Rules & Reality: Fatal Accidents, Domiciled vs. Non-Domiciled Drivers on America’s Highways

 America’s highways are seeing deadlier crashes, and truckers are caught in the crossfire. In this episode, host Stacey Yearout breaks down the truth about accidents involving U.S.-domiciled drivers versus non-domiciled commercial drivers, including who is at fault — and why the reporting isn’t always honest. 

 What “non-domiciled driver” legally means
 ✅ Why the numbers are rising
 ✅ Recent major fatal accidents across the U.S.
 ✅ Immigration, licensing, and enforcement failures
 ✅ What truckers want — and deserve — to know 

 🎧 Listen now — and join the conversation at:
  www.TheTruckersRadioPodcast.com

  TheTruckersRadioPd@gmail.com

Trucking Safety

Non-Domiciled CDL Drivers

Truck Accidents United States

FMCSA Driver Rules

Fatal Truck Crashes

Commercial Driver License Laws

Immigration & Trucking Workforce

Highway Fatalities 2025

Trucking Podcast for Drivers

The Trucker’s Talk Radio Podcast

Sabren Group LLC

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Transcript

Dolores 0:00

“This is The Trucker’s Radio Podcast, where real drivers talk real issues, and nothing gets sugar-coated. Today’s topic: Rules and Reality of the Road fatal accidents involving domiciled and non-domiciled drivers across America. Now… get ready for the truth from someone who’s lived 30 years behind the wheel… Here is your host Stacey Yearout. To be part of the conversation or to ask your question on the show, email us at: TheTruckersRadioPd@gmail.com And follow along at TheTruckersRadioPodcast.com This episode is Powered by Sabren Group LLC.” Welcome to the Truckers Radio podcast. Today we got Mike from Texas, and we also got Mike from Georgia. Y'all with us? Yes, sir. All right. Today we're going to chomp on the issue of the undocumented and non domicile driver again, illegals, being in trucks driving up and down the road seems to be a hot topic nowadays. We're just going to keep reporting on it. I mean, I'm sorry, but ain't trying to kick it everybody, but that's just one of the things out here that keeps happening and we just gotta stop. So what's your take on it there, Mike? Well, Stacy, I could tell you I don't feel like. I mean, some may say that you're beating a dead horse, but I don't feel that you are because it's become so popular that you go on social media. The norm now for short videos, whether they're reels on Facebook, a short on YouTube, you see AI videos being produced of non domicile drivers, preferably Middle Eastern and Indian and such of descent. I've seen one the other day where they're sitting there fishing for a CDL out of the, old crab claw game where you used to reach down with a crab claw and get stuffed animal. They're trying to go and get their CDLs. Then it has California black plastered across it. I mean, this is a hot topic for all news in, you know, people need to be made aware of this.'cause when they see. One truck driver do wrong. They feel that it's every truck driver out there and they categorize us as is as a whole and not looking at the individual as the problem you definitely got a point there. You know, it seems like California at, at top of the list has made a mockery ever Federal CDL commercial driver's license. They just pretty much put'em in vending machines just like they were making fun of on YouTube, you know, putting the CDL and vending machines and just kind of saying, Hey, come and get it, you know, put your money into mm-hmm. Go. And that seems to be pretty much the, the going pace and they just keep fighting against it. I seen the other day where they was, pulling some of their, what, the 30,$40 million of their funding because they won't comply. So they're blatantly doing this, knowing they're putting people at risk so they don't care. That's point blank, front and center period. Well, Mike from Texas, what do you, what do you think on it? Well, I, I think they just, the, the government meaning certain states, democrats, I hate to say it, but, they just, they, they make rules up as they go along. And, you know, this is, this rule's been in the F-M-C-S-A, I mean, for years you gotta speak English to drive a ve commercial vehicle. And frankly, I think you should have to speak English and be able to read English. Well, if you read it, you could probably speak it, but you should be able to read English just to drive any type of vehicle. Yes. I mean, I don't think that if you need a license to drive a vehicle, absolutely you need to be able to read the language because there's signs that are written in English. I mean, you don't come to our country here and dictate your language. You're coming here. Try to go over to China and tell everybody, speak American, see where you end up. Yeah. Tell me about it. And to add to Mike's point, I've seen where they've actually started bringing out children's book at the scales and saying, here, read this out loud. Oh yeah, that cat and a hat. Do you see where they switched it up on'em? Yeah. The green eggs and ham. Yeah. As a backup. They, they switched it up on'em. I thought, oh, I bet they, I think that's an easy test. It is an easy test. You know, I mean, give them, give them the rule book. Give them the F-M-C-S-A rule book. Isn't that what we we're supposed to know as professional drivers? Let'em read that. You know, that, that's for sure. You know, I mean, and that's, that's the thing, you know, the, you gotta be able to know the rules, regulations, F-M-C-S-A, I mean, where, where do we draw the line? And that's the biggest problem is, you know, we got so many accidents. I mean, this stuff, and it is just not the non domicile drivers. I mean, we're seeing drivers out of American drivers too. And a lot of that's just, you know, we've got a hell of a mess here with these CDL meals and lack of training. Not to mention you throw into the gouge, you know, selling CDLs in multiple states across the United States, you know that, I mean, they're just asking for a hell of a mess here. And it's starting to come to a head and people are losing their lives when it's coming to a head. I mean, how would you like it if you go in for a surgery, you know, your appendix is hurting, you go in and guess what? Your surgeon just was able to read Cat in the hat, so he's able to open you up, but he can't read that medical journal. You gonna feel comfortable with his dull spoon? I don't know. That might get a little, antsy there. I'm not sure if I want somebody, I'm not even sure. I am not even sure that I want somebody even trying to open me up that that took the damn test and maybe failed it two or three times, though alone being able to read it and I think they were listed how many times, you know, test one, test two, test three. It's a malpractice lawsuit where a guy took the, the state board for his medical license, like 43 times. I forget what state it was in. It is kind of blow in my mind that he was even allowed to take that test that many times without having to go back to school or something to that degree. These rules are place for a reason. You know, they, it's not like everybody's saying you can't come here. They're not saying you can't come. They're saying you gotta follow a procedure just like anywhere else. You know, you gotta follow a procedure to go in the bank and get money outta your own account. Right. You gotta show'em Id, you gotta fill out a little slip, make a withdrawal. You gotta do it that way. You just can't jump over the counter and grab your money. Yeah. You might be going to jail. Depends on if you leave. Right? You know, it really depends on where you're from though. I mean, if you're, if you're here illegally, how they let you go? How much money did you get? They don't even give a shit. Now, if it was me or you went in there, jumped over the counter, we'd be looking at federal prison period. You know, there's always a day pass or has been in the past a day pass for illegals and people that's just, uh, you know, under Biden's America, we wouldn't, you know, my son's a police officer and he'd tell them we're not allowed to bother'em if they, if they pull them over, they don't have a driver's license, they don't have insurance. We're just not allowed to bother him. We have to let him go. I couldn't believe it. And he was so mad.'cause I mean, hell, he, you know, he's like us. He don't like it either. But you know, he's forced, you know, they have to leave him alone. They're not allowed to touch him. Or wasn't under Biden's America. You know, when the Biden administration was in and that went across the country, multi law divisions nationwide. It was the Wild West. There's no wonder they don't want to abide with the rules now. I mean, look what they've been allowed to do in the past four years before now. Well, that should put the radar detector, business outta business, right? And you get, you go speed. Just tell'em no English, no insurance. Oh, you know, I'm from Mexico, or I'm from Venezuela, or you know, India. And I could say wherever, you know, Germany, I could say wherever I'm from and just say I don't know English and just, don't let me go. Can't do nothing. Well, I don't think that's going to work under the Trump administration, Mike. Oh, no. Well, thank goodness that was only under the Biden. You might end up in handcuffs doing that under the Trump administration. Yeah, I think that only happened under the Biden administration. They hadn't, maybe even Obama might as well say hell, Obama was the one running the country back then. Hell, I don't even think, wow. Biden even knew he was in the frigging white House half of the time. Oh, oh, that was, was a big, that was Obama's third term pretty much. Oh yeah. Without a doubt. You know, and then they had that auto pen that held half the shit they pushed through. They didn't even know it either. He didn't even know he was in the world. He was over there in the corner shitting on himself or something. I mean, they ain't trying to dis wreck disrespect a, a previous president that was in office, but. I really ain't got a whole lot for him. Just to be real blunt about it. Well, here's, I never looked at him as a president. I here's the thing, Stacy, I mean, he was an active president and I will say that because he was, but I don't feel he was worth respecting. I, I'm sorry. I'll just come right out and say it and solely because it was proven that he was placed into the presidency. He didn't win. Well, that's what I was just fixing to say. It's kinda hard to respect the winner of the poker game when he took all your money and he cheated to get it. You know, just like human beings elect presidents and the right rules and things. They're all human, just like you and I. So, you know what, if I choose to say I never looked at him as a president'cause he cheated, that's, you know, it ain't gonna make no difference to anybody else. No, it's just an opinion, you know? Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious. You know, they cheated the man in the office for a reason. I mean, a lot of people would still kick and scream and swear that, oh, it didn't happen. And, you know, that's your opinion. And I have mine. You know, we really don't normally go down the rabbit hole on politics and we're just touching a little base on it. Not a lot. And I don't really want to get into politics'cause it's just a, it's a shitty subject. You know, quite frankly, everybody has got an opinion and they, they don't always line up. So, I mean, we all have views and everything, but I think we kind of have to look at it and it's, it is a direct link to what's happening right now. You know, we got a whole bunch of people running up and down the road out here that. Is got bogus driver's license that shouldn't even have driver's license. And they're getting smart, you know, they're starting to learn how to go around these scales. They're starting to learn, hey, run at night. You know, they're not, they're not stupid. They're learning how to avoid DOT and they're, they're keeping track of where, you know, they're, they're pulling everybody into the scales. You know, DOT can only do so much. ICE can only do so much. It, it wrangling up these drivers. So you've got, thousands and thousands of people still out here running around with B CDLs. I mean, whether they not read, maybe we just need to start an organization. Stacy, not to be rude and interrupt, but you know, they got tat truckers against trafficking uhhuh. Why can't we do an organization against this? Because it would benefit every trucker of every ethnicity that is here and has legal. CDLs to get rid of the non-legal CDL holders because of the carnage that they're causing. We can start an organization within the industry to sit there and look out for these guys. And start calling things in. And also disrespects the, the professional driver that is from the United States. You work hard to keep your CDL you darn right. You know, you gotta, you gotta, you got endorsements, you gotta take tests. You definitely gotta take, you better learn how to read English. You take that hazmat exam, you know? Mm-hmm. If you ain't gonna go pay somebody gonna take it for you with the disguise on like they've been doing, you know? Right. I mean, I didn't know that was an option. You gotta stay in shape. I mean, there's a lot to do with this license. It ain't just walk in like you get a regular Class D license. It just disrespects the professional driver, which then transcends into disrespect all down the pike for the truck driver. Well, I mean, it's just, it sets a tone, right? It does. And I do wanna say one thing to clarify. You know, when we say, you know, the American driver, you know, if you came here from another country and you did it the right way, we consider you an American driver. You're an American. Absolutely. Okay. I do wanna clarify on that. That's what I mean. We're not trying to kick it at anybody. This, other nationality or anything like that. You know, we, we embrace everybody. As long as you're here And you've done what it takes to get the CDL. You learned the English, you learned the rule book. You got trained. Hey, my hat's off to you and I'd help you any way I could. Welcome to the family. You did. Exactly. Welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. You know, but like what he was talking about, you know, when you've got thousands of people coming into the industry that just walked over there and bought their, their. Might as well bought it out of a vending machine. It's kinda like devaluing the dollar on the truck driver. I mean, look at our rates. Look at everything that's going on right now. You know, and you can't help but to wonder, was that done outta design for the, the former administration? You follow the money. I feel, people can disagree with me if they wish. I feel that the previous administration wanted total cartage of this country, as did the Obama administration without going down this rabbit hole too far. The Biden administration pretty much proved it. They want total carnage.'cause without total cartage, they can't come in and take over and create a police state of socialism and control you. And if anything, it should be proving that now where they have the government shut down and people are complaining about their SNAP benefits not being effective because of the government shutdown. I'm like, let this be a lesson to you. You wanna sit there and say, be at a no King rally and then the next day you're screaming for them to feed you. You know, let it be a lesson that you want to sit there and say, I want a government that feeds us, but then when they close it down, they could starve. You people need to wake up and that's what the Democratic Party in my humbled to never be considered opinion does, is they mind wash people to believe that you know, oh, we'll take care of you, we'll take care of you, you know, you need to take care of yourself. That's what this country was founded on, is, you know, free willing and able-bodied people that will go out and work and create a living for themselves. And that's where people need to get back to. Well, you know, this is not a country meant for lazy people. You know, on another note there too is, you know, becoming dependent and solely dependent upon a government whether a Democrat or Republican, either one, unless it is out of your control. And I do understand there's people out here that, that can't work. They're disabled. I get it. They have oh, absolutely. Certain, certain circumstances. And hey, by all means, I understand you. You deserve and need the help. That's what the system was set up to do, was to help people in need. But we've got far too many people, I think, abusing the system. I'm gonna word it. To that degree. I agree. And I feel these benefits could be better used for, like you just said, people that are, whether they're mentally disabled, say a veteran's coming back from war and they're severe PTSD and they can't work, by all means, I will pay my taxes, I will donate and I will take care of that veteran. I will take care of the elderly that has taken care of us when we were children. I will take care of people that cannot take care of themselves. But when you're an able-bodied person who is just basically lazy, I can't abide that. Yeah. I mean, if you're in there just sitting and playing video games and looking out the window and screaming at people online and you're two damn lazy to get up and go to work. Yeah, no, that, that's not it to me. You know, I think you should have to work. I hear a lot of people complaining that they've put in, I guess they gotta work what, 20, 30 hours a week or volunteer or something. I forget exactly what it was. You know, under the new rules of the big beautiful bill and all that. Well, you know what? I worked 70 hours a week and then come home. Absolutely. Stacey, you know, I'd, I almost wanna jokingly say I remember my first part-time job too. Oh yeah. You know, and, and that's another thing too. I have to pass federal drug test to make the money to pay the taxes That pays your benefits. And I think, you know what? You should have to pass the drug test too. If I do, you do. You know, that's only fair. I mean, you can call it whatever. Mm-hmm. That is only fair if I have to. Be readily available to pass a drug test at any given time. So should you, you know, it should be. But you know, there's on a, on an extent of like, if you're on probation, you know, a probation officer show up at your house at any given time. And I think they need to do spot checks with that too. I'm sorry, but. Because that's not fair to me. And it's not fair to you or anyone else. And I'm not trying to disrespect anybody right's. Right. And wrongs wrong. And that's the way I've taught my kids growing up. I raised five boys and that's the way I believe you know, rights right and wrong is wrong. And if I'm going out there contributing taxes and you're getting assistance, they need to be some rules because it ain't a free for all. It ain't a free for all for me to make money. You know, actually it's hard to make money, you know, it's hard to keep money that you make because of taxes. That help, you know, generate the things that, that pay for food stamps and so forth. And by all means that I'm not trying to disrespect food stamps. By no means am I saying that subdue that. I don't think, it sounds like you are Stacey. I don't think you're disrespecting at at all.'cause I'm gonna tell you, I used to be on food stamps not much more than 14, 15 years ago, believe it or not, as a truck driver. I won't say which company I was working at. And, my daughter was getting ready to be born. We filled out everything totally honestly, with what I made. And, you know, I had had child support from a previous relationship I was in with what I paid out in child support because I was raised not to be a deadbeat. Dad, take care of your kids the best you can. What I paid out in child support, what she made and what I brought in left over After that, we qualified for$700 a month in food stamps, you know, and it's meant to get people on track, like you had said earlier in this discussion. And I don't have a problem with people using benefits that are starting out, that are young, that are trying to get on track. Maybe they're going to school and they're training to do something. The program is meant to help people. What it's not meant to do is be a career choice for lazy people. Right. Right. That, that's my problem with it. And it is, and, and there's not, but a handful of people that do that. I'm quite sure that, you know, the people that spoils it for everybody else. And that's the problem is, you know, you get people that spoil it for people that do need it, and then there's cuts made that affects everyone. And then that people that's abusing, it's the ones you always hear screaming about it. They're pissed off about it. You know, they've never had to get a job. I know a lady right now, she is in her late sixties. She has never had a job, ever. She totally lives upon the system and has her entire life, but I mean, if you want to know how to get something, oh, you can call her up and she'll walk you through it. Tic-tac toe. Now she knows the shit when she's a smart woman when it comes to knowing how to milk the system, how to get the best bang for out of the state or the system or federal or whatever it is. You know, she's got multiple degrees where she is, went to college because used to, I'm not sure if they still do it or not. They, they would have a lot of extra money left over when they get their school money and she would just simply go to school because she was bored. And it was extra money. It was a career, literally. It was a career for her. I mean, the woman's got a master's degree teaching degree to teach school and has never worked a day in her life. I know this woman. That's crazy. I mean, in her entire life she has, she has set on a check her entire life, period. It will not. And how you gotta ask yourself, how does that happen? Well, I mean, she looked me right in my eyes. She said why she does not work is she would lose her benefits. She, she said that. Oh, I've heard that before. She said that to me with a straight face. But you have a master. I've master degree heard from numerous people. But my point is, is where are the officials in the state government, because this is, you know, let's face it, state to state, you know, in in the programs here, where are these officials at, in these state governments that are not paying attention to these people? Or is it a budgetary thing where if they get so many people on the program, that means they get a bigger budget from the Federal Reserve next year or some crap like that? I don't got a degree in economics, but I'm wondering how this works. Like how they can justify someone over 60 years, you know, and probably a minimum at least 40 of that. She's been on the system collecting a check and that hasn't raised a red flag. Well, no, it hasn't raised a red flag because she votes blue. Wow. I mean, strong point. A strong point they got. Well, here's the thing, these people that run a Democratic party right now, they ain't got a lot going for'em, so they gotta use any angle that they can use. And if that means playing dirty, giving money, promising. Oh, they good at that. You know, lying for most part, you know, they lie and say, oh, we'll give you this or give you that, and you'll only get a third of it, you know? They promised the world, you know, kicking the doors open on the borders, all that, you know, they really thought they were going to get all these people in here and get them because they, they had a hard push trying to get it legal for the illegals to vote in our country. I mean, let's go to a foreign country and do that, and they would behead you. You know, their elections were very serious that they would behead you, but apparently they thought it was okay to try to push for that in the United States. Well, it didn't work here either. You know? I mean, it is just ridiculous, you know, and, and you know, there, again, I normally am not big into politics. I don't like talking about it. It's a shitty situation regardless. But this directly affects what we're looking at here, you know, all. Yeah, I think it does. And you know, the non domicile drivers, you know, we've got this one right there in California, three dead, four injured, you know, they've charged the guy with, you know, unlawful even being in the United States, lawful presence of the United States. No, CD wasn't he the one that was under the, influence of narcotics? Yes. And there again, when you bought a damn CDL, well, I guess you ain't gotta participate in the damn drug testing community