Its less than 2 weeks away before I go to the Swift sponsored Truck Driving Academy in Sacramento. Then on the 21st - the day I graduate from the TDA - I'm considering going to Schneider for orientation. Hmm. What to do, what to do. It's been a few months worth of planning, and I still don't know who I want to go with. If I go with Swift I'll be going long distance team or solo. If I go with Schneider, if I stay solo, I'll be running the western 11 and then get a feel for it. Then after spring arrives I can go Team an cross country. I really really really really don't want to cross a snowy summit fresh out of school, which with Swift I could end up doing. I WANNA LIVEEEEEEEE!! Without giving it any major thought, going with a relative rookie trainer (that KNOWS EVERYTHING) over the Rocky Mountains in a blizzard scares the SH*T outta me.
I remember back when I was in my hitch hiking days, I had gotten a ride with an old timer. 20 years ago he musta been be at least 60 yrs old. We were CREEPING down the west side of the Rockies with banks of snow piled on the sides of us or covering the side of the cliffs that rose beside us, on I 70, when some hot shot in a big brand new shiny red truck, lit up like a Christmas tree, came barreling past us like we were standing still. The driver I had gotten a ride from was going about 30 - 35 max and it was snowing just a bit, but the ground seemed dry. I asked him why he didn't speed up just a bit and he told me he wanted to get out of the mountains ALIVE. I can still remember the old timer and I clearly remember his wisdom.
Like I said, the scariest thing in the world to me would be some hot shot trainer that had all of 6 months under his belt, trying to show me how good he was in a snow storm barreling down the hill, slammin on his jake brake.
I guess the old biker saying can be applied to the trucking industry. (paraphrasing) " There are old drivers and there are dumb drivers, there just ain't no dumb old drivers."
