25

I've had a, I had a female cop, we've had some. We've had some, yeah, we've had some. So diversity, right. So, as a well, first off, what are you carrying on the road? Um, just like glock, okay, yeah okay, so what are some of the things that you have learned over the years of being on the road and in and out of truck stops? What are some of the things that you you've kind of like built uh?

Speaker 2: 1:15:46

so I am like, okay, now this is coming from a logger background.

Speaker 2: 1:15:49

Okay, we do everything on the side of the road, not in gas stations, okay, so when I travel with my truck or anywhere, like if I'm going to a rest area or things like that like, yes, you want to be in a well-lit area, but I'm like the complete opposite recluse, right, I like to travel during the night so nobody knows that I'm who I am or what I'm driving or whatever.

Speaker 2: 1:16:10

So, for instance, like getting on and off off ramps like an off off ramp and then an on ramp yep, whenever I pull over to go pee or whatever, I will get off on the off ramps, like an off ramp and then an on ramp. Whenever I pull over to go pee or whatever, I will get off on the off ramp and then I will get on the on ramp and I will stop on the on ramp. Because when people are stopping to get out and then continue on, they're going to stop on the off ramp. So you can hear a car accelerating on the on ramp, right? So if I'm stopped there, they're accelerating, they're leaving. If they're not accelerating, they're pulling over why are they stopping?

Speaker 2: 1:16:42

so I always park on the on-ramp because that way I know, hey, if this person's on, if this person's stopping, like they're coming over to see me or take me or whatever, so like I just have that, don't listen to murder mystery podcast or like the anatomy of murder on the road, I just it will give you every like thing in your brain and you won't be able to sleep and you'll drive like a million miles. I feel like that's every woman.

Speaker 1: 1:17:06

Oh, my God, Every woman.

Speaker 2: 1:17:07

I'm like I'm going to get taken. So it's just one of those things that I think about. So I always pull on the on ramp and I pull over there because I know if that person's stopping, something's wrong, right. So, and whenever I go in anywhere, I usually have my gun in my boot, my waist, whatever. I always wear baggy shirts so I can carry like chest carry and I just I'm so aware of my surroundings. Like I don't like going into public bathrooms, I don't like being at rest stops Same thing for a rest area.

Speaker 2: 1:17:36

If I'm pulling over anything, I will be on my way out because everyone's got to leave that way, right? So if you're parked here on, you know when you first come in and stop, people aren't leaving and aware and awake when they're going by you, they just want to go to the bathroom or they're going to park. Real quick. They're not going to catch something if something's going on or if they're leaving, they're going to be more awake and alert. They just got in their car and they're going off and they'll be able to see something or recognize something. So, um, that's a big one for me.

Speaker 2: 1:18:06

Whenever I'm in a gas station or anything else like that, I always have awarenesses of like okay, who to get the one closest to the um. So truck stops. You know you have all of your fueling stations. Well, you can be way out here or you can be the closest to the store. I always get the closest to the store cause you're going to get caught on the store cameras. And then also, too, I go to the same gas stations, so like I'll always stop at a loves every single time when I type in my mileage for my fuel card. It's the same number. Every single time. I don't put in new mileage, I always put the same mileage. So like if somebody were to find my body or if I go to go disappearing, like okay, rachel put 18 on her odometer. Something was wrong, right, because she always put 17 and she always goes to a loves. Well, she went to a pilot, like somebody's got her.

Speaker 1: 1:18:59

Not of habit, but you have your stop, so I just have my certain areas right.

Speaker 2: 1:19:01

So, um, you know, and like my sister has my location on certain things like that, like checking in, but it's just a safety concernment of like where you are. I've had an instance where you know I haven't had the best self-service or I've had a truck issue or something like that. So it's just making sure somebody knows where you are. And then you have you know on the road you don't know if you're going to have a blown out tire or something happens. So I usually I never booked my hotel until I'm like an hour away from it because something could happen and then I could never get to that destination or I can get called somewhere else. So all of my stuff that I do is so last minute. So that's what kind of makes it difficult to kind of keep up. So that's why I just have certain things that I do to make it a lot easier and safer.

Speaker 1: 1:19:43

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:19:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:19:46

Sketchy shit on the road. Has there ever been a situation that you've witnessed anything or watched some stuff go down?

Speaker 2: 1:19:52

I've been in a lot of sketchy places. I talked about this on another podcast that I did. I went to a landfill at night down in Santa Barbara and usually landfills here are open 24-7. That one wasn't one that was open 24-7. Okay, I went up there and I got like an Apple dot of where something is and like Apple Maps versus Google Maps, okay, apple gives you absolutely no communication and you have a blue dot that may or may not be within like a hundred yards of where the fuck the thing is, and Google's like here you go, here's the coordinates and how to get there and a topo map and all that right. So I have this dot. I don't have the greatest service. I go up the hill and I had to like get a gate code to get in and it's dark, it's at night and I go up the hill, I park the truck and I'm like out with my flashlight, walking around trying to figure out like where the hell this dot is. I hear a woman scream bloody murder and seconds later I hear a gunshot.

Speaker 1: 1:20:47

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:20:48

And it was an echo and I'm like fuck. I immediately turned off my light, I booked it to my truck and I'm like what do I do? Like what the fuck do I do? Because I'm like one, I'm the only lights in there, like I'm the only person in there. I heard the echo.

Speaker 2: 1:21:05

If you're going to dump a body like landfill duh, like shit, like I would be here at the wrong place, wrong time, I barely had service. I called 911 and I got the dispatcher and I was like is what happened? Whatever? Like I need people here now. She literally was like okay, I'm gonna connect you and you know, usually, like when you ever get a forwarding call, like you can hear the ring and the forward, it was like do do do wrong number and I'm like what the fuck? She couldn't get a hold of the police. She's like I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna call you right back. Well then I had zero service, like my service dropped from one bar to like SOS. I'm like I'm so fucked, like I'm so fucked, I'm like I'm going to die. What am I going to do? Like I'm caring, I'm going to unload my bag like on this person. Like do I crawl underneath my truck Like I was freaking out, so, um, it took like 12, 15 minutes for them to get there and I mean it felt like an hour and.

Speaker 2: 1:21:53

I had every scenario running through my head. I'm like, okay, I can't find this thing, I'm going to have to come back and get it. Like this person knows, I'm here, I'm now, you know, now I'm a person that needs to get eliminated, like everything went through my mind.

Speaker 1: 1:22:05

I was that's a woman watching murder mysteries. I do. It would have been like a gunshot, like someone screaming, and you're out here like I've been. I was probably trying to shoot a coyote off the porch. I've heard this episode before. Yeah, that's what you get All women, oh bad. Going over with my wife, she's like I don't have a good feeling about this. I'm like, oh my God.

Speaker 2: 1:22:25

So it got better. So everyone shows up, squad cars the whole nine yards and they're like I'm get out of here. And they like, yeah, no problem. Well, I had to break down my trailer and usually for these trailers, or little bit trailers, we can load equipment over the back. Well, I had to pick up a service truck, okay. So I wasn't going to be like jumping that thing over the back. There's no way it would have cleared. So I had to break down the neck of my trailer and pull it forward anyway, and I hadn't broken down my trailer in a while and I'm all flustered. So I'm like trying to figure out how to do this thing. They got flashlights on. Everyone's watching me.

Speaker 2: 1:22:59

I'm like, oh my God, like it was so stressful. I don't like when people watch me. Like if you were to ride along with me in my truck I would probably grind half the gears, like I just I don't. I'm like I don't like being watched or like you know, it's added pressure. So I'm like fumbling. I'm already like nervous, I'm fumbling around. Anyway, I finally get it loaded and I leave and I stay at a hotel because I was out of hours and then I drove back the next day, but I was just. I was so shaken up from that. I'm just like is this guy going to find me? Can I even talk about this? If I talk about this, will they find me? And no, I'm the person like it. It weighed on me for a while really it weighed on me for a while.

Speaker 2: 1:23:36

I went live with my mom and um when we were driving out to texas and, like I don't know, a couple weeks later and I told my story but I was like I was nervous to tell it because, like I didn't, I didn't know. Yeah, you know. It's like what do I do? I have no idea.

Speaker 1: 1:23:50

So that's a shit situation for anybody to really be in too.

Speaker 2: 1:23:53

I mean yeah and okay. So there was this sketch gas station in between new mexico and texas okay, I pulled up to. Okay, literally, this gas station was known. It used to have tigers, like tigers in cages near the gas, like the sketchiest shit ever. I'm gonna have to look it up and send it to you I'm, there's signs and stuff about this still I think so yeah, like it's creepy.

Speaker 2: 1:24:16

So I pulled in because I was literally about to like run out of fuel Cause I didn't have a big fuel tank on my truck and I pulled in and I'm like this is so eerie. I mean it's like pouring down rain and these old cages and I'm like, is there like is there people in here Like, is this like sex trafficking, like what is happening right now?

Speaker 2: 1:24:33

Like I'm like oh, uncomfortable, got your gun, you're just ready I had a piece so bad and like there was nowhere and I was like, oh my god, what am I doing? So I went in to see if any of the pumps worked and it was. It literally looked like somebody's remodeled house, like everything was taken off. Stuff was like they had like, um, you know, if you cover stuff before you paint it or whatever and you don't have like tarp or stuff in your house, you literally grab like the bed sheets and shit like that. That was literally how this was. There was like bed sheets over shelving and it was like they were doing a remodel inside and they're like, oh yeah, the bathroom's like down there around the corner.

Speaker 2: 1:25:06

I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to die. Like no, thank you, okay. So then I'm like, you know, the pumps didn't work and I was just like you got and there was a couple of trucks in the distance with just their parking lights on, so it was so freaking eerie. But yeah, no, no shit. You literally used to be able to go in there and buy meat and feed the freaking wild tigers and shit.

Speaker 1: 1:25:23

I feel like I've been through.

Speaker 2: 1:25:26

Like monkeys and crazy stuff, like I probably needed to like burn some sage after that and I didn't. That's why I'm here today. But yeah, no, it was insane. Insane, like that was the craziest. Yeah, so New Mexico. Since then, I'm like no.

Speaker 1: 1:25:41

I feel like you could always just pass around New Mexico. There's nothing like. That's like, oh wow, we're going through New Mexico.

Speaker 2: 1:25:48

I was in my pickup and I had to go pick up a load and my boss was like, hey, I've got this auction going on. I'm like, ok, cool. He's like there's 26 pallets, but it's all small stuff, so like you can fit it in the bed of your pickup. I'm like, okay, no problem, I just got my dually. It was like brand new, so I'm like I can fit everything in this bed. You know it's so big I don't have a toolbox in there. I ago pick it all up, ended up being like 30 something pallets and it's like half inch chains and binders and they like wrapped them all together and then they saran wrapped everything.

Speaker 2: 1:26:22

It took me seven and a half hours to load.

Speaker 1: 1:26:24

I was just gonna ask how long did that take to undo it all?

Speaker 2: 1:26:27

and it was 100 and I don't know. It was like it was triple digits, it was like 110, 117. It was something crazy outside and I loaded all of that in my right and then I had a bunch of like craning, rigging and all kinds of stuff and I had to like strategically put like the binders and then put the chains inside, Like I made like a little organization maze. I was like this is the stupidest thing ever. It was terrible.