either. Well, I mean, how can they have you post for a random drug test when you don't exist? You're a ghost. Yeah, exactly. They was one of them last week, I think it was in Illinois. The guy killed, he, they, they, they did, uh, either Indiana and Illinois, but he had an accident. He killed somebody and it was illegal. He didn't even have a CDL. He took his brother's driver's license and that was a big thing. He didn't even have a CDL. He thought that was okay. That kind of leads me back into. You might want to be able to read English, you might know that. Kinda back to what Mike from Texas's point there, they could read that green book called F-M-C-S-A. You know, they might know what's going on here. The biggest issue here, safety, and they're running our industry into the ground. The reason our rates are, has took a hit for the last 2, 3, 4 years, is we're bombarded with all these illegal drivers. If I didn't have to take a damn drug test and I didn't have to take physical and I could just run any way I wanted to and I didn't really get bothered, I could probably run a couple of log books. If I ain't got a real CDL, hell, it ain't gonna matter if I get a ticket'cause hell, I ain't gonna pay it anyway. Right. All that shit. You just go get another CDL next week. Yeah. Just go buy me another with all the money that I make. You know, that's the problem. And is, there's no consequence to a guy that ain't got nothing to lose. You know? I mean, they sit there and say it's, well, it's all e-log now. I'm like, well hell, you can buy more than one tablet. Oh. You can make multiple logins. There's, there's companies I talked to a company that wanted me to lease my truck on with'em up outta Chicago and I'm like, I'm good. I, I, I hauled a load for'em. That one of their tractors had broke down and I went and picked the load up and took it onto where it was going and they were trying, Hey, you know, you got a, get a nice truck. Hey, you know, would you be interested in bringing it over? Oh, I'll buy you whatever you want and you know, we'll work it out and da da da da. And he kind of pulls me off to the side and he is like, you, you gotta run E-log. He said, we, we got, we got fixed for E-log. I said, really? He said, oh yeah. He said, we just make you multiple logins, multiple driver IDs. Yeah, I was gonna say, you can run multiple tablets or multiple logins like you said, and I mean, not for nothing back in the day. You know, we used to, when E-logs are first implemented and as an owner operator, we had to have'em shoot, you can edit the drive time as mine. I got pulled over one day and my logbook was legal, everything.'cause it was an E-log. But the only difference was, is I could be my own safety manager because I was technically an owner operator. I booked my own loads and I could edit my own stuff. That was the program I ran. Utah Scales down there. You know the one down there at, um, on Highway six down, uh, south of, um, Spanish Fork down there going towards, uh, 70 Oh, exactly where you went. Oh yeah. It's out in the middle of nowhere. Yep. Lady pulled me in there and stopped me. He said, I know yours is editing because you know most, and she's right. Most e-logs will sit there and say, 1.5 miles east, northeast of this city, where I was literally typing the cities in like you would on a traditional log. I got shut down and then had to re-comp comply with a new log book that is, and the people are leased with. They were really upset about it. I said, there ain't nothing we can do about it. They kind of got us by the short curies here, you know, and well, you know, I mean, that just goes to, you know, we, we tried to go ag exempt. But we did too much commercial on that, on that side to, to let it happen. That just goes to show you I could cheat the damn paper log books way better than they, you know? Yeah. I had no boy over New Mexico and like I said, I'm not proud of this, but back in the day, hell I was, I'd run two, three damn log books. I worked for this one company. I run a dedicated route out of a undefined Destin or place to California around San Francisco, down to la and back in about five and a half days, I went through four packs of those loose leaf log books a month doing that. Goodness gracious. I thought I was bad'cause I was going through one and a half, two packs myself. I'm gonna tell you that was I, got over there. I just left Amarillo. I had to stop out there at the big Texan, get me a big ass steak. Mike knows all about that. He likes that big Texan. I turned him loose on that down there. He, I thought he was going to drag him outta there by his heels, by his feet. But, uh, I got over at that, hit that scale, new New Mexico and Level One Shake down. I went in Lon Boy. They was just going through that log book, going through that log book, and finally that guy, he just shoved that log book right across the table and says, all right, got here. I said, all right, thank you, sir. Well, when I went out the door, DOT, another DOT dude followed me out the door. He said, come here, son. I said, yes, sir. He said, buddy. He said, I know what you're doing. And he said, now I'm going to catch you with your pants down. I said, you have a good day, sir. And I went onto the truck and I got the hell outta there. I mean, yeah. I ran across Old Boy like that down in Pueblo, Colorado. Oh, I'll never forget that day, man. We were known'cause we ran cattle out of Southwest Kansas. And, I come through there one day I had a reefer trailer on, go pick up a different load. And, I had come out of, Southwest Kansas and I told'em, I went up through and I missed my turn. I had to hit through the scales of, lineman on 70. I didn't have no choice to get turned back around. I come back down, got on the road I needed to be and come back down through, play blown and hit them scales down there. And he's sitting there fi fingering through my, log book and he's, he went back the full, was it 14 days? Mm-hmm. I think it is. And because I've been on e-Logs for so long now, I forget, but I think it's, yeah, 14 days. So, yeah. He, he, he was trying to find something wrong and he, you know, so he started questioning me. He's like, so where are you coming out of? I said, you know, over here in Kansas. And, he asked where the town was because it was a small town. It was called Jetmore, Kansas. Mm-hmm. And, he's like, where exactly is that? I said, it's, well, it's between Nest City and Dodge City. And he was like, are you trying to be some kind of smart ass? I said, well, well, no. I said, you got an at, I'll show you where it's at. I said, it's off of, you know, this highway over here. That's about the best I can tell you. If you know where Dodge City is, it's between there and Nest City. He's like, all right. He is like, where are you heading? I said, down, down here. And he's like, okay. And he was like, which way did you come? I said, well, I came up through this way and I made turn over here. And I went through Ahman and came down through lineman.'cause I missed my turn. And that's why I went through lineman and I came back down through this way. He kinda smiled and he was like, all right, yeah, you're telling the truth. He's like, I know which way you came, so I kind of figured you did.'cause your, you know, your scales are linked to lineman. And he just kinda looked up at nodded. And I was like, he's like, how long did it take you to get over here from Jet Moore to over here? And I looked at that log and pointed, I said about how long that log book said I did, he shoved that log book at me. He's like, son, get the hell out of here. I said, yes sir, you have a good day. Right. He was looking, he was trying hard. Oh, Colorado. You know they used to be a bear back in the day. They did. Oh man. I'm telling you. Well, and we had a reputation with that company, you know? Man, did we have a reputation? I got DTD eight times in one freaking year. And I don't mean just a check. They knew who we were. Yeah. You know, we, we ran refrigerated and we ran cattle and I ain't, I ain't afraid to say it, we were outlaw af back then. Oh yeah. You know, and so they knew about us. Well, you know, it was about the way it was, when Robert worked for me, I actually had Robert with me that one day there we was taking a load out to California and that was when, probably one of the few times I ever went through the lineman scales that didn't get dtd. I was got in a hurry coming out the ramp and blow the damn turbo on that big classic I had and I limped that some bitch over to the flying Jay and that's where me and Robert sat over there. We, we pulled the turbo off. I called over at Louisville, Kentucky, and hoarded me. Another one had it overnighted to the flying J there. We had everything off. What is it ready? Is it, is it Louisville or Louisville? It is Louisville, yeah. Hell, I live in Kentucky, so we're going to go with the slang. And it's Louisville. I've always heard it called Louisville, so. Right. Uh, I think it's actually meant to be pronounced Louisville, but uh, you know, when you're from, when you're from somewhere, you just sling it the way it, everybody calls. Oh yeah. But we overnighted that turbo of the flying Jay, and then I had the other one ready to go back in the box for the core return. But anyway, we, we changed that old, that was back when you could still work on the damn truck, man. I carried enough tools, man. I could fix about any thing you wanted to fix on a truck, put a turbo on'em. But now you got the damn, you know, computerized actuators and like all your IXs, you know. Oh God. Yeah. You got that geometrical blooming onion turbo, I call it. And you gotta put it on the computer to set it up and you just can't change'em like that anymore. But back in the day, I could rebuild a good old 60 series Detroit for about nine grand or less, and you could actually work on the damn trucks back then, you know, I worked on'em pretty much myself a lot of times. If it was something I could fix, I fixed it. If not, I'd just, run it in the shop and get it fixed. But you save yourself a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of bs, you know? Look how far I would've had to have that truck towed to get it into a Freightliner dealership into them Denver. You can't imagine what that would've cost me even back then. Well, yeah. I mean, the only one close enough near there was the TA and lineman that could work on a freight liner, and then the freight liner dealership was over there in Denver, if I'm not mistook. Right. Right. Well, you know. Yeah. But anyway, it is definitely, you know, back in the day, you know, the Detroits is a whole lot different nowadays. You know, I think that new truck Mike from Texas here has got, it's got that DD 15 in it. What kind of mileage you getting outta that truck now, Mike? Nine flat for the last 30,000 some odd miles. That's awesome. I'm telling you, I'm not trying to be brand Pacific or any of that, but that freight line over that DD 15 and it's a money making truck. You know how to run it. You can't run it down the road. 80 mile an air, 70, all that. You gotta run that truck right? Run it. 62 mile an air, religiously get it conditioned. And you're still pulling a step deck flatbed, ain't you? Because that's even more drag right there. Yeah. You put you a good dry box or a reefer behind that where you got some good wind, you know, and all your wind dams and everything under the trailer, you'd probably get up under a 10, 10 and a half. I'd be interested to see what that truck would do. Pulling a cattle pod behind it.'cause that's like pulling a parachute behind you all'em open holes. Yeah. You know, ca cattle pods by far gotta be the worst wagon to pull when it comes to fuel economy. Yeah. For the most part. Yeah. You know, back in my days of pulling tanks, man, that was probably one of the most efficient That that smooth. Yeah. Tanks are great skin of that tank, you know, that was pretty good. I miss being an old tanker yaker man. I liked hauling a tanker. Oh, I did too. I loved it, man. It is just one of'em things, man. It is once you get it in your blood, but unfortunately I just get tired of dealing with DOT and hazmat and all that, you know? Oh, yeah. I see. We did food grade back in the day when I did it. It's wasn't as bad. Right, right. Caught a lot of corn syrup and yeast and stuff like that. Vinegar and all that sorts of stuff. Right. So Mike, yeah. How's that truck doing before you anyway? Mechanical wise, everything still holding up pretty good for you. