While I was working the hanger into the door, I began to laugh. If you’ve ever seen Bill Engvall do his stand up comedy “here’s yer sign” skit, that’s sort of how I felt. It also reminded me of one of his jokes:

“So I was in the parking lot the other day and saw a guy with a hanger in the door of his car. I said, “you lock yourself out?” And he said “Nope, just got it washed so I’m hanging it up to dry!” Here’s yer sign.”

For some reason, I thought of this joke, and it was suddenly the funniest thing in the world to me at that moment. That is, until I got back to reality and realized the seriousness of the situation. After about 15 minutes of unsuccessful attempts to get the door open, I started contemplating trying to get a hold of my company. The last thing in the world I wanted to do. That’s when I heard the most glorious sound I’ve ever heard…”THUMP!” I got it!!!! It’s open!!!! I was the happiest truck driver in the world right at that moment. I quickly changed out of my soaking wet clothes, hopped in the drivers seat, and pulled around to the guard shack hoping they’d still let me in. He smiled and said “I see you finally got into your truck.” I replied with “yeah, one of those days already.” He then told me not to worry about it, that they know I was there early and I can still put it in a dock. Boy was I glad to hear him say that.

Up until this point, I didn’t have to back my truck up at all on my solo run yet. But now I’d have to. Thankfully, it was a straight back situation and was accomplished with ease. I got the truck into the door, let out a big sigh, and waited for them to unload.

About an hour later, I was handed my paperwork and told to have a nice day. My first delivery as a solo driver was a success. I don’t care if my trailer broke down. I don’t care if I locked myself out of the truck. As far as I was concerned, the product got there safely and there was no claim filed for damage. Good enough for me.

My happiness didn’t last long though. Now I needed to head into Detroit, MI. I got there near the end of rush hour and had to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. But I finally made it to the customer. I was told to back it into a dock and was greeted with something I really didn’t want to see. Trucks everywhere, and a very narrow area to back into. I had trucks on both sides of my dock, and it felt like everyone was looking at me. As I began to back the truck in, I suddenly forgot everything I had learned up to that point. I was turning the wheel the wrong way, couldn’t figure out where I was going, and was having one heck of a hard time. I repositioned twice, all the while knowing that people were watching me wondering what the heck I was trying to do. Finally, I got it in. I was a little sweaty and a little shaky, but it was in there! Phew! I was unloaded and handed my paperwork once again. Success!!! My first solo run is complete!!!

My adventure wasn’t quite over though. I was having trouble with my APU (axilery power unit) and it needed to be repaired. The APU allows me to run my heat and air conditioning without idling the engine. So, I was told to take my truck over to a repair shop off of Telegraph road in Detroit. Anybody who knows Telegraph road in Detroit knows it’s a very heavily traveled road. The particular area I had to go was 8 lanes wide (4 lanes going each direction), plus various turn lanes. I was in stop and go traffic on Telegraph when I finally located the shop. A tiny little place with barely enough room to fit my truck in their lot. Somehow, I managed to get my truck in, disconnect from the trailer, and pull into their garage.

When Does The Easy Part Start?

Once that was fixed, I hooked back up to the trailer and had to try and get out of that lot. The position I was in forced me to swing out wide into all 4 lanes of traffic. It was bumper to bumper on all 4 lanes. I had a wall of cars to break into. I waited patiently for about 5 minutes trying to get out without success. I figured I’d take matters into my own hands. If nobody was going to let me in, I was forcing my way in. I began pulling out onto the road and got very close to a couple cars. But it got the message across that I was coming out, whether they liked it or not. Finally, I got onto the road and back onto an expressway.

While making my way to a truck stop, I started to laugh. I reflected back on my trip and everything I went through and just couldn’t stop laughing at myself. But I did it! My load was delivered safely!! I still can’t believe the government consideres this an “unskilled trade.” Oh yeah, anybody can do it without any training. Suuuure.

After arriving at a truck stop, I decided to back it into a spot instead of pulling into one, just for the practice. Of course, I was able to back in no problem then. I went into the truck stop and bought myself a steak dinner to celebrate my first solo run, then went to sleep for about 12 hours. I was beat.

This, my friends, is truck driving. This….is living.

Until next time, drive safely.

TruckerMike

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