the dawn of a new age

My how times have changed. I know not everybody likes that word. "Change". But it has indeed proven itself to be a very big part of my life. I'm blogging this from my thunderbolt so I will do my best to hit every point I'm trying to make so please bear with me. Way back about 10 years ago (wow, has it really been that long? I guess it has, I am about to turn 29 so that'd put me around 19 back then). Well anyway, about 10 years ago was when my ex Lori and I got married. The whole marriage was not bad. I believe it was at the tail end. Dealing with money issues since neither of us had a real job and my parents never approved of her and she always knew it whether she wanted to admit it or not.Well, then after moving to Montana and things really getting much more distant between us, I left to go join the air force and by that point she had already decided she wanted a divorce and so life as I knew it was in for a change. There's that word again, change. So its been about 5 years since that all took place, and so much has happened. First, I was a fire fighter in the air force and I got remarried. Erin and I have two beautiful little girls together and although we have hit rough patches especially with finances, we have been doing pretty good. Do after getting honorably discharged from the military, we moved to Clinton, IA into the house my mom grew up in that my grandparents left to her. We lived there for about 3 years, during which, Erin worked at this local restaurant and I was a driver for schwans for about a year, then when I had to resign because of a surgery, I was then a security g Guard for a hospital for the next two years. I was layed off from there in may of 2011 and on unemployment until recently when I just officially attended a truck driving school and got my class A cdl license and have been out on the road t past few weeks training with a guy younger that me by about 5 years who has been driving for the company we work for (cr England) for over 2 years. It was pretty scary at first because there is a lot to the job when you're not driving 11 hours a day. Like hooking your truck to the trailer you are picking up, learning how to drive the truck, which I am now pretty good at, but at first it was rough. But even though the school has an extremely high wash out percentage, and id give an actual percentage, but I'm not sure what it is and I don't want to guess. But to give you an example, my class coming in had 140 students. After the first week we had to take 4 tests to get our cdl permit. Tons of information crammed down our throats, with the threat that although we each could retake the tests 3 times if needed, if we didn't pass them that day we were back on the greyhound going home. Well after the written test day, half our class was gone. That's 140 now down to 70. We practiced backing maneuvers and then went on the road the last week with an instructor to learn the basics of how to drive a semi and by the end of the 3rd week when we were getting ready to go take our inspection and road test with the state of Indiana, we were down to 30 students. All 30 of us went to the testing site at the same time. One guy went, then they called this guy named branding, then they called me. I knew I could do it. I was terrified but I knew that if I just relaxed and took it slow, I could do it. So I did. Started with being tested on the pre inspection of the truck. I went from part to part. Properly mounted and secure, not cracked, bent, or broken, no leaks, and for lights, clean and working. For hoses, not cut, gouged, or bulging and no leaks. Got through the exterior inspection and the examiner said "ready to do in cab?" To which I responded "yes sir" and climbed in. Started with the obvious, seatbelt not cut or torn, latched properly. Mirrors properly adjusted, city horn and air horn both work. Oil pressure between 100 and 140 psi, water temp between 170 and 200 degrees, volt meter between 12 and 14 volts. Wind shield not cracked, no illegal stickers and nothing obstructing my view. Heater and defroster work and all my light indicators work. Then I did the four point brake check and the parking brake check, was told good job you passed, let's move on to the backing maneuvers. Straight line backed really easily. Next was off set which basically is you pull the semi out of the lane about 100feet and then you back at an angle to park in the lane right next to the lane you were in. Then I had to pull forward 100 feet and parrallel park the semi and trailer in a spot next to that space I just parked in. After passing those, it was time for the drive test. There are auto failures like shifting while crossing rail road tracks, killing the engine in the middle of an intersection and impeding traffic and a few other things. I remained calm minus the fact that I was sweating my butt off because I came down here to get my cdl and get hired and did not want to fail. Well, I did pretty good through out all the turns and got to the last turn just before turning back into the test site and I then struggled to downshift before the turn. I did get it in gear and complete the turn, pulling into the test site, but was thinking "shit, I hope I didn't just fail'. The examiner sat there writing for a good 5 minutes. I was like "im usually really good with shifting. That was the first time all week I wriggled with it'. He was like "technically I could fail you for that, but your backing and the rest of you driving through the city was spot on, so I'm passing you". I nearly fainted. So, when I got done, me and branding passed, there was one failure and a bunch still to test. I heard over the next two days that the rest of the 30 failed. I was like "holy Crap!". So Tuesday the 17th, me, brandon, and a few others went to pick up our cdl temporaries