The DARK AGES, This Trainers Gotta Go, and My Own Truck!

OK, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so this is going to be long. But, at times, it’s quite juicy!

Tuesday August 4th 2009

Chris called at 10am and said he’d be in Council Bluffs at about 1pm. He ended up picking me up about 5 (?) He drove to North Platte to the Walmart DC where I spent the night in the truck. He went home for the night. He said he’d pick me up about 7am to have me help him move some stuff in his storage. I reluctantly agreed. This had better be worth some brownie points. Then he tells me his wife may want to have some drinks so it may be a little later in the morning.

Wednesday August 5th 2009

Chris called and said he’d be late. He ended picking me up at about noon. One thing I have learned is that when he gives you a date & time, you can count on it being much later than originally stated.
We went to his storage unit, took everything out, they went through most of it, and we stacked it all back in there with much better stacking. They took me out for dinner afterwards. It was at a steakhouse called Whiskey Creek by the Buffalo Bill Cody tourist trap.

Thursday August 6th thru Tuesday August 11th 2009

OK, here goes. It’s actually Aug 30th that I’m finally writing this. I’ve just had no desire to think about this period of my training, let alone write about it. I now refer to it as the “Dark Ages.” At first, it was all right cruising through the Dakotas. It’s really pretty. But, I had no internet access for about three weeks. Plus I wasn’t able to take pictures. So, the blog suffered. Eventually it got really old running over the same roads over and over again.
But, the main problem I had during this period was my trainer. I couldn’t stand him. There, I said it. “I can’t stand him!” It feels good to say that. Is that wrong? He doesn’t treat you like an adult. He’d say “there’s no such thing as a dumb question,” but often when I’d ask a question, he’d give me this real sarcastic look like I’m dumb. That is one of my biggest pet peeves. Don’t treat me like I’m stupid.
He’s very quirky. Anal retentive. I wasn’t sure if that was the right term for him, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. “Orderliness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control.” Yup, that’s Chris. He has his set methods. HIS way of doing things, not the normal way. And he wants you to do these things his way.
I’ll admit, some of his ideas that he implemented are pretty clever. I actually use a couple of his ideas, but don’t tell him that. For example, he has you write your directions on the windshield with dry-erase marker, right in your line of view. I didn’t like the idea of having something on the windshield in my line of view. His theory was, if it’s right there in your view, it’s beat into your head so it’s easy to remember. He insisted that I do this. We clashed on this. We clashed on a lot of things. Anyway, I compromised, I wrote them on the windshield as far down as I could reach.
(WARNING! This paragraph contains harsh language) I always felt like I was walking on eggshells around Chris. (Oh, I shudder every time I say that name.) Anytime you’d do things contrary to his way of doing things, you could always count on that look. Oh, that look. The one I mentioned earlier. That sarcastic look. Now, body language is no myth. It’s very real. And his body language says, “are you really that stupid?” And my response, that I always kept to myself is, “no I’m not you f***ing d****bag!” Pardon my French, but that’s the way I felt about him. He’s a d**k! If there was ever a person you could call that, it was Chris. Like I’d mentioned in my first blog, I’m not the most PC person on the planet. He’s hot headed. Sometimes he’d turn bright red. I’d wonder if he was about to pop. I wanted to stick a pin in him and see. I made the mistake of placing the map in the wrong place (according to Chris) on the dashboard and, sure enough…that look and a lecture.
He’s been married three times. I can see why his first two wives left him and why he’s having problems with his current wife. The thing that I find very strange is that he’s very religious. How can you be very religious and an unkind person at the same time? He’s probably a truck driver because he can’t get along with others.
With Chris, you’re wrong, even when you’re right. Often I’d say something, then he’d say “no,” and proceed to lecture me about it, even though he’s just saying the same thing I just said. He’d tell you something that you know is wrong, but don’t you dare try to tell him different.
Like I’d said before, some of his ideas are pretty clever, it’s just how he presents them to you. His approach. Like you’re a child. Like you’re dumb for not doing it his way. Let’s go back to how he has you write the directions on the windshield. How many thousands of truckers are on the road today? How many truckers have there been throughout the years? How many of those truckers wrote their directions on the windshield? Almost none! And they got by fine. I rest my case. But, in Chris’ mind, you’re stupid if you don’t write them on the windshield.
I could go on and on…
Oh yeah, one more very important fact. When a trainer has a student, once they trust the student’s driving, they can contact the training department and get approval to run what is called “Super Solo” which means, between the two of you, you can drive 19 hours a day and have 5 hours off. Well, Chris had us running 24 hours a day! We were always in the truck and the truck was always moving. We only stopped for fuel and to load/unload. That means when you’re not driving, you’re sleeping. Or, should I say, trying to sleep. I had the top bunk. Every bump and sway of the truck is amplified in the top bunk. I could not sleep. Every once in a while, due to complete exhaustion, you’d get a bit of sleep, but it was mostly tossing and turning. Night after night. You know how miserable it is to not get any sleep one night. Well, try doing that for a week straight!
Truckers usually get paid by the mile. Trainers do too. But they get paid for every mile put on the truck. Their miles AND the students miles. I truly believe that I was just a bigger paycheck to him. Plus he gets an extra $200 a week for training. He was rolling in the dough. One of these days I’m going to have to figure out just how much money I made for him.
Chris gave me a much greater appreciation for Al.

