This letter commemorates one full year of driving semi trucks for Stevens Transport out of Dallas, TX. Praise to the LORD!
"Abiding Snows" Donners Pass I-80, California July 2008 (!)
(This is a collection of journals. I tried to note place and time I wrote each part, but I am not putting it into date order. It may be easier to print this to read as it is long, but full of insight and GLORY to my GOD!) ~J~
(This is a collection of journals. I tried to note place and time I wrote each part, but I am not putting it into date order. It may be easier to print this to read as it is long, but full of insight and GLORY to my GOD!) ~J~
There have been a lot of changes over the past year. I just celebrated my one year service anniversary with Stevens Transport out of Dallas, TX. Nanci gave me a gift of a plane ticket to Dallas on July 5, 2007 and I embarked on a wonderful adventure. For just a few moments, I want to share my joy of the journey. A few of you know that I have wanted to get my CDL and go over the road since Lewis and I first met. He had been a truck driver before I knew him. On our four- day- long first date, he showed me his photos of the USA and the great fishing spots he had scoped out from all over. I was hooked! We kicked around the idea that when my girls were in college, we’d go out as a team operation. The seeds were cast and I set my goal as far back as 2001 to explore our nation and get paid to do it.
Many of my friends and family can look at old emails and see that this purpose was never far from my mind. I wondered aloud silly things like if the grass in Kentucky was really blue? I wanted to go where there was real snow, not the man-made stuff of NC and make snow mommies,,, and then be able to go get warm and drink hot cocoa. I want to see the sequoias, Niagara Falls, and to hanglide or something like it into the Grand Canyon. I have accomplished a few of those things and many, many more.
Just flying into Dallas was a rush for me! As we circled to land, I was one of few people awake to see this skyscraper monolith all rimmed in neon green. Then the taxi drove through downtown and at a traffic light, I was almost lying on the floor of the cab looking upwards to try and see the pinnacle of that same tower. While having a day off from training, on a Sunday, I took the city bus to the historic district and enjoyed colloquial foods, outdoor music and dancing, museums and the site where JFK was shot. I located the booktrader. The adventure just grew and grew to exceed my expectations!
Some of my letters this past year shared concerns I had. I took my share of knocks on the road to experience. If I had written this letter a month ago, it might have a different flavor. But in June 2008, I went to church in South Florida and reconnected with my First Love, Jesus Christ. I am a brand new person that sees and thinks of things in a whole new perspective. My future will be interesting to discover where God leads me.
One thing that stayed a thread this whole year was my deep longing for roots, a real home, and a companion. Instead of seeing the fulfillment, I took the dogs OTR with me, gave Alisha and Tony full rights and responsibility for our house, and I do not carry a plant around to even see roots, much less foretell of them in my near future. Anyone who knows me, you are aware of my heart on these issues. What I need to convey now is the peace that has passed all my understanding.
I will tell you tales from the road. First and Foremost, I give glory to God for the privilege to have the adventure to begin with. He allowed people in my life to help guide me along the way like a best friend who helped finance my dream. Then God gave me courage when I would have backed away, protected me from harm and my own silly self, and he has been the main influence in my every move and thought.
I must give a shout out to all those who cheered me on!
- Isaac for putting Humpty Dumpty back together again and then for loving me enough he let me go to live my dream.
- Mom and Dad for being proud of me. Glad you can pick me up from the truck stop for impromptu visits!
- Alan aka A.W. travels vicariously through me and often looks stuff up on the internet so we can continue to learn new things. When he sat in the driver’s seat he was awed at how long the truck was in the rearview! Let’s go for a ride soon?
- Ranger Jay is always ready with a “you go Girl!”
- Angel, my daughter, my friend, is my “words of wisdom from the mouths of babes”. She is ready with a chastisement or a whoop whoop. Best thing that happened to me in 1986!
- Alisha told me we would both stomp our worlds. Stuck on you, best thing to happen to me in 1989!
