Starting the trucking portion of this blog

Ok folks, much time has passed, and if I'm going to do this thing then I need to start writing again... I've been making excuses not to participate in this blog, using exhaustion, preoccupation with my training and my job, and spending spare time eating, sleeping,  and phoning my wife, for examples.  This job of trucking does wear me out much more than I'd expected... being a truck driver means so much more than just getting paid to drive down the road.  The amount of attention given to that seemingly simple task takes a very real mental toll.  There are gauges to monitor, mirrors to check, and lanes ahead to scan.  The gauge that has produced the most anxiety has been the 'engine temperature' gauge... climbing through the Appalachian Mountains pulling a near-maximum-weight load of 79,000lbs sent the needle in the temp gauge very close to the red line.  The first time it happened, I was sure I was going to have to pull over and shut it down for awhile to cool off, but just before the needle reached the red, the fan kicked in, cooling the engine off, sending the needle back down to a less-stressful level.  Other trucks must not have had this magical fan, because I'd seen several pulled over to the side with their hoods open.

On one occasion I ran the truck on fumes to a fuel station... my dispatched fuel stop was inexplicably scheduled for over 600 miles away, on the other side of the mountains from my starting point.  I made it to the fuel stop, but as you can see below, just barely...  If the route has been interstate-only I'm sure I would have made it to the Pilot truck stop with fuel to spare, but my route included state highways, sending me through po-dunk towns with their ridiculous stoplights and 45mph speed limits.  Lots of starting and stopping and opportunities for increased fuel consumption.  With every sign I passed signaling a stoplight ahead, I cursed, and not silently, under my breath.  But I made it.

it's the gauge on top

So to re-start this project, I'm going to insert posts from a diary journal I kept in a fabulous on-line website and resource for beginning truckers, www.truckingtruth.com.  It picks up from my first days in truck driving school, where I obtained my CDL-A truck driving license... in the next post.