Keep On Truckin!
I have dreamed of driving a big rig from coast to coast just one time in my life. In fact, you could say it has been on my bucket list. As dreams go, it was pretty impractical. A commercial driver’s license would be required, which is a significant investment of time and money.
Then, an opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago. In respect of everyone’s privacy (including the client’s), I’ll avoid specific details.
A couple of great friends of mine own a promotional agency. They had landed a project to pick up promotional displays from over 400 locations throughout the US over the period of a couple of weeks. Luckily, I was one of the people they called.
As they put it, “Josh, you are a road warrior. You’ve driven all over America. This is right up your alley.” I was grateful they thought of me and that they shared the opportunity. While not the type of work I usually do, it was of great interest. What a would be a wonderful departure from the usual?!! Little did they know, I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing at least once. Hopefully, they know I greatly appreciate any business opportunity.
So, I was tagged to be one of the drivers. I drove a GMC C7500 26 foot truck. I’d like to thank of Scott of RustyPants.net for sharing this photo. Scott took the above photograph for an article on his blog, RustyPants.net, about their move to Pensacola. He did a great job visually conveying the truck’s significant size don’t ya think?
To me, it was a monster truck. I’ve had the opportunity to drive this size truck in the past, but never over such a long distance. If you’d like to buy one for yourself, Trucker.com and General Truck Sales have various models for sale.
The route was 65 locations in 4 states, which racked up just under 5,000 miles through 9 states from Atlanta, Georgia to Miami, Florida and back up to Madison, Wisconsin.
We had a long way to go and a short time to get there.
It was 2 weeks of non-stop fun. Although, there was no time for anything else but driving, loading… and, driving some more. I drove by so many friends. I so wish I could have caught up with them. In the end, the truck was chock-full-o’-displays.
While not a big rig, this was pretty close to my original dream. 5,000 miles is actually further than going coast-to-coast. So, I consider it done. Now, it is back to my usual work.
I have a great deal of respect and appreciation for those men and women who do this for a living. Their wheels rolling keeps America running. Thanks for all you do. Keep on truckin’!