Wednesday August 12th 2009

I couldn’t take anymore. For the last several days I’d been contemplating calling Jenny at Crete training and ditching this clown. I had actually called her once a couple days before, but she wasn’t in. If I’m going to be making someone a bunch of money, I’d rather it be someone besides Chris.
Chris and I were on our way back to North Platte from Northern Iowa. When we got back to North Platte it would be Chris’ home time, so I would be stuck at the terminal for two days. Yay. That is to say, I’d be stuck at the terminal except for the time that Chris wanted me to help him haul furniture. Can you believe this guy? I told him “no thanks, I need to get some rest.”
Anyway, like I said, I couldn’t take any more. I finally made up my mind to call Jenny. I needed to get off this truck. I figured, since once we got back to North Platte, I’d be stuck at the terminal for two days, it was now or never. I let Chris off the hook, though. I told her the reason I wanted to switch was because I felt I’d already learned all that I could on this Walmart account, which was true. I told her that I felt that since the Walmart account is so different from what I’ll actually be doing in the real world, it’d be better if I got back into the routine of how I’m actually going to be doing things (paperwork, etc). I really did learn very little in those three weeks.
I could have reported Chris. He was spared. I feel sorry for his students though.
Jenny asked we’d be heading through Lincoln. I told her we would be heading through there in a few hours. She informed me that she had a trainer there right now. Yay!!! I’m getting off Chris’ truck!!! You have no idea what a relief that was. She called back a little later and said that he’d already left Lincoln but I could meet him in Council Bluffs Iowa instead. Even better! That’s an hour sooner!
I called my new trainer, Robert, and finalized the details. Chris, who had been sleeping through my phone calls, apparently heard one or both of them because, about a half hour later, he came out of the sleeper and said, “so, we’re going to the terminal?” I didn’t know how much he’d heard, and, since I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, I told him that Jenny called me and suggested the change, and that I’d agreed with her that it was a good idea. He said he wished I would have let him know about my plans so he could have planned things differently. I didn’t feel sorry for him. He went back to bed.
I pulled into the Council Bluffs terminal and parked next to another Crete truck. I soon found out it was my new trainers truck. Robert helped load my gear into his truck.
My first impression of Robert was that he looked a lot like Chris. Oh great! He had a leather vest on which gave him a bit of a biker look. I later came to realize that he always wears that vest, and, it’s not a biker vest, it’s one of them that has a silk back on it. That you wear with a suit. I can’t remember how, but I started getting hints that he was very religious too.
Robert was under a load that was heading from, I believe, Cheyenne Wyoming and going to Pittston Pennsylvania. So, we headed East. He drove almost to the Illinois border where we spent the night.

Thursday August 13th 2009

I drove in the morning. At some point he mentioned that he was having problems with his wife. That’s three for three. Three trainers, all having problems with their wives.
It wasn’t long before he was digging out a sermon that his dad, who is a pastor at a church somewhere, recorded at his church. He was told to listen to it because it was a highly controversial sermon which caused him to lose several members of his church. Robert played the CD in the truck CD player. I wasn’t paying attention, though, because the talking was too quiet to hear and the singing was really loud. After the sermon was over, Robert called his dad and told him that he couldn’t figure out what was so controversial about the message. His dad said, it wasn’t the message, it was because they had the music turned up too loud. Hmm.
Later that day, he told me that the reason that he was having troubles with his wife was because last month he was drugged at a truck stop and robbed. He said that while he was drugged, he seemed to remember having sex with someone.
I’m pretty suspicious of this story. I’ve already heard him say some slightly dirty things and sexual innuendos. I think, based on what I could tell by being around him, that he is fully capable of propositioning a prostitute of his own free will. I think that’s what he did, and in turn, got drugged and robbed. But, what do I know?

