10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

JUNE 2005 TRUCKER TALK

THE HARDEST PART OF TRUCKING
By Writers and Owner Operators Rod & Kim Grimm

Think the hardest part of trucking is the awful city traffic jams, or icy, snowy passes in the winter, or maybe the less than pleasant shippers or receivers that we sometimes have to deal with? Not even close. The hardest part of trucking is getting those phone calls from home, when you’re 1,500 miles away, and all that you want to do is be home by someone you love. Sometimes the calls are about good things going on at home but usually the calls are about bad news. Either way, it doesn’t really matter because you just want to get home. I’d like to dedicate this month’s story to my dad, LeRoy Wiley, Rod’s dad Dean Grimm and a dear friend of ours, Harold Hunt.

My dad passed away while we were on I-10 near Van Horn, TX. I got a flight out of Phoenix that night and I HATE to fly! Eighteen wheels is THE way to go, but in situations like this, you don’t have a choice. He had always asked me if I would fly home and I told him I would. I had hoped to be home (or at least close) when the call came, but it wasn’t in the cards. So, from the road, you do what you have to do.

We got the call that Rod’s dad had suffered a heart attack when we were in Troutdale, OR. He had surgery and recovered that time. Eight years later he had a stroke. When we finally got home, he was still in the hospital but doing okay. Since Dean was doing better, I went off to Texas for the birth of our grandson Liam and Rod took a short load to stay close. While in Illinois, Rod got the call that his dad had suffered another stroke and wasn’t doing well. Rod came home and the family made the hardest decision – to unhook him from life support (which is what Dean would have wanted). I drove home from Texas and the birth of Liam to be at the funeral of a man I loved like my own father.

Harold Hunt’s son Linwood was in Wyoming when he got the call that his father had peacefully passed away. Fortunately, we were able to change our plans so that we could get back home and called friends to tell them the sad news. I was really glad to be able to make it home and attend the funeral to pay our last respects.

These men all understood what we do as drivers. Ours is a job that takes us away and brings us back home, but it’s not always when we want or need to be there. The job we do (long haul OTR) forces us to miss a lot. Birthdays, anniversaries, class plays, music programs, sporting events and just everyday things little ones do. We try to be there for our loved ones as much as possible and make up for being gone as much as we can, but we can’t make it all up.

On the flip side to this are the loved ones we leave at home. Our daughter Beth used to worry about us when she knew the weather was bad where we were going. Sometimes I wouldn’t call until we were through it and then tell her it wasn’t so bad. Not so easy to do today with the Weather Channel keeping you up-to-the-minute on what’s happening everywhere. She still worries, but after all these years, she accepts it as what we do. But the thought that she could one day get a phone call in the middle of the night telling her that something has happened never goes away.

I remember the day when the earthquake hit San Francisco. We were in Nevada when we heard the news, and all that we could think about was if there was anybody we knew back in that mess. We’d been on I-880 just the day before. I was at home recovering from my first back surgery and Rod was on the road when the L.A. quake hit. I watched pictures on the television of roads that I’d driven on so many times that were now collapsed or buckled. When the September 11th tragedies occurred, we were in Ludlow, CA running with Russ and Debbie Brown. Our friend Linwood called us and told us that the Trade Center had been hit with an airplane. We went on to Barstow and watched with the rest of the world the horrible scenes on the TV. Later, we talked with some friends that had been close enough to see the smoke. On days like these, you just want to be home.

Some other friends of ours (Tommy & Rita Sanders) recently had another tragedy that sometimes happens out on the road. Their beloved Schnauzer “Pepper” (see photo) was mistakenly left at the McDonald’s at exit 398 in Strawberry Plains, TN. Pepper had her inside collar on and it didn’t have any identification. When Rita realized she was gone, they turned around and went back. A lady in McDonald’s said that a man and his daughter had picked her up. Rita has put flyers across the country and contacted many vets and shelters. Pepper is 12 years old and has diabetes, so she needs her medicine. I would love to help this story to have a happy ending. If you read this and you picked Pepper up or might know who did, PLEASE contact Rita 24/7 at (704) 907-7804 or e-mail her at gotmercy@myway.com. It was March 22nd that Pepper was lost. Tommy and Rita are offering a reward.

Rod has been bugging me to get microchips put in our two dogs, Lizzie and Starbuck, so that if they ever get loose and lose their collar, they still have a chance of getting home. Most shelters and vets have scanners that can retrieve the owner’s information from the chip. Rod heard a story of a lost dog from Washington that ended up in Florida. The dog, which had a microchip embedded under its skin, was reunited with its owner after it was scanned at a shelter.

There is nothing worse than getting a “bad news” call when you are far from home. You feel helpless and frustrated. As drivers, we face a lot of challenges being out on the road, but we accept them as part of the job. Our families help to support us as we make a living to support them. For us, it helped to get a run that takes us through home every week. I don’t think I could stay out 4-6 weeks like we used to.

May you all have safe journeys and get home to see your loved ones often! And, again, if anyone out there has any information about Pepper, please give Tommy & Rita a call or send them an e-mail.