The Setup

So right, I was working as this "Outdoor Educator" at Echo Hill Outdoor School in Maryland (pretty close to where my parents live) andduring the winter things slow down quite a bit and it was at that point, the winter (2007, January) that I first looked into trucking for a second time. I was thinking I might be able to work for a few months pay off some of that wonderful credit card debt and then back to the outdoor school. One of the companies I contacted was Werner Enterprises and they called me and sent me this great letter saying that I was "Pre-Qualified" (!) (just like a credit card). I didn't return to trucking at that point, instead I stayed on at Echo Hill where things got progressively shittier for many reasons most of which are too ridiculous to recount here.
I like to bake bread and I like to read books and at some point I purchased the book "The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens" and was intrigued by the idea of building a brick oven and baking bread for the community and I was encouraged bu the idea that i could do so and actually make a living. This sort of project of course requires