- Nanci believes in me, bails me out, stays up late talking, manages my business life, and gives me a diving board to leap from. She also buys my sox!
- Michael tells everyone about his big sister the truck driver. He still drives the short bus ( that can out back, out run, out maneuver, out haul me, etc)
- CK – Renae- “That’s Wassup!”
- Rick we never have to catch up, you always just know me. By now you accept that I could never kick you to the curb. You will make a great police officer.
- Trish and Marshal are my trucking buddies. 24/7 we call, text, read to each other, exhort one another in the Lord and in this crazy profession we share.
- The gang from the Wellness Center, who wants the next dance?
- A special hug goes to all the pastors and their wives from the various churches that I have visited across the USA. Thanks for your prayers, your time, and your patience! Can I get a ride to next service?
(Nanci and Rick- we have been best friends for over 27 years,,, and you two are still older than me!)
In August when I turn 40? It will just be the beginning of my best 80 years of adventure and purpose! (((( Today, is August 27th. I turned 40 today and I ALMOST made it to the Pacific Ocean! I got to within 2 miles of it at the piers where the cruise ships go in and out in Wilmington, CA. Wouldn’t that have been a great way to mark to day? Save some fun for another day, c’est la vie!))))))))))
San Diego, CA Sunset at Black Rocks
To date I have been into Canada a few times and have driven through 44 of the 48 Continental United States. I have been through Customs in Bangor, Maine when I went to England, but I have not been through Maine in the big truck. I also need the two Dakotas and Montana ( in the summer, LOL).
My favorite states to drive through are Oregon and Pennsylvania. The coldest state was Wisconsin where the wind drives daggers through your clothes. The hottest states? The desert of I-10 and I-40 Texas to California. My least favorite? The heartland states. Best radio stations? The Bible Belt. Worst ice storm I came across this past year? Columbus, Ohio. Prettiest rainbow? The five separate ones in California near the city of windmills between I-40 and I-10. Most lightning bugs in one place? Kansas corn fields. A state highway in Burlington , WI was the best winter wonderland. It is built around a river that was frozen over and there were deer dancing across it. The farmlands were so white, I teased the cows were frozen beef. In Minnesota, there were ducks frozen in a pond. That was perplexing, but Angel says it is like how you boil a frog,, gradually. Poor duckies!
Columbia River Gorge, Oregon I-84 Just after the Dalles Dam
(TOP 3 PRETTIEST PLACES IN USA!!)
I will be ECSTATIC when all the states get a grip on reality and go to Clean Air Acts! If states as backwards as Louisiana and as progressively forward as Florida and California can ban smoking in public places, then why can’t the Amish country of PA and OH get it right too? Here is a question for you. Who pees on the pavement in truck stops and rest areas??? I don’t and to be honest, even my dogs won’t go that low, but someone sure does! Yech! Least favorite thing that goes with the territory? Nasty public restrooms and co-ed showers.
Funniest load? 37,000 pounds of Kraft Marshmellows from Nevada to Stockton, California. Heaviest load? Orange juice from Bradenton, Florida. Messiest load? A trailer of raw chicken that was bound for Mexico and was in big vats lines with plastic. That load bled and dripped across the nation.
It is hard to choose a favorite visit. Non-family, I would have to say it was when Isaac’s Mom picked me up from a rest area in Connecticut and took me to her home and served me tea in a most elegant fashion. She gave me a car tour of the “Greens” that it seems each town has in New England. She drove me thru Yale and when she pointed out Skull and Bones I was intrigued enough that I looked it up on the internet. Wow! I was there! She is a very, VERY special lady and I thank Isaac for sharing her with me! She has redeemed my perspective of stuffy New England a bit, at least in her hometown.
