Part 2 of my journey into truck driving

From being in Idaho, West Virginia and California and the list goes on. Take a ride with me as I tell my tales.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everybody, how y'all doing? I'm I am back with I want to say part two of my journey of 19 years of uh truck driving. So I'm you know I'm out here and now I am I don't think now I am but I'm solo Okay I'm I'm solo and I'm I'm out here and I I tell you the the the places huh the places that I have gone to while I was while I was out here let me just say uh West Virginia the older lady I believe she's an hairstylist older older black lady in West Virginia this was around Thanksgiving y'all when I say this lady made me an amazing turkey sandwich it was amazing let me just say it was amazing and she gave me a bottle of Gatorade because she invited me into our home so needless to say what happened was the place that I had to go to it was a recycling it was a recycling place and it was in like I said it was in a residential neighborhood and lo and behold I'm trying to get around to the place well as I'm trying to drive and go around to the place my front end got stuck it got stuck and I didn't know that it was quicksand okay I didn't know it was quicksand so needless you know again to say that I'm trying to shift gears and and back out and pull forward and the more I was doing it the more the front end of my the front right end of my tractor was sinking okay I I was done I was two through okay and I let me just say I wanted to give up right then and there and I'm I'm not a type of person that gives up very easily but that day yeah I wanted to give up I felt like I was defeated like I wasn't even supposed to be out here and that was it for me okay so the owner okay of the recycling place and his son they came around there okay and and saw you know what happened and I between the son and the dad they were laughing you know they they were laughing and I'm looking you know and I'm pissed off like hey this is not funny okay so they were they were laughing at the fact that this is not the first time that that has happened to a driver that has tried to come there to either deliver or pick up from them so like my nerves were were were done they were bad and the son you know he's all excited he's all excited and everything and he goes running to the his pickup truck and gets the chain with I guess it was another family member or a friend you know both of them they grab the chains and they they latch it to the the front of the tractor and then they you know put it on the hook of their uh pickup truck mind you it was a Ford pickup truck okay and the friend I remember the friend getting into the truck and the son the son had asked me he said hey he said hey I got my CDLs you can see he was like you mind if I you mind if I drive at that point I did not care I did not care at all I said you are more than welcome okay you are more than welcome so as the friend was in the truck pulling pulling the tractor out of the quicksand you know the the sun he was in the truck and he was guiding it out so once it got out of the so uh out of the quicksand then the sun and he's good y'all the sun backed the tractor trailer the sun backed the tractor trailer all the way to the recycling place okay y'all it's it's been over it's been well over 15 years or so so I do not remember the name of the recycling place that's in West Virginia in a residential area okay but all I can say is that young man backed that tractor tractor and trailer again all the way back to the recycling place okay they they did what they did and then the friend came back remember I said in the beginning about the the lady okay the older black lady at that time she was 77 years old okay came back to her house to get me to drive me back over there to the recycling place now mind you this older black lady being from West Virginia said to me she says it's a good thing you were on this side of town she said because had you been anywhere else there's no telling what would have happened to you so I looked at her I took heed to her words and said thank you you know I said thank you I gave her a hug I asked her for her address boom got her address went on so now I'm at the recycling place getting my bills doing what I gotta do okay so as I get ready to leave okay because I didn't even bother to go around to the right side to look at you know the the front end of the the tractor on the right on the right side I had to pull over now when I pulled over y'all when I say that front bumper was hanging it was it was hanging it was done it was about ripped off because it had sunk down in the quicksand okay so I'm seeing that and I'm like okay I can't drive like this you know I can't drive like this so I wind up taking the piece of the bumper off completely okay mind you the tractor that I was in was a freightliner I want to say a freightliner Cascadia I want to say that's what I was in a Freightliner Cascadia so ever since I've been a Freightliner girl I like I like freightliners over all trucks okay uh so I I wind up doing that now again I'm in West Virginia and I'm up like up and down hills so y'all know if it's a light the light was on top of the hill okay so now I gotta stop at that light and then you know y'all y'all clutch users you know you gotta ease the clutch out so it'll catch and go now I'm doing that okay I am doing that but each time I was doing it it would boom it would cut off the truck would cut off because it wasn't catching or it wasn't doing something and I don't know what I was doing wrong so I'm getting frustrated because it kept happening every time and I would try to beat the light to run through it and I'm going up the hill right so I I again I pull over get my bearings together okay because I had I had already this is what I left out y'all I had already um sent a message to dispatch to let them know what happened okay so when I when I did that they told me to go to the nearest truck stop so I think I'm I made it to I think