I don’t know if it was the hardest but it ranks high on the list.
In 1986, four years after starting my career driving over the road I decided to tackle a goal that would take over ten years to achieve.
One million miles in a truck. I achieved this goal but easy it wasn’t. Without a doubt New York City was the worst destination on my Atlas. And me being the ‘dumb young pup’ I was, I took a route to that dreaded city once a week for over three years. I would leave Indiana early on Sunday afternoon and arrive in Riverhead Long Island around 2-3 a.m. the next morning, sleep until about 4:30 and start delivering sixteen stops back into the city.
Once empty, which usually was around 4-5 in the afternoon, I would need to get a load headed back west. This meant spending the night and getting loaded early the next day. After another fourteen-hour road trip home, I had a day off.
Next, I headed west on a route through Missouri to Lawrence, Kansas. After that, I would dip into OK and AR. Then I would go back into Southern Missouri to round out my deliveries before going home. These were my weekly runs for three years.
1989 found me in San Francisco picking up a load of coffee beans to deliver in Chicago four days later. A dumb-ass dispatcher instructed me to cross Downer Pass in the winter weather without chains. He couldn’t comprehend the simple fact that it couldn’t be done.
I left the area by the Bay just before the big earthquake that shook the world series. I called into dispatch the next morning from Barstow CA. and caught hell for driving out of route.
After an intense argument, I headed for the home terminal in Illinois. I had my brother drive there to pick me up. I stormed into the office to confront the dispatcher. The dispatcher couldn’t be found all of a sudden. I quit, cleaned out my truck, and headed home.
I purchased my own truck after that and had the choice of loads I wanted to haul. I got into refer [refrigeration] and moved meat and fruit around Canada and the 48 lower states. I eventually sold my truck to try and save a marriage that wasn’t worth it.
In 1995 I obtained this goal before selling my beloved semi. Over one million miles accident free. I quit driving over the road and took a different path driving dump trucks and operating heavy equipment.
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