I will be ECSTATIC when all the states get a grip on reality and go to Clean Air Acts! If states as backwards as Louisiana and as progressively forward as Florida and California can ban smoking in public places, then why can’t the Amish country of PA and OH get it right too? Here is a question for you. Who pees on the pavement in truck stops and rest areas??? I don’t and to be honest, even my dogs won’t go that low, but someone sure does! Yech! Least favorite thing that goes with the territory? Nasty public restrooms and co-ed showers.
Funniest load? 37,000 pounds of Kraft Marshmellows from Nevada to Stockton, California. Heaviest load? Orange juice from Bradenton, Florida. Messiest load? A trailer of raw chicken that was bound for Mexico and was in big vats lines with plastic. That load bled and dripped across the nation.
It is hard to choose a favorite visit. Non-family, I would have to say it was when Isaac’s Mom picked me up from a rest area in Connecticut and took me to her home and served me tea in a most elegant fashion. She gave me a car tour of the “Greens” that it seems each town has in New England. She drove me thru Yale and when she pointed out Skull and Bones I was intrigued enough that I looked it up on the internet. Wow! I was there! She is a very, VERY special lady and I thank Isaac for sharing her with me! She has redeemed my perspective of stuffy New England a bit, at least in her hometown.
Mother Deas, New Haven Connecticut
What an amazing trip to get to view the 2007 Annual August Perseid meteor shower beginning in Kansas City, MO all the way to Laredo, Texas ( a Mexican border). The last 150 miles of I-35 to Laredo is PITCH BLACK!!!!! Awesome star gazing!!! Then this year’s Perseids, August 2008, I had the privilege to visit my South Florida friends. One night we watched from the beach together. Several nights I was able to unwind and view them in peace stretched out beside the ocean in the Keys and mainland.
Favorite hikes with the dogs? An active railroad bed in Pennsylvania where we found a spring bubbling out of the ground of pure water for the mutts and Wagonhound Ledge on a wildlife preserve in Wyoming.
There really is a Bobber Lake at exit 103 on I-70 in Boonville, MO and also there is a Storm Lake in Storm Lake Iowa. Speaking of Iowa, they have the world’s largest truck stop in Walcott on I-80 and the barn roofs are adorned with the family center square for their quilts.
Favorite hikes with the dogs? An active railroad bed in Pennsylvania where we found a spring bubbling out of the ground of pure water for the mutts and Wagonhound Ledge on a wildlife preserve in Wyoming.
Like children have different personalities? Meeshu is walking in the shade of my shadow while Addy plunged in the arroyos with glee, chasing all manner of snakes and wildlife back at me!
Places I want to stop, but haven’t found a place to park the rig? The Pacific ocean ( I got within 8 miles, but couldn’t figure a way over there). The Clabber Girl Museum. The Zane Grey Museum. The 11 Bridges of Madison County. The Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. Niagara Falls( I got to within 20 minutes of it).
To put a matter to rest? The Sock Monster is not relegated to being purely an Urban Myth preying on housewives ambushing the loads from the dryers. He is alive and well in truck stop laundrymats across the nation. For awhile I tried to trick him and only bought all white socks of the same type. But flowers, good hygiene, cleanliness, fragrances, and socks that match my clothes are girly concessions I make. Ever since A.W. teased me I looked like a dork in high socks and boots when we rode, I have had fun with sexier socks than his J. The Sock Monster seems to enjoy the variety in its diet, and eats one of a pair at home and abroad. Sigh, LOL. There you Enquiring Minds have the answer to one of Life’s Big Riddles!!!
Once I was stuck on the ramps leading up to and then going across the George Washington Bridge in New York City for over 3 hours. I had time to set the brake, make and eat a sandwich, feed the dogs, check my email, take a leak, make some phone calls and when I got bored, I sidled up to trucks stopped as soundly as I was and became the clown. I convinced drivers to roll down their windows so I could ask, “Pardon me. Do you happen to have any Grey Poupon?” Or I would lean over the steering wheel and feign a race posture. Drivers laughed and tensions eased! And of course, the rusty fire escapes and graffiti around the city intrigued me just like it was out of a movie.