Speaker 2: 1:26:47

Well, I was on my way back and I pulled over on the side of the road to go pee and it was, I guess, near someone's driveway. I mean it was like a gravel road but there was nobody around. And I'm out, like in the one bush right, Because New Mexico there's like no bushes. I'm in the one bush Popping a squat and I'm looking over and I'm like, oh, there is a truck in reverse going probably 20 miles an hour down this road and like dust is flying and there's a truck chasing him and I'm like, holy shit, I'm like falling on my pants getting in my truck. I mean it was just like.

Speaker 1: 1:27:21

The road is fascinating. The road is a fascinating place. Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 2: 1:27:27

Yeah, so that's why I like traveling at night, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:27:31

I prefer to drive at night, especially in some shitty states like Texas. I'll do all of Texas at night. There's just nothing. Once you pass out of, like Fort Worth, there's just nothing, there's nothing. And then you're out like in Odessa, midland. You're just like.

Speaker 2: 1:27:47

Nothing Kill me. Or odessa midland, you're just like nothing kill me. Yeah, there's nothing.

Speaker 1: 1:27:49

The only benefit the driving out there is you could do like 120 and the cops don't even care like, because everybody else is just hauling ass out there.

Speaker 2: 1:27:55

Yeah, all of texas like you're going with the flow of traffic.

Speaker 1: 1:27:57

You're good yeah I try to do all, all driving at night, if I can.

Speaker 2: 1:28:01

So I love it because you can go through the tolls like I racked up so much money in tolls. Oh my gosh, gosh Through Texas. I'm like I'm going to take the fricking semi through like no problem. Oh yeah, you can just blow through them Like they don't care, like you can be and that's what I love about Texas you can be a smart car or you can be a fricking 18 wheeler and you can go through the same toll. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a science. So as far as like loading equipment and stuff or just like some of the minuscule shit that I have to put on, I'd say all of it because I mean there's a, there's such a science to.

Speaker 2: 1:28:38

Yeah. So loading stuff, it's just like tight end points. So I was lucky to run with a crew that I mean I. I did like freeway work, I did like local haul jobs, so there usually was a couple of us there and if I didn't know something I would just ask Right. So I learned how to you know, like for hydrostatic steering, right, you have to put a chain through the middle and then you have to do the four tie down points. You know, for a bucket or an attachment, you have to put a chain over an attachment, you have to put a chain over. And so I just learned little things here and there from the guys that I that I pretty much drove with um, especially for the local runs as far as stacking stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:29:15

Like I went to the uh Marinci mine, the copper mine in Arizona, and I was there pulling um engines out and I had a flatbed load of a bunch of engines. Well, there is no, there's like not a hook on an engine. You can just like put it. I had to literally check my straps like every freaking 50 miles. Okay, this is like bullshit. I'm like this is the stupidest thing on the planet you're worried the whole time oh my god.

Speaker 2: 1:29:40

So I just yeah, it went in doubt just throw a shit more straps, like I don't care what it looks like if I don't have to check it and make sure it falls off my truck, I don't give a shit.

Speaker 1: 1:29:48

Because there's like this, there's like I feel in the man world, like if it has to be just right strap and it's just you MacGyver everything.

Speaker 2: 1:29:58

Literally you MacGyver everything. It's funny I did, I'm doing a damn job right now and we have to haul in a bunch of stuff and it right now and um, we have to haul in a bunch of stuff and it's literally on a snowmobile road like.

Speaker 2: 1:30:12

It's a snowmobile road, like a jeep road, a four by four road that we are hauling stuff in on, and it's super tight. It's, you know, one lane bridge. I mean it's crazy, sketch shit. They did level the road out and it's a lot better now, but it is very tight for our low bed trucks and trailers like logging truck. No problem can scream in there, but our like we have to take turns a lot wider.

Speaker 2: 1:30:32

We're like cutting out the embankment have to trim some trees and we're bringing a lot of miscellaneous stuff in there. So, like I was hauling sandbags Okay, you can't really strap a sandbag cause it just moves Right. So I'm driving like three miles an hour, you know, on this eight mile haul road, this freaking sandbags. I'm like what did I get myself into? Like this is so stupid. And you know these different culvert pipes that are like really light. You know the plastic pipes. I had one come off my trailer for the first time.

Speaker 1: 1:31:02

When? How long ago?

Speaker 2: 1:31:03

That was this last year.

Speaker 1: 1:31:04

Really.

Speaker 2: 1:31:05

The first time ever and I actually text it to the superintendent on my pipeline job that I worked in in Tahoe and I was like you'll never guess what happened to me. And I sent him this picture and he's like dying laughing. But yeah, I like I'm not going to say I'm too good for that, because shit happens and I literally I'm like, oh, it'll be fine. I just threw a strap on like, oh, it'll be fine. I just threw a strap on like, oh, it'll be fine. No, it was not fine and it rolled off the trailer. So then I'm like, fuck.

Speaker 1: 1:31:31

So how do you load it back on?

Speaker 2: 1:31:33

exactly. I mean it was light enough I could roll it okay, so it wasn't like the no it wasn't like a huge crazy pipe.

Speaker 2: 1:31:39

It was a big pipe but it just it was light, so that's why it kind of moved around and shuffled. So anyway, it took like five guys and we all like rolled it back on the trailer. But I'm like I'm so sorry, so we have to like call out the tree numbers and stuff and I'm like should I put a Rachel sign on this tree Like sorry guys? So anyway, rachel, don't lose any shit today. Ok, you like fucked up traffic all day. Yeah, it was terrible.

Speaker 1: 1:31:59

Yeah, just jackknifed, yeah, and that was literally oh God, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:32:04

So I'm like okay, now everyone knows me. This is great, this is so nice.

Speaker 1: 1:32:15

On the road, on the highway. What are your pet peeves for civilian drivers? What do we do that just absolutely irks truck drivers.

Speaker 2: 1:32:21

Oh, my God, oh, there's so much.

Speaker 1: 1:32:23

Is there.

Speaker 2: 1:32:24

Not really Learn how to use the gas pedal. Um, not really. Um, learn how to use the gas pedal, like when people get on the on-ramp. They like speed up and then slow down and like, or they don't even see you and then they try to merge over and it's like I'm not slowing down, yeah, and I'm not gonna speed up. So half the time I'm kind of an asshole and they'll like, get right here and I'll just I mean, I just keep going I mean, it's kind of.

Speaker 1: 1:32:47

it's kind of like being on the water the bigger vehicle has to ride away.

Speaker 2: 1:32:50

I feel like yeah, and people just don't know. And now, mind you, it really depends what mood you're in, right Like, when I wake up and I get behind the wheel of my truck, it is. I have a lot of gratitude, right Like I'm thankful I have the ability to do what I do.

Speaker 2: 1:33:10

You know I'm if I need to be somewhere at some point, helping someone, like please, let me be that person. But I also, like I start my day that way because that can make or break. You know, merging onto the highway and some little old lady that can't freaking see but still is driving, you know, gets in my way. Instead of being road rage or in a bad mood about it, I'm like, okay, I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to keep moving over and like God bless you, you know, and have a great day, versus like what the? You know I got to slam, now I got to shift gears, like now I got to do whatever. You know, um, it's frustrating because a lot of people don't realize they don't give us room, you know so. And not giving us room, like there is a reason. I am this far back behind you, don't get in my spot. You know I try to keep spacing because I can't stop as fast as you can, so I'll keep spacing. You know, when people are merging or whatever, and everyone just comes around me and then merges back in, I um, I was coming through Stockton and it was stop and go traffic on 99.

Speaker 2: 1:34:01

It's like it's terrible and I was, and I was at this point in time it was the heaviest load I had hauled and I was like 130,000 pounds, jeez, and I was oversized and I had my flags on and everything. And I was still new, so I was fresh. And I was driving back from Arizona and there was a merging lane to my right and these guys in their freaking, stupid little Subarus came rolling around and like stop, you know, traffic is dead, stop. So I was shifting down, so I'm not going to burn my brakes up. And these guys come pulling in.

Speaker 2: 1:34:30

Well, we are, we'll all. We're all in a dead stop and I was so mad because I'm like I could have just killed you one, and then you would have cost me my license and it would have been my fault. So I was so pissed, I got out of my window and I'm like fucking idiot, like I was so pissed. Right, we're all in park. The freaking guy gets out and then he sees it's a girl and he's like hey. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm so mad, so what's up, yeah, and he's like cat calling me and I'm like I'm gonna fucking kill you like you drive a subaru.

Speaker 2: 1:34:58

Oh my gosh, I was so mad, I was so mad.

Speaker 1: 1:35:02

I was livid. I was livid. I'm like I'm gonna get back in my truck. I'm so pissed you cuss his dude out he tries to spit gay bad.

Speaker 2: 1:35:05

I'm like I'm going to get back in my truck. I'm so pissed.

Speaker 1: 1:35:07

You cuss his dude out. He tries to spit gay back.

Speaker 2: 1:35:09

Yeah, I'm like I'm going to kill you. I'm going to now. I'm going to kill you Like I was so pissed.

Speaker 1: 1:35:14

You never know, though, it could have worked out. You'd be like that's how I met your dad.

Speaker 2: 1:35:29

Almost killed him on the highway. God, it was terrible. So it's just, it's stupid shit, like that you know, and like, yeah, just the swerving or whatever. I mean, oh my gosh. And I tell my friends, like that you know cars that are afraid to drive in your semis, right, like you get into a narrow lane thing and like the car won't pass the semi because they're afraid. Trust me, we ain't coming into your lane. Okay, like your perias is plenty wide to fit two of you next to me. You know that's not problem. But if you ever feel like a truck driver, like even some of the big box drivers, you know any little wind or anything shifts, like that trailer is moving, those are not as easy to drive. Yeah, but I always tell people I'm like fuck with the truck driver. Like if they're coming in and out of the lane, move over into their lane a little bit so they can like see you and they'll get out of your way way, oh, for sure oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:36:05

So yeah, no, it's just little stuff like that, like merging, speeding up or braking. Oh my god, there are so many cars that will get in front and then break because they see something. And I'm like, what the fuck are you looking at?

Speaker 1: 1:36:14

like, go move, yeah see, it's not just me. It's not just me. Why are you breaking?

Speaker 2: 1:36:20

yeah, why are we breaking? I lose it.

Speaker 1: 1:36:23

I lose it oh, I can't drive in florida just for that reason oh, and my favorite thing, so not civilian.

Speaker 2: 1:36:29

I guess people that haul right like with the trailer, whatever, and they don't realize that their truck cannot hold those rpms or that speed up that hill oh yeah so then they block where I'm trying to pass and they're blocking it, so then I have to go around them.

Speaker 1: 1:36:44

I mean, it's just see, I've always been that guy like when I've towed anything and you're just, I'll get out of the slow lane if I see that, just so they don't have to move because I there's. No, I don't give a shit like I don't want to impede. I know what it takes to keep that momentum going, especially who knows what they're hauling, and so, yeah, I've always tried to get out of the way the problem is.

Speaker 2: 1:37:04

A lot of these trucks are governed. So like back to what we were talking about earlier, about a lot of the foreigners on the road. They don't understand that they're not doing a fricking snail race Like they. I was in, um, oh gosh, where was I? I was somewhere back East and they literally were blocking for five, six miles literally side by side like inching and it's funny, um, I so I started.

