Travel By Truck

A Quick Pitstop in Eastern Arizona While En Route

Trucking was something that I got into because I have simply always loved to drive.  Regardless of what it was I was driving, I just enjoyed the freedom of the open road no matter whether it was a car, motorcycle, or truck.  I have spent many years seeing this great country through the windshield of my trucks, hauling freight from corner to corner all over the US.  It wasn’t until this past week that I discovered trucking could also a means of getting you somewhere you need to be as well when an emergency situation comes up.

With news that there was a family emergency involving one of my parents last week a third of the way across the country from me, I clamored to find a mode of transportation that would enable me to get where I needed to be in a hurry.  Finding out late in the day and with most airports here operating during curfew hours of sorts, it was not going to be feasible for me to get a same-day flight and I would have to wait until the next morning to get a flight out.  Once the adrenaline of the news wore off, reality started to set in that I had worked a full day and was too tired to just jump in a car and drive out immediately, which at that point and time would have been faster than a next day flight. 

After a few phone calls to my siblings who live nearby, I found that some were planning to drive out immediately and some had talked about checking flights.  As I researched the next day’s flights, it was not only a half-day trip with most of the connections and layovers involved, but it also was extremely expensive to get a last minute ticket.  The plan began to formulate in my head immediately to drive out with a couple of my brothers in the early hours of the morning, since the journey could be made by car in about 10 hours.  

With a quick look at the afternoon freight board though, the plan began to change from a car trip to a truck trip.  A broker I haul local loads for posted a load right to where we needed to be for our family emergency.  Not only did it pay phenomenally, since it posted during the afternoon rush to cover freight, but it also had a drop trailer that afternoon at the shipper allowing me to drop the trailer to be loaded while I headed home to pack and get some rest.  My brothers were on board with the new plan and agreed to meet at my house in the dark hours of the morning, where we took off from to hitch the trailer and make it out to the city of our family emergency by early afternoon.

Had this emergency never occurred, I probably would have never considered using my truck as a means to get somewhere almost as fast as a plane.  The fact that the 10-hour journey in a car could be translated to an 11-hour journey in a truck made it feasible.  The other fact that we all couldn’t get flights until the next day that would have pinned us there around the same time as taking a load is what made it perfect.  The load paid well enough that I was able to take a couple extra days off where my family needed me the most during that dire time, without affecting my revenue stream one bit for the week.  The fact that I was able to save my brothers and I the outrageous plane fare and still get us all there safely was a bonus!  Trucking has always been able to take me where I want to go, but now I know with a little “out of the box” thinking, it can also get me where I need to be!