July 23, 2008, Osseo, Wisconsin
Today I started east of Indianapolis, drove under Chicago right by O’Hare airport, and eleven hours of drive time later, I am at a truck stop in Wisconsin. I am headed for two drops in the St. Paul, Minnesota area tomorrow. I have not been across WI since it was a sheet of ice when I was going back and forth from Canada, thru Detroit, to Chanhassen, MN. I suspect they are positioning me near Chanhassen now. I am enthralled with the different breeds of trees compared to Florida’s oaks and scrub pines. It is so green up here, and rolling hilly country. Guess that snow melted and fortified the land! It was neat to see elk, wolves, and birds of prey as I crossed the great north.
The wildflowers are amazing across the nation.
Crocosmia ( aka Montbresia, both great names for a beautiful flower) Larkspur, columbine, celosia, purple and white monte casino, aster solidago, hypericum, liatris, thistles, and all kinds of weedy blooms like lazy susans and dandelions, the amazing ground cover of healthy portacula, sunflowers, and other asters. Lots of Asiatic lilies and agapanthus.
Like I mentioned, going over the road has been a goal for almost ten years. I had an aunt and uncle that tried it, cousins, my brother, etc. The hotel where I worked as a night auditor housed the incoming new drivers for LCT. I asked each driver where they were from and to list 3 things about the life OTR. The credit for the main seed of wanderlust is due to Lewis, my one boyfriend since my divorce. At the time we met and he was a Federal Law Officer. Some of the photos he showed me were of lands that seemed as foreign as crossing the sea to another continent. As he regaled me with tales of the life, I nurtured my hunger to see the world which simmered just under the surface even after he left. Once Alisha graduated high school, I waited at home one full year to be sure both my girls were established, then May 2007 I too entered school. I took the weekend classes and kept working 80 hours a week crammed into M-F and I DID IT!!!!! Woo hoo!
A lot of you know there was still pain in my bones and muscles from my bike wreck in November 2006, but few realize that I also daily deal with the compressed vertebrae and pinched nerves in my neck and shoulder from the truck wreck. In March 2004, two days after a weekend full of SCUBA diving in West Palm Beach, I was rammed by a lady that ran a stop sign in Longwood, FL and my truck was rolled onto the driver’s side wheels, causing my passenger side dually axles to roll over the lady’s van like a Panzer tank. It was when my truck crashed back onto all its tires I got injured. Not many know how it affected me since I did not miss a shift of work with either incident. I tried chiropractors, with no success. Today, I still have considerable nerve pain that robs me of sleep or rest, but it doesn’t keep me from pursuing my jaunts across America. I count each day a blessing and approach it from the WWJD mentality. God is still the Healer. He will heal me one day, in one way or another. For now, he sustains me and I have FINALLY learned to walk in HIS strength, power, and knowledge. He is a merciful Redeemer.
April 2008
If there is one city I detest it is Atlanta. The only things I have ever lost here is Time and my sense of good humor. Georgia itself is a state that is good for just one thing: To get through it going to Somewhere Else.
Some more observations: A bane of truckers? Left lane jersey walls & bikes that ride the zipper in Los Angeles. Vehicles using the right shoulder in MA as a travel lane. Backwards gravity in PA (Hills that visually go UP and the truck races out of control yet hills that flow down the truck labors and has to be downshifted?).
Right foot in the ocean, left foot in the Gulf – Keys. Back Roads of Louisiana do not have shoulders, one foot on the asphalt, one foot in the bayou – watch out for Gators!
In Colorado and Kansas all you can see for miles is the hypnotizing Cow -------- Corn ------- Cow------ Corn --------- Cow in the Corn. Best inspirations for photos? The City of Windmills in CA(“ Passing Wind”) and the spot near Odessa, TX with the cotton fields white to harvest with an active oil drill in the midst of the ripe bolls(“Texas Harvest”).