Speaker 2: 1:37:27

I started looking at these cars and like, hey, like we're all doing sign language on the road, like let me over, so they let all the cars let me come up, cause I was riding everyone's ass. I'm like get the fuck out of the way I have places to be. So I was riding everyone's ass coming up and I was like signaling the go in between the semis, just like I ran out of air, out of my freaking air horn, because I was holding it the entire time and we're going 35 miles an hour on like a freaking you know, 80 mile an hour or whatever, and they finally eventually moved over and all the cars were like thank you and waving that was one of my questions

Speaker 1: 1:38:03

yeah, yeah, yeah and you're like in the middle of nowhere, they're governed.

Speaker 2: 1:38:08

They're freaking governed.

Speaker 1: 1:38:09

They're trying to pass you, they're trying to pass each other the worst. This is my, this is the only hatred. Don't have hate when it's just a slight incline. And you know the second, the truck they have to, and they're like yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:38:23

They can't, they can't, they can't, they can't.

Speaker 1: 1:38:25

Oh, rage mode. I will catch a case so quick if I had the opportunity. Like I go from this is a great family trip to I am about to get arrested so quick when you get stuck behind and then the asshole starts pulling away in the slow lane and then you have to pass him on the other side. You know what I do. I'm that asshole. I get in just and I'll fuck. Oh yeah, I've been behind you for the last 20 minutes trying to pass this asshole. You're not getting over.

Speaker 2: 1:38:49

You know it's the best thing, though, when we have like. So we all have CBs, and usually some of us are on the same channel. It just kind of depends. There's not a whole lot of like chatter. I can't. Yeah, there's not. Nobody wants to talk to whoever. I don't like that anymore, Unless you know the other truck or whatever. But like low bed trucks there's not a bunch out there.

Speaker 1: 1:39:09

No.

Speaker 2: 1:39:09

So like we're not all running the same channel, like we got other shit to worry about other than chitchat, and it's funny.

Speaker 1: 1:39:14

Yeah, an excavator strapped to the back.

Speaker 2: 1:39:16

It's funny because we will box people in. Oh yeah, if you're being an asshole and you like fucked with the truck back there, we'll box you. Oh yeah, oh yeah yeah we will fuck with you good, yeah, good and that's fun and it's also fun hearing like them, cousins, like on the radio, custom square at all the like foreigner guys like on the top of the hill in the grapevine and stuff passing. You're coming in and out, oh my gosh, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:39:39

But so that's so. That's why they they get stuck beside you, because they're all governed and they can't they're all governed, so they're both just, or they don't have that much power either, and they can't.

Speaker 2: 1:39:47

They're all governed, so they're both just or they don't have that much power either, or they can't shift gears. Here's the other problem In an automatic. Okay. So me, my truck's a 10 speed. My personal pick, my F350, it's 10 speed. I'm literally cussing out the thing and I will go into manual to manually shift it, because I'm like motherfucker, Like no, I want you to stay in this gear.

Speaker 2: 1:40:05

Like climb this hill. Oh my God, you know, don't go from three to seven, you know. And then you're trying to get to 10 and we're going up a grade like, knock it off, I'm going to keep you at seven. So I can only imagine like and I've driven a couple of automatics before and they suck, Like you it's hard to override them, to get them in a gear that you want.

Speaker 1: 1:40:29

Is that just a convenient, an easy thing?

Speaker 2: 1:40:30

you think I mean why, if it's so much more beneficial to yeah, well, it's able to control your gears, right, it's. Truck drivers is a dying breed, so a lot of people aren't. You know, when you go to school you have restrictions. You have to test in a manual if that's what you're going to drive. So a lot of people, they they don't know how to drive stick, so they they can't test in a stick shift, so then their licenses they're restricted to automatics. So a lot of people that are hiring kids out of school young, whatever they're wanting truck driving to be easy, easier, or they're going to put steering wheel holders in their trucks to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 1:41:01

And that's all it takes. I thought there was just a science. I thought everything was stick and that. So low boys, you're not doing anything on automatic with a low boy, no, you can't go burn that transmission up immediately.

Speaker 2: 1:41:13

Yeah, like there's no way Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:41:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:41:15

Your brakes, are your trannies going? So yeah, everything's, everything's very controlled.

Speaker 1: 1:41:19

That is wild.

Speaker 2: 1:41:20

Yeah, it's very, very different.

Speaker 1: 1:41:21

Have you ever had any close calls on brakes? I feel for how much time and hours I have on the road. I've never I've witnessed a truck just burning them up, but I've never watched one go up a ramp.

Speaker 2: 1:41:33

Oh, I haven't either, except for YouTube, and I'm like, oh, you know, I'm like driving by, I'm like, are there marks in the, in the off-road truck? Like, I'm always looking, I'm like or I, I would do that Like. What would that be like? You know? No, I've never, thank God, I have never lost. I'll my personal pickup, yes, but in a big rig, no, I've never had a break.

Speaker 2: 1:41:58

This sketch I mean you soon, as you lose your speed like you lose control of your speed and you're just well, I have RPMs and things like that Like I can hold speed with gears and things like that, and then I can use my brakes to a certain point, obviously, until they get too hot or whatever. I've definitely got my brakes hot before For sure.

Speaker 2: 1:42:09

But I've never had an issue of losing brakes or anything like that, because you can control it and, honestly, when you get to that you're fucked, so you can't allow that to happen.

Speaker 1: 1:42:17

I wonder what that feeling is. Probably terrible Like get out of the way? Well, because I have to drive this giant armored truck.

Speaker 1: 1:42:29

It well, because I have to drive this giant armored truck. It's one of the companies that I work with. Okay, I mean, it's 20, 25 000 pounds, it's it's like a giant right. And I drove this thing. We were supposed to low boy it back um when we went and picked it up and the trailer that we brought was not rated for it, which we found out when we got there after driving it from here all the way to shelby, north carolina, shelby's in north carolina, south carolina, wherever whoa so I call the owners and I'm like yo, this isn't making it, like we loaded it on the trailer and like the dually tires are touching the trailer, tires are all.

Speaker 1: 1:43:06

I'm standing behind it, like I look at the two kids that are with me, like children that are driving because I'm the old man so I just made them drive the whole way out. I'm looking, I'm like I'm not responsible for this shit, like I am not certified. We probably shouldn't be hauling this like this is a total, like we're just we're just gonna bomb at night the whole way back. So I end up having to drive this thing and, oh my god, going down hills. I mean it's because it's automatic, but I'm trying to downshift, yeah, and just because this thing I mean you just it gets moving the weight is wild.

Speaker 2: 1:43:41

It is wild when you're loaded, especially when you're overloaded yeah it's a different feeling.

Speaker 1: 1:43:46

I have no, no experience that to your level. But I mean, god, just going in some of these areas and hauling ass, and there would be, we'd be in construction, coming down these hills, and there'd be a big rig next to me and there's just concrete barriers. And I got the kids on the radio like oh my god screaming and I'm like like just concrete wall and I'm looking at this trucker, his eyes, and we're looking at each other as we're going. I learned a lot on that trip, a lot, a lot, a lot of experiences, and I have no idea how we made it back without killing anybody.

Speaker 2: 1:44:18

But I've driven.

Speaker 1: 1:44:19

I mean I did. I put 13,000 miles on that truck in just a few months, yeah, you know. So, just driving it everywhere, it's been hilarious. So, because that's like the, you know, you become so comfortable, though, with the weight and how everything moves and feels long.

Speaker 2: 1:44:34

It really doesn't take long, you know, and I think that's what that's why I drive a big truck. Everyone's like oh my gosh, you're really so well when you're. When I was around construction equipment, right, I'm around these huge 745 haul trucks, 390 excavators. I'm like stuff is huge, right. And then I'm around it every day and I'm like, oh, it's normal.

Speaker 1: 1:44:51

Yeah, I'm like just becomes a norm it's normal, right.

Speaker 2: 1:44:55

So you get so comfortable in your own atmosphere, in your own thing, and it's your, and you're like, oh, it's no big deal anymore. And you don't even remember on a time when it was a big deal, like now driving next to concrete barriers, you know, or a flash flood, you can, you can't see shit. I know where the white line is, you know I love going through construction zones and if they don't have the cones up, I'm just like well, sorry, you clearly didn't measure that one out. Well, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:45:20

Oh God, I mean, even in that truck I'll be in construction zones in the middle of nowhere and the kids are like yo, take some out.

Speaker 2: 1:45:26

I'll be hitting those barrels, just sending barrels just you know those are supposed to be filled with water. You know they're supposed to not move.

Speaker 1: 1:45:34

Yeah, they're not, they're hollow yeah no, we've had some fun in that thing but it's since it's. It's just like when they ride with me. She's always like dad. How do you know where you're at? It's? It just becomes part of you and you know exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:45:46

You know yeah, the width of your vehicle and like what you're hauling and stuff like that. Like I well, luckily my truck yells at me because when I have my snowmobile in the back, like I forget, it's like four feet longer, right, so I'm like merging over to lane. I'm like, oh, whoops, sorry, a little too soon, my bad, my bad, like oops. But yeah, I don't know, trekking is just one of those things like once you've driven professionally and you do it for a living, like I still enjoy, you know, be bopping down up around whatever, but I don't know, just the road is so. It's one of those things. This is very addicting. Everyone that I've talked to that has retired from trucking. They miss it, they miss it.

Speaker 1: 1:46:23

There's a certain clarity with it we drive everywhere as a family because we get to experience and it's probably different for you because you're on the clock and you have a certain amount of hours you got to get shit done. But being on the road like, we've experienced so many incredible things, just driving and oh, there's a little town up here Like let's the food? Different cultures, different towns just saying fuck it. And grabbing a hotel or an Airbnb in some random ass little town and just going like the road. I love being on the road it is. I feel that you hear all these guys like oh, the mountains, the mountains are what heal you.

Speaker 1: 1:47:01

And they do. I love being in the mountains, but on the road, even by myself, when you just drive, I've driven from places for four or five hours but like, fuck, like, did I already go through that checkpoint? You just zone out and then that's where you do your thinking. I mean, you're all getting full blown fights with myself Just arguing over shit, like can you do this? And like, really I talk to myself a lot on the road, but I love being on the road, I think it's great, great, and then you could, you can get so much shit done.

Speaker 2: 1:47:29

You totally can. No, it's just really cool and like the people that I've met that also share that same passion, or through the industry that I'm in, and like somebody knows, somebody knows somebody, like it's just, it's such a community and so I love it for that, and I love it because there's so many different things that you can do you can't you know. You can haul logs, you can haul equipment, you can haul cows, you can do whatever. Like there's so many things that you can do driving and it's like the places that you go right, like I encourage everybody, get out of your home state. Like go somewhere, not have a plan. It's amazing what it can do to you.

Speaker 2: 1:47:58

And like you know, we're so infatuated with technology and our phones and all these other things, but it's like when you are actually out on the road and you don't know where you are or you're going to go check out that hotel or that little shop like odessa, texas. Right, like total, I would. One of the best hotels I've ever stayed at is in odessa.

Speaker 2: 1:48:14

Yeah, believe it or not, right they got a little money out there, yeah and like there's lambo parked out front of like this is also hotel room 500 bucks a night yeah, but it's like like arizona, like the best food I've ever had on the road is there. And that's the other thing. On the road, having certain diet restrictions and stuff is so difficult, right. So that's another thing. I always think of entrepreneurship, mind, right, like okay, where's the niche, how could I make another business or something that work less, make more, whatever?