it was a love's truck stop that's what I want to say it was I think I made it to the nearest love's truck stop okay and now I'm on a highway and I'm I'm rolling I'm not going up and down hills because every time I would make it up to the top of the hill and try to keep going or shift gears it kept cutting off on me it kept cutting off on me so luckily I made it luckily I made it to the truck stop when I pulled up you know they was looking at my truck like like damn what did you what did you go through so I pulled up told them what happened okay so I had well I had walked away I had walked away from the from the Bay Area and I'm standing on the other side and the young man that was working on my truck had taken the tire off and all I heard was a loud and I turned my head and I looked so he he yells out not knowing that I'm like right there almost standing like right there on the other side of the bay um but outside like over where the door is right so he yells out for somebody to come and get me so that I can see what was going on so I I I put my head down and I walked on over there. Yes I did I put my head down because I was like Lord Jesus I don't know what this man gonna show me so I I went on over there and he stay he this young man is standing there with the water hose okay you have the the what is that the disc break right behind it be behind it was so much quicksand caked behind the the what is that wheel disc it was so much of a cake behind it the the young man looked at me he said ma'am you have a pound of this mud caked behind your your your wheel so this is why your truck kept cutting off this this is why every time you tried to move it was getting harder and it and it caked up so by then it it now it's looking like that uh what is that that Georgia red clay okay and he's standing it with the water hose and it is just rinsing down from out of the bay okay it is rinsing down from out of the bay and it's it's looking uh it just red just going as he's standing there with the water hose and he's just shaking his head and again he said I don't know how you even made it here he said I don't I don't even see how you made it here but you're here and I said by the grace of God that's that's all I know by the grace of God so that that was that was that and like I said y'all I wanted to throw in the towel and give up because I felt like I was defeated and I I really had to talk to myself because I didn't have nobody to really talk to at that time so I'm like okay what you need to understand is you're gonna have good days and you're gonna have bad days and it's gonna be up to you to to weather the storm through this stuff you went to school for this you went to North America trade school for this to get your to get your license and to get out here and and drive and and make a make a difference okay so I I let that go okay boom I let that go all right and I kept on keeping on I kept on keeping on so I believe I had to keep it keep it pushing keep it pushing I believe I told y'all about being in in in Canada or whatnot and I came down through Idaho mind y'all y'all forgive me my this this these stories are gonna be all over because that's how it was with me out here in this truck I was all over okay I was all over the US okay so I'm in Idaho and I never been there never been to Idaho so I asked a young lady that was there um what is Idaho known for and she said it's known for a geyser okay all right she said it's nothing really big you know I'm just ready to I'm just ready to leave here I said okay Idaho so I make my way through Idaho after I fuel up and everything and now I have to go now that I'm being routed I'm being routed down to Omaha Nebraska that's the headquarters for uh Warner Enterprises okay and um I go there I go there and I believe I had to get piss test and they wind up taking my tractor and putting me into another tractor I think that's what they did no I'm sorry I take that back not at that time no no what they did was they repaired the front of the you know the the bumper they put the new piece of the bumper on my tractor because um when I would call in the dispatch they would call me full house and it was not because of my size it was because of my tractor number my tractor number was triple threes eleven I think true I think it was I think five numbers or six numbers so triple triple no no it wasn't triple threes it was triple fours god it's been so long triple triple fours and either eleven or triple ones it's something like that either which way they call me full house okay because of like I said because of my numbers on the on the tractor so I think I I kept that tractor and I moved on I'm going through Omaha nice place very nice place you know it it seemed laid back I'm that was my first time ever being there so it seemed pretty laid back uh like I said I'm going on through going on through and I think I had to go back the other way to towards California I believe so California I had to go down the they call I5 the grapevine so I never been through that so now here it is I'm out here on the road I'm I'm rolling I'm rolling and I'm coming through California and California is a six six lane highway yeah six lane highway I've never been out there my my first time I'm driving and I'm going with the flow of traffic y'all when I say California drivers are off the hook they are off the hook okay I'm driving I'm moving along I'm in the second lane okay I look over it's a driver all the way over in the sixth lane so this driver Just goes straight across from the sixth lane all the way to that exit. And he crosses in front of me. I don't break, I don't slow down, I don't nothing. I keep my steady momentum and I keep it moving. And when I say this drive, he went straight across all the lanes to make that exit. And I'm like, oh my god. I'm like, I is this how people here in California drive? This is crazy. Oh my god. I'm I'm I'm ready to go. No, I I'm I'm I'm I'm ready to go. So I leave I leave from there. I leave from there in Califor California. I think