In Louisiana there’s the Piggly Wiggly across the street from the Hoggly Woggly. I CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! Interstate 10 through Louisiana is also home to a chain of convenience stores called Shop Rite which have Arnold Schwarzenegger-sized Chicken breast that are injected with Cajun fire! This state also has Bro. Merrell Ewing’s church right on the highway. Either he has no faith, or a lot of it,, his small softball fields face the interstate not the building. Hope no one hits a home run or a foul ball. There is also the “Second Baptist Church”- who admits that? Know what is in the pot for dinner? Road KILL. (truth!)
Odd town names: Hereford and Bovina, TX “Home of the Fighting Herefords and the White Faced Ladies”. How’s that for an alma mater? I have been ice driving to Clovis, New Mexico to pick up cheese to take to Pennsylvania. Isn’t that redundant? Oh well, job security, lol. Smallest posted population? 240.
It’s a mess to knock the butter out of the butterfly with the windshield. I have at least two bad habits (could be worse): chain chewing gum and caffeine. Ground hogs are extremely ugly critters!
Funniest dog story? In Plainview, TX for two days every time I walked the dogs past this one field of about 3 acres, this community of prairie dogs has taunted us from their mounds. Hundreds of the fat roly, poly little buggers! Chirk! Chirk! Well, this day, Addy was frantic. So I let him loose to see what he would do. It was like the whacking moles game at the fair. He ran pell mell from mound to mound, only to be thwarted at the last second and scolded from the next hill. Just when I thought I had seen it all, Lo and Behold! An OWL flew up in his face from one of the holes in the ground!!!!!!!! And it proceeded to whoop his tail! Oh man that was hysterical watching him try to evade that ticked off bird! I tell you it was better than any Nintendo game of Dig Dug or Sonic with their pitfalls and hazards. Addy got in a good exercise though, miraculously didn’t break a leg in a hole, and no prairie dogs were injured.
Notes in my spiral kept on my dash just for these tidbits and inspirations ( I should be a teacher, LOL):
Yankee moment that had me scratching my head? Addy had made his way under a fence in New Hampshire and I could hear him running and having a blast. I waited for his return. What I saw coming towards me was Wilbur,,, I was mortified! Every last hair on this dog was oozing stinking black muck. It was dripping out of his mouth and nose. I asked the rest area attendant if there was a water faucet. He told me it was up front. Huh? I walked to the front and sure enough, he had directed me to the drinking fountain. WTH?! I sacrificed one of our gallon jugs of drinking water, and all it did was turn it into a liquid morass. I toweled the chucklehead off the best I could and prayed he would not jump on my bed. Was the attendant stuuuuupid? Or just a Yankee? LOL
Ticks! Color coded by region. NH had black ones. PA and NY had insidious little small red biters! To give the dogs a good run in a small space like a truck stop, I pace off a 50yards perimeter with them still on the leash. Let them go, and Addy will then run laps and he turns at the command Heah! All I have to do is tell Meeshu to Git ‘im and he pumps those stubby little legs in joy!
Dad telling me he liked my shorter hair. Said it gave me “Pizzaz instead of being a grey haired old granny”.
Pondered if Pentecostal women are allowed to SCUBA or ride motorcycles? Asked pastors across the nation and here are excerpts of their replies: #1) Why would you want to? {Well let’s see? Because my HEAVENLY FATHER created the oceans and lands???!!!} (#2) I don’t know. Wouldn’t it break your French tips and make your short skirt fly up? (#3) Bikinis are okay if it means you will leave the church if I tell you no. (#4) Be modest and appropriate at all times – bringing glory to God.
