Category Archives: Master Posts

The most important, significant, time-consuming and engrossing content that I have produced

New Respect in a COVID World

Respect, Remarkably

I always wanted to feel valuable at work. I rarely did during the decade-plus that I toiled as an online journalist. Sure, I wrote enough great content, did some cool video editing and was a collaborative team member. But I never felt useful and respected at the level I had anticipated when I started my journalism training.

In fact, it wasn’t until this last week that I felt that level of usefulness and respect. With the shit storm of COVID-19 running rampant all over the world and me out on the road faithfully trucking along, the adulation that I’d long figured would one day come … well, it finally did, in an ironic way.

I originally set my sights on journalism because I wanted to turn my writing gifts into a sustainable living. I foresaw recognition and advancement that never came. Then the bottom dropped out of the journalism world. In 2013 my department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) got axed. I went through four hard years of varied employment before I looked into trucking. It seemed to be the only quick route back to a decent living. Nearing 50 and with few options, I jumped at the opportunity. I never envisioned that I’d be much more than content in this new world. I surely never imagined being bestowed with admiration. Continue reading

firefly-central-park-new-york-city

Oh, The Glow

Last evening, July 19, 2019, as dusk turned to dark, Kim and I sat outside on our stone front porch, each armed with a wonderful Cranberry Rosé Cider from the No Boats on Sunday beverage company. I had just return from inside because Kim rightfully suggested that we drink from classy beer glasses rather than straight out of the bottle. We were looking around our neighbourhood and discussing who lived where when we first moved into the townhouse directly across the street 17 years ago. That was seven years before we made the gargantuan leap across the road to our semi-detached backsplit.

It was a particularly warm evening, on the heels of a hot day. Here in Burlington, Ontario we were considerably above the 30-degree Celsius mark, not figuring in the humidex. But that’s nothing compared to what New York City and the rest of the American Eastern Seaboard was facing. We had just returned from NYC a day earlier and were reflecting on the amazing sites we had seen there, having scoured much of central Manhattan and the lower west side. We were grateful not to be there now, because walking around in 30-degree Celsius heat was arduous enough. Now it was closer to 35 and feeling like over 40.

There was little unusual about this evening, other than we only get the chance to do this sitting around and enjoying a beverage in the late evening once every few weeks. That’s because I’m away in the truck so much and Kim is often in bed by nine o’clock. So, here we were together around 9:30pm, with our Maltese Poodle Sydney resting on Kim’s lap. Continue reading

When The ‘Going’ Gets Rough

Highway 19, west virginia, hico, mount nebo, summersville, truck driver

An incredible view along Highway 19 in West Virginia – a place no one should ever want to soil.

I lament the very idea of ‘going’ here

There’s no denying the beauty of driving along Highway 19 in West Virginia. The green covered mountains and lush valleys make you forget – even if just briefly – how poor this state is and how hard life is for its people.

The vast hilly region is absolutely underappreciated. In fact, I’d heard remarkably little about the area until I started driving through it weekly as a long-haul truck driver. That was in the spring of 2017. Prior to then, I knew nothing of the spectacular New River Gorge and the mighty bridge that spans its width.

This entire part of the country is far too beautiful to soil. It’s a shame when you have no choice. Allow me to explain the messy details: Hundreds of trucks pass through these parts daily, en route to destinations where they deliver and pick up freight. It would make perfect sense that any route travelled so heavily by transport trucks would have ample facilities to support the volume. It doesn’t.

For cars, small trucks and motorcycles – plus most campers and even motor homes – it’s easy enough to pull over into any roadside restaurant or store parking lot, in Summersville, Fayetteville or Oak Hill, for instances. These drivers and passengers don’t have to ‘dirty’ the gorgeous environment. After all, no self-respecting human wants to leave behind a remnant of their visit. Continue reading

Lot Lizards, Lamentably

lot lizard, truck driver, trucking, truck stop

Lot lizard graphic from topsimages.com

Imagine a long-haul truck driver hundreds of miles away from home. He’s at the end of a long day of delivering and picking up freight. He’s found a parking spot in a truck stop and has decided he wants company.