which are good for 90 days. Erin already received my actual license back home. I started school away from home on new years day, and after I got my license, I was officially hired with cr England and went on the road with a road trainer. I mentioned him earlier. We are on our 3rd week of the 30 day training requirement and things are going well. I have decided that because you make a significantly higher amount of money when you lease compared to being a company driver, I decided I am going to lease. I might even become an owner operator, which would increase the paycheck by about 800 a week. That'd be really awesome. Already this past few weeks, we went through Texas twice which I drove right past plano and the exits the ex and I would get off on to go see her family. I commented to my trainer "my ex would flip if she knew how close I was to her". Lol. But thankfully we kept going. All the way to loredo tx, right near the border of Mexico. We went from there out east to Atlanta, GS, and then to Tennessee, then from there we came north and passed from east to west through Nebraska, into Wyoming through yellow stone, and to Idaho to deliver and then pick up a heavy shipment of potatoes. I drove that night most of the way through the yellow stone mountain passes, which my trainer said he had never done but he thought it'd be shorter, but it was snowing and the roads were slick. I got most of the way through yellow stone, down shifting correctly and then climbing up a massive hill I completely lost momentum. Missed a gear when down shifting and literally just stopped. We had no traction and so we couldn't get moving. A cop showed up and was like "when I saw you pass me back there, I wondered if id find you on this hill. Everybody gets stuck here during the winter. You're going to have to put your chains on". So we did. Not only did I learn officially through hands on how to do it,but my trainer had never had to chain up before so it was a first time for both of us. So we chained up and got out of there. That load took us two full days, me driving 10 hours while he slept in the bunk, and him driving 10 hours while I slept in the bunk. We went all the way to Massachusetts, near Boston, and then went up through rode island and into Connecticut. From there back down to central PA which was about 5 hours from home, and then from there, back down to south Texas. This time we weren't there as long as the first, and we came in from the east and then went south, so I ended my drive that night at 10 hours and 58 minutes, about 30 miles north of loredo, and he woke up and took over. I crashed in the bunk while he was up in the drivers seat browsing on his computer or playing wow, and then the next day while waiting on our next load, we picked up food supplies at wal mart, I western unioned cash from my com data card to the joint checking so Erin could pay the rent and get some groceries for her and the girls. I hate com data. Some people out there might not know what it is. Well here you go. It's basically an atm card that some employers put your pay checks onto while you wait for direct deposit to kick in which in my case I'm told it takes like 4 to 6 weeks. So got that taken care of, Erin mailed off the veteran check to be deposited to the usaa joint account to cover the rest of rent, and all is good. I'm looking forward to getting done with training in about a week and a half, and getting on my own truck. I'm looking forward to starting a retirement fund with cre, because I'm told you put 17 cents a mile imho the ira or 401k. So if I average 3000 miles a week, that's over $500 a week into a retirement account. Times that by 52 weeks in a year and Erin and I after one year of my driving professionally would have $26,500 in a retirement account. That's freaking awesome. Obviously we would be trying to squirrel away money from each pay check through out the year. I never realized just how much stuff I can write about just after a short while on the road. Recently after having been away from home for 5 weeks, I had a few times where I'm driving and find myself thinking about the past. Things that I failed at, friends that I no longer have, etc and then I end up shaking my head and telling myself to snap out of it. Yes the past failures and mistakes suck. Can I change them? No, I can't. So I just have to do the best that I can in the now for my family. In a closing note, stopping at truck stops and using their showers is not bad. I wasn't sure what to expect but they literally have seperate shower rooms with a toilet and sink that you lock yourself in, there's no time limit, you shower and do anything else you gotta do, and then you leave. Simple as that. Some pilots or flying j truck stops even have a laundry area which is cool. I ended up doing my laundry at a big pilot, and they had this lounge area with a big screen tv and lots of chairs so since I drive during the day time, I gotta sleep during the night shift, so I was upstairs in the lounge area watching the mentalist and then the closer till about 11 pm and then I went back to the truck and went sleep. My trainer woke me up a few hours later when he was getting ready to drive so I could switch to the bottom bunk. Cre does not allow anyone on the top bunk while the truck is moving. Usually it just involves him throwing his sleeping bag up top, and I climb down and drag down my pillow and blanket. Then go back to sleep. So after leaving Texas last time, we are at a truck stop in Ohio, and will be heading to Maryland next. Who knows where to after that. I'm going to call that it for now but obviously there are always big adventures to be had while traveling the open road. I shall try to make it a point of posting on here about anything I deal with while driving all the many highways in all the different states.