I like the last response the best. Still seeking God and his direction on these and all areas of my life now. Angel insists I be patient with myself that I am a newborn babe in Christ. All that first love glow. I am much harder on myself. I am not new. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
One guy important to me says you “Plan your life. Then Life happens.” I see fluffy white clouds and sky animals, he sees storms portending certain doom. However, there’s one gift from God, the opportunity to see sin, people, and problems as he does. I have to be sure there is nothing competing for my attention and diligently seek God. The big questions will sort themselves out – for His glory. Guard the gates to my city. Allow God’s shining light of conviction and revelation into the inner workings of my spirit. Invite him to illuminate anything standing between perfect oneness in him.
A Sirius pastor quote: “Lord, what do you want for my life? God doesn’t save us to love us. He loves us to save us. See ourselves as God does – redeemed and pure”.
Yes, I have given A & A to God. But I still think about them. I have to die daily and lay that deep desire and my memories back on the altar. Discipline myself not to pick it up again when I leave. Rather instead, petition God on their behalf. I don’t want God to remove this burden. I want to BURN for the lost and hurting of the world. And I want God to love me still – THROUGH it.
To finish well? Be committed in youth. Consistent in the middle. And triumphant in the end.
The turnpike in PA goes through brooks, mountains, train tracks, tunnels. 2 of the 5 tunnels that go THROUGH the mountains are not ambient light. In Hershey, PA the route bobtail took me under Hershey World – if a rider on the gigantic wooden roller coaster had spit a sunflower seed husk it would have shattered my windshield. The lamps were Hershey KISSES! How cool!
Things I am afraid of: oddly enough, drowning. Even after 200+ dives that first fifteen feet of surge scares me every time. Always said I would drown on the surface long before I would ever perish underwater at 60 feet. Sliding out of control. Skiing for instance. Water is ok, snow,, didn’t like it one bit.
You all know I am a country girl. The kid that carried a snake in a glass mayo jar to school only to drop it in the cafeteria? Snakes have a purpose in the Chain of Life. To eat spee- spy- arachnids! I detest SPIDERS!
Seizing opportunites that arise to go riding on a horse ... albeit flesh and bones or steel.
I have crossed the Continental Divide in several states. The 45th Parallel. The highest spot in elevation on I-80 west of the Mississippi river. The Mason-Dixon line (Maryland and PA state border). The “Gettysburg of the South” on I-25 in New Mexico.
90 degree Longitude- ¼ of the way west around the world on I-72 mm 78-79 in Illinois
Favorite rest areas? CA has foot flush pedals that make a lot of sense! Ohio turnpike rest plazas have showers, laundry, and a tv room. First time noticing pointed roofs so snow won’t collapse a house was Donner Pass. (Funny the things that a FL girl keys in on). No longer white-knuckled going down mountains. Technically challenging and giving care to detail. Stevens made me scared to begin with. To pass training had to go down 2 major mountain passes loaded to at least 25, 000 pounds without a jake brake, but “Be careful not to smoke your brakes. They will fade and you won’t have any”. Ok, so WHY would I WANT to try going down a hill? And to a flatlander like me, a 5% grade is Mt Everest! Right at the One Year Anniversary mark I travelled west across I-80 again and felt it was fitting to be marking milestones solo as a culmination of victories..
Wall of Fame this year? #1 Praying back through. #2 travels. #3 finances #4 health #5 personal growth as a single person and as a solo female truck driver.
My transitions gave way to stability, challenge, and success. In June, I claimed Victory and got back on the horse that threw me when Angel and I rented a magnificent Harley Heritage Softtail.
Will I change companies? Go local? Go back to school to get a teaching or counseling degree? Learn a foreign language? Buy a house? A bike? Become a mother-in-law again? A Nana? I’ve looked up old friends. Met new ones. Still new friends to meet. Fresh horizons to drive through. Mountains to climb. Valleys to rest in. And may the wind be always at my back.