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's, you treat it right. I mean, I maintain it pretty well, so really ain't got no complaints on it. I mean, it's not a, you know, we used to call'em throwaway trucks, I think. Right. And I think it's the way to go these days. I mean, rebuilding engines and all that, you're gonna rebuild the DEF before you rebuild the engine. Mm-hmm. And the way that these repair shops are these days, I mean, you're better off just getting a warranty and kind of following what the mega carriers do. And they get a certain mileage, get rid of it, get back under the warranty. Right. Yeah. Protect you. Definitely a lot different than the way we used to do it. You know, you could, you could rebuild a truck for a relatively good price. You could afford to work on'em, you know, you had decent rates at mechanic shops and, and all that. I mean, nowadays, I mean, everybody wants.$50 an hour to go to work and then they don't wanna work when they get there. I mean, it is just the, the labor cost a alone in a lot of your places. But, it's hard enough to even find these, shops to even grease a truck, right? I mean, I gotta sit under there like a babysitter and make sure that they, they, I mean, that's your job. You know, you should know these trucks, you know? Oh, exactly. And if you're paying somebody to do something, you shouldn't miss it. And I get it. Everybody's, you know, nobody's perfect, but if you're missing it every time, nine times outta 10, and it ain't,'cause you know how, you know. Right. There's laziness. Well, I think a lot of times too, they look, and this was something I was talking about on one of the q and a. Podcast that I was doing with Leah, you know, guy, you know, emailed in, was asking about, you know, maintenance and so forth. And I said, you know, number one of the, number one things you got to do is you gotta educate yourself on these trucks. cause if you don't know what you're doing, you're a sitting duck. You know, if you don't know whether they're doing it right, or if you're not watching and you don't know enough about mechanical stuff with the truck to let them know, you know, then they're just, they're not going to do it. But you can watch'em. The minute they figure out, you know what you're talking about and you're pretty mechanically acknowledged, or they start pulling out all the stops, you can pay attention to'em and you can see that, you know, if they can get by with it, they're going to get by with it. Yeah. Do the right job, or at least most of'em. Try to do it, but, and I'm not gonna say it, it is the way across the board there, there's good, the bad, ugly in all of'em, regardless of the fact. The good ones are just harder to find. Unfortunately, yes. The bad outweighs the goods sometimes, they got that, wreck that happened down in Breen, Texas right there. I 10 with a pickup struck a disabled 18 wheeler. That was kind of a jacked up situation. The guy said he had mechanical electrical failure and had no lights until moments before. Impact. That's right. Outside of San Antonio. There a convenient Yeah. I just don't think he had'em on. But that's just my opinion. I can't, I can't say that for sure. But, you know, I mean, it happens, you know, it's, most definitely a big issue here is, you know, mechanical issues. And that's a big thing with your non domicile drivers. They just don't give a shit. I mean, they're rolling up and down the road with a, with A-J-C-C-D-L, jak, CDL, they're not paying insurance on most of this unless they're just, you know, they got their own authority or something. They don't care. Well, why would they care if they don't if you don't have to? Right. You know, if you don't have to care, just like you said earlier with the logbook. If you could run wild with a logbook, who's gonna care? Oh yeah. Everybody else does as well. Well, I mean, if you get a ticket and, you know. It is, it is a bought CDLI mean, are they really going to revoke it? No. I mean, hell, what are they going to do with it? I mean, it shows active. Yeah, but I mean, what are they going to do with it? I mean, is California ever going to put that on the record? You know, and that's the thing that really grabs me is the amount of effort that California puts out in their scale houses, you know, banning and, you know, all these scales all are so strict and I mean, everybody dreaded to go into California, especially back in the day, but it was DOT was just all over you. And I take care of my truck and I still go outta the way to avoid banning right to this day. But look at what they're doing with the CDLs. I mean, it makes absolute, so 360 degrees turn there. It's like they just don't give it rats ass about safety or people dying. But it just basically, and I'm gonna point this out, it, the scales ain't nothing but a money, money grab. Okay. If the rest of the state, the CDL Department of Federal Motor Carriers don't give a shit about the CDLs and stuff, what are the scales doing? They're not about safety. It's a money grab. That's exactly what it is. It's the way they fund their government, the way they fund their officers and the way they fund their departments. You know, California's broke everybody's no debt for years, you know, they're, they're constantly giving out money and stuff and then screaming for federal funding and everything else. And where they're such a large state, they get a lot of funding, but they're fixing to get some of it, you know, cut down. All right. We got Sam from Ohio. Just called in caller here. He's been on the podcast before. I think you remember him, don't you? Mike? Who's that? Sam from Ohio. Sam, yeah. Oh yeah. What's up Sam? Hey, how you been, man? Not too bad. Not too bad. Not too bad. You doing all right? Oh, yeah. Just, just working, man. Right on. It is working, working, trying to make that money. Oh, yeah. But you know, that's what we were, what we were talking about, Sam is bringing you up to speed. You know, we're just kind of talking about the non domicile drivers again, you know, California, how they just don't really care. They, they're getting in trouble, not complying with the federal motor carriers and, and Trump administration on the, uh, the Trump administration, on the non domicile band, you know? So I seen the other day that they had gotten shut down on$40 million worth of their funding, you know, and they're going to keep hitting them until they start complying. And me and Mike was just addressing. You know, how strict all the scales and how strict their DOT is to roadside inspections and all, you know, CHP, the whole nine yards. To me, if they're not going to give a shit anywhere else, that ain't nothing but a, a money grab. You know, the scales is just set up for a money grab. If they're not going to care, they're, they're selling CDLs, giving anybody and everybody a CDL, even if they're not even here legally. They're just simply using the scales and, and all that as a money grab. I mean, there ain't nothing else they can say. You can't just scream safety and be strict and, and all this, and find all these people and then open the door over here and just let everything, anything go over here. You just gotta follow the money, man. That's what all the problem is in this country right now, the money. Mm-hmm. And, you gotta, you gotta think about it when logic goes out the window and you say, why would they do this? Like, why would the, nobody in their right mind would, like, why, why do you want, why do you want illegals to have healthcare under our dime? Why? There's no logical reason. You know, all that's gonna do is put stress on the American people. You, you want power. You don't care about the American people. You want the power. Power comes in the vote. You get them democratic seats. And that's where all the problem is right now, is the money. Everybody's following that money. Right. And they're gonna, they're gonna sell us out, you know, most of these politicians. And that's why I gotta say, you know, and I'm from Texas, but I'll tell you what. It. I, I'm, I'm with Trump 150000%. Right. That's for sure. You know, because, you know, I grew up, he, he cares. Oh yeah, he does. You know, a man wouldn't be going through all the shit that he is going through if he didn't care. You know, a lot of people says, if I had this kind of money, I wouldn't have that. I wouldn't have, I don't have his courage. I admit it. Mm-hmm. I admit it. I don't have that kind of courage. I, I admire that, that man.'cause if I had his money, I'd be on an island somewhere. I wouldn't see a blip of the news or nothing. Yeah. I think that's the truth. I'd be gone. Right. And, but look at him. He's got that. And what's he doing? He got taking bullets. Some people after the indictments would've said, forget it. I'm done. It's too much stress. Mm-hmm. That's for sure. You ain't gonna find nobody like him in our lifetime. And then the media betrays it. Like, oh, he is doing this, he is doing that. Because I feel like they just want us all against each other. They want a civil war. They want everybody against each other. And you know, they don't, they don't want, you know, him to be back in there again. Somebody said he could run another term. I was like, any, he really? Yeah. I, I didn't know that he said it best. He was, I forget who they were roasting, but he was at some big dinner that all these people go to and he said, you know, when I was a democrat, y'all, were best friend. You know, you said that I was, you know, you invited me to visit with your children. You invited me to your home. You always wanted my money. And, you know, and I donated to your cause. He said, but the minute that I've went to run as president, as a Republican, I was a no good, dirty rotten scoundrel. So what does that tell you? Like, what did he do in between being your friend and then now nothing. Alls he did was he's gonna, he's like, oh, well, let's just get some truth out here. But all your so-called buddies, yeah. They weren't playing by the rules. They weren't for the truth. So now, you know, you're a threat, you from friend to threat, you know, it's just, it's so obvious. And as far as the illegal stuff, the illegal immigration, it's such a question that kind of irritating in a way because why are we even having the conversation? Like, are we getting to the point where we're that in our brains, that we can't just see what's, what's happening and just say, man, this is just night and day. Hey, you can't come here legally. This is the rules. This is what happens. You go to jail, you get sent back where you came from. Try again, you know. I don't understand it. Where's the logic anymore? Well, a lot of them have volunteered to go back because they know if they get caught in, sent back, they ain't allowed to come back legally. You know, I think that is the main reason why some of'em do go back is because if they get caught and they get sent back by ice, they get disqualified. They can't ever apply to come back legally. And I think that's a fair reason for me. You know what I mean? If, you know, I always sit and think, man, what if I snuck into to another country without anybody knowing I was in that country without somebody knowing that I was there? Not to mention, try to vote in one of their elections, you know, and then go over there and burn their flag and, you know. Do you think I'd make it out alive? I don't know that I'd make it 24 hours. Somebody had me hung at high noon, most of these countries hold their flag and I mean, that's a death sentence. You burned one of their flags, man. That's a death sentence. They don't play with that and they're doing it. Our nation's capital. Yeah. They're so brazen to do it right in our nation's capital to say, what are you going to do? Basically, you're not gonna do nothing. And you know, I will say this though, I just thought of this. I'll give the non domicile driver credit for if there's any constellation I give you. You got some cahones to come here not knowing how to read, and you wanna drive a semi-truck on these roads. Could you imagine going to China and even with experience, and you go over there and know everything's written in Chinese, how you gonna get to your destination? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I wouldn't wanna do that. But you know, you know how long that you GPS mine's wrong every day. I'm the one in control of the truck. I use it for arrive that time. I never, I just say, oh, yeah, okay, you agree with me? Fine. I'm the boss though when it comes to that. But these guys, they just plug it. I mean, how many times it's wrong? Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. No doubt. Just imagine like, you're going somewhere and they say, take this over here, and, you're looking for an address and it's all written in Chinese and you miss the address. As well as I do, you could drive these trucks and you miss a turn. You, it only take you 20 miles to turn around. Well, and hell look at how much trouble we have putting stuff together with Chinese directions, let alone trying to drive a rig. That's the damn truth of it right there. You buy something off tmo, you might as well forget it. Just throw the damn directions in the garbage. They ain't no translating that shit. It probably ain't even damn Chinese any damn way. It's probably some damn shit, man. Look at the picture anyways. Well half of'em don't even put pictures on the shit anymore. They just put the writing down there. Especially if you buy it off the Tmobile. Oh boy. Well I see we got Mike back. Yes sir. I'm sorry about the absence there. The wife was calling me on her way home. She had questions about the dog kennel. I heard that. Yeah, we're trying to do a fill in there'cause the bottom of the ground's getting muddy from the kennel. And I said, well, everything slopes downhill. And I said The only thing honestly that's not going to get muddy is if we fill it with gravel. Right. Or sand, preferably gravel.'cause sand will wash out quicker. Mm-hmm. With three quarter inch minus. And I said build it up to a certain point and then lay a mat on it, a rubber mat that we can pressure wash and clean. That would be the best bet. Right. Because you know how a dog is, man, dog's gonna pee and poop on stuff and trample the grass down to nothing there ain't no avoiding that. Right. But you know, back what we was talking about with the non domicile drivers and stuff, you know, you go over there and I wouldn't, I wouldn't even attempt it and, and I've got 30 years in the game. I mean, I could probably pull it off, but for how long, you know, most of these cats coming over here, they've never drove a truck. They have no clue what they're doing. They're just, they're handed a CDL, they're not put through any kinda learning school or nothing, and they just put'em out on the roads. They here figure it out. If you kill a few people, oh well, you know, you're braver than I am. Stacy, if you'd go over there and try, I think there would be one type of job over there overseas that I would want as a driver. And that would be only be like a taxi cab driver. I can turn a car around. You're talking in Europe, the streets are old, older than America. They ain't even made for big, you know, big semi trucks over there. But yet they're figuring it out so. Right. I'd be the i'd, I'd want to, I'd be a guy Fieri over there. Go around to different restaurants and let him drive me around. There you go. You know, I'll just give the thumbs up, thumbs down everybody. There you go. Know what that means. That's right. Yeah. Be the food tester. All the different places. Yeah, that would be pretty cool. They got some cool ass, oh man. Food and stuff. I'll tell you what, I'd get lost going back to Germany. I spent some time over there in my younger days. My stepdaddy was in the Army. I missed that German food. They got good food over there. Mm-hmm. They used to be a little restaurant. I think it was a German restaurant over by the TA there in Nashville. We used to walk over there and get some German food every now and then. That was pretty good. I know Sammy, he, I'll say this, uh, like real quick, Stacy, I just wanted to add this real quick. Uh, that, you know, you gotta think like, for them to come over here and even be willing to go and say, I never drove truck in their language and I'm gonna go and do this. It must be pretty bad there. Like, you can't make money and you want to come to the United States of America. You know, you just gotta think of it in those terms. And I know we're always talking about the negative ramifications of them being. But on the flip side of it too, think about also what they go through. Not this, I'm not trying to justify them being here illegally or anything. I understand your point, Mike. I think you're making a good one. Um, you know, it is supposed to be a country you come to, whereas the harder you work, the more your dreams can come true. But you said it before, there's a procedure to go through. If you go through that procedure, Hey man, fantastic. I'll be the first person out there trying to help you. Stacey and I have talked about this on a previous show. We will try to help you learn. This is a great career for somebody to make money and how brave are they to sit there and do something in a different country They know nothing about, like I. All right. Yes. Are we back? Yep, we're back. All right. Yeah. Basically recapping there is, Stacy and I were talking about that in a previous episode, Mike, where it is brave for them to want to come to, from another country to come over here.'cause there is a language barrier, but for example, say an immigrant comes here. And they pass. Where I work, they have a large driver pool with a melting pot of different cultures. I've seen people come from Afghanistan, India, Africa, and so on, and we welcome all people and I think that's great when someone wants to come from another country. And make money here and live that dream. That's what this country was founded on. You know, me being a veteran, that's what I stood for, and defended this country for is those many freedoms like you had said Mike. But there is a procedure to go through. The people that go through those procedure, I welcome with open arms and we'll always try to help as do the other people in our country, as I'm sure you would. As Stacy and I had talked in previous, episodes that we will as well. And to touch on your point earlier about, would you go to another country to try to drive? I think you're absolutely correct. If you went to say a country like China or Japan or any other country for that matter, it would be extremely intimidating. Take Europe for example. I've talked to several drivers and watched shows about drivers who drive in Europe. There is a huge difference. Of just say you live in France and you have a load to go pick up over in Germany, will your fuel card work in Germany because you're now in another country. Do you speak German when you get there to get your load? If you don't speak German and they don't speak French, what is the common language a barrier that you're gonna be able to communicate with? Do you guys both speak English or do you both speak Spanish? That is a common problem that we take for granted here in this country.'cause we all speak English or we're all supposed to over there. They do not. I watched a show where their heavy rescue, they're based out of Finland. A guy from Germany came up there, got shut down by the Finnish police and his truck was impounded. For several days and had to live out of his truck while the company in Germany was trying to pay the fine for him to get out of the, repo lot. I mean, I couldn't imagine. And this guy didn't speak a lick, the Finnish language. He was German. All he could speak is a little bit of English. And luckily for him, the finish spoke a little bit of English. So I agree with you. I think it would be extremely intimidating to go to another country. And try to learn their systems and how to drive. I have friends that drive up in Canada. He's like, just acclimating yourself with a log book. Different, you know, differences is enough. And then in America you may agree or disagree, but I feel like about 50 miles, any direction you drive, you gonna hit a truck stop in this country damn near. You go to Canada and you get to some of the Providences up there say Manitoba and all that Calgary, you might two, three hours before you hit another truck stop. You gotta really plan accordingly. There's a lot of things drivers take for granted in this country, not to say. That we should be guilt tripping ourselves. Just be appreciative of what we do have, you know, and for all the other drivers who want to come out there, American or immigrant, who want to become drivers, and you do it the right way. I applaud you because this is not a job for everybody. This is a, some people try to make it out to seem like a very simple job. Anyone could do it. Well, I mean, come try it. I went to a place today that was extremely difficult to get into. I'd like to see most people try to do what I did today, getting in into this place with a conventional road tractor and a 53 foot trailer. I do it every day. You know, there's kind of crazy stuff up there, you know, do it every day. And that's these guys, you know, that's why you see'em doing the U-turns. In fact, it just kind of brought that to my attention. It wasn't even a non domicile driver. It was a, an American driver, but you would think he would be trained better or this and that, but we just got a level of stupidity you know, we've got a level of stupidity out here nowadays that is just unreal. I think we've all heard the other day the, Publix driver day cab doing a u-turn in the middle of the highway and the car ran under him fatality. I'm not sure if the car ran the red light or not. Now he was in his defense, he was in one of those turn lanes. When he did that, I could see the markings on the ground, and of course. They're gonna make it out to be the truck driver's fault. Right out the gate always is. That's what they always do. I ain't seeing a whole lot of publicized media about it, so that kind of tells me that maybe he wasn't at fault. Maybe the car ran the red light, but it still happened,, and it's still another death, it's another fatality. And, he couldn't if that was the case, he couldn't help the car run the red light. But we're just seeing so much. And it's bringing the attention to everybody, every break. It's still a negative outlook on the industry. And especially the one out there in California. Man, that guy right there, he just blatantly, he ran right through them cars. He didn't even hit the brakes. I mean, come you see the dash cam on that? It was ridiculous. It was like, oh my goodness. Yeah. I'm gonna make a video and talk about that a little further later on. For YouTube there, and it is just unreal. I mean, how do you just go and be so outta your mind on drugs that you don't even know to hit the brake? I mean, that's a natural body reaction, natural human reaction. When you see you're about to hit something. You're just going to hit, you're going to hit the brakes. It's just one of'em things unless you're so screwed outta your mind on drugs or alcohol. There again when you don't have to follow the drug testing community because your CDL is not valid. It's not, it is bought, you're not with a valid company. They don't give a shit. They don't drug test you. It's the wild West and that you're just ain't nothing good going to come out of it. You know, in fact, you know, they're hurting a lot of the other drivers that did do it the right way that are from other countries and stuff.'cause they're causing Right. The shade over on mo guys, and it's not fault. Right. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at best is when he looks at some of these, not drivers in particular, I don't wanna misquote this, but. He has looked at other people and said, you are, what's giving immigrants a bad name? Because a lot of people forget Arnold Schwarzenegger is an immigrant. A very, at one time, governor of, of California, very successful movie star, successful bodybuilder, and he is one of the toughest critics. On immigration right now. He tells people, he's a lot of, some of these people, are not to say a lot of, some of, I'm sorry, excuse me, but some of these people are what's giving immigrants bad names, where there are good immigrants out there. I have met plenty of great immigrant families'cause I first started driving to Chicago, Polish, some of the friendliest people I've ever met were Polish families going to pick up at some of their warehouses and stuff. Russian families,, very friendly people, German families. There are good immigrants out there, and I don't think nobody's disputing that. What I feel is when you come do this job, we had a discussion about this at work. And, when you come do this job, it is a professional standpoint. You need to be trained to do this job where this industry is falling away from that professional title. And it pisses me off is because you get the truck driver out there, certain individuals, not all. That want to come out there in their tore up barbecue stained t-shirts and their jogging pants with their slides or flip flops, hair not combed, and going up to a window and going, yeah, I'm here to pick up a load. Now, does that individual look professional? No. No, not at all. Absolutely not. And that's where we're getting away from that professional title, and they're trying to label as unskilled labor, which is total bullshit in my book. Well, if it was unskilled label, why do we have all the regulations? They can't have their cake either. Exactly. They can't have their cake. Thank you. We're unskilled labor. You know what? Take that damn little green book and do away with it. Put it through the cheese grater. You know, if we're unskilled labor, you know, they're, again, they're just trying to play down the dollar value of the truck driver, you know, and it's been done for years and years on, well, they're also, but they're also making a strong point to that industry though, where you're getting some of these guys on these, in these bigger companies we're not gonna down any one company as we previously talked about, but they're. They just look unprofessional. They're not dressed. I mean, at the very least, is it that hard to throw on a clean pair of blue jeans work pants and a clean t-shirt or even a clean button down shirt or polo, and make a better impression upon these vendors that you're picking up or customers picking up. Appreciate their business because without them, you're not making money for your family. Right? You know, it goes back to what you were saying about the skilled labor, because if it wasn't skilled labor, why would it be so hard to get people to actually be able to get behind the wheel and move that equipment around? So these carriers are willing to put anybody behind the wheel that can do it if they're a slob, but they can drive, they're willing to put you behind the wheel because there's no choice. Now, if you had a line of guys with their tie on and shirt ironed and hair combed, and you know, groomed nicely. You think that slab would have a job? No, but that, that, that goes right back to the point that it's not easy to do this job. No, it's not. No. And it's just like what I said the other day, you know, we have an issue when a lot of people play down and try to treat the truck driver like a third class citizen. But you can't look and act and walk and talk like a third class citizen expect to be treated differently. You know, you're going to get treated accordingly to what you put forward. You know? And it's kinda like when you go out here and you wash and wax your car and you clean it up and armor all the dash and shine the tires up, man, that damn car drives better. It feels better. It runs better, it gets better. Gas mileage. I mean, it's like a brand new car. And think about yourself in that same aspect, you know, go wash your ass. You know, put some nice clothes on. And comb your hair, brush your teeth. You'll feel like a different kind of human being. You'll feel like a real and important human being and be, you know, it just, you bring attitude to yourself, whether it's negative or it's positive. And God, for God's sakes, deodorant is not your enemy. Where are the deodorant? Oh, don't even get me started on deodorant. You know, I'm going to tell you, I raised five boys, and I'm going to tell you what one of'em boys come out of their room without some deodorant on. My little five foot wife would have her foot right in somebody's high end. Well, that's what it needs to be. I'm going through it with my young boy, with his hygiene. I won't go into a lot of details, but by God, we are battling with his hygiene. Oh yeah. And he's about one step removed from me stripping him down outside and just giving him a cold hose bath. No, sometimes he don't start acting right. Sometimes. That's what it takes, you know, I had a student I'd done that way. I kept telling him, Hey, come on. Let's go get a shower. No, I'm good. I'm good. We went a couple of weeks. You know, he may have took one shower. I caught his ass out in the damn fuel line. I just hosed him down. I said, man, you, I've smed your fuel. Stinking ass asshole. I'm going to, I did. I hosed his ass down. You did. No way. You know I oh yeah. That's the scary part. I know you did. Yeah. I don't play around. Oh my God. Nope, I don't play around. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I mean, the kid could drive, but I ended up taking him back to the terminal and I said, I ain't taking him back. And he's like, well, we can't give you a hundred percent credit on him. I said, don't care. I said, I can't. I just can't. Is that the same fellow that said he, I guess he, defecated in your seat and you say, he said what? You said what happened? He said, I farted. He said, that's no fart. Wasn't that him? Yeah, he shit in my seat. Oh, I am not joking. Oh, no, this, he, we were over in Baltimore. I forgot about that. Leave it to Mike. Bring this back up. Damn, this was a good one. That was a memory you were trying to compartmentalize and forget about where I'm over in the jump seat and he's backing in and, you know, we were in Baltimore and he got so worked up in Baltimore traffic. He literally, he shit in my seat. I am not kidding. We, I can't make this shit up. Yeah, he's shit in my damn seat. He got up and there's a shit stain in my seat and I said, what the. If it was Atlanta, I could understand. Oh my god, I was so mad. And it, Lysol wipes might not get that out, man. Oh no. Oh, I was mad. Oh, I was tore up. Oh, I would've been mad that, yeah, that I could see. Why you cold hosed. Oh, shower deck cat outside the fuel island, man. Oh. He'd go take a shower. There ain't no damn way. He'd go take a shower and he'd still stink when he'd come out. I could pass him, man. You got soap, you got, you know, try to hint, dude. Yeah. You need to do something besides what you're doing. And I'll tell you what, you smell like a sack full of assholes, dude. I mean, you gotta be doing something wrong. And there ain't no call for that. There are no call for that. No. I mean, it is just I don't know where, how can you not, how can you not smell yourself? I am so self-conscious about how I smell out here. As a driver because of, we constantly have scrutinize customer interaction because of where I work. I mean, it's numerous customers a day, and if I start to smell bad, man, I'm like, I gotta get in and get a shower. I gotta go, I gotta do something to not smell bad. This is not gonna work. If I can smell me, someone else can smell me. Yeah. I mean, you wonder why we get treated like a third class citizen,, if you go if you're stinking so bad, they gotta hold their breath to wait on you at the window, or people have to step back outside of the office'cause they ain't, but you and the person on the other side of the glass could stand to be in the window in that room. You got a problem, man. And I know you smell that. I can just only imagine what your truck smells like. But the guy shitting in the seat, man, I did kind of feel sorry for him. I mean, the kid could drive and I took him back to the terminal and I was nice about it. It was Christmas time. He went home for Christmas. I didn't really say much to him after that, after I chewed his ass over shitting in the seat. And I did make him clean that. And we put a big O, you know, double tripled up towel over the seat. And I made'em change the cushion and the seat of my damn truck when I got back too. They had to go down to Freightliner dealership and get me another seat cushion for it. No, they was gonna pay for that. No, I don't blame you. That's dope. But we put a plastic bag over the towel and everything else. I mean, I don't give a shit. I ain't having no, I ain't doing it. But, you remember back in the beginning of your career though, Stacy, where you're just, they'd give you somebody else's used truck. I remember one time we had to go recover a truck from a repo lot. I'm not gonna mention the company's name. And we had to drive up to Michigan to go get this truck. I climbed inside this truck. It was so trashed and so nasty. I was scared to sleep on the mattress. I thought like a saber tooth crotch cricket was gonna jump up and bite me or something. Oh, it was gross. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've seen that man, I mean. I had to go recover a truck and get a student to drive it back to the terminal. One time out in Wyoming, this guy had just and take for granted the guy had been sick and he ended up having to get sent to the hospital and then he went on home from there. But and I realized he'd probably been laid there in that truck for several days. You know, during this time they were probably about 10 cups and jugs. Anything that he could piss at. Oh, God was just Jesus sitting all in the floor because I guess he was so sick he couldn't get out of the truck and, well, I mean, I've had food poisoning before. I, it's no fun. Yeah, but you still clean the truck when you get better. I mean, you throw a rattlesnake in that truck, he gonna move. I don't care how sick you are, you're gonna, you know, you could throw a bottle of pee away. That's no excuse to me. Well, no, you're right, Mike. And you bet your butt.'cause I own that truck I scrubbed and I saw the hell out of that truck. You would've never known. Ain't doubt in my mind. But you know, I mean, back to that kid there, you know, and I feel bad for bringing that up on here about that. But, you know, I just took him back to the terminal. I didn't dog him out or nothing. I wasn't going to do that to him. You know, the kid could drive, he could drive his ass off. He just smelt. I mean, I was off for a week and a half during Christmas and me and my wife went out there and I mean, she was about to puke and everything else. Damn surgical gloves on, trying to wipe that truck down, trying to get the sheets and stuff off the bed. Oh no. Oh no. We had to leave. We had to leave. The damn sleeper window was open and the windows cracked and still sprayed that truck down. Man, we deep cleaned that truck. Like Fre was not de eliminating that odor. Oh, fre wouldn't touch it. I mean, it was just horrible. And I, I just told training dude there, I said, look, I'm not, he can drive. I don't want to take away from his talent. He's a great driver. But I can't deal with the hygiene. I just can't. Yeah. And, it's the hygiene's that bad. Yeah. It's a big turnoff from wanting to train anybody else. Right, right. You know, and, I trained people because I loved helping and training people. That's just my nature. That's who I am. And I've done it for years. I mean, hell, I trained Mike here, you know, from Texas. I mean, I trained him what, 10, 10, 11 years ago. He's very successful owner operator now. You know, I remember the first time I told him, it's time to go get him a truck. And I thought we was going to have to hog time down there to get the truck. He didn't want no part of it. But you glad you did it now, I'm sure. Yeah. Well, back then, alls I wanted to do was. I just wanted to make an honest living and once I learned how to move the rig around without killing anybody, I was kinda satisfied. But then you did talk me into it, and I'm glad you did, now I have a hard time being a company driver. Yeah. I've gotten really spoiled working where I work as a company driver. I told Stacy before if I ever lost this job, I would probably have to go out and buy me another truck.'cause I don't think I could be a company driver anywhere else. No, but I don't know. I'm kind of an asshole. I don't like being told what to do and that's just bottom line. I just don't Yeah. You know, I was, and for clarification, I was agreeing with the part of, I don't like being told what to do too much either, that's for sure. But