Our "it's not a promotion but sorta" happy news!!!

After only 7 months from the very start of our venture into the trucking world....3 months of school, 4 weeks of training, and 2 months and 3 weeks of being real live truck drivers we have hit the truck driver jack pot....we have arrived at the place we have been waiting for, for oh so long......for a full 7 months, ok so not that long, but we have arrived at a place most truck drivers dream and hope and aspire to end up!

WE ARE SO HAPPY & EXCITED TO SHARE:

We have been offered a dedicated I-5 driving position.
NOT IMPRESSED YET?! We weren't either initially. We kept weighing the options of continuing on our existent trucker track: which included hard work, grueling hours, no showers, seeing portland only every 5 wks, and very little money to show for it. Or to move on to this new opp. which gave us guaranteed higher miles every week translating to a consistent weekly higher pay check oh and also we would get to go home every weekend. Amanda & I vacillated back and forth, back & forth, until receiving wise counsel from my trainer who basically said:
MORE MILES=MORE MONEY-EVERY WEEK, & YOU GO HOME 8 DAYS/MONTH INSTEAD OF 4, + no more waiting around out on the road in the middle of canada scratching your butt missing your family & friends and spending more money than you're making....


"OHHHHHH! NOW WE GET IT!"

EXCITED YET?!
WE ARE!!!!

We frantically changed our stance and ferociously hopped the position was still available....we waited and agonized over our stupidity in delaying....we heard nothing

and then....

in a wild whirpool of confusion we were contacted by someone assuming we already knew the plan and nonchalantly told we would start the next day but we still didn't know where or how, we were passed to new management and then found ourselves doing a new run that required long hrs with no time for peeing/eating/or blinking, we were speedily driving the I-5 corridor back and forth 
but it felt good. We knew we were makin' dough and we knew we would be going home in a couple days for the weekend! It was suddenly a whole new world

We have now done our run for a week and a half and been home to try out our new mini-weekend and it's been real nice.

"Sunrise on the Run" (this morn on our new dedicated run)

New thoughts have formed over long 11 hr shifts of driving, of how we can have a life again, engage in community activities on the weekends, see friends, and long lists of all the things we can accomplish when home. It's especially weird since it was so unexpected and we have had to readjust to the awesome new reality.

Our time at home is short and quick.
Our shift changes are even shorter and quicker as one person dresses, eats, & wakes as the truck rolls on during the other's last hour of their shift and then we both hit the toilet for no more than 11 min of much needed servicing and then we are off and rolling again.
But we are back in portland every week! (or will be)
Seeing faces and hugging people we love (or planning upcoming reunions and VIP parties), drinking delicious coffee, laying on our comfy couch, and beginning to meet one of our main goals in this whole endeavor: making enough money to pay our bills/debt so we can be free for future possibilities!

We are looking forward to meeting our goals and having this new unexpected treat of a semblance of normal life again! Can't wait to be doing a little more of real life with all of you are loved ones back in P-town!

-Ariel