Now picture another truck driver who arrived at the truck stop earlier, only to have the first guy park beside him. This driver wants nothing but an evening of peace and quiet, a decent dinner in his truck, a hot shower and a Leafs or Raptors game on the satellite radio. This driver is me.

I don’t care anything about the first driver. What he does on his own time is his own business, so long as it doesn’t affect me in the least. I certainly don’t want to see or hear about his ‘company.’

Check out these interesting “insane” lot lizard stories.

I Want To Pretend That I Didn’t See Anything

Unfortunately, this brings me to an evening a few weeks at my favourite Pilot truck stop in Gaffney, South Carolina. As usual, I parked in the far back corner of the lot. Typically, that’s where you get the most seclusion and least disturbance from the noise and headlights of the incoming trucks in the fuel aisles.

I was sitting in driver’s seat at around eleven o’clock, trying to decide if I should lie down in my bunk. I was fiddling with the radio and looking around when a car pulled around the corner. Continue reading

Tragedy at Jane Lew Truck Stop

truck stop image, tractor-trailer

A random truck stop parking lot, at dusk

Sadly, it’s not news when a truck driver dies. At least it’s not news to most truck drivers. But what happened on Wednesday, December 5th puts a devastating new spin on truck driver deaths. A young trucker was walking through the Jane Lew Truck Stop and was run over by a rig that had just entered the lot.

I learned of the tragedy on the Twisted Truckers page on Facebook. Initially, I saw the altered image of a truck driving upward toward heaven. That was unusual. Then I read the text and discovered the horrific truth. The last sentence of the post read: “Everyone needs to slow down in these truck stops and pay more attention to everything and everyone around you.”

A follow-up post on Twisted Truckers, a day or two after the tragedy, showed a picture of a set of truck keys, which the author said belonged to the deceased driver. She said the driver had a wife and children who now had to spend the holidays without him. She said she can think of no reason that anyone should be traveling fast enough through a truck stop to kill someone.

Details unknown

I asked my friend Tony if he had heard any of the details. He stops at Jane Lew frequently when he’s passing through West Virginia on his way back from the Carolinas. He later told me that he talked to a waitress at the truck stop’s restaurant. She said the truck in question came barreling into the lot and ran over the victim with all five axles.

How exactly the calamity happened, I don’t know. No doubt an investigation has started that will look at all the possible angles and answer key questions, such as:

  • Was the truck travelling at too high a rate of speed?
  • Was hitting the victim unavoidable? (Were his clothes too dark to see? Was he wearing reflective clothing or carrying a flashlight?)
  • Is it possible that the driver was unaware that he hit the victim?

Continue reading

Me and Joe Rogan: My Podcast Plan

The Joe Rogan Experience

Photo taken from Twitter.com

The Joe Rogan Dream

I have this dream – a recurring vision, really – that I’m sitting across the desk from Joe Rogan. He’s asking me questions about my past: my decade-long battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, my erstwhile journalism career, my unlikely odyssey to a second career as a long-haul truck driver, and my lifelong ambition to become an author of memorable fiction. For the sake of comedy and biographical context we go way back to my school days, where I was tall and gangly, shy and awkward, a bullying victim and deathly afraid to talk to girls.

Joe’s never had a guest quite like me. Okay, let’s settle down with the hyperbole. The truth is, he regularly welcomes guests – scientists, journalists, musicians, media personalities – who are unlike him because he’s highly curious. He’s also refreshingly prepared to change his perspective on just about anything, after being convinced by facts or a compelling argument. Note to self: conjure a compelling argument. Continue reading

The Truck Stops Here

truck stop, pilot, flying j, tractor trailer, trucking, rest area

Pilot truck plaza in Wytheville, Virginia, mostly empty in the late morning

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

The classic Joni Mitchell lyric has been attributed to many ‘doom of green space’ scenarios: I’m sure Ms. Mitchell was thinking of urban landscapes where beautiful trees and kid-friendly greenery have been bulldozed in favour of dreary asphalt. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t thinking of truck stops.