you know, I trained because I love to train. Now. Did I put up with some shit? Oh, you ain't gonna, you ain't kidding. I mean, I put up with some shit training. I mean, literally shit in my seat. But. You know, you get some that just, man, you swear, man, I ain't, why do I do this? I ain't doing this no more. The hell with this shit. Shit, why do I put myself through this? And then you get one that's very successful, that really listened and learned and questioned, and they wanted to learn. They were a sponge. Every piece of knowledge you had to offer. They were there to take it, you know, and that's what made it worth the while, you know, is seeing the end results. Not everyone was as successful as the other. I mean, some are still company drivers and there ain't nothing wrong with that. But I've never heard of any one of my students ever having a major knock on wood accident or hurting anybody. And that's what it's all about. You're going to make mistakes. I don't give a damn how good a trainer you had, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to have little incidences or something, or from time to time here or there. So you know it's this. You do the best you can and try to be as close to perfect as you can, and just try not to get anybody hurt. That's the main thing, you know? And these wrecks that we see out here time and time again, just. You know, killing people and everything else, and the U-turns and, you know, especially the guys out here the lack of training, you know, and I guess I'm so tuned in on that is because that is a huge thing. That's something that I complained about even back in the day. You know, I complained even about the schools and stuff that, the companies that I would train for, because I'd watch'em. I mean, you tell'em, Hey, yeah, this person can't drive. They don't need to be turned loose. And they just undermined you and turn'em loose anyway, you know? I've heard that a lot in the industry, man. And it's really sad to hear that. Of course, you gotta wonder sometimes the trucking driver, the truck driving schools themselves, I've checked into that thinking, oh man, dad would be a great job to get me off the road. They don't pay shit. And you know, the ones I looked at don't, and that's kind of why I hate to say it, maybe you're not getting the best training at some of them schools. Now, I ain't saying all schools are like that, but you know, that could be a very strong possibility. You get what you pay for. Sometimes they are some better schools than others. You know, I've gotten over the years, you know, back when I did train, we would have. Certain schools from here to there, we would get students out of, and you could clearly see the difference. Right. You know, that Roadmaster down in Jacksonville there and they do pretty damn good. I mean, I've got some really good students outta Roadmaster down there. And there's a couple other ones that I've gotten some good students out of, you know, Pennsylvania up there around Carlisle. They was a good school up there. I think I heard that one was a good one. I think that's actually where Mike went to here. But, oh yeah. The ones I checked into are Missouri, and I think it was a trucking over there. Yeah, that guy was pretty cool. I think he's the one that gave me my license actually. He was a, he could no, you didn't bother'em. You could actually sign off on you. You didn't bother them, did you? Huh? You didn't bother them? No. Didn't have no dough. I didn't have no money then. Just wanted, I got all my money when I started trucking. He was smoking them, what's it called? Them big one, hundreds. Oh, Lord. And he was lighting them right after the one after the other. Yeah. I smoked for years, Lord. Honestly, I quit smoking while Mike was on my truck, so that's how long I quit smoking. Yeah. I just did quit smoking. About a week before you did. Yeah. Yeah. Took my last pack of cigarettes too. That was the best thing I ever, that was the best thing I ever done was quit smoking.'Cause I mean, you can't afford it nowadays. It's freaking$13 a pack of cigarettes. Jesus. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, you know, smoking, it's rough and I gotta, you know, I gotta say, I mean, I definitely feel better, not smoking yeah. It definitely, you know, there's times, man, I had said before, I don't want to quit smoking'cause I actually enjoyed it. That was best. Oh, I used to enjoy it. Yeah. That was the best thing in the world. A cup of coffee and a Marlboro red. You know, that was the best thing in my head. Now I had to switch from a Marlboro red and a cup of coffee to chewing gum and a cup of coffee. Gotta have my damn chewing gum in my coffee. I don't know why. That's my thing now, but at least it ain't cigarettes, chew incomes hell of a lot cheaper than cigarettes. Yeah. Even back then, smoking was expensive and I can just imagine what it is now. It's just unreal. Oh god, yeah, that's for sure. I don't think it's going up that much. I looked at a pack of cigarettes not to buy, but I was just curious. I'm standing there and I mean, they were$7 a pack back then. 10 years ago, five, six,$7. I think New York, they were, I think certain states. Yeah, I was gonna say certain states like New York for Marlboro and Newport. I heard they were 13 back when my, stepfather was living up there. And,'cause he, he's a smoker and, he, my mom was complaining about the cost up there and I said, man, I'm glad I gave it up.'cause I was smoking a pack and a half a day. I used to like, similar to Stacy, I'd wake up in the morning and have my coffee and I'd have a Camel 99. You know, and then I'd smoke pipe in the nighttime, you know, I'd sit down, get done with dinner, and I'd sit there and enjoy me some cherry tobacco in my pipe and smoke a pipe outside and just relax it. It was soothing. Enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. I had to have a damn mar rib to get my lungs started first thing in the morning, but. I don't know. I mean, I'm glad I quit smoking, you know? Was it 10 years or better? You know, it's definitely, you know, better off now when I'm out of breath. It's just because I've gotten older and I'm a little fat. Well, you know, we do drive trucks. I'm not, I don't claim to be the sports specimen out here. I'm going to tell you that. I mean, I do try to live pretty healthy and try to stay on here. Here's a fun fact, a little blast from the past, like high school, right? So, you know, in Texas now, I wasn't born in Texas. I'm sure y'all can tell by my accent, but in Texas we, we can, you can take barbecue as a class in school. You can take barbecue class in school. In high school. Now why the hell are they not offering this in other states? Well, I think that way to go Texas. I applaud you. Up there where you're from there, Mike, in upstate New York. I don't think they know what barbecue is up there. They call everything damn barbecue up there. They could grill a damn burger and they call it barbecue. I'm like, you do understand the difference between grilling and barbecuing. You grill a steak'cause you're searing it. You barbecue ribs, low and slow. Versus smoking where you're prolonging the smoke. I am not by no means a pit master, and I have very limited smoke. Experience Very limited. I know Stacy has mentioned prior that he smokes quite a bit and has sent me pictures, especially when I was on my diet fasting because he's an asshole, of some very good looking barbecue. Make you change your religious beliefs. Oh, I'll tell you what, boy, you know, Mike's had plenty of my barbecue. I've got taste tests right there now. And see, I moved down to the south when I was a youngster and we moved to North Carolina outside of Fort Bragg and we had that vinegar based pulled pork barbecue and I fell in love with it. I love some Carolina barbecue living in Georgia. Now you got some decent joints in Georgia, but it ain't the Carolina pi, vinegar based barbecue. And I've been down to Texas and I've had that. That brisket out in Texas and I mean, it's good. I've been to Kansas City and it's okay, you know, and everything about the, I've heard them brag about that St. Louis Barbecue, all I see is a bunch of sauce smothered on some meat, which ruins it for me, but hey, to each their own. I figured if you have to kill it with that much sauce, you must have done something wrong. But probably one of my biggest things with Kansas barbecue is a big short ribs, some beef, short ribs out there. Oh God, they're so good. That's what Kansas City is. We called'em pig sickles out there man. Because I lived about, ain't talking about pigs. 70 miles. I'm talking about beef, short ribs, beef I under. Well yeah, I understand that. But I'm what we just called. I understand that. I said that's what we used to just call ribs out. There were pig sickles. Oh pig signals, you know? Yeah, man.'cause yeah, you, they fall off the bone, make you want to just freaking gna the damn bone like a dog. Oh, my brother-in-law got me started on them short ribs. He lives down there in Houston. He got me started on short ribs, man. Oh I, that's a close, probably damn near a tie. It was some short ribs and a good rib eye steak, I'm telling you. Oh yeah. Them short ribs if you get'em right and get the right rub on'em and everything. Which, you know, talking about all this brings me to my next thing here. We're getting ready to start a we're gonna do it on the same thing here with the podcast, but we're gonna start the Truckers Radio podcast lounge, where we're just going to conversate about things like this. Gonna get a couple of guys and we'll set it up where I've got a number people can call in from time to time. And we're going to talk about things that we like to do when we're not in the damn truck, like barbecuing, football. Things like that. You know, we're gonna call it the lounge, but we're gonna run it in with the other episodes here. That sounds like a great idea, but I think that just kind of gets people's mind and psyche out of that truck. You know, you can get really down on yourself in that truck, you know, and I've got, well, you need a healthy balance. Think from a guy that you has been three months out on the road before he's went home. You know? Yeah. And used to basically live out of a truck. Quite literally. I was homeless, I lived out of the truck. Yeah. And I'd get a hotel room here and there to get my shower, just to get away from it for a second, but, you know, it's, you need a healthy balance. And I think that's a fantastic idea, Stacy. I'm all for that. Well, you know, it's the thing,'cause you know, we are, people besides the truck drivers, you know, we have lives too. You know, we like football or we like barbecue, or we like fish. And I think we're just going to start doing like some of the lounge episodes, the trucker radio Poly has lounge and it's not going, we're not gonna talk about trucking. We're gonna talk about barbecue, grilling things that we like to do as a human being, that we like to do. And I think that'll do really well. I mean, if people, I know a lot of people listen to the show and stuff like that. Let me know what you think. Just put it into comments, on whatever you, if you follow my YouTube or you follow my podcast, put it into comments, what you think about it. But this is one of the things that we're going to try to get done, is start this lounge and let me know. Put it on Facebook. Let me know what you're doing. Send me a message on Facebook. Put it in the comment or post it on there. You know, if there's anything that we're missing, hey, you know, we're this is what we do. But, yeah, I think that's a fantastic idea. I mean, I could see that going very well. Well, you know, for the counseling side of this and, you know, the coaching side, I help people and stuff, and mental health and all that. You know, I see so many people get down in these trucks. You know, like I've said many times, you know, we live out here on the road in a truck, a third of the size of a federal prison sale. And it don't take a whole lot to get into your head in that truck, especially with stuff going wrong at home. You know, your wife may be doing something that's not what she should be doing. We're going to leave it at that in arguments, troubles with the kids. You know, we offer help for all of that. You know, we have the sing group site, you know, have