Nevada& Selma, NC to Houston
I have kicked Complacency to the curb. I have made peace with Loneliness. First I learned to survive. Now in Christ as a new creature I have learned there is freedom in surrender. I was never young. But I never felt old. I did tell my Dad when I was in CDL school that the last 3 years had taken its toll on me. At that time, I felt old, ancient, and used up. All those 80 hour work weeks with nothing and no one to show for it had simply worn me out. Reading old letters I see exhaustion was a common thread. For years. A weariness of soul. God has reached in and healed my inner places – giving me a reason for LIVING.
If my journals have been blunt, if it offends I am sorry. But I experienced it, and no one apologized to me or was around to help me. It is what it is. My past. The Future is in Christ alone though.
Similar town names?
Palmyra PA & MO /Philadelphia PA & MO /Louisiana MO /Phoenix OR & AZ / Las Vegas NM & NV / I think every state has an Orange County and a Columbus or Columbia.
22 July 2008 Smithton, PA
Glad to be Single? Is it a light switch? Well DUH! No! Even people that get married in their early 20’s chances are they have never been alone. Parents. High school. Church. College – classes, dorm, community living, apartments. It is possible that person cannot relate in honesty to say they know what it is like to be single. Solo. Alone. In Solitude.
How can that person say “they understand what I am going through?” No degree or license gives the same grip on reality as directly living through separation, divorce, death of spouse.
** I have been called this year into a celebration of my singlehood. Up to this point I have fought it, dreaded it, feared it, railed against it, mourned it, and substituted it. Accepted it. Much like a sacrifice of praise, I am consciously CHOOSING to CELEBRATE IT! **
20 August 2008, Texas (Stratford. TX pop 1991 Home of God, Grass, and Grit)
Things I miss from a home? The luxury of a bath. Cooking ( A.W. don’t faint from surprise). BBQs. Tossing horseshoes at church picnics. Working out in the Party Room (A’s old room) to dance and be inspired. Fishing trips in my boat – being on the water before safe light, the mists rising shrouding the shorelines in mystery and suspense. Riding my bike full throttle – no helmet, hair loose, no barrier between me, God, and sky. Porch swings, the scent of jasmine, the moonlight through the Spanish moss.Yankee Candle (Midsummer Night) and cool jazz to tame the savage beast. A bike ride through the woods, stopping to fish if it looks inviting. Horseback riding. The dogs having room to stretch out and play. Public libraries, band concerts, town get –togethers.
Benefits from OTR time? Mountains. Corn. Sunflowers. Desert’s in bloom. Weather variety. Harvests. Dialects and cultures. Lake Effect Snow. Foxes, Wolves, Deer, Elk, Jackrabbits, Birds of Prey.
Alone time with my Creator.
23 August 2008, Holcomb, KS
Perils of being a semi driver? Being at face level from the ground when Meeshu is so happy to see me that he gets a fit of sneezing. I learned early to brace the door against the wind, but I being a blonde had to try it again recently to see if it has changed in 6 months. As I reach in to leash the boys and lift them down, the truck door clipped me square across the back of my head and neck. Good thing I prayed back through, that could have been colorful! Fog that is slicker than owl snot. Bouncing up and down in a rutted truck stop or lot and catching air, to smash my bad elbow on the gear stick! Instant goose egg!
Meeshu terrified of the jolt when the tractor couples with the fifth wheel. Poor thing shakes and quivers. It spills his water and to him it registers high on the Richter scale. I am reminded of toddler Alisha in her car seat, asleep, awoke as we were in the midst of a car wash, the brushes beating up the car. She went white and screamed in terror. For her, we could divert her attention by singing the ABC song. Nothing helps Meeshu. But OH! The opening in conversations the dogs supply. And such great buds!
Several suggest now that I have one year experience I shop for a better company. It is like Russian Roulette. Maybe I find better cents per mile,,, but they have low miles per week. Or brand new trucks, but poor maintenance and dangerous attitudes towards safety? I am not up for the game of musical chairs with my credibility. Right now, digging in and putting TWO years experience on my resume makes more sense.