Speaker 2: 1:48:46

But it's like healthy choices, different things like that on the road, snacks and stuff like that, like there's not a lot of options and things to do, especially when I'm in a day cab and I don't have a refrigerator or whatever and I got to fit whatever in the Yeti that's not going to stay cold after a couple hours. Yeah, you know, yeah, exactly, and it's going to bake in the sun through, you know, because my, my windows aren't ceramic tinted, you know. So it's like there's so many different things and aspects of the road, but it just makes you appreciate so many different things and you get to see what this country has to offer.

Speaker 1: 1:49:18

I mean, you hear, I just saw this video not too long ago these people were, they're foreigners and they're asking, like, what do they think is weird about the us? Like it's so weird that Americans don't leave the U? S? But if you take the size of their country compared to the U? S, I mean, a lot of our States are the size of countries. I mean, look at Texas, it takes you two days just to drive across. You know, corner to corner, probably three days, but it's you know, with us and just being on the road, it's just you get to see a whole part of this country that most people you're flying, you're flying over it or you're going through town that you know there's more cows and people in those towns, you know it's just stop, we stop we've.

Speaker 1: 1:49:57

We flew to florida. We did a vacation for the girls. They won and and it was one of our things that we opened our mouths.

Speaker 1: 1:50:03

We're like if you guys win this world, we'll take every people. Then they up winning. So we had to take a lot of fucking vacation. But uh, we like flew to florida. We had nothing planned, we just flew literally on the move. As we landed, the wife's like hey, how far are we gonna be from florida keys? And I'm like not far a couple hours, like why we're landing at midnight. I just booked a hotel down there, so we drive. We land at like midnight, miami, drive two hours down to the keys and then we stay there for a couple. But then we just took off. We're like, hey, you guys are done, you guys want to go see more.

Speaker 1: 1:50:32

And we just we end up in where were we? We ended up in some town where, like before we know it, we're in kayaks or canoes on this river, fossil hunting. We stop at this. We went in this little this. Oh my god, we were. It was hilarious. We want, I wanted to show them like good, like soul food. Yeah. So we look, find this place. We walk in there and it was like set back in in his back in time. Like we walk in, you hear like the forks and knives hitting the plate and everyone turns and looks at us and we're like the only white people in there and I was like I'm like I want oxtail colored greens, I want black eyed peas, you know. So I start listening to this. You know, your typical southern woman. She's like I got you honey, like does one of those I'm like bring out everything? But we got to experience so and, dude, she was bringing out desserts that weren't even out yet, and just things like that.

Speaker 2: 1:51:22

I just we get to walls that are so authentic yes and it's just, it's different.

Speaker 2: 1:51:26

It's so nice to be outside your comfort zone. That's why, like, I love being outside my comfort zone and I thrive on that. So when I'm in places that I'm, you know, I'm doing the same thing every day. I get bored with the nine to five. I can't do that. I just, you know. And even in trucking I have certain, you know, like I get tired of hauling around locally or I want to go out. You know I'm like okay, you know there was a time to go.

Speaker 2: 1:51:48

Yeah, like I'm like okay, I uh, I take courses from rogue methods. They're amazing group of guys, very tactical, you know, do a lot of stuff. So I try to stay up on my training, especially if I'm going to carry and um. So they had a class out in Texas and I was like I think there's a load out there, I think I have a load near there.

Speaker 2: 1:52:07

I'm like, yes, oh my gosh, I can make it happen. So I drove out there for work for a load and I was able to take a gun course for two, you know two days or whatever, and then I was able to come back. So I try to plan things around where I'm going to go so it's not just like stuff like that works out, you know, or you can visit a friend or whatever, and we're spontaneously coming on a podcast Like just random things happen, right, what a cool career, though I mean you've really I don't know how old are you.

Speaker 2: 1:52:39

You don't have to say I'm going to be 33 this year.

Speaker 1: 1:52:42

To be 33 years old and to be able to experience what you've experienced in just the last six years, five, five years five years.

Speaker 1: 1:52:51

Oh my gosh, almost six years yeah I mean, what, what a hell of an experience to be able to, to go and do that. There's not a lot of job fields that you know you and we kind of backtrack back to you know when you're in school and it's like, okay, what do you want to be? Doctor ash, not cop. Yeah, army, you have the same things. But if these kids learn like there are so many incredible jobs out there that offer so many different things, that's why I feel bad. I I get, I catch a lot of shit all the time because I voice my opinion about the military and it's not it's, it's a, it's a job and people forget it's a job. But then they get sucked into this military mindset and I that gotta do this 20 years and all that shit and guys will do their whole careers miserable and I'm like get the fuck out and change it yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:53:35

Go. If you're bitching about you can't, you don't. If you will not change your, your path and realign your stars, you can't bitch about it. I'm a firm believer in that, a firm believer in that, and but like this is exactly like how we live our life. It's like fuck it, let's go and do something. Let's go figure something out. What's the next chapter? Like you can't sit stagnant, or your life. We're on this planet for such a short amount of time and if you're living miserable, that sucks.

Speaker 2: 1:53:59

I it's hard, and I think that people get so stuck not only in their careers and their jobs, but like right, like they get in these little mind frame bubbles of what can or can't be done, or what's the norm or what's not the norm, and it's like there's so much stuff out there that it's like you just got to get out of your comfort zone, your bubble.

Speaker 2: 1:54:19

Like you just yeah, move, move to a different state, move to different. Like people are so afraid because it's what either they were raised on or what they know.

Speaker 2: 1:54:28

And I think that just speaks so true to you know my personality. Like I'm like a gypsy. I'm all over the place. I want to do all the things and you know that can be a distraction from what I'm dealing with, right, that can be a coping mechanism for me, or that can be helping me reach where I'm supposed to be either, or you know, so it just guides your life.

Speaker 1: 1:54:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:54:50

But yeah, the road is always. I felt I've been able to do everything and have the life that I want because of the career that I picked, and it's allowed me to do a lot of different things and experience a lot of stuff. And I'm still learning and experiencing stuff which is awesome, like I never want to stop.

Speaker 1: 1:55:07

Especially in your job field. There, I can imagine there's something new every single day.

Speaker 2: 1:55:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:55:13

Even probably 10, 15, 20 years in you're like, oh shit.

Speaker 2: 1:55:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:55:17

I mean I drove through Rollins a couple of years ago that stretch from Rollins to Evanston.

Speaker 2: 1:55:23

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:55:25

This was crazy because I just finished. I had a couple of clients and I'm trying to get home. I had like a week off and I'm bombing home. The weather was so bad. I stopped in Rollins for the night. I wake up at four in the morning, so I wanted to get on the road and I opened my door and there's it was like a little motel is. The first place I saw there was like a four foot snow drift in front of my door and I'm like, I'm in crocs, I'm like, but all my, all my boots and everything, everything's in the truck, I literally backed up because I had all my hunting shit, so I backed up to the door yeah, so you don't want anyone taking your stuff I leave, the door cracks.

Speaker 1: 1:55:56

I'm paranoid.

Speaker 2: 1:55:57

I'm paranoid on the road that's a lot bringing out there with yeah and so even like what's new oh, I mean we think people do always know, but they don't. They have no idea no.

Speaker 1: 1:56:09

So I get on the road and back, I try to get back on the highway. The whole highway shut down. I'm sitting there there's, there's like 200 big rigs just backed up down the road like this sucks. And I see this cop letting in these oil workers. They pull up to the the on ramp and he's letting them in. So I kind of like sneak in with them and I'm like I, oh, I'm with them. He's like no, your truck's not marked. And I'm like listen, dude, I work in Evanston, I'm a shift lead. I got to relieve these dudes out on the field because my buddy works out there, so I'm kind of familiar. Oh my gosh. He's like give you cleared. He's like you're gonna be the only one on the road from here until evanston. He's like don't fuck up. And I'm like what does that mean? Like, oh my god, like I'm good.

Speaker 1: 1:56:58

I get on the highway and the sun's like coming up and it's like gale, for you know out there, 70 mile an hour winds through there. It was like nothing. Yeah, I was driving in the fast lane shoulder and gusts of wind would push my truck because the whole road is ice. Oh yeah, would shove my truck all the way to the slow lane. I'm going like 10 miles an hour. I'm on the phone with my wife like if you don't hear from me.

Speaker 2: 1:57:21

I'm somewhere between Rollins and Evanston, do you feel like you're so high because the the well, the snow drifts, like when they go, you can't. You're like, yes, like you feel, like you're in the clouds.

Speaker 1: 1:57:31

You have no idea where you're at no clue, there's 18 wheelers tipped oh yeah, completely flopped over so I'm like driving through this apocalypse, it took me like six hours to get to evanston. I finally get into evanston, the whole walmart parking lot is, whenever they shut the highway down, just turns into an 18-meter parking lot. Yeah, and I pull off to get gas and kind of like, just like, yeah, come down, just white knuckled the whole time, you're just exhausted. And um, this guy comes up to me, this black dude. He's got atlanta, he's got georgia plates on his car.

Speaker 1: 1:58:02

He's like yo man. He's like did you just come from that way? And i'm'm like. He's like, is it closed? And I'm like, bro, it ain't going to be open. He's like it's like a war zone. He's like what am I supposed to do? I'm like head down to Colorado, go through Grand Junction maybe, and like around that. I mean, what other way do you go through? And I had this app on my phone because I was traveling so much at the the time. It always showed me what roads were shut down. Okay, three days later, evanston the roland, evanston the rollins is now officially opened. Oh my god, I almost got stuck in rollins for three days, there's nothing out there nothing that's what I was always afraid of, especially going through wyoming like there's nothing, nothing.

Speaker 2: 1:58:42

So I would like breeze in my truck like there's, there's nothing. So going through those states, I mean luckily it was heavy enough and like low, mean luckily it was heavy enough and like low enough, so it was fine, yeah, but like oh yeah, no, I was always concerned about that because I'm like, okay, I gotta hit this road this time. You know, it's like constantly chasing the weather or anything can happen you know that sucks the cold sucks I got stranded almost straight out there.

Speaker 1: 1:59:04

I I worked for these guys one time and for a while actually pretty good guys, but I was like their, their gun runner. They would just they'd send me places to buy, like truckloads of guns it was. It was wild. They would actually they would send me. This is a crazy story. So I had a toolbox on the back, I had a dodge 2500 and toolbox but it was converted into like a safe and they would just send me with gold bars like not the bullion big ones, but like or whatever it's called, bullion bullion whatever, yeah they were like the credit card size ones but a little thicker, but like boxes of this stuff and cash.

Speaker 1: 1:59:35

So when I would run out of money I would convert silver bars and gold bars at these shows. Like they would send me a list and I would just go to these gun shows all over and I'm talking like what historic guns that are like certified from, like Billy the Kid handled it at one point, oh my God, came. Certified, it's all this shit. So I'm driving all over and that's where, like I really got to learn the trucker life without being a truck. So I'm stopping, so I buy blankets, I'm sleeping in my truck with, like my pistol.

Speaker 2: 2:00:03

Like a pack of waters in the back.

Speaker 1: 2:00:07

Jet boil with your Exactly I just I never. I couldn't stop anywhere, I couldn't sleep in a hotel or get anything. And this was like pre-Airbnb days, yeah, where you could just like, hey, I need a place with a driveway or garage Right or RV parking, which is so nice now, but yeah, so I'm sleeping on the roads, like just pulling over at exits.

