Have you ever wondered what life as a truck driver is like? From spending your days traveling state to state, to having a second home in the sleeper cab, it’s no question that trucker life is quite different than life working a 9-5.
One other major difference of trucker life is all the unique experience’s truckers have while living their life out on the road. These unique experiences are part of what makes trucker life so exciting, every day is truly an adventure!
From once-in-a-lifetime wildlife sightings to Santa on the interstate, Midwest Carriers’ driver, Robin, shares some of her unique experiences that have turned into lifelong memories. These experiences and daily adventures are just one of the many reasons to become a truck driver! Watch Robin’s latest vlog to learn more:
Transcript:
So I was asked what were some unique experiences I’ve had as a driver. The first one that pops into my head was a pickup truck that, I swear, defied gravity. I was in Minneapolis, it was like three in the morning, and there’s this pickup truck in front of me. It lost control, started to fishtail, almost hit the jersey wall and almost completely rolled over. In fact, I thought he was going to roll over. I was actually pulled over on the shoulder already, reaching for my phone to call 911, I was that sure he was going to roll his truck over. He somehow gained control, got off on an exit, and I was able to go on my way too. Later, I pulled the footage off my dash-cam and, I’m not kidding you, all four tires of his pickup truck were off the ground. I don’t know how he didn’t roll it over. That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen out on the road.
When you talk about unique experiences out on the road as a driver, the first thing that pops into your head is probably all the accidents. I am very thankful that I have not witnessed any major accidents. I’ve seen a couple of small fender benders that were no big deal. I’ve come upon some accidents that were really fresh, and maybe emergency personnel hadn’t shown up yet. Those are pretty scary. But again, very thankful that I haven’t seen any major accidents.
You see some really crazy vehicles. I’ve seen the weiner-mobile a few times, I’ve seen the Planters’ nut-mobile. I saw a convertible once that looked like they had put everything from their apartment into their convertible. Like a queen size mattress, lamps, dresses, crazy stuff like that. I once saw a vehicle decked out like a sleigh with Mr. and Mrs. Clause in it around Christmas time. So you get to see a lot of really cool stuff like that rolling down the road.
Another unique experience I had that will always be burned in my head… My truck broke down on me on Mt. Eagle TN, which is a notorious mountain that has escape ramps and everything, it’s no joke. I was going down the hill and my truck broke down. And the mechanic came out and they had to like, limp me down the hill, they had a little gravel lot at the bottom of the hill. I was basically coasting into that lot when I got down there, there was smoke billowing out of my engine. And that was the day that I realized how important support is back home, because, I mean, these trucks, we put a lot of miles on them, and sometimes things just happen, it’s going to happen eventually. Well, Midwest Carriers actually put me up in a hotel for a couple of nights while they towed one of our own trucks out to me, so I could continue on my run, then towed my truck back to get fixed. Having that support made that situation that much less frustrating. And I did a video on that one a while ago, so you guys could probably dig that one up. That was a crazy, unique experience that I will never forget.
And then, I’m going to end with one of the coolest, and that’s wildlife. I saw a moose and her calf in a little park on a really early morning, winter winter morning. It was in Wyoming, there’s this little park and I was out there for a walk and I saw a moose and her calf and we just kind of stood there and stared at each other for a little while. That was really cool. There’s a rest area in North Dakota that I was stopped at and, this place, if you’re kind of lucky you’ll get to see some wild bison just wander around. Well I had one right behind my trucked plopped down on the ground to take a dust bath, right in front of me. And I just sat there and watched him like “I can’t believe I’m watching this from my truck. This is so cool!” And then, the coolest one I’ve seen, was a huge herd of elk crossing I-80 in Park City, Utah. This was really early in my driving career. All the traffic had completely stopped, people were getting out of their vehicles and taking pictures and I remember thinking, “Oh this is so cool, I’m going to get to see this kind of stuff all the time”. Nope! That was a once in a lifetime thing that I saw. And I wish that I would have gotten out and taken some pictures or a video, but I didn’t. But it was burned in my head, that was a really, really cool experience.
So there’s some good unique experiences, there’s some kind of negative unique experiences. But, for me what it comes down to is a day out on the road that’s boring and nothing happens, nothing unique happens, is a good day driving. Because that means nothing bad happened. I kind of like the boring days. It usually means the weather was nice and you didn’t see anything bad. But there’s some good experiences, too, like the wildlife is always fun. Anyways, I hope you all have some fun, unique experiences out there. Stay safe. And, until next time I’ll see you all down the road.
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