It is fun to watch the evening ballet as trucks jockey for a parking spot. Winter it begins about 3pm local time. Summer 5pm. First it is a lively waltz. An hour or so before dark, it is a whirling dervish as drivers vie for prime resting places. It is safest to watch from a distance, not to get caught up in it J
23 August 2008, Desert Mountains of CO, NM to I-40 NM & AZ
To bring this epic to an end, I hope I have conveyed that I am alive and well. Praying back through to a place of salvation and communion with God was the best decision I have ever made. This last trip, I was raring at the bit, but the load was too heavy and got delayed almost 24 hours. I knew in my spirit, God was preparing something wonderful for me. I will leave you with this one last account. Then at the bottom of my letter, I am including an email that my daughter, Alisha wrote to me last year when I was in training in Dallas. I claim victory!
I am sending this Anniversary letter with love and TRIUMPH!
When I was finally able to leave Holcomb, KS with my load, it was 2am CDT. It was Mountain time (fall back another hour) at the CO border, and I took a two lane US hwy to catch up to I-25s to I-40w. Sometimes, this two lane road was so narrow, two vehicles could not safely pass. So it was a good thing I counted less than 5 other vehicles in either direction for hours! Heavily concentrating, God began to minister to me. He had me right where he wanted me. In the dry, barren desert, hours before the sun rose, nothing but miles and ghost towns. I was listening to a preaching DVD from Cooper City for the umpteenth time, and still getting something new out of it each time. God stirred me to turn it off. He brought me to an altar and a fresh place of brokenness before him. (this was just yesterday 8/23/08). He then exerted pressure on the vice, working my clay on the Potter’s Wheel. Verses I have heard a million times, were given clarity, and I found a place of purpose in my soul, much as the sun which began to nurture the day with its light tickling over the mountainsides.
Right there in the desert between La Junta and Trinidad, God said the words, “Hinds feet in high places, INDEED! Now do you understand the delay I allowed?”
This place of outward barrenness was but a tabernacle between me and the Most Holy God. I would have missed it if I had my way and travelled that road in the midafternoon.
That’s what I have learned this year. To seek God. To wait on God. To obey God. To hear God. To trust God. To honor and glorify God in all that I do, to include my career. To let go of my own stubborn self-will and reliance and LET GOD. To embrace Brokenness and Surrender to God.
This truck, my quiet refuge in the Lord. No distractions between us.
I hope you learned something cool about our nation from my account of this past year’s driving adventures. Rejoice with me! Go with me as I journey onward through your prayers and blessings. May the Peace of God dwell in each of you.
~JAN~
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Here is Alisha’s letter. She felt what she writes here at one time. Do you see what I see? A figure coming up the road. Hear what I hear? A sound as of the abundance of rain. In Jesus’ Name!
Mommy,
As proud of me as you are, I am of you. The past year was exactly what we both needed. You have grown up in so many ways that it is hard to believe I am the daughter sometimes. We both still have a lot of obstacles in our way but I am more confident now that we will both stomp our worlds.
Try to remember your good qualities during the rough roads ahead (pun intended). Your caring heart, sincerity, instinct, love and humor. Not to be left out are perseverance, respect and logic.
All in all, you are what a woman should be and it makes you beautiful and wonderful. I remember some of your bad habits and choices that I do not think were even apparent to you at the time, but I have watched the transformation you have made from the self-conscious broken woman of a divorce to the amazing independent heroine of modern times. Your accomplishments have been noticed and admired by many, but particularly me.
Go out through America and enjoy yourself. You have earned this job and I believe you will find it to be a vacation in some ways, definitely educating.
Be safe and know that you are always in my prayers and in my heart. I am glad we settled our differences now and can start our new lives with no regrets.
CHEERS! Go hit the road in style.
Love always,
Alisha
~Jan Olsen~
