3 New States

I know I haven't updated this since I left, but I didn't really have time, and I probably won't be able to do it while I'm out with my mentor, but since I'm back every Sunday and Monday, I'll be sure to update it those days, and when I get out on my own, I'll probably be able to update it more.

Anyways, the first week with my mentor went well. We're both still alive, no accidents or other such things. I was wrong on the areas I'll be driving though, we don't stick around the North West at all, we head due East. On this trip, which was shorter than all the other trips we'll be doing since it was my first week and all, we went through Montana, North Dakota and Minasota, and stopped at Mineappolis, dropped off our load, picked up another load and headed back. The weather went back and forth between being fairly nice (but very cold) to being pretty bad (and very cold), although it started to warm up in Western Montana. It was fairly exciting since I had never been to any of those states before, and we also crossed into Mountain and Central Standard time. Next week we'll be going all the way into Eastern Standard time. There was only one truely scary moment, and that was in North Dakota. It was night, and it was snowing a little (the roads were still fine, since it was just a powdery snow), and there was some powder built up in the left lane. I was cruising down the free way when a truck passed me (this happens a lot, since the speed limit for trucks and cars in North Dakota is 75, but Swift trucks are goverened at 65). As the truck passed me all the powdery snow on the ground flew up and completely blinded me. I couldn't see a thing for about 5 seconds. When I could see again I was driving down the middle of the road, instead of my lane. Well I was rather freaked out for a while, but now I know what to do in those situations again, so it was a learning experience.

The drive through those states are kinda boring, with very few cars or anything else, until we got to Minneapolis. As such I tend to think about what I could learn about the people of those states while I was driving down the road. The people of Montana seem to be very fond of gambling, given that every truck stop we stopped at or passed had a casino attachted to it. In North Dakota there are probably about 120 people in the state, out side of the cities of Fargo and Bismarck. I base this on a few things, there were hardly any cars on the road, just trucks passing through, the majority of exits off the free-way said "No Services" meaning there is nothing off those exits, just a road to head either North or South instead of East or West, and finally, outside of the two cities, the roads sucked, they were very bumpy and not well maintained, thus I had to conclude that there were just very few people in the state (the 120 comes from a wild guess). North Dakota wasn't all bad though, I did see a Buffalo, so that was kind of cool. The only real thing I learned about the people of Minasota is that they like their de-icer, which is a good thing, since it is cold there.

I'll try to wrap this up so this post isn't too long...As far as the life style, it is tough, but mainly because my mentor and I are driving more or less like a team, which means that while I drive he sleeps, while he drives I sleep. It will be a much more pleansent life style once I'm on my own, since I'm required to shut down at least 10 hours every day due to DOT regulations. As it is now we don't stop much (which is why I probably won't be updating while I'm out with him). We do try to take a shower about every other day (most truck stops have showers for truckers), and a cool thing I learned was that Swift will actually pay for those showers. You just have to turn in the reciept. At the moment he pays for my shower as well, and Swift reimburses him. In some ways the route we're driving is good, since I am getting quite a bit of experience with winter driving conditions, but on the other hand, I'm not getting all that much experience in good driving conditions, which doesn't matter too much I suppose, it just makes for a more stressful tiring time.

Just a couple other highlights: I got to blow the air horn a few times, which was very exciting. I also talked on the CB once (my mentor doesn't use it all that much, and the CB he has isn't very good, and since we are constantly being passed, it is hard to talk with anyone all that much). After someone calling me and me responding on that thing, I felt like a real trucker.

Hope that answers many of your questions. I'll update next Sunday or Monday.