Comments By Craig T.

I've updated my LinkedIn account and online dating profiles with the title "Tax Paying Pseudo Hobo"

Before trucking I got rid of a lot of things. Such as TV, fast food, a bed, and basically my whole apartment. Cleansed my life of burdens really. That was so I could live out of a backpack for 9 months travel trekking. Gained all kinds of friends from all over the world and a new perspective on life.

Do that kind of lifestyle and trucking is easy. I've come to work in the most sight changing office window I could think of. So money is just building up in the bank since I'm not blowing it away on nonsense. Will actually take a long leave of absence when I hit my 1 year mark for another big adventure. Which I guess could be constituted as nonsense but it's every worth every penny to me.

My personal tip; don't do hotels or allow yourself to hole up in isolation when you're not trucking. Always go for the hostels. You're far more likely to meet interesting people. If you're in a big city, you're more than likely to meet traveling foreigners that are fun to hit the town with. It's also cheaper.

My thing is to look for state parks I can truck in and go hiking/camp the night. I also love to rock climb so I hit as many rock climbing gyms as I can all over the country. I've got a skateboard and bike to get away from the truck instead of calling a taxi. Yoga classes, places with saunas, steam rooms, float tanks, and museums are what I opt for instead of a movie theater (you'll be sitting enough).

Don't get me wrong, trucking is hard, long, tedious work. So take time to play and enjoy yourself. I find myself smiling almost everyday when I start the engine and hit the highway. Simple things like a good song, audiobook, or podcast get me stoked to have nothing to do but drive for 10 hours. Remember to sleep, get exercise everyday, eat well, drink a lot of water, and you can have a good future ahead of ya. Keep in touch with people and go out of your way to make hanging out with them possible. I mean, I'll park my truck in Pennsylvania and take the train to NYC to visit friends. Or they'll come scoop me out of a truck stop and next thing I know, I'm driving a 4 wheeler around San Francisco.

Make it happen, captain. Mentality is everything.

Stay alert. Keep your eyes up. Don't look like an easy target - tired, not paying attention, head down looking at your feet/phone, distracted...

Your best weapon anywhere and everywhere is to Trust your instincts, use uncommon common sense, and don't let more than one stranger approach you if you're at a place like West Memphis.

As a deterrent when I know I'm in a bad place by myself, I openly carry a heavy flashlight that's designed to crack skulls if need be. But the best feature of the flashlight is its ridiculously bright beam that is quite blinding when pointed in your general direction. Again, just don't be the easiest target. If someone is looking to do some mugging, they'll go to the victim not shining a magnified LED into their face.

My Prime Orientation started 4/20/15.

I've finished my Prime Student Driving phase and will start the team driving phase once I actually make it to the DMV and get everything settled (it's a holiday weekend so I have to wait until at least next Tuesday.)

I wanted to post a journal and what not but I found that on the road I can only view this forum on my iphone. Couldn't reply or post to any threads.

Next time I'm in my hometown I will be switching to an iphone5 but, I can't figure out why I can't post on this website when I'm on the road. When I log in and try, the page basically just refreshes when I click on new topic or reply. Can anyone shed some insight?

And yes, I've been enjoying my training at Prime so far! There has been a lot of hurry up and wait due to a variety of reasons but I'm not complaining. I managed to line myself up with a good instructor as well.

Spent 2 and a half days on greyhound buses. Few hours in on orientation.

Hurrying and waiting.

Update: my orientation for Prime just got pushed back to 4/20 so I may see you there, Logan.

My recruiter said there's been a shortage of trainers and now an overflow of applicants.

I start orientation in Springfield on 4/13 too

Yes, you need a have DOT medical for a commercial permit. Your general doctor can check you out for that. If you intend on doing doing OTR trucking, you'll need to check the box that says Non-Excepted Interstate on your DOT medical form.

I should clarify... the high road program was THE REASON I passed. Not knowing the state specific stuff cost me only a few questions.

I just got my class A permit yesterday. The High Road training program definitely helped a lot. I've been spending about an hour everyday on it for the past couple weeks - not always signed in so my progress isn't up to date but I got to a point where I was comfortable with the material. But I should tell you, DON'T RUSH THROUGH LEARNING THE MATERIAL. Really learn it and pay attention to the information emphasized in the program. Understanding the material is how you learn your stuff so you can deal with the weird wordings and tricky questions on the actual tests.

Yesterday I got off work early and decided to just drop by the DMV and go for it. Figured I could flip through the actual cdl manual while waiting. Unfortunately, there were no copies left in English. There were only Spanish versions

Considering how I have only gone up to intermediate Spanish in school, I was struggling to get a lot out of it. So that could have been a big contributing factor in terms of "enjoyable" reading but, I can say that it seemed like those books could loose a few pages of filler information you don't need to know.

I aced the air brakes test and missed 1-4 questions each on the others. Took 8 tests in all for the learning permit, some renewals, and the endorsements I wanted... it was a lot, so naturally I made a few bonehead mistakes I could have caught if I just took another second to think about it. Some questions I didn't get because I didn't read or understand enough of the Spanish manual. So it would be better if you fully commit to the High Road program then go over your state cdl manual. Your state may have a few different rules/regulations that you may need to know.

A lot of places have specific hours of operation. So you can't deliver or pick up unless it's sometime from 11:00-17:00 for example. They also have to schedule you because they're expecting a bunch of trucks and many places don't even have no room for 2 trucks at a time.

Also account for how Atlanta may have a lot of semis returning to headquarters there. There's a lot of truckers that work regular/normal daytime hours and have to punch a clock that's the same as their warehouse guys.