Fortunately for inner city park lovers, most truck stops don’t infringe on their trees and grass. They’re out in the boonies at major highways junctions, where noisy air brakes and massive trailers aren’t a problem. Out there in the open air, there’s big money to be made from filling giant fuel tanks and feeding and showering hungry, dirty truck drivers.

The Wytheville – Fort Chiswell corridor in southern Virginia is such a place. This is where Interstates 77 and 81 cross in the southern section of Virginia. The area is a de facto gateway to North Carolina, namely the nearby populous Piedmont Triad of Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point. Charlotte is a couple of hours south.

I use this stretch of highway as a convenience. It has a half dozen or so giant truck stops – they’re called ‘travel plazas’ – including three from the Pilot/Flying J company. That’s where my company wants me to fuel. Continue reading

Sharing The Road Is A Bitch For Us Too

tractor-trailer, truck, cut off, car, accident, crash, highway, road

Just a sample of a random car cutting off a random big truck. Image from livetrucking.com

We’re Big and Slow; You’re Small and Fast – We Get It

Let’s pretend I understand. You’re the driver of a small, fast vehicle. You’re in your sedan / hatchback / SUV / pickup truck –or on your motorcycle – and you want to get where you’re going as fast as possible. You’re willing to put up with some traffic, stop signs and lights and even a bit of bad weather. You’re even prepared to cope with smaller delivery trucks, garbage trucks and the like.

But evidently, from my experience, you’re not much ready to deal with the big boys of the road: the space-hogging tractor-trailers — the very same vehicles that bring all the things you love including food, clothes and cars themselves, to the places where you flock to buy them.

I appreciate that you don’t want to be behind, or even beside or near, one of these monsters. They’re huge, they move slowly (especially when gearing up), they need extra space to make wide turns and they’re scary to be nearby because they will crunch you in a collision.

Maybe most annoyingly, they often block you out even when they don’t intend to. Continue reading

Duffer and the Deer

Highway I-79 near the West Virginia - Pennsylvania border

I-79 near the West Virginia – Pennsylvania border

Steve Duffer III

Steve Duffer III died on I-79 in West Virginia, just north of Meadowdale. A homemade memorial dedicated to his memory is perched on the hill beside the highway. It’s legible even from a passing trucker’s vantage point.

Each time I drive by the memorial, I quickly read the name and return my eyes to the road. For some reason I can’t recall much else about the memorial besides the dedication. I think it’s a white wooden cross that’s been hammered into the ground.

Research on Mr. Duffer’s death reveals a tragedy. He died in February 2007 when his southbound red Nissan Frontier pickup crossed the meridian on Jennings Randolph Expressway (what I-79 is named in West Virginia) and hit a tractor trailer.

The 2001 Mack tractor trailer in the northbound lanes was running out of Hickory, North Carolina – where I have picked up and delivered numerous times in my nine months as a truck driver. Continue reading

Green Mountain Optimism

mountain highway in Virginia

Somewhere on a mountain highway in Virginia or West Virginia

Driving along I-77 in West Virginia and Virginia can be riveting. The green mountain scenery is astonishing, the air is fresh and cool, the highway curves are long and well-marked and there are several well-maintained roadside rest areas. As a rookie truck driver, I can see that stretches like this are what driving a tractor-trailer is all about.

While many friends and former coworkers are nestled in restrictive office cubicles, I’m out on the open road, enjoying the vistas while maintaining good speed and keeping a cautious watch for bad or distracted drivers … in cars, small trucks, motorcycles and even other tractor-trailers.

Eager for Enjoyment

I’ve been driving on my own for over six months now. Each week I head to North and South Carolina to drop off and pick up an interesting array of goods, including machinery, auto parts, clothes and toys. In this time, I’ve found there’s one thing that sticks with me and comes second only to safety: the desire to enjoy this career and all its trappings. Continue reading