He’s a very loud talker. Very loud! I seriously thought about buying earplugs. He finishes almost every sentence with a sarcastic “um.” It’s really odd. “Um.” I think it’s similar to the sarcastic comment “Um, Hello?” If you want to pronounce it right, think “Um, Hello? McFly!” then remove the “Hello? McFly” It’s a weird quirk. “This truck only does 62 miles an hour. Um!” Also, he laughs at everything he says. Funny or not. Usually not. “This truck only does 62 miles an hour,” then he’ll have a slight pause, then let out a pretty hearty laugh followed by “aaaahhh,” as if he’d said something very deep and, hidden somewhere within it, was something humorous and very clever. There was not.
Sometimes he’s on the phone with his wife, loud of coarse, I wouldn’t call it arguing, but having unpleasant sounding conversations. He usually takes an awful, unfriendly tone of voice when talking to her. I rarely heard him use a pleasant tone with her. When arguing, they’d give each other bible versus to read.
In some ways, he’s like Chris. Like their religious hypocrisy. Relationship problems. Financial problems. Chris is unfriendly. Robert is unfriendly to his wife and kid. Robert and his wife, Jenny, spy on each others emails. Dysfunction.
I drove most of the way through Ohio (Devo!) and we stopped for the night at a service station.

Friday August 14th 2009

Robert drove a little bit in the morning and I drove the rest of the way to our drop in Pittston PA. It was a very quick drop & hook at Kimberly-Clark who manufacture supplies for public restrooms like paper towel dispensers, etc.


We got a load offer to pick up in Newark New Jersey right by New York City in a couple hours. Everyone says you don’t want to go into New York City, so, I was kinda hoping to find out why. We’re at least 2 ½ hours away though, so we can’t do it.
We get another offer. Allentown PA (Purina Dog Food) to Lincoln NE. Yay! Allentown is just an hour north of Philly! It takes a couple hours to get loaded. It’s a very heavy load, especially for the mountains. That means I’m going to be doing a lot of gear shifting. Once again, I’m hoping to get some Eagles paraphernalia and a good Philly Cheese Steak. Robert is almost obsessing about getting me a Philly. He was much more worried about it than I was. I saw a Philly restaurant at a service station, but I’d already eaten. When we were no longer in the Philly area, Robert was still suggesting places for me to get a Philly. Subway? He doesn’t get it. The whole idea was to get one while in the Philly area. And a good local Philly, not a Subway Philly. Oh well, his intentions were good. I drive ’til 9:30 and we stop at a Pilot for the night in Mill Hall PA.

Saturday August 15th 2009

Again, Robert drives in the morning. I take this opportunity to write this section of my blog.
More about Robert. Robert wants to become a pastor at the truck stop churches. He generally gets and understands humor, but there’s some times when he just doesn’t get it. I’ve said things that were an obvious attempt at humor, an Robert, not getting it, would correct me. No duh! That was the joke. The stupid part that you felt you needed to correct, that was the joke.
After he gets off the phone, whether it be with his wife, or with someone else, he always wants to draw me into a conversation about the conversation he just had with someone else. I’ve never told him, but, I don’t want to be in any way involved with your personal relationship. I’ve always stayed out of others relationship matters. I’ve never been a shoulder to cry on. I mind my own business. I’m sorry, but, I don’t want to talk about the problems you’re having with your family. Besides, near as I could tell, I’d take his wife’s side anyway.
But, he doesn’t run me to death. He never starts before 6am and rarely goes past 8pm. There were only two nights that we ran a little later. One was to finish a run and get the paperwork sent in so he’d get paid for it on his next check. The other time was so we could park at a Pilot because we’d get free showers there. So, I got to sleep in a parked truck instead of trying to sleep while being shaken and bounced to death in the top bunk of a moving truck. And, I don’t feel like I’m being scrutinized nearly as much. Actually I didn’t feel like I was being scrutinized at all. This is way better than working with Chris!

