renaissance trucker

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Braced For Impact

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I was leaving Chattanooga, fully loaded, with 5000 gallons of chemicals in my brand new 2019 twin screw…

It was raining cats and dogs.

I was going across a pass in the mountains with a wicked turn. The suggested speed was 45 mph.

Flooding was bad. There was damn near a river flowing across the interstate. I clenched up as I crossed it, for fear of hydroplaning. At that moment an empty flatbed was passing me on my left. Having no load, and being light, he’s even more likely to skid.

And skid he did.

His rear tires we’re just about in line with my nose when he started fishtailing and sliding to the side.

I thought, “Woa buddy, maybe he can pull out of it…”

Then his cab completely jackknifed, facing towards me as he’s going the opposite direction. His trailer goes completely sideways crossing three lanes of traffic.

I braced myself for impact.

I eased on the brakes because I knew if I slammed them on I would go into a skid as well. I’m headed straight for the middle of his trailer as his cab slams in to the guard rail on my right… I am inches away from him when all of a sudden the trailer whips around onto the shoulder, colliding with the guard rail.

I pass without a scratch…

I couldn’t freaking believe it…

Dude did a 60mph drifting U-turn around the nose of my truck. There is no way I didn’t hit him.

Am I hallucinating ?

Am I so pumped on adrenaline that I didn’t realize the collision? For 15 miles I thought, “there’s no way this guy didn’t hit me.” I wanted to stop and check if the other driver was OK but there was no place to pull over on that mountain.

I finally pulled over and did a walk around inspection… Yup… Not a scratch…

I got a wicked magic voodoo force field…yeah buddy!!

My dad said god was protecting me

A beautiful girl said I am an angel.

Shoot… I like that better than being protected by angels. Might as well be the angel myself.

#TankerTrucksRule

Skateboarding in Detroit

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I won my heat!!

There were no loads coming out of Detroit. I needed some ramps to skate, so I checked the Googs. Transitions Skatepark was the closest so I rolled out. After skating the delightful 6 foot spine for a couple hours, I discovered they were having a mini-ramp competition that night.

So I entered

They had about six, three man heats. 3 minute Jam style format was hectic!

I won my heat and advanced to the finals.

Finals was real snake sesh, Everyone was barging! Super amped. I made it to the top 5 man jam for 10 minutes.

They only announced a first and second place. These dudes crushed it. Friggin bonkers, finger flip, foot plants.

I was just stoked to make it the finals.

Whenever I get freight back to Detroit I’ll skate Transitions Skatepark. All the locals were super chill. The park had a lot of fun wacky features. Grab a coney, and rip the tranny!! eff yea

80s pop music was a little out of place at this truck stop 

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But I’ll take Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers any day

Yeah… Country music is definitely more common at truck stops. So when it was all Paula Abdul and B-52s back to back, it felt a little strange. Don’t get me wrong I can rock out to some 80s pop. That’s the stuff I grew up with… It just seemed diametrically opposed to a country pride restaurant. LOL

Bajeebas graduate school of trucking

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I spent six months playing music in bars and nightclubs in LA, while grappling with the current state of the music industry

I eventually found myself spending all my time in libraries, coffee shops, and anywhere else I could pour over books.

 It was apparent that the music industry had greatly changed and now the old model was dead and plenty of people were very successful promoting their own music online.

There needed to be major reworking of my ingrained thought habits.  As I poured over  business books and spending 90% of my time studying I thought to myself, “I need to get paid to study.”

It occurred to me that there are numerous excellent audiobooks and that I could get a job driving an 18wheeler across country, learning while I drove

Not only have I found the time to immerse myself in great study material,but I have done so while having the cross country adventure of a lifetime
If you’d like to check out my music: Click here

snowboarding this week in Mammoth

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pumped up to go snowboarding for the first time on the left coast.  headed to Mammoth for a week long birthday celebration for my brother.  Although I have skateboarded aggressively throughout my life I have haven’t been snowboarding since high school.  Those trips were all on the east coast.  The land of ice and artificial snow.  So, needless to say I am curious about the powder I will enjoy this week.

Mammoth reports 36 inches fell on the mountain this last weekend and it is not letting up until Wednesday.  Glad I got experience chaining up an 18-wheeler last month.  My little Scion xB never imagined it would have chains on its tiny wheels, but the front wheel drive should handle pretty well.