ARIEL:
Graduated from training, but was suddenly getting off her trainer's truck a day early, that day turned to two days and then within the hour she was off… she had been conned into driving all by herself across 3/4 of the country. She was scared, people kept saying "well, at some point the baby bird has to fly and us mamma birds have to push the baby birds out of the tree" this did not make her feel better, she just kept imagining dead & mangled baby birds, causing her fears to mount… but she got her game face on and frantically scribbled last minute notes as her trainer answered her 'what if' scenarios and encouraged her that she could do it, she realized she could do it but she was still scared. Driving without her trainer all alone was a whole different game… but despite her fears, she did it! All 2,000 miles of the journey, all by herself! She was a real live truck driver! She was so proud of herself despite some very hilarious initiation into the very interesting world of trucking…
After loading all her stuff into the old truck and getting all the extras she needed from the shop, she bobtailed only feet next door to the truck stop to spend the night, and despite the minuscule distance she traveled was so nervous, ha!
"THIS IS A BOBTAIL"
Finding the bobtail section or what she thought was the only bobtail section which was only spots for 3….it looked as if there was no space and then she realized there was one more spot to squeeze into….so she slowly awkwardly backed up and at the point she thought I should G.O.A.L. ("Get Out And Look" which they drilled into us at school) she hit the chain link construction fence that was back there…HILLARIOUS! ONLY 5 MIN. AS A BONAFIDE TRUCK DRIVER AND SHE HIT SOMETHING GEEZ! Really it was only a tap but she felt ridiculous. Then an old guy stopped to help her back up….remember she is only driving a bobtail…she felt more ridiculous. Finally after it was safe and parked she thought ok I made it the whole block and I'm safe! headed into the truck stop for some necessary goods like febreeze (the trucks previous owner was a smoker), clorox wipes-for wiping down, trash bags, and a tire thumper(AKA man beater)….and returned out the door to her truck, turned the corner and oh look a bobtail with its 4way flashers flashing…..GEEEEEZE it was mine….I felt like a such a newbie! I quickly went to the truck with my head down and turned off the flashers and got in and locked the door. Called my mom to tell her of my newb-ness and we laughed together at me!
The next morn. I was sent on an "MTY Hunt" the game we play as drivers where we have to search for an empty trailer. This time I was sent to some other site to look for one, I found one and hooked up, then it was time to go to the customer to drop the empty and pick up my FIRST LOAD EVER. I put the address into my GPS and went on my way turned right, passed a GP warehouse, got on the road, almost turned on a no truck road, turned right again got on a HWY then right on another HWY, then exited, oh look there is the pilot I stayed at last night oh look I'm on the same road, then it hit me I was going right back to where I had just been! GEEZE! yup folks that's right I had picked up the empty and it was literally right next to the customer but I had gone full circle-I mean, she had made the rookie mistake and couldn't help but laugh at herself….
She then took the new load and went the block back to the same pilot truck stop, miraculously found a pull through parking spot (so she didn't have to do a back up) stopped the truck and parked, she was still alive the second day-pfewph! Then she went in to get some dinner, as she walked in she saw there on the right side the actual bobtail section with spots for a hundred! ha!…
It was a great start to her new trucker career. When her Truck instructor had said "IT's GONNA GET REAL INTERESTING OUT THERE" she just had no idea that by adding herself to the equation it was going to get REAL REAL INTERESTING OUT THERE!
Her Maiden Solo journey ended just barely squeaking through cabbage Hill (the long steep pass on 84 coming from La Grande to Pendleton) she almost had to put on chains but didn't, she drove 15 miles/hr. with all the other trucks over snow & ice as the eastbound side was grid locked, only to find out that an hour later they had completely closed the pass. Look at those mad driver skills….from hitting fences & flashers left on to driving crazy conditions safely! She had made it… and now drove in through the green carpeted, tree laden, waterfalls cascading beautiful Oregon…She was HOME! She was a driver! THE LITTLE BIRDIE HAD BEEN PUSHED AND SHE HAD FLOWN! (Good thing, cuz a mangled baby bird would have made for a horrible ending to this episode)
AMANDA:
Meanwhile, Amanda was still slogging through her training, a week behind Ariel. The training experience was a very hard one for Amanda, aside from trying to cram her head full of reams of new information and skills, she also had to adjust to being separated from friends and family and out on her own for the first time. There were a lot of challenges, what's the code people use? Oh yeah, it was a growing experience. :) In other words, Amanda was beyond relieved and happy to come back home by the end of it. And even though it felt like a torture marathon at the time, she came back to Portland a stronger, more self-possessed woman, who was empowered by the knowledge that she had tried something completely out of her comfort zone, and had succeeded!