I had to go to a place called Santa Clara. It's an installation place. Yeah. I wanna say I I went there. It was an installation place. Um now I'm I'm there and I'm waiting. I'm minding it as I'm I'm sitting there and I'm waiting, it was a black pickup truck with tinted windows. Okay, because I believe I did a layover there. I had to do a layover. So a black truck, tinted windows. Okay, he the guy pulls up next to me, rolls his window down, and says to me, Can I see your bills? And I look, I said, No, no, you cannot. I wasn't getting out of this truck, I wasn't handing him no bills, I wasn't doing none of that. Believe you me, no. So he he he goes on. Oh, I'm a I'm a um I'm a warehouse manager, I work here. I said, I don't give a damn what you do. Okay, because now it's the you know, the following morning or whatever, I waited for the people to open, okay, and I proceeded to go on into the building, you know. So he goes on. Okay, him and the guy that was in the truck, they they proceed to go on, you know. Now, as he's leaving, he's yelling, you see, you see, I work here. Cool, we'll see. I go in, say good morning, I give my bills, the guy comes around the front because he wants me to know that he works there. Okay, so I I told you I work here, I told you I work here. Okay, that's that's all well and good. Now put a pen in that. Before that guy even came around, I'm standing there and I'm I'm talking, you know, with the person that's receiving me, okay? And he says to me, it was a lady that had came there before me. Okay, and she was saying how she heard like noise in the back of her trailer. She heard it, like she looked out her window, but she didn't get out of her truck. Okay, needless to say, by the time she looked up again, the cops were out there. Okay. Y'all there was a dead body that got put in the back of her trailer. Okay, somebody got killed somewhere, and they put and they put the dead body in the back of her trailer. Okay, because that's what happened. All right. So I'm standing there looking at the guy, and I I say to him, I said, um, I look over the the the warehouse manager, I look over at him and I'm laughing, and I said, and you wanted me to show you my bills. I said, you gotta understand how this looked to me. Okay. I am a woman, I'm a woman out here. I'm a I'm a woman driver out here, okay? And I need to be safe for myself at all times out here. Okay, so you driving up to me and saying you want to see my bills and all that was not a good look for you. You know, I don't know you, I've never seen you before, no none of that. And I said, you just heard the story that this man told me, and I'm quite sure you know about it too. So, you know, he he looked at me and he said, you know, he said, you you you you're right about that. You you're right. Yeah, that wasn't a good look. Like, I'm hearing this story as opposed to you. No, that's not a good look. No, so I'm gonna need you, sir, not to do that to anybody, especially if they've never seen you before, never had any encounters with you before. Don't do that to people. Okay, so you know, we all got over, we all got over that. We laughed and went on about my business. I believe I was getting unloaded. Yeah, I was getting unloaded there, and um, you know, we like I said, we all laughed, la da D, la da da. Kept it moving. So now I am leaving from there. And I'm going through the back roads. Okay. Now I the directions I have has me going through the back roads. So I'm going through the back roads um of California. I I am in Bakersville. Now, the only time I ever heard of uh Bakersville is from the TV show Girlfriends. That's the only time I ever heard of Bakersville, right? So I'm like, oh okay, I'm going through Bakersville, you know. I don't know if I'm going through the hood, I don't know where I'm going through. I don't know. I just know I'm on the back roads, and I saw the little sign that said, Welcome to Bakersville. So I go through there, and if anybody knows me, I love Mexican food, Spanish food, whatever. Okay. I go through, I see a tackerilla stand. I pull that whole tractor trailer off to the shoulder of the road, right? Because it's a big open space over there. I get out, I go over, I go on over there, and I say, I would like some tacos and a burrito. Y'all, the daughter um took my order and everything. Mind you, she's standing there and she's flirting, talking with me. I don't care about that. Okay. She was cute. You know, she was cute. It was the mom for me. Okay, the mom was the mom had to be about a good six foot, probably four hundred something pounds, if that. She was a big woman, but she was put together. And she's the one back there cooking the food. That's who I want. I don't I don't want the daughter. I want the mom. Hell, the mom's cooking food. So she holds up this long pepper, right? And asks me, Do I do I want it on my food? And I'm like, no, uh-uh, no, ma'am. No, no, no, no, no. So she laughs, put it aside, makes my food. So I say, you know, thank you, y'all. I got in that truck. I sat there and took a bite of that burrito. I took two more bites. Mind you, this is way before my my gastric bypass surgery. I didn't want to move. I did not want to move once again. I wanted to sit there. Yes, I did, and go to sleep. But I had to keep it moving. I had to keep it moving. It was just that good. And I'm I'm glad I I bought enough to eat. You know, I'm I did. I bought more than I bought more than enough to eat, you know, so I was good to go for some days. So in California, left out of California. Now I'm driving through Nevada. And y'all, like I said, I've never been over west that way, and I did not know that it snowed in Nevada. Yeah, it was snow like snow flurries in Nevada. So as I'm driving, I seen a driver that was completely off the road and turned on its side, like down in the banks, like the grass area. Whole track the trailer on its side. So I'm just like, I'm just like, oh wow. I'm just like, oh wow. Like, okay, take your time, keep it moving. Y'all, I'll be back with part three.