Speaker 2: 2:00:27

Yeah, and you're not really sleeping.

Speaker 1: 2:00:28

A hundred grand worth of guns.

Speaker 2: 2:00:30

all I'm like if I get pulled over like how do I explain this what happens if you got pulled over? I?

Speaker 1: 2:00:37

never got pulled over Never, thank God. Wow, it was. I think it was legal. I mean it was legal. I mean they're all legal guns, but I don't know about the possession of me having it. But yeah, so that was a fun thing, but I spent so much time on the road. I actually have a blanket that I bought. I still have it to this day. It's the nicest blanket I've ever bought. It was from a truck stop. It was came with these leather straps. I was freezing. One night I tried to sleep. It was so cold I couldn't sleep, even with my truck on. I'm like I just couldn't sleep. Oh my gosh. And uh, so I'm paranoid that I'm gonna get carbon monoxide poisoning too. So I always leave like my windows cracked at night. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 2:01:11

I don't know why I have this weird fear, and so don't judge me you've listened to too many podcasts or read too many articles about people getting stranded in their garage.

Speaker 1: 2:01:21

Yeah, you sit in your garage and just like go to sleep, I feel like I, I don't know, but uh, it's one of those weird things I've never admitted before. We might edit that part out. I love it. So, yeah, so I like rolling to this gas station, there's this blanket, like rolled up, and I bought it and it's the thickest. This is the nicest blanket I've ever had in my life, but I still it's in my, my, like my canvas cutter. I bring like a bedroll with me everywhere. Yeah, I put that in there. I bought, but I bought it at of truck stop when I was like smuggling guns all over the us and I still have it, so it's yeah, I've got some memories it does, it fucking does um.

Speaker 1: 2:01:54

Well, that's hilarious, yeah, so I love it. I never did the trucker thing, but I lived the life on the road. For sure I put some miles on. That's why I was fascinated to talk to you and just hear interesting, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's um, it's definitely a different lifestyle.

Speaker 2: 2:02:07

It's fun because I fascinated to talk to you and just hear, hear the life. I didn't know that, yeah, it's um, it's definitely a different lifestyle. It's fun Cause I've been able to like I have friends that live out of state, so I could visit them and kind of like, show them my thing and I don't know, I love it. I gravitated towards it and it's, it's fun, you, you, to be a female right.

Speaker 2: 2:02:25

Like that's kind of fun and that respect is sometimes a challenge, sometimes not, but it's cool, Like I did a um, I did a commercial for international Um they flew me out to Colorado for this commercial and they had, um, the truck driver, bring the truck in the low bed or whatever that I was going to drive on the highway and stuff. And the guy he's from Michigan and he's like the night before I guess he was telling the producers he's like I'm sorry, what, there's a female coming to drive my truck, like in, like why am I not driving? It was very interesting. And then the next morning, you know, we're starting to shoot at like 2 am, it's like 13 degrees outside. It was terrible.

Speaker 2: 2:03:03

But I, I walk over and, um, I'm like, yeah, I'm the truck driver. And he's like, are you even qualified? Like couldn't comprehend that, and I'm like no, so I started talking to him and I won him over and I started telling him and explaining him stuff. But it's funny, like there still is a very interesting dynamic with it, but it was just kind of cool because I won him, him over and we had some other stuff in common and it was really cool and got chatting up and then, you know, getting to talk to the crew people and it was just it was. It was really interesting.

Speaker 1: 2:03:39

But have you run into any hurdles as far as working in such a male dominated business, or have you, since you have such a positive outlook on it, does that help a lot.

Speaker 2: 2:03:53

I think the positive outlook that I have on it helps a lot. I haven't really been into any issues or problems, except that I don't have the muscle mass that you have. So when I'm I need help sometimes with you know, strapping down something, I'll like have my entire body weight on it. I'm like damn it, I should hate a burger today.

Speaker 1: 2:04:09

Like you need a longer cheater bar on this one.

Speaker 2: 2:04:11

Oh yeah, no, I'm like literally I think one of my videos that it was I'm literally like on the cheater bar, like with my all my body weight, you know. Um, so I think that is the only issue I come in is if I'm not strong enough to do something. But I always have help.

Speaker 1: 2:04:26

Yeah, um, but yeah, honestly, everyone's treats me equally that's good yeah, no, it's, it's rad good I could see how it could be the opposite if you came in trying to yeah I mean there's definitely shit talking, for sure, oh yeah, but like as far as you know, there is there's one other female low bed driver that I know in California. Really Out of the whole state. Out of the whole state. Good for you.

Speaker 2: 2:04:52

There's not a lot in our industry. I should say I'm sure there's more that I'm unaware of, but I am only aware of one other one. Yeah, and that's it. So there's not like it's not really a I mean, there's a ton of female truckers and stuff, but I think they have a lot of respect for just us being out there and doing what we do.

Speaker 1: 2:05:13

I mean cause that's kind of the top tier in the trucking world.

Speaker 2: 2:05:19

It's well respected for sure. Especially if you know people that don't know about it or do know about it, it's well respected. So, um, yeah, it's one of those things that it's. It's allowed me a lot of opportunities. Trekking has taken me like the craziest places and cool opportunities and allowed me to connect with people literally all over the world. Like, uh, my girlfriend CJ. She's in Australia and she does, uh, the big road trains and like, oh my gosh, we got to talking and I was like it's so cool to be able to connect with other females that do other, like totally different stuff. That's just so wild I would never even think of, but we can connect because we have that. And like I've never met her in person, but like I talked to her like she's my best friend every day.

Speaker 1: 2:06:00

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 2:06:01

You know. So it's, it's really cool. It's allowed me to have that female connection that you know that I never really had when I was younger because I wasn't that girl that fit in with. You know the other girls with the Barbies and the this and that, like I was the horse girl Right. So like I have now a um, I have now a group of females that are so supportive and we're into the same stuff, like every female that I've met that's in trucking either rides, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, horses, harleys. It's so cool. So I'm like I finally feel like I fit in where I'm in now.

Speaker 1: 2:06:34

Good.

Speaker 2: 2:06:34

So it's taken years to get there. Good yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:06:37

Good for you. That's a pretty awesome thing, I mean, especially in such a male-dominated industry that you can now start building a group of women in the communityoy right.

Speaker 2: 2:06:47

So like all the other girls, they're the same way. They're the tomboy's too, so it's like I don't know. It's cool, it's really fun.

Speaker 1: 2:06:53

I finally found my little niche of people when low when loading gear on a low boy, are you shitting your pants every time? And the only reason I ask is when I was in the military we would load our have to load vehicles our. I drove tanks.

Speaker 2: 2:07:08

Okay, and so when we would? You used to do big stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:07:12

Ish Sometimes, and when you would load those things. I mean you're staring straight at the sky.

Speaker 2: 2:07:19

Oh yeah, no, I am.

Speaker 1: 2:07:20

You ever had those pucker moments.

Speaker 2: 2:07:21

I have a fear of heights. Okay, so, yeah, no, I have a fear of heights. And so, um, yeah, no, I have a fear of heights.

Speaker 2: 2:07:31

and I also have a fear of, like, falling off the trailer messing something up, right, like you're just like so scared, especially something you're not very familiar with. So, um, the couple times that I've had to load like the excavators over where, literally, like you know, it's steel on steel, so you need to make sure you're like totally level so you're not gonna like just slide off, but even to like in the morning it's dewy, I'm like hyper, like talking myself through it, right, and it's taking me like five minutes to like just get up and over. Yeah, no, it's scary, it's totally sketch for sure.

Speaker 1: 2:08:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:08:00

Like we think we're so cool. Well, actually I do. I think I'm like I'm going to go super slow and really methodical and, like you know, I would much rather be that person than doing it too fast and messing up or like hurting the trailer or hurting the equipment Cause like any little move to which and sometimes everything's shifting to sometimes the hydraulics on these machines, like you get an older one and it's got a little glitchy, so you got to like kind of bump up the rabbits a little bit more, so it's a lot smoother, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:08:29

So it's just yeah, no, I, I definitely. Um, I fear for my life every single time I'm loading something or unloading, and then my double checking is like okay, are my rippers up Like what, what's going?

Speaker 1: 2:08:41

on. Like what do I have Walking every time? We uh, we were in Kuwait. No, we were in Egypt, and so our vehicles would go off the back of ships, naval ships oh wow, it's really weird. Like the whole the back of the ship opens up when you drive into the water and whatever. Anyways, so we're in Egypt and they had to like load by our vehicles everywhere. Well, we have to go everywhere with our vehicles because we have our comm systems and weapons in them, so which is, you know, cryptid communications gear.

Speaker 1: 2:09:08

So we had to get in with these egyptian drivers and we got lost. I don't even know how. There's only one fucking road that just went in one direction. But we got lost and we're sitting there and it's in the middle of the night. We've been in these things for hours. I mean I talking, it was fucking miserable.

Speaker 1: 2:09:28

I look over at my driver and he's he's like fiddling around and he's sniffing and making all these weird noises and like I'm watching this dude, you know, I got my, I got my rifle and everything on me, but I'm not worried like anything like that. And I'm like, hey, and he like cause, like, and he looks at me and his whole face is just like white powder all over his face and I'm like what are you doing? And he looks at me. He's like cocaine, cocaine, you want cocaine? This dude had a bag of coke and he just unrolled it and stuck his face in it and was sniffing it. And I'm trying to get on the radio like yo, my driver's coked out of his mind right now, like, and also they're like, and we start rolling as soon as I'm like trying to get dudes on the radio, like, oh, he pulls out a bottle and he's like whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. I'm like this, you guys aren't supposed to be doing any of this, a part of your religion.

Speaker 1: 2:10:25

And now I got my driver that has my fucking tank on the back of a low boy with coke all over his face. He's got a bottle of whiskey between his legs and I'm like white knuckled through the deserts in egypt, like have no idea where I'm going. I was like get me out. And it stunk so bad. Oh, my god, man, it was the worst experience. And all of us we finally get to the spot we're supposed to be. We're just ripping, freaking the bosses off. We were just trying to get everything, all the chains off. I was like get me the fuck off of this truck. Like we'd never unloaded so fast in our lives. It was wild.

Speaker 1: 2:10:59

I'll never forget that he literally looked at me and he had coke all over like wasn't even like a little bump, he was just opening it and like full face in this bag and offers it to me and I'm like no dude. I was like you got a joint, you got it. No, yeah, that was. That was a wild time driving through the deserts on low boys with a bunch of coked up I don't want to say Afghanis, but Egyptians.

Speaker 2: 2:11:25

Wow, it was crazy. That's an experience. Yeah so yeah, no, I've never. I've never experienced that before.

Speaker 1: 2:11:30

No, it was wild. There's a couple of drivers like you too. You did Yours. Guy was doing it too. I'm like yeah, it was a thing that's how these guys they just they just. I don't know if they, or in their cab, but yeah, I was. You know, it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 2:11:47

A lot of people ask me, like what do you do to stay awake?

Speaker 1: 2:11:49

driving. Yeah, what do you do?

Speaker 2: 2:11:50

I'm curious what do you do to stay awake driving? Oh wait, just kidding, Maybe I'll answer it now.

Speaker 1: 2:12:01

Listen to music. Turn the radio on loud, put on a podcast. Put on a podcast, okay, put on a podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:12:08

Put on a podcast, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:12:08

Put on a podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:12:09

What do you do? I was waiting for that. What do you do? So I am.

