I some times feel like the luckiest truck driver alive. To date I’ve enjoyed a wonderful career driving big diesel trucks. I look back and I have to think it was destiny. In my childhood I had already logged a million miles on my knees pushing Tonka trucks and even homemade Lego trucks great distances.  

     Later on when I was 12 or 13 my friends and I were trusted to ride our bikes for days at a time on “road trips” bike camping. I even had running lights on my bike. Then as a young man my first car was a Ford pickup truck, and just like any trucker I started adding lights, gauges and switches. I went on 800 mile road trips by myself; this was all in the days before cell phones, credit cards and towing if something bad should happen. I loved the freedom it afforded me.

     I think in the teen years I disappointed my folks, I had no ambition for higher education and there were the usual years of indifference most teenagers go through. I left home right after high school and pegged my future dreams of a white collar job on the hope I could parlay my 5 years in the Air Force as an air traffic controller into a career with the FAA. I figured I’d put in twenty years and retire as a young man and then follow my dream of driving. But things didn’t work out as I had planned, and a secure job with the Federal Government never materialized. So with the help of friends and my brother I followed my first love of driving.

      While still in the Air Force I had acquired my commercial license and I took that to the mid west where my brother connected me with a man who would give me the break I needed, to drive a truck with no real experience.

Things went well and after being in the Midwest for two years I came back home. I asked my folks for help getting started back in the Northwest. I tried several driving jobs and as luck would have interviewed and accepted two jobs several months after returning to Washington.

     My dad had never wanted any of his children to work for Boeing because of the cyclical nature of the business. Getting laid off was typical of the boom to bust nature of the aviation industry. But 1986 was a good year for me. I worked full time for Boeing, part time every afternoon and weekends for Gordon Trucking and I met the love of my life at work. I burned the candle at both ends for over three years, often working well over 80 hours a week. Oh to be young and have that kind of energy again. I so fondly remember the times Lonnie the dispatcher at GTI let me take Sandy along on overnight trips in a shiny blue sleeper truck. 

     Driving for Boeing has been a dream now for over 25 years. I do believe our working conditions and compensation are the bench mark for most professional drivers. If you are going to be a driver there is nothing better. I still have a few years left on the road before I can pull the plug, I pray my health holds out and then I can hit the road for sights unseen with the one person I want to travel with more than anyone, my wife. Below you will see a series of pictures of my career and some of the jobs I’ve done. 

This special truck was used to celebrate Boeing's 75th Anniversary, I got to drive it early in my career, and now I'll soon be celebrating the companies 100th year anniversary in 2016 which is also the year I qualify for a full retirement. 

 While I haven't done alot of over the road driving I have had a few out of town trips over the years, its always fun to get out on the long haul but I wouldn't trade my Monday through Friday schedule for any long haul driver who has to do it for a living.

     This truck is a mobile laboratory and I've had fun delivering and picking this up from various locations like White Sands NM and Boardman OR.

     For three years I drove the long loads, specifically 747 wing sections from the Fredrickson Plant to the Everett plant every day. Yes that is a trailer with a steer car to help get around the corners. This combination is 130' long, and you think you have it rough with your daily commute. 

      This nice little FL-70 was my daily driver from 2002 to 2010. Never broke down once in all that time, and infact it's still on the road with a junior driver in the company. 

     This is my new truck that I drive daily. 2010 Business Class Peterbilt with all the bells and whistles, it is one sweet ride. This truck has made my work so much more enjoyable. Inside it's as quiet as a car. 

      Aside from my daily driving in the city servicing the vendors that supply Boeing I also support the military and space divisions of Boeing. Since 2004 I have worked closely with one program specifically, Scan Eagle, a small UAV (un-manned aerial vehicle). I've had the great fortune to work with some of the brightest and most interesting people on this program. I've learned a lot from these people, and they have trusted me to haul one of kind assets back and forth scross the country that are critical to our nations defense. 

     This motor home has been used as mobile training lab and I've gone back and forth across the USA many times with it. I've made trips to Washington DC, Kentucky, West Virginia, Florida, Texas, Marlyland, White Sands NM, and numerous trips to California and Arizona (China Lake CA. Yuma AZ, Fort Huachuca AZ and Hunter Ligget CA ). 

      And now the motor home has been pretty much retired and this beautiful new truck and trailer is the new mobile training lab. I miss driving the motor home, the view was better, but when it come to handling and power this new truck & trailer is so impressive. I've already made a couple cross country trips with this rig and I only hope someday I can afford a truck this nice for Sandy and I to pull our travel trailer with when we retire.

Thanks Mark LaVille, Dave, Dan, Pierce, Adam, Trevor and Jason for all the wonderful memories, and Mark, I'm still thinking situational awareness every time I park and pull out of a tight spot.