Thanks for the invite ... expect to be able to ride more this summer as my truck driving experience begins to wind down. Got a note from Neal O'Brien last week as well ... hope he is surviving the Delphi "ordeal" [not oracle in this case] ... I am emotionally very much in need of following you guys' dust trail in the far distance ahead sometime soon.
I intended to drive for at least two years but things seem to constantly change at an ever increasing rate anymore. The RV trailer business out of Goshen, IN, has suffered considerably from the high fuel prices ... sales are down on all the bigger units, especially out west which were my prime front hauls. Next, one of my manufacturers [R Vision] opted to establish a west coast assembly plant in Oregon which means about half of my long hauls out of Goshen headed for Oregon and California will dry up soon. Even the horse trailer business out of Preston, ID, which represented about half of my back hauls east are showing signs of reduced sales this season. I have been relegated to hauling a single car back east most of the winter and this spring. Such circumstances mean I can barely break even for working full time.
So, my wife, Maggie [business manager] said: "That's it, Dude! You're all done with this trucking adventure." I am a bit sad at this moment about the whole deal ... had to work real hard to get my CDL and learn to be a trucker ... I had seriously hoped to be able to make some scratch doing this for a couple of years ... as it is, I didn't loose anything but a year of my time ... didn't make any money ... paid back my startup costs ... get to keep my license to drive just about anything except a school bus or hazmat stuff.
Guess this means I can do much more biking as soon as I complete the closure details for the truck ... may still wind up driving for a month or so to give my brother in law some time to decide what he can do with the truck. I believe his only option is to sell it ... finding another driver is basically an economic infeasibility at this juncture.
Nice to hear from you Mike, glad that many of the DRN folks have not forgotten me. I spent some time last night reading Woodsy's trip saga to DC ... even his life off a dirt bike takes on mystical proportions when committed to prose.
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