Trucking; Once Around The Sun

It's coming up on one year behind the wheel of a big rig for me, and I'm happy to report that I have lived to tell about it.  My anniversary with Schneider National is coming in early June, but I started driving school in April of last year.  Here are some stats:  I've currently driven about eighty thousand miles, that's more than three times around the earth.  I'm hoping to have one hundred thousand by June.  I've driven in 27 states.  I've had about ten flat tires on trailers I've picked up, in that situation you can usually drive it to a tire dealer in the area, a little nerve racking, but not a big deal.  I've had one blowout on the front passenger side of my truck while driving.  That left me sitting on the shoulder of highway 10 in Florida for about eight hours waiting for a mechanic to get to me.  I am on my second truck, the first one was taken out of service after rolling over 750,000 miles, 65,000 of those by me.  I've traversed the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains over twenty times, sometimes through snowstorms, sometimes at night, a few times both.  Probably the biggest event of my career so far happened,as I write this, about five hours ago, south of Richmond, Virginia.  I pulled out of an intersection on a green light in too high of a gear going uphill with a full load, and broke a drive axle.  I had to sit in the second of four lanes of traffic for about an hour, blocking traffic for miles while waiting for a tow truck.  Things like that are surreal, but not nearly as bad as one might think a situation like that could be.  I'm proud to say that I haven't had any accidents, and haven't hurt myself.  Accidents are a common thing in this industry, it's hard to maneuver a big truck with a 53' trailer around the country without bumping a fixed object, or worse, another vehicle.  The truth is, I come really close on a daily basis, and that's part of the game.  This is the first job I've ever looked forward to when I wake up in the morning, I love being on the move.  Doing something that you can enjoy changes everything for the better.  Roll on!