Traveler

April 11, 2008, the day of my last trip with a big truck: because of a herniated disk I had to quit. All I have left is memories after more than 4 years in trucking and half million km... I've been pretty much everywhere in USA and Canada, I drove through mountains and prairies, deserts, forests, cities and wilderness, sunny days and winter storms... I'll try to write about this experience in time, the things I've seen and lived. How I got lost a few times, stuck under an unexpected low bridge, dead end, narrow yard residential area or once, on railway tracks! Less of this in the last three years because I had GPS and MS Streets and Trips (helped o lot). I carried in my truck everything: dry or refrigerated food, auto parts, flowers or even agricultural fertilizer I found out at the border is radioactive! Luckily it was not over the legal limit. When I got to the delivery place I ask the people working there if they know about the radioactivity thing: they had no idea! They were not wearing any protective equipment and they were working 10 hours a day in that atmosphere loaded with radioactive dust... This was at the beginning of my trucking career somewhere in Pennsylvania, I don't remember where. Never been there again... I remember being in places with nice and interesting people or nasty receivers or shippers. Some of the worst places I've been: Toys'r'us, the record for waiting time - 34 hours or Loblaws Mississauga over 24 hours.

I've been driving single or team. For me it was best to drive single. I couldn't sleep while somebody else was driving. That's why I felt asleep while driving team two times. But it seems I'm a very lucky person: I had no accident! After this happened for the second time I quit driving team. The last three years I drove single. Problem was: you don't get long trips if you're single. So in the last 3 years I've been only twice in Vancouver or California. And to be honest: this were the trips I liked most. I guess now I'm an expert in East Coast and Mid-West! For a period of time I did New York City and for another period New York state, New Hampshire and Vermont. Nice if it's not winter... Hills in Pennsylvania are not so easy in winter especially Binghamton area.

In some of my trips I took a camera with me, so if you check my pictures links, you could see some of the places I've been. Unfortunately, many pictures I had were lost when my hard drive broke down before I had the chance to save them. For others I need more time to upload on the web. We'll see...