By Brandon Case
Pratt columnist
Special to the Tribune
“Sometimes the lights all shinin’ on me / Other times I can barely see / Lately it occurs to me / What a long, strange trip it’s been.” –“Truckin’” by the Grateful Dead.
There was a story about a truck driver who decided one day that he wanted to donate blood to help someone in need. It just so happened that there was a blood drive in a Tennessee town that was a stop along the way. When he rolled up his sleeve to donate, however, they wouldn’t take his blood: too much diesel fuel running in his veins.
This may just be a story, but, for many, truck driving gets into the blood.
That’s definitely the case for Tricounty Tribune columnist Ron Moore, who spends most of his year on the road.
Ron and I have gotten to know each other a little since I began calling him once a week about a year or two ago. I check in and see where he is at. Recently, at the end of January and into the first week of February, I decided to check in with him every day, via text. Here’s the story of a week plus in the life of a truck driver.
At his work week began, Ron texted me a snowy landscape photo from Cheyenne, Wyoming, informing that he was idling outside of a “Cloud” (think tech), waiting to unload roofing board.
The next day, when I called him, Ron didn’t know exactly where he was headed, as he drove in the general direction of Phillipsburg. He told me that he might be rerouted to another town in Nebraska, however.
“My typical week is going where they send me. The most constant thing about my week is not knowing where I will be going until my current load is off the trailer. It’s a secret mission,” Ron texted.
The following day found our rolling columnist in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Didn’t want to go but here I am,” he texted me. At least the weather was nice when he was there, with a forecasted high of 50
degrees on the following day, which he would spend waiting on dispatch to send him to his next destination.
Late the next night he texted me: “I finally got a load of lumber from Lakeville, MN, going to Red Oak, IA.”
“Driving a truck is not a job but a lifestyle. You need a passion to sit there hours after hours. Even though we do the same thing every day, it is always different. It’s what I love doing. The hardest part is not being home for family functions such as birthdays, school programs and mowing the yard on a weekday evening. Sometimes it’s the small things that we miss being able to do during the week,” Ron texted.
At times, Ron has to finagle things to make it home for important matters, like a medical appointment for his wife. Late Friday evening he texted that he had unloaded in Red Oak, IA and “then went to Fort Dodge for a Graham, TX load but will be swapping with another driver for a Haven load.”
The day after his wife’s appointment, he kept his travels within Kansas, with a run to Garden City before returning to Medicine Lodge to pick up wallboard.
The next day, he learned that he would be going to Texas after all. “Definitely going to be warmer,” he texted.
Ron reflected upon his career as a “truck-drivin’ man:” “After 50 years of driving, it’s hard to walk away from it. Secondly, when I am home, my wife continually asks me every time I make a move, where are you going? Why didn’t you take your phone? I can’t track you. Maybe if I was home more, that would change. Nah, that won’t happen.”
Ron provided a summary for those who wonder just how long a truck driver can be on the road: “Drivers are allowed to drive 11 hours in a 14-hour period. You can drive and work (on duty) 70 hours in 8 days. If you can be off duty for 34 hours, it will reset the 70-hour clock. When you
have my attitude, a 10-hour day is plenty. Let the new drivers have fun. I did for years and, luckily, I was never caught.
To all of those truckers out there, delivering the goods and services that we all need in our daily lives, thank you, and, to quote the Grateful Dead again, “Just keep truckin’ on.”