Sunday August 16th to Wednesday August 19th 2009

At some point during this time period, Roberts dog died. Robert was very heartless about the whole thing. Instead of being comforting to his wife, he was complaining about how they’re not getting another dog. She wanted him to come home and help deal with the dog. He reluctantly agreed. So he put in for home time. Since we were going to be coming back through Lincoln, Jenny decided to put me into orientation 5 days early. So, Wednesday afternoon, Robert dropped me off at the Lincoln terminal. They had me do another road test. It was in a beat up total piece of crap truck that I couldn’t find the gears in. That was an adventure. I eventually figured it out though and did just fine. Afterwards, I put my gear in the storage room, packed an overnight bag, and caught the shuttle to the Days Inn Hotel where Crete has an account. My room was apparently the cheap “trucker special” because, let’s just say, it wasn’t the nicest room I’ve ever stayed in. But, it was nice to stretch out on a full size bed for a change and watch cable television. I called my son Abram, who lives in Lincoln, to see if he & his mom could come pick me up so I could take him shopping for school. He wasn’t able to that night, but we made arrangements to do it the next night instead.

Thursday August 20th 2009

I head down to the lobby early in the morning to catch the shuttle back to Crete. There’s a handful of other drivers waiting for the shuttle too. When we got to orientation, the first thing we did was go down to the cafeteria for a free breakfast. They have pretty good food there. Then we spend the first half of the day learning a whole bunch of Crete policies, etc. Then we head back down to the cafeteria for a free lunch. I love a company that feeds me! Then back for more policies. Then the shuttle back to the hotel. It’s a while before Sarah and Abram can come pick me up. When I headed down to the lobby, I could hear a couple really going at it in one of the rooms. I think I’m staying at the Love Shack! What a dive. Crete provided a $10 gift card for the Perkins next door, so, Crete treated me, and I treated them to dinner there. Then we head out shopping. But, due to poor planning on my part, the dinner made us late. The mall was about to close when we got there. They were out of the shoes that Abram wanted, and when we went to check out the other stores, they were all closing. We went to Walmart, but there wasn’t anything there he wanted. He got some socks and a few school supplies. All in all, it was a failed mission, but it was great seeing my son for the first time in two months!

Friday August 21st 2009

More orientation. More free food. After orientation, we got our trucks. I don’t know what trucks others got, what I do know is that me and another driver, Earl find out that we have to go to the terminal in Indianapolis to get our trucks. Our fates would have us heading in the same direction. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Crete terminal in Lincoln, which happens to be their headquarters, but there’s hundreds of trucks sitting there without drivers. But, they’re trucks that they pre-bought, and they aren’t putting drivers into them until they’ve got their full use out of their old trucks. So, me and Earl are heading to Indy. Crete provides us with a rental car. We take a company car to the airport to pick up the rental. We drop the company car back off at the terminal, load all our gear into the rental, and off we go.
Earl, who is probably in his late 50’s turns out to be totally kick ass. He’s very funny and a music buff. First, we stopped at the terminal in Council Bluffs so I can get more gear out of my car, then we spent the rest of the evening driving across Iowa discussing music and making each other laugh. We stopped at a small town in Iowa for the night. We get hotel rooms, also on Crete’s dime. At the hotel, they recommend this restaurant to us, so, we go into town to get some dinner. It’s prime rib night. We decide that getting our trucks is reason enough to celebrate, so we splurge and get the prime rib. We joke about starting fights with the customers. “Is that old lady looking at us funny?” Then, early to bed and early to rise.

Saturday August 22nd 2009

We head out at 5:30am and drive the rest of the way to Indianapolis. Earl did all the driving, which was just fine by me. We finally arrive at the terminal, head into the shop and tell them we’re here to get our trucks. They didn’t ask us who we were, ask for ID’s, or anything, they just gave us the keys. So, if any of you want a semi, go to Indianapolis, they’re giving them away free. My truck looked kinda like a beater to me at first, but I’ve kinda warmed up to it now. It’s a Shaffer truck, so it’s blue. It’s a 2006 Freightliner Century Class S/T. It’s got 381,380 miles on it. With an empty trailer and me in it, it weighs 34,040 lbs.



I spend the evening putting away my gear. Earl and I bobtail in his truck to a bar to get some dinner. They have some fairly decent ribs. There was a pretty crappy local country band doing their sound check. I spend the night at the terminal.

OK, I’ve done all the writing I can handle for one day (I’ve been at it for hours), so, I’ll tell you about my first solo runs in my next blog.