dudes go on there, sing group.com. You know, look us up. You know, we, we offer all different sorts of counseling and stuff like that. We have some openings still. You know, we're not full plum up, but, you know, we have quite a bit going on. We offer all our operator consulting. We offer entry into trucking, consulting. If you're thinking about getting into trucking, we can kind of help you step into trucking the right way. And that's. It saves you a lot of time, headache, and you don't, believe it or not, I make it very affordable. I don't try to, I still drive for a living, I don't have to make a ton of money, so I'll make it very affordable for everybody. You know, it's a lot cheaper to get help than it is to screw it up and learn the hard way. Hey, man, the truth, you know, I like this. The stakes are expensive. Hey. It just contributes to my carnivore diet. That's what I keep telling myself anyway. Ha. But yeah, the rate steaks is going here lately, I ain't been eating a whole lot of steaks. I've been eating a lot of Yeah. Cheaper stuff. I've resorted to that. Has anybody told you that red velvet cheesecake isn't carnivore? Busted. Yeah. I ain't been eating no red velvet cheesecake this year. Well, you know it's coming. You know what? Holidays coming. Oh yeah. Thanks Boston. Anyone who knows, Stacy knows about that red velvet cheesecake. Boy, I'm going to tell you I like moose. Some damn real red velvet cheesecake and I could give you one guess two, three guesses of who got me started on that too. Yeah. Mike from Texas there. He's the one got me started on that day called Red Velvet Cheesecake. That's some good Dad got cheesecake. I can tell you that. That little place out in Need York over there. What's the name of that anyway? Oh yeah. Juniors Junior. Juniors in Brooklyn. Juniors Cheesecake. Oh yeah. They're a little pricey, but I'm gonna tell you what they are. Yeah, they're so good. They're very good. We got a lady here locally that makes. Made some of the red velvet cheesecake. That ain't that good, but they still good but hell, I'm talking about the price of rebuy and all that. Hell I resorted. I got two armed skillets on the smoker right now. Smoking me some damn meatloaf. I ain't even joking. Yeah, I seen those earlier. You sent me some photos. They look good. I think I'm gonna post them on The Truckers Radio podcast, Facebook area directly from a little, Hey y'all. What we do when we're at home? I know I got me some homemade beef tips, gravy and then Salisbury steak homemade. I do a little bit of rice with mine, but I don't do minute rice. I do bag rice. I take my time, cook it correctly. I'm a diabetic, so even with the rice, this doesn't raise my blood sugar too high. Key thing is the portions. So, you know, as long as you mix it in with a good meat base you're pretty safe for the most part. If you're trying to lower that kind of stuff, you may want to cut back on it though. Eat something with more fiber, like broccoli that will lower blood sugar. It's been proven. Dive It ain't no rice in long time. They, there's a rice pot in my kitchen full of rice around the clock because my wife's Asian. And she, that's I swear to God, if you took a rice away from her, she'd probably die. I mean, I don't understand it. They have to eat rice with every meal. It's just born in their DNA or something. You know, I love rice, but I, it don't do me no good to eat it. Not for my diet. Well, I mean, you gotta look at rice from an Asian perspective when you go over there. Not necessarily Asian American. You don't really see a lot of overweight agents over there. That's because they're always working and that's solely because they're always working. Yeah. It's because they're always working portion to size meals of rice, which is a filler, and that carbohydrate is what gives them energy. But they're also, like you said, they're working and they burn it off. Right. And if you walk around your truck and trailer several times and everyone's like, oh, that's so stupid. I used to think so too until I started tracking my steps. That's several hundred steps, but if you park at a overnight, for example, or a truck stop for that matter where wherever you decide to park safely for the evening and you walk around, set destinations parking lot once or twice and track your steps. I mean, you'd be amazed how quickly you could put a mile or two in a day and doing so and stay healthy. And that's all it really takes, you know? Yeah. You know, we wanna see you healthy out here. I know I do. There's a lot of people suffering from a lot of health problems because you're sitting in these seats for so long. Yeah. I mean, everybody's got their own sort of diet. Me, myself, I prefer the carnivore diet. I mean, that's what works best for me. You know? Of course you ain't gonna twist my arm to eat a steak or barbecue or meat or any of the above. Right? I don't really eat a lot of sauce. I mean, if the meat's good, you really don't need the sauce. Especially with a steak. I agree there, you know, especially, well, especially, I think that should be crime Personally. If you grill up a good rib eye or sheline steak and you put any kind of sauce on it, personally, I think you should have your head examined. Yeah, I have you guys ever been to that? There's a place out in Marlton, Arkansas. There's a small little love's got about seven to nine parking spots in it. Where's this at? Mike from that Love's Marlton, Arkansas. Marlton over, on I 40. Just a little bit west of Conway. Right across from that Love's is a place called the Morton Drive-in little barbecue joint. And I'll tell you what, I went in there and bought their barbecue sauce, just their sauce. They said, we don't sell it. I said, just put it in a cup like a Pepsi. I'll pay you whatever you want. And they did. They sold me some sauce. It had this pepper, like black pepper base to it. Man, I'll tell you what that was some of the best stock I ever had. No knock. Not knocking Stacy's sauce. Stacy made some good sauce, but that was some good sauce. Out there. I think me and you found that little place over, didn't we? Huh? That's what I think. Me and you found that little place over, didn't we? Long time ago. So I know sounds just right outside. Oh, I think I just stopped there one time. Right outside of Little Rock. Maybe we met there. We remember the first time we stopped there. We got, you were at near truck. Yeah. You were already trained and you were at your truck and I was in mine. But we were running through there doing. I forget what the hell we were doing. But anyway, I got that catfish that time, man. They got some really truck trucking stuff. Oh yeah. So they got some bad catfish. Oh my God. Oh, I love me some catfish. My wife would not eat catfish. She would not eat catfish. When I first met her, she was raised to basically be, she'll eat salmon and she'll eat trout, you know,'cause her daddy always took her trout fishing up in the mountains of Georgia and she's always been, you know, loved to eat trout. And I said, you never had catfish out here, like out, down deep south, like Mississippi in some of these other states. And I took her,'cause we went out to Arkansas on a road trip one time, and I took her out to some of these places in the deep south there in Arkansas, you know, and showed her where to get the best fried chicken and, catfish bites. And she fell in love with that after that. She was like, man, that is good. So I love me some catfish. Oh yeah. Without a doubt. I love me some catfish. I was tasting some catfish a couple of weeks ago and. Still ain't ever got any good catfish. Got some other fish, but not a good catfish. I'll tell you the best place I've ever tried. Catfish. I used to hate catfish. I've always been more of a, you know, like a pike or a haddock guy being from upstate New York. And then, you know, and I've always liked ocean fish. Growing up in Carolina, we've had snapper and Roughy and stuff like that, and I always thought catfish was kind of grainy. So I went down to Meridian, Mississippi one day and there was this, nice little buffet down there, and this elderly black gentleman come called me over. I said, what kind of fish is that? And he said, that's catfish. I said, I don't want none of that. He said, why not? I said, because Catfish is nasty. I don't like it. He's like, boy, I'll never forget this. He's like, you try some of my catfish. He's like, you don't like my catfish? I'll buy your dinner. I said, are you serious? He's like, yeah, I'm serious. I loaded me up some catfish, tried it, and I was like, by God, I do like that. I, he was like, see, I told you, oh man, they got some good eating down in Mississippi. Oh, you ain't lying. He's like, where are you from? And I told him, he's like, well, that's why ain't nobody up there know how to make catfish. He's giving me a hard time. You write about that though. He ain't wrong. No, you're right Mike. There's a little truck stop down there, man. I can't even remember where in the hell it's even at now. I know it when I see it, but hell they got holes in the damn parking. Not big enough to damn lose a truck in, but they got like a little, oh my goodness. Little just comfort food buffet. Good old bayou. That man, they got some of the darkest best gumbo, seafood, gumbo you ever eat in your life. Oh, I love me some gumbo now. I've had some good gumbo over the years. You know, Cash is over there on 10. Or around. the other side of Baton Rouge. Then you got Frog City. I mean, you've got the Tiger. Oh, frog City is, you know, you remember Gabe's out of Frog City, right? Right. The old chicken check that burnt down. I was about to shed a tear when I heard that burnt down. I used to go down there and get some fried chicken, some boot damn balls. Oh, I heard it burn down. I was like, man. First time I, I couldn't believe it. First time I ever bought any boan. I had a wife with me there. Well, not the first time I ever bought any, the first time she ever ate any boan. I had a wife with me there one time, and she's like, and we've been through here how many times, and this is the first time you've ever fed me boan. I said, yeah. And she was plug. She went, already taught me for a day. She says, man. She said, I gotta have a boo down every time we go down there. She had to have a damn boo down. I was like, Jesus. I got my wife with that out in Arkansas, and that was just a little chicken shack and a little gas station I remember. And I said, pull over here. I remember this. She's like, you're kidding me, it's in a gas station. I said, just trust me. I said, down here gas stations are different. I said, they throw out better seafood and barbecue than some of the restaurants back home. What? You ain't kidding, man. Got my, I got her some boan balls and some fried chicken. Boy, she about did a back flip. It was so good. No, I'm telling you, I am telling you. It was really good. But, they got some good food all out here, all over the daggone country. Louisiana, I'm about founder every time I go through that state. And you know Mike lives over there. East Texas, so he pretty dang gone close too Louisiana, he's got good boot in, I'll be honest with you. Like just for a little truck, stop that ta over there in Greenwood. And I get their boot in all the time. They had they boo damn balls over there. They were pretty damn good too. Yeah. Yeah. They're spicy. I mean they're pricey but you know, they're pretty good. I used to buy'em out when I go that little chicken shack. They'd have like 10 of'em. I'd buy'em out. They're like, you want all of'em? I'm like, you damn right. I want all of'em. I don't get these often them. Right. I'd go out in the truck and get fat off of boan balls, man. I'd tear'em up. That's for sure. Well, boys, I'll tell you what, we've had fun. I think we ready to wrap this up for another episode of the Truckers Radio podcast and I had an awesome time. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Yeah. Well buddy, I'll tell you what, everybody tune in next time for the Truckers Radio podcast.“Thank you for listening to The Trucker’s Radio Podcast. We want to hear your voice. Send your questions and stories for our Q&A segment to: TheTruckersRadioPd@gmail.com Don’t forget to follow, share, and subscribe at TheTruckersRadioPodcast.com Stay safe. Stay strong. Keep those wheels turning. Powered by Sabren Group LLC.