Western Tranquility and Social Bathrooms

A Social Life in the Ladies Room.

By: Annie Thompson

Salt Lake City, Utah---First I need to let America and all of the truck stops in America know that they should set their goals to meet the standards of a truck stop out west called SAPP Brothers. There are several on I-80. There is no comparison. This truck stop makes drivers feel luxury. Tiled bathrooms where the grout looks brand new. White, and I mean brand new white, huge bathtubs with showers that have high style fixtures and a ceiling that looked like it was just installed with tiled walls including intricate trim work. I know I couldn't afford a hotel that provided these kids of accommodations. Drivers and riders deserve this kind of treatment after putting in the work that they really don't get the credit for. Many drivers take this job very seriously and work very hard in and through everything. Weather does not stop this job from getting done and mother nature can be brutal and deadly a lot.

But the up side are moments when Western Mountains will take your breath away and so many things that we learn in Geography just jump out and materialized right in front of you. It is amazing.

Moving on to social lives, I actually found that the social center in the world of trucking can be found in the bathrooms. Yes, the bathrooms. I met an incredible lady in the Sapp Brothers truck stop in Salt Lake City Utah. I was washing my hands and she asked where I got my make-up bag and then I looked up at her face and believe it or not, what I seen was not a stranger but in that face I found something that reminded me of every one of my life long friends. That face was a face that held comfort and strength, love and a long happy life. Her name was Cheri and my husband and I ended up eating Mother's Day breakfast together with Cheri and her husband Jerri. So cute, right? Cheri taught me a lot in that little time and the most important of all of the advise she gave me was how to protect myself out here alone. One thing she talked about was protection while inside of your cab at night like attaching a bungee cord to the horn string and then to your door so that way if anyone does break in it will blow the horn. Great advise. I hope to never lose touch with her.

As some of you may know we are struggling out here to “Meet the Goal” and had to go to work for another company until we can get some wheels beneath us of our own and Cheri and Jerri have been out here doing this for many years and were kind enough to not only give us some wonderful leads, advise and comfort that this can be done out here on the road but they bought us breakfast too. Amazing people. We love this life, we want this life, we just want to be comfortable and that is what we are working for.

Humbly we have gone to work for another fleet owner who is leased on to a hopper bottom outfit out of Illinois. The owner does have a nice truck and I am really enjoying this a lot, but the bottom dollar is just ridiculous. I have learned enough about this business trying to get my own off the ground that I know how the brokering and financing works. Baja is paying us on a percentage of twenty-six percent per load which is usually better for owner-operators and drivers than getting paid by the mile. When a load becomes available a broker can take it and originally the loads should be paying a certain amount which should be the staring point of when our percentage starts but some brokering companies take out cuts for themselves and then the owner of the truck and then after all of those deductions they re-figure the rate and then give us our twenty-six percent. It is not a lot to live on.

So every day I search and search for that perfect deal and the perfect company till we can be moving on. Jeff is an amazing driver. He would be a great investment to any company out there. You never know, maybe we can find someone famous to drive for or maybe some multimillionaire that needs a driver and trust me Jeff would be just what they are looking for, plus he has me and that can only make things better... right?

A Kiss from God.

Rollin, rollin, rollin...Keeping these tires rolling.

So, here we are rolling across the mid-west. Not as far as we would like to go, seems we are sticking around the mid-west for now. The dispatch office at the company that we are driving for keeps asking us when we want to go home, and we keep having to tell them, “We don't want to go home. For now, this is home.” they just act confused. Every “Over the Road” companies dream and they don't get that. This makes me laugh. But, this is where we are and what we are doing. I know it will pay off one of these days, soon, and we will end up in that dream ruck and the dream driving job. We will be “Owner-Operators” and a “Over the Road” journalist writing history about surviving a quest to set out on our own and “Make It” which in our eyes is having our debts paid so that we can enjoy what god has given us together. This quest started in January 2010 and I can't wait to see where it goes and along the way I will continue to try and entertain you with articles about life, love and surviving.

As if God reached down, kissed a part of the earth and said "I shall provide all of your needs."