Speaker 1: 2:12:12

I tune into the Wild Chaos podcast every week. It goes live.

Speaker 2: 2:12:15

Wild Chaos Wednesdays I'm not going to lie. Hours will fly by. Okay, listen to this stuff. I'm telling you what. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:12:31

This I don't either. Okay, so you're a psychopath as well. I get those sugar-free, the pink monsters. Don't judge again. It'll last me four days. If I start, I'll maybe take a sip of it. It'll last me four days, like when I'm guiding and I have clients. It'll last me a whole week.

Speaker 2: 2:12:46

No, kidding Pink monster. What flavor is that?

Speaker 1: 2:12:52

I don't know it's not disgusting. I thought the white one was the sugar-free one. No, it says sugar-free on it. It's pink. But yeah, I just I don't do caffeine, I don't dip, I don't smoke. Yeah, I just I just raw dog it everywhere.

Speaker 2: 2:13:03

I'm going. So, yeah, I just go. Yeah, I don't even chew gum. I don't chew gum, I don't drink caffeine, I don't drink coffee, obviously Like monsters, energy drinks, any of that stuff, like I don't.

Speaker 1: 2:13:15

Yeah, you're okay. There's not a lot of us out there.

Speaker 2: 2:13:18

Half the time I have a radio off because I'm listening, because I want to hear if something's fucked up. Right, okay, and yeah, like so half the time I'll do that. And then I'm always, like you know, watching the other drivers in case they're like trying to make eye contact or do something weird or whatever. I want to make sure like my load's good or whatever. So a lot of the time like, yeah, I'll listen to music, but not like the speakers in the Peterbilt are not. Oh, God.

Speaker 2: 2:13:40

They like take you back to like 2001 in like a Honda Civic.

Speaker 1: 2:13:45

Right, it's just vibrating. Horrible, horrible.

Speaker 2: 2:13:49

So I have my like JBL speaker that I put up there and I'm like I'll rock out to that. But yeah, no, it's a thing.

Speaker 1: 2:13:55

Yeah, it's interesting. So when I drive the armored truck I can drive forever in it and not get tired because I'm so stressed, it's because there's so many blind spots you have, because it's because there's so there's so many blind spots you have, imagine, because you're it's all armored doors, so you have this little window and then you have your front windows and you, there's nothing in the, so you're even your mirrors you guys don't have like camera or anything we do we do, but we well not at first.

Speaker 1: 2:14:21

We ended up getting them. We mounted them that's one of the things that we upgraded on it but as 360 cameras now. But you're so stressed because you know how well, I don't know how it's like this and with your guys's rigs, but nobody's ever seen these giant armor trucks on the road. So they're staring at you in a drift into you?

Speaker 1: 2:14:38

yes, and so the whole amazing how that works and then, of course, us, we're giving this thing away, so we have these giant qr codes on it like scan me to win it, so. So then everyone's like, and I'm like, oh my god, like, trying to like not get hit by people, I'm doing more like counter, yeah, counter, not getting hit. Maneuvers, yeah so, but like in my normal truck, oh, I'm just, I don't know I don't know how I do it, like even when I was deployed.

Speaker 1: 2:15:06

I know sunflower seeds okay, yeah, yeah, that's a good one I'll fucking chew a hole in my lip with some sunflower seeds. I don't know how I do it, like even when I was deployed, I know Sunflower seeds Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. I'll fucking chew a hole in my lip with some sunflower seeds. That's it.

Speaker 2: 2:15:17

I could never get into dipping, like I just thought all that shit was gross. Zen, you're not on the Zen. Nothing, I do nothing. Water. That's good this oh my gosh, I love it. That's so great water, yeah, literally water. And then I have to pee every five seconds.

Speaker 1: 2:15:33

Great, like a squirrel, see, I don't I don't, I can go nice all day and it's weird, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 2:15:39

I'll drive with guys and like every other exit, like hey, dude, I'm like yeah, this is why, like I will, I'll chug water if I like know before I'm stopping, but otherwise I'm like I don't want to have to stop. It's frustrating.

Speaker 1: 2:15:51

No, I've calmed down over the years, especially having daughters and a wife that has a pee every fucking 10 minutes, cause I'd be that guy's like, oh, there's a straightaway that blow by like all the then as soon as you get ahead of the pack then they all catch up and then you have to pass the same people all the time.

Speaker 2: 2:16:11

So I'm sitting on the side of the road with three girls. You feel like an idiot, for why?

Speaker 1: 2:16:15

Trying to pee and I'm sitting there and I'm like I just spent the last hour almost dying passing these people. Then it finally just dawned on me one day I'm like I'm not going to win this battle.

Speaker 1: 2:16:25

So I'm like I'm not going to win this battle. So I'm one of those people. Like I'm going to win, I'm going to fucking. They're going to give in one day. They're going to realize piss before we leave and we're not pissed until we get to the gas station, whenever that's going to be. No, that was one thing that I had to bend the knee to.

Speaker 2: 2:16:41

You know it's funny, my dad, he actually went and got his class a um a couple years after I got mine, because I think he got major fomo, because he's being retired with you he just he wants to do everything with me, like riding horses and doing and sharing that stuff right, like my dad and I get along with the activities.

Speaker 2: 2:16:57

But he just he got fomo right, so he's like I, I gotta, I gotta have something to do. So he got his class a and he went with me um a couple times and I love my father dearly, love him to death, and I know he's going to listen to this.

Speaker 1: 2:17:09

I'm going to clip this clip.

Speaker 2: 2:17:11

So we can clip the next section. No, I love him to death, but you can only handle so much of your parents, right? So like you can only handle as far as spending, like it's different because you still live at home, but when you're out of the house, okay, there are certain things like you can handle, right, it's like a best friend, like my best friend I've known for years. I can't spend a week with her.

Speaker 2: 2:17:32

I will lose my mind okay right, like some friends, I can, she I can't. My father, on the other hand, love him to death, but like more than three days on the road, I'm done, I'm done. Love it, love you, dad, but I'm three days is like I can't anymore with my mom.

Speaker 1: 2:17:45

Oh yeah, no, it's rough. Sorry, i's rough, sorry, I love you, mom, I love you.

Speaker 2: 2:17:50

So my dad, I like take him out right and I love my parents dearly. My dad's older, he's 76. And like, getting in and out of the truck, going to a gas station for a peace stop, right Like a restroom break, he leaves his phone in the truck. I'm Like you got to be kidding me right now. Take, how am I going to find you? Like, if you're going to take forever, whatever, like keep your phone on you, like we're, we're in and out, like let's go, like it's a strategy, you got to get in and out. Like even on an endurance ride, like we come to a water trough and we're, if we're standing there for five minutes, like we're going, like it's it's a strategy thing so like the same thing.

Speaker 2: 2:18:26

I have to tell them like, okay, you got to get in, get out. And my mom too, like, bless her heart, we went and picked up horses and she's an awesome driver too, and um, I'm like she's like, same thing, her phone in the truck. I'm like I'm gonna leave you, I'm gonna park around the parking lot. So you're so scared when you come out, realize you don't have your phone on you, that you are gonna keep your phone on you now, like I'm having to train them. You know, yeah, so it's just funny. I'm like trying to teach my mom all these things of like how to get out of the car. Like like the lights on my truck, right, like I put the button off so like the lights don't come on when my doors come out. You know, it's just certain things. I'm like, okay, we have a system, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Speaker 1: 2:19:03

I'm like, ah, I like an anxiety when it takes forever. And then you go in the gas station and they're looking at trinkets and I'm like you need another Stanley cup. We got fucking five of them.

Speaker 2: 2:19:16

We got our snacks. Oh my gosh, Okay. So, my dad, we went to Louisiana together.

Speaker 1: 2:19:19

Tho drove, tho drove. That was more than three days. Oh God, that's a haul. It was rough, it was rough.

Speaker 2: 2:19:24

It was really rough. That's some trauma coming back from that one. But so he freaking opens up tuna and starts eating tuna in the truck and I'm like are you freaking kidding? That's so smelly. And then it gets better. He had salmon jerky.

Speaker 1: 2:19:42

Somebody actually buys that.

Speaker 2: 2:19:44

Well, he fishes in Alaska all the time and brings fish back and stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:19:46

Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:19:47

So I don't know if it's homemade stuff or whatever. It smelled so rank. I was like you've got no, no, you cannot.

Speaker 1: 2:19:53

Fish jerky's actually got awful. The first time I ever experienced it was in a birthing on a ship. We had a kid that was Russian and he would peel it off the skin. No, it would pop as noise is sound effect. I'm done. I can't. It would smell, so bad it was. It was this rotten vagina in the birthing don't bring that inside the vehicle.

Speaker 2: 2:20:17

We're gonna be in this vehicle forever. I was like you've you cannot eat that no, you can't eat that.

Speaker 1: 2:20:22

There's standards.

Speaker 2: 2:20:24

There's unspoken rules and things you just don't do. Oh my gosh yeah I couldn't.

Speaker 1: 2:20:28

That's why we going to wait for the kids to before I start driving, because I don't want to deal with them.

Speaker 2: 2:20:34

Yeah, so there's, there's certain no-nos on road snacks, okay, or like the super crunchy, loud, what's?

Speaker 1: 2:20:39

your road snack. What's your go-to?

Speaker 2: 2:20:41

Um, that's a good one. So today I was eating cottage cheese like it was a jello shot because I had no utensils in my truck on the way down here. Um, protein shakes. I like protein shakes because I can drink them and they're easy and there's no mess cottage cheese barbecue chips oh, I'm gonna have to try that. That sounds really good it is that sounds really good. Sometimes jerky's too sticky you know, like some jerky will have too much shit on it. It's like like Jerky's hit or miss.

Speaker 1: 2:21:09

Yeah, you have to be in the mood for it, and if I'm going to pay 17 bucks for a bag this big that has this much jerky in it, I want like I want good. And then you bite into it and you're like God, I don't know how many I'll. Probably every door in my truck has a bag of jerky in it right now so funny, I love it.

Speaker 2: 2:21:26

Yes, oh my gosh I want to talk.

Speaker 1: 2:21:31

Fuck, I'm gonna have to have you come back. I don't want to keep you all night, but I didn't even touch endurance racing, which I didn't even know. That was a fucking thing.

Speaker 2: 2:21:37

Yeah, I guess we could touch it real quick well, it's funny because people always like so I, I have a, I have a big horse trailer because it's got living quarters in it. Right, because these races that we go to they're out in the middle of nowhere and you stay in your rig and they're usually multiple day events. So everyone's like, oh, do you like barrel race or do anything? And I'm like no, like I off-road with, I park in the middle of the desert, like with tumbleweeds and like dirt and shit, right, like they are so curious what it is and what you do. And when you're trying to explain to somebody like what endurance racing is, you're like okay, so like it's horse racing. They're like like on a track, like, are you a jockey? I'm like no, it's, it's like cross country, but without the jumps. But it's, it's like. I'm like, okay, motocross, right you?

Speaker 1: 2:22:26

have the track and theners of the horse community.

Speaker 2: 2:22:28

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:22:29

I didn't even know this was a thing.

Speaker 2: 2:22:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:22:32

So are you hauling ass the whole time, yes and no, or do you have to pace?

