The End of an Era

 

I know many of you are waiting for the lowdown on the weekend’s Fear Makeover/Natural Horsemanship Riding Clinic and I promise I will get to that soon. Things have been a little bit upside down around here since Saturday and I’ve been too busy to gather all my thoughts and memories from the clinic to post about it. There was a photographer there on Saturday, so once I get the photos from that day I’ll be sure to post those photos, too.

(All the photos below were taken when Ranchman John drove home right after Thanksgiving. He and I and our daughter Jenna took a drive in the truck, into town and around the mountains)

Ok, so this is what’s been happening. On Saturday night, after the clinic I drove into Albuquerque and picked up Ranchman John from the airport, after he dropped off his keys, to the truck he’s been driving, in Salt Lake City. Yes, he quit his professional truck driving job. And no, he doesn’t have another job.

 

You see he’s been going through a lot of craziness working for England Trucking company and just had enough. It all started in the beginning when England failed to tell him that not only was he not going to be paid during his 3 month training, but he was also going to have to pay for his training, too.

So, after 3 months with no paycheck and now with a tuition of over $1,200 to pay back to England, he joined up with several trainee truck drivers to build-up his on-the-road experience, and after another two months, he was ready to go out on his own.

Ranchman John and another guy that went through the same class together, decided to buddy up together and lease a truck.  Taking turns driving, they could keep the truck on the road 24/7, and therefore make more money.

They drove together for a couple months and did ok….not great, but ok. Don’t ever think that truck drivers make a lot of money. With the number of hours they put in they should make so much more. In 8 months Ranchman John came home only 9 times. And of those 9 times, only 3 were for more than one day.

That’s ok for me. I’m a very independent gal. I was raised as an only-child, as was my husband, so we both like our space and don’t need anyone to keep us company 24/7. But our 3 kidlets missed their Daddy something fierce. Professional Truck Driving really should be left to those who have no kids or have grown kids.  

Well that driving partnership with his buddy worked well for a while, or at least until his partner decided he’d had enough and went home for Christmas and never came back, basically leaving Ranchman John high and dry. Sink or swim, right?

(I-40 Eastbound, near Edgewood, NM. That little camo-taped box on the dashboard is one of our letterboxes that went missing in September. We went out in the truck and found it again, thanks to the help of a friendly Geocacher. After I replaced the logbook we rehid it near the original location in Tijeras)

And Ranchman John tried to go it on his own for a couple weeks, even getting stranded for a couple days in North Dakota when his engine shut off and the gas in his tank turned to jelly in the –50 degree temperatures.

The truck was actually leased in his partner’s name because he was considered ‘First Seat’, while Ranchman John was considered ‘Second Seat’, so Ranchman John could have basically just dumped the truck off anywhere and came home at anytime.

But he tried to make it work out and decided to go back to England HQ, get the truck lease transferred to his name and possibly find a new trainee that might want to partner up with him so he could keep the truck on the road. Just for the record, I didn’t think that was a good idea, but he was going to try anyway.

As fate would have it (and miracles, too, as far as I’m concerned) that truck could not be transferred into his name and he would have to return it and lease his own truck.

Thankfully, Ranchman John called me first and actually asked ME what I thought (hallelujah!) and I said, “No way, Jose! This is your door to freedom. This is your out” I told him to come back home and find something else using his CDL that he worked so hard for and paid so dearly for.

So, he’s home now and we’re going through some adjustments and stressful moments while he hunts for a new job. Thankfully our vehicles and our house are all paid off, so the only bills we have are our utilities, insurance, food, gas, and expenses to care for our animals. Some very tough choices and decisions are being discussed and considered, but I don’t have the heart right now to talk about them. We’ll just take each day, one step at a time, and see what happens………..