She excitedly dragged her bags and bags of crap from her trainer's truck into her car, and got ready to take the short drive home…but…was something wrong with her car? It felt tiny! The experience of driving a tiny personal vehicle after that big truck was so bizarre, that she drove home at at least 10 mph under the speed limit, the entire time feeling like car was closing in around her. "Why is the windshield so close to my head? There's no room for my legs! I feel like I'm shrinking, but my hands still look the same size!" In spite of the shrinking car, you'll be glad to know that she made it home to drive another day.
THE GIRLS WERE REUNITED Back in Portland and GOT ONE DAY TOGETHER ON THEIR BEAUTIFUL COZY COUCH TO CUDDLE AND STARE LIKE ZOMBIES…THEN ARIEL WAS OFF TO SOLO A BIT MORE WHILE MANDA WAS ON HER HOME TIME
ARIEL: Ran a load up to Pacific,WA (company headquarters) and she dropped the old geezer of a truck and received the keys to her brand spanking new Gorgeous truck 10782 and moved in.
Then funnily enough spent a whole day just living in the truck up in WA, while her partner was resting in Portland….seemed silly but the next day she got a load back to Portland.
ARIEL went to pick up AMANDA: to be reunited for reals and begin their new journey as a team. They moved in all their organizational boxes and cubbies and moved in, went over all the systems and procedures together and would after some silly working that ended in nothing were able to go home for Thanksgiving dinner before setting out again.
Their first run was from Oregon down to Cali…..for the next two weeks they would go OR to CA over and over and over and over, much to Ariel's chagrin (she was so sick of the Siskiyous) with a brief stint to AZ….they delivered christmas trees and an emergency run of sump pumps to the flood laden CA, and the usuals like TP and paper towels (",)
So much has happened: We've settled into the truck as our new little roving apartment. We've learned to sleep will bumping and rolling over highways and while jerking back n'forth in coupling and sliding tandems and backing up to docks
I once exclaimed over Amanda being exhausted because she had just woken up…to which she replied (with crazy big eyes)
" YEAH! because I just woke up from not sleeping!"
We've made lots of mistakes, encountered crazy people, been stared at SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!
We've dragged our tired butts into many an establishment looking homeless & vagabond with unkempt everything, kickin' breath, groggy eyes and probably scared small children.
We've been to places called "Garden of Eden truck stop" , a town called WEED. We've seen amazing sights.
Peed in many ways in many settings.
Eaten a ton of "food" which is crap and had a couple delicious culinary encounters (Mexican in Cali, and Thai somewhere…).
and of course tried on hats which I lobbied could be a tradition that we do every time we go to Rice Hill truck stop…
AND WE CONTINUE TO PRETEND/BELIEVE WE'RE LIVING THE GOOD LIFE (YOU KNOW PARTYING IT UP, ADVENTURING, AND HAVING AN AMAZING TIME….
well Ariel does (and since Ariel is convincing Amanda believes it for a couple seconds every once in a while).
We were in Pembina, North Dakota the other night waiting to re-try entering CANADA and we were deliriously tired and Ariel started loosing it and bursting into hysterical laughter and Amanda joined, and we were in this quiet little weird truck stop so everyone could hear, it had something to do with mac n' cheese being a comedy, children being a tragedy, and then there was the idea of me laying on the floor peeing my pants….as you can see it got out of hand but we look back on it fondly….
And then of course there are the more hairy moments….the reality
like being stuck between two lanes of traffic in a shopping mall with cars behind and signs in front and no way to move forward …..and last night when we were denied entry to CANADA, THEN HAD TO RE-ENTER THE US, BUT LOST OUR PASSPORTS, and then we were walking around between the respective buildings to look for passports and communicate and were told we couldn't just walk around that we'd get in trouble …..and ended up detained in a small holding room... 
and then just the usual day in day out stuff like being exhausted and driving then sleeping then eating then driving then repeat….. and working really long hours but only getting paid while rolling, and waiting then hurrying
BUT REALLY THOSE ARE ALL HILARIOUS AS WELL….(according to ariel)
So I guess we are living the good life sort of….
except for the fact that this really is hard work and we're not pro enough yet to be getting paid enough money for the amount of torture…..
The good news we still have each other and our laughing explosions and the adventures are never ending….hopefully someday we can actually make some money (",)