Speaker 2: 2:22:37

You have to pace and it's regulated so you have a vet check in the beginning and the vet check at the end and in between. So the horses they have, you know they can't be just fat showing up and out of shape or whatever.

Speaker 2: 2:22:48

You can't override your horse, so the vets are there to make sure that you are riding your horse to the best of its ability and making sure that if it's dehydrated or if it, you know, doesn't have gut sounds and it's not regulating its food or anything like that and its energy, or if it's underweight or if its heart rate isn't coming down like they can catch those things Right, it's underweight, or if it's heart rate isn't coming down like they can catch those things right. So it is a strategy thing. Um and uh, we were. Our horses are mainly arabians. They're like the crackheads of the horses, right?

Speaker 2: 2:23:18

there's many different dog breeds. Ours are like the, the greyhound, mixed with the border collie a little bit of cattle dog. You know they're like okay go. Okay, got some jack russell in them, you know it's a pit pit wallah yeah, so they're um. They're very high, high strong horses they want to run they want to go. Yeah, they're bred to race 100 miles in the desert without food or water, like that is what you're doing, this in what you're not.

Speaker 1: 2:23:41

Rotating horses, oh yeah we will um for like multi-races.

Speaker 2: 2:23:45

So the race that you enter you don't just like leapfrog horses the same horse that you ride, um for that day. You finish that race for that day. If you want to race a different day, you can race a different horse or the same horse. They have multiple things. So that's what's called multi-day endurance rides. So there's, like you know, four to five days. They're like pioneer rides. You can get a separate award for riding the same horse every single day of that or you can get a different award for riding a different horse every single day.

Speaker 1: 2:24:13

So it it just depends on the horse how long does it take you to ride 100 miles on a horse?

Speaker 2: 2:24:18

uh, depends. We have 24 hours to complete it, okay, so that's what you're given. If it's a flatter course, you can finish a hundred and easily seven, eight hours. If it's a hilly course, then you're looking at probably, you know, upwards of 10 plus um and you're doing that straight, you're riding straight you're riding straight and that checks you have like rest, so the horse gets to rest.

Speaker 2: 2:24:44

for a 50 mile race, the horse gets to rest. For an 50 mile race, the horse gets to rest for an hour at you know 25 miles. And then on a 50 or a hundred mile race, there's usually three rest stops for the horses, where they'll, you know, stop the time the horse rests for like half hour, an hour in between.

Speaker 1: 2:24:59

That's insane.

Speaker 2: 2:25:00

Yeah, it's, it's really I didn't know this, it was a thing like as a kid when I grew up in the sport, being able to travel and see places that you wouldn't normally see. A lot of these races are on private lands or you know, you have to have permits to be on the lands and things like that, and you're going. I mean you're up on the top of the mountain. You couldn't get to if you weren't on a horse or a dirt bike or an atv or a quad or whatever. So you really get to see a lot of the country that you can't.

Speaker 2: 2:25:28

There is a family that puts on these races the Nicholson family and they are amazing people. They have pretty much all these races all over. There's the Grand Canyon, there's near Mount Zion the. Bryce Canyon, so you're going through beautiful beautiful country and they also.

Speaker 2: 2:25:51

I don't know if he's going to do it again, but they put on a race. It's called the pony express and is 2 500 miles and it's from saint uh what is it? Saint joseph missouri to, uh, virginia city, nevada. Yeah, two, 2 500 miles and they do it within 40 days on horse.

Speaker 1: 2:26:13

How raw are you when you get off of this horse? I feel like I would have anything else.

Speaker 2: 2:26:20

So okay, you lift weights. Do you lift weights?

Speaker 1: 2:26:23

just genetics? I'm just kidding here's the link in my bio actually, if you guys want to get on and get unmatched, uh, no, but like okay, so a sport that you do right hunting yeah hunting.

Speaker 2: 2:26:37

Are you kidding me? Like going up and glassing or doing anything like that. Like you have to be in shape, right, and you're used to it. Working out, you get calluses, you get used to it, your body's used to it. You know a personal trainer is not going to be sore, right? I train horses or rode them every single day.

Speaker 1: 2:26:52

I don't get sore I feel like doing a hundred miles, I don't care how to it.

Speaker 2: 2:26:57

You work up to it, but you, you learn, I guess, to endure it's endurance. You learn pain your muscles yeah, I get tired, for sure. But like I don't know, it's just one of those things when you do it a lot and you're well conditioned, your body adapts.

Speaker 1: 2:27:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:27:14

Your first hundred sucks, I'm not going to lie, Absolutely sucks. First one is terrible because usually for racing and for endurance, when you get people into the sport you don't want them just to come in to race right Like endurance. Our motto is to finish is to win, mainly because it's very difficult.

Speaker 1: 2:27:30

Oh, for sure.

Speaker 2: 2:27:31

But you don't want people coming in just racing, racing, racing, like you want them to come in and appreciate the miles and appreciate your horse and learn. So I'll get off and I'll run with my horse, like on downhills and things like that. I'll get off and I'll do what's called tailing and you grab onto your horse's tail and you walk either beside them and they help kind of pull you up the hill, because on steep inclines and you're going forever, you want to give them a break. So I'll get off and I'll tail and it is the best hamstring workout you could ever possibly imagine, because you're pacing with your horse, you're not walking at your pace, you're like fast walking uphill, uphill, hanging on to your horses.

Speaker 2: 2:28:05

Yeah, for like steep climbs and stuff like that. So there's there's a bunch of different things, but when you get into the sport you work your way up, so you do things a lot longer. So my first 100 that I did, it literally took me 23 hours and like 52 minutes. Yeah, I was dead Dead.

Speaker 1: 2:28:22

I could imagine. Yeah, I could imagine. So you have appreciation for it. Oh yeah, yes.

Speaker 2: 2:28:28

Yeah. So the whole staying up, like how do you drive? Like I used to ride a horse 100 miles and be up for 24 hours, I can drive, it's fine.

Speaker 1: 2:28:37

I can stay awake. That's insane.

Speaker 2: 2:28:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:28:39

I did a God when I first moved here. My buddy's like, do you want to do this back country horse back hunt, country horseback hunt? I'm like absolutely. Oh. Yeah, I've ridden before but like not backcountry hunting style. Well, he shows up with his mules and these are giant. Yeah, I explained it to my wife and kids. Like I felt like jean-claude van damme, you know, when he like does the splits because mules so wide and I'm not flexible.

Speaker 2: 2:29:06

Your hips probably hurt, so bad.

Speaker 1: 2:29:10

We were averaging, I think, 20 miles a day Going from zero riding to 20 miles a day on this giant mule, and that's walking too, and walking is way worse.

Speaker 2: 2:29:17

When you're walking, you are way I don't know how to explain it when you're going, when I have to walk you're so sore. You feel everything. It's worse, that's 10 times worse.

Speaker 1: 2:29:26

There was the last day. We're coming back and I've got a couple of my buddies with me and I'm the newbie, so I'm just shutting up. I can't say shit, right, I'm like I'm dying. I'm like looking at my phone, I'm like how fucking far away to the truck I'm going to start like fuck this thing, fuck this animal. It hates me. It's run me through every tree. My puffy jacket is shredded. I got feathers all over me. I can't even fly. This thing would just veer and just through pine it hated me. We're coming down and it's steep and I'm just hanging on for dear life. And I yelled at my buddy like hey, he looks back. And I I'm like, are you guys sore? You're hurting? Oh, oh my god, dude. Everybody's like oh my god. I was like can we walk? Can we walk? This sucks, oh my god.

Speaker 2: 2:30:20

And uh, yeah, it was when you're, I mean when the horses are going or the mules are going over technical terrain like oh, it was it pulls you in so many different ways.

Speaker 1: 2:30:29

It was horrible. Yeah, it was horrible. I mean I had to shoot two bucks and it was a great trip, but I was almost like fuck this, I'll just walk, this is a night. But when we're back, like 11 miles, and it's dark and you come across some dudes hiking and their little headlamps are like yeah right, you're looking at him, like okay, this is out, this is worth it. Yeah. But yeah, it was horrible, going from no riding to doing 20 miles a day in the mountains.

Speaker 2: 2:30:51

I was oh my gosh, I can't imagine that it was. Yeah, I could imagine you're like shut the fuck up pussy.

Speaker 1: 2:30:58

You know, I did 100 miles in a day, in eight hours, but now I'm over here like hanging on, like, like, oh god like, but he couldn't say anything. You know like oh, yeah, as a dude and I'm like I'm like the new guy, but he couldn't say anything. You know, no, yeah, as a dude, and I'm like the new guy, like I can't say shit. I was in so much pain I'm not even going to lie, it was horrible.

Speaker 2: 2:31:13

I was like oh, my God, you ruined it. You need a better experience. Yes, faster is better. I promise, yeah, yeah right, yeah, noted. Just just get through the miles faster, that's all that's it. Yeah, yeah, we'll just get through quicker to better jesus.

Speaker 1: 2:31:29

It was rough, but that's that's in. That is a fascinating thing that I didn't even know existed, because when I was reading your bio I was like this chick runs a hundred. Oh my gosh, I thought you're pulling some like. No, you're saying bolt shit, like running through the desert, it's like, which is a thing I got.

Speaker 2: 2:31:44

I know a dude that does it and he's always there's a lot of people in endurance that are also endurance runners and it's amazing because, after not only riding through that many miles at a slower pace but also getting off and running, I've ran 23 miles before in an endurance race. I did 100 miles on my horse and I got off and I ran 23 miles of it. And I'll tell you what I didn't want to do it. I wanted to help my horse out but at the same time, like I have so much respect for those endurance runners, I mean I would love to have their carb load that they have, like I, but I won't run.

Speaker 1: 2:32:17

I'm not running one mile. It's a stage in my life, no no. And they're older too.

Speaker 2: 2:32:24

I don't know, like Western States, 100, right, it's a big, large 100. We have the toughest cup, which is the world's hardest 100-mile race in the world.

Speaker 1: 2:32:31

For horses. For horses, okay.

Speaker 2: 2:32:33

And then they have the same race, but it's for people and it's called Western States and these people that are winning it. I mean, they're like in their 50s, 40s, 50s and I'm like I get out of bed and I hurt.

Speaker 1: 2:32:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:32:46

Like if I sprint to the truck, like I stretch this little muscle in my foot. Out for a week, like what yeah?

Speaker 1: 2:32:52

We were hunting in Utah. I was with my buddy and we rode e-bikes in and then hiked a ways. We were committed and there was a race that was going right through the unit we were hunting and these guys were running like the mountaintops, like the crest. They ran the whole front down there in Salt Lake and we were just I'm back there with my pack on and here comes this little Asian man. He's like hey guys, how you doing? And just dips right by us and I'm like where are they coming from? That's a whole world that I am completely comfortable never experiencing. There's just I am completely comfortable never experiencing. There's a certain things you have to know like can I win an eternal award?

Speaker 2: 2:33:33

that would be amazing. I wouldn't even do that I would.

Speaker 1: 2:33:35

I would win the I signed up and never got out of my truck award.

Speaker 2: 2:33:39

No so my girlfriend signed up. Um, this was last year, it was like beginning of the year. She likes doing little runs right, like the 3k, the 5k, whatever. Yeah, she's got longer legs than I do, so she does very well. It was in our backyard and I'd ridden these trails since I was five years old, so I'm like I can no problem, right? I signed up for the 3k. I was dying. Oh my gosh. I was like every muscle in my leg is cramping up going up the cell. I'm like I can't believe I run my horses up these hills like my horse's forearms. Just, you know, I'm like holy crap, this is crazy, you know, it's just. It gives you an appreciation for it really does.

Speaker 1: 2:34:17

It does and you gotta train for it. My, uh, fuck my buddy man. He was one of those runners and we had just gotten out of iraq and went to kuwait before we were headed home and he's like dude, there's a fight. We were there for a couple weeks. We had to do a whole agricultural wash down. We call it egg washes. You just wash all your vehicles down, all your gear everything before you leave.

Speaker 1: 2:34:36

He's like let's do a 5k. There's a 5k in a couple days. I'm like all right, cool, I don't even know what the fuck 5k is. And we show up and it's on this navy base, on a Naval base the Kuwaiti Naval base is where we were and we show up and there's like women in tutus, like old, like Navy women in like headbands. There's all kinds of people, civilians, like all these people there and I'm like we're good.

Speaker 1: 2:35:02

I had old ladies with five pound weights Passing us and my buddy ladies with five pound weights passing us, and my buddy died cramping, had no water, hadn't? I mean? We literally just out of iraq straight to kuwait, a naval base running a 5k oh my gosh, not ready for it, and that was the last one I've ever run, did a tough mutter, that was with a triple amputee and that was horrible. We actually just had him on, but um, yeah, it was. Uh, that was the last time I was ever going to be embarrassed doing a run before. I was just not built for it. That's not big guy, shit. So I was way bigger then too, like I was not not built for it. But I'll never forget these little old ladies and they had pink little five pound weights in each hand and they just powered it right by us and I was like fuck, no, I sprinted, sprinted. I was not going to get beat by an old lady, I can't. No. I looked at him and I was like fuck no, I got to have him on the show.

Speaker 1: 2:35:58

We'll talk about it. But we looked at each other. I said fuck no. And we took off finish line barely, beat them yes, barely and I was dying. That was it. That's the last time I ever ran any race.

Speaker 2: 2:36:13

It's not for everybody, it really isn't I'd rather do weights all day than cardio. I can't, yeah. I'd rather be able to breathe. I just I can't, yeah. So I I thought I'm like I'm a truck driver, so I look like I run, like I don't, I don't you don't look like a truck driver here's the thing I tell everybody when you know everyone, everyone food gathering, whatever.

Speaker 2: 2:36:31

I'm like oh, I have this. Or snack, like everyone likes to snack on the road. Right, I'm like listen, I am a truck driver. I don't want to look like one.

Speaker 1: 2:36:38

Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:36:38

And that's my favorite thing to do. Like this last weekend my and she's like this all around badass super athletic can do. She can make pancakes while surfing like wake surfing behind a boat. She will be making pancakes. Like I'm like, girl, you need to get a YouTube channel, you need to do some crazy stuff. Like I have a lot of really neat and talented friends and she's one of them and she's, anyway, incredible. But we were at the bar this last week and after Stonewall, Bealing and Cook City is super small and we're in there and you know, just bar talk and stuff like that, and you know everyone's like, oh, what do you do? And my girlfriend's like, guess what she does? And everyone always thinks I'm a hairdresser Okay, which is hilarious, because I'm like that usually means my hair looks like shit because hairdressers never do their own hair, or that they think I'm like that level of bat shit crazy.

Speaker 2: 2:37:29

Okay, I'm like, okay, that's interesting, but it's funny Cause like the whole night goes on and like the guessing what we do, right, and they never guess her job and they never guess mine. So then you know it's, it's funny at the end of the day.

Speaker 1: 2:37:38

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 2:37:39

Yeah, it's just, you know, simple talk, it's.

Speaker 1: 2:37:42

I know you got to go see some friends tonight after this, and so thank you for swinging by. This was absolutely hilarious.

Speaker 2: 2:37:49

It was cool to get to know. It was super fun to be able to tell little stories and pings here and there.

Speaker 1: 2:37:54

I know what we do. We just sit down and shoot the shit here. So I get to know you and it was awesome and yeah, if you ever roll back through.

Speaker 2: 2:38:02

Okay, hopefully not this late.

Speaker 1: 2:38:05

Maybe it'll be five in the morning next time we're night owl people, I mean, I think we average one o'clock in the morning. We walk like after this it's 10, we'll go for a five mile walk after this every night yeah, so not as the kids, but yeah, so we do. We're weird, we're not. That's why it's we. We live a really weird life, like if people actually like got to know like us in our dynamic. We're fucking weird. We sleep in every day, but here's the thing, the weirdness.

Speaker 2: 2:38:30

I think everyone's like it's your normal right, Like what's normal, what's weird, Just? Because, it's unique right that's special.

Speaker 1: 2:38:40

Yeah, then you talk to somebody like you guys, you just stay up that late. I'm like you go to bed at seven. It's still fucking light outside. No, I think that's weird. Right, people are putting their kids to bed, all our kids are. Our kids are in bed at seven every night. I'm like wish our kids were taking showers at midnight, like fuck, let's go. Oh, my god, you know. So that's that's.

Speaker 2: 2:39:01

I mean, yeah, what is weird, what is normal I think that's really awesome, though, like you switch it up and you do stuff different, like and I think that's the one thing that you're so unique at in this podcast, and everything else is because it's different.

Speaker 1: 2:39:12

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:39:12

It's different and it's unique and it brings different and unique in and that, like that's the new normal right, it should be Well everybody's got such a cool story of life and I feel that this world we live in now is everybody has to be this entrepreneur and very successful, and nobody, nobody's gone through some shit. Nobody ever talks about the shitty times or what it took to get to that point or what it's actually like. It's just, and you know. We live in this world of social media where you only see the positive.

Speaker 2: 2:39:44

You only post the good stuff, only good shit.

Speaker 1: 2:39:46

That's the only thing anybody wants to see and that's everybody's life, right. But it's like they don't know what's going on, what it's like on the road.

Speaker 2: 2:39:53

And down 24, seven Literally. That's all I posted for like the last two years is just me and the fuckery that happened.

Speaker 1: 2:40:01

How miserable OK, before we go. How miserable is it blowing a tire on the highway?

Speaker 2: 2:40:08

You know um it sucks when you're literally on the border of mexico and you do not know the language.

Speaker 2: 2:40:12

Yeah, I, I picked up a trailer at, uh, like literally the border of mexico in texas and I blew a tire like two miles from there and I had to go to the tire shop and they're like, oh, you wait inside. I'm like, fuck, no, I'm not, I'm waiting right here with the truck, like I did not speak enough spanish to comfortable, and when I mean speak enough Spanish, like I know like one through ten and like, yes, and have a good day or something.

Speaker 2: 2:40:37

So maybe I need to get on some muzzy on the road. You know and like learn on the road.

Speaker 1: 2:40:42

I'm sure there's enough apps out there.

Speaker 2: 2:40:44

I'm very lucky I've never blown a steer tire or anything like that. But yeah, a tire in the trailer when it blows it sucks, it's just the downtime, right, and it's not something like I can like. Oh yeah, I'm gonna go change and get the spare real quick. Like thing weighs more than I do. Like. Yeah, good luck.

Speaker 1: 2:40:56

Yeah, no, that's wild, yeah, so well, thank you again for coming on. Thanks for having me we're gonna send you home.

Speaker 2: 2:41:03

Oh, you don't do coffee huh, I don't do coffee just kidding buddy.

Speaker 1: 2:41:10

No, we'll cut that out. We'll cut that one out. No, he's a good buddy of mine. I give, uh, everybody an opportunity. You know, I give veterans and law enforcement, if they're small businesses, to send us stuff like we've had some support them, some cool, and it's completely free. And people hit me up all the time like, do you actually do? I'm like, no, I'm not to charge a veteran. So yeah, so he's a recon Marine, he lives here locally. And then the other guy he was actually a combat Marine with the cigars. I'm sure I don't know if you're a cigar, are you into cigars?

Speaker 2: 2:41:41

I am not a cigar, but my brother-in-law is in Michigan.

Speaker 1: 2:41:44

He actually got shot in the line of duty and he does cigars now. So there are a couple vets. I had a law enforcement officer send us some clothes. He's got a fitness line and he's trying to bring veterans and law enforcement together through religion. He wants to open a gym that's all based off of faith. So yeah, just cool companies. I just wish everybody would do something like that. Have a purpose.

Speaker 2: 2:42:06

Have a purpose in it, have a vision. It's their.

Speaker 1: 2:42:10

You know, I feel like when people make something like that, like they have a vision, yeah, and there's something driving them and they have a story behind it, so it makes it so much more meaningful and I feel like if, like I've, I've had help along the way, don't get me wrong, but in the early days, if somebody's like, hey, dude, I would love to just share this and if you you got a sale, it would be so cool. So I feel like if every you see these platforms, they're so massive, they're so massive and I'm sure they do. I'm not saying they don't do things for the community or offline, but if they just gave every small business veteran law enforcement, kid business, whatever an opportunity and gave them a platform to be able to. If somebody sees coffee and wants to buy it, which I've had people message, I'm like, cool, there we go. That's the whole point.

Speaker 2: 2:42:52

So yeah, I try to do things a little bit different I love that, though it's only because small businesses and the people that matter and that have stories why not?

Speaker 1: 2:43:00

what is it yeah? No, I love that I just don't know why. I don't know why it's so hard to catch on. I don don't know. I see giant YouTube channels or YouTube podcast channels and I'm like the guy's plugging all their shitty fucking sponsors that they don't even use or support or believe in and I'm like why don't you give a veteran company or some cop or firefighter that started some product, give them an opportunity.

Speaker 2: 2:43:23

Yeah, give them back something that they've dedicated their entire life. I don't know. But then again it's their platform and I'm sure they've had some, some hurdles getting to that point, and they want to, yeah, but I think that ties in the realness though, because having being able to support something that you believe in also too and you know the backstory of that's huge and that speaks volumes. I will never, you know, blast something or support something that I don't believe in or anything else like that, and that's why it makes my word so much more real.

Speaker 1: 2:43:52

So yeah, that's honestly why I haven't picked up any sponsors yet. We've had some companies reach out. I'm like it would be nice.

Speaker 1: 2:43:58

Changes things though, Sometimes, you know and that's another thing I I will never lose control and I'll never sell out to anybody just because they want to bring in money and give me what I don't. I don't give a fuck. Like this right now, this is just for fun, like I'm planning two or three years down the road for that. This, this right now, is just she gets to learn, she has a job. It's really cool to be able to work with my kid. That's it. This is not a. This is a money fucking pit. It's not a money maker at this moment. But you know, and I want that to be, when a company comes along and they're like, hey, do we really believe in this and we would love to back you, and when I support it and somebody sees me supporting a company, yeah, they know, no questions asked, that I truly believe in that brand and I've had companies reach out yeah, until the right one comes along, and it will within time yeah, as soon as we get a couple of subscribers, it'd be nice.

Speaker 2: 2:44:51

All of you listening. Start clicking.

Speaker 1: 2:44:53

There you go. There you go. Well, thank you again for the conversation. I know it's late and you've been snowmobiling all weekend and you're probably exhausted and want to go to bed.

Speaker 2: 2:45:02

Yeah, no, eventually I'm going to rest on my day.

Speaker 1: 2:45:05

All right, fucking A, I can rest on my day. Thank you, appreciate you. Cool, that was awesome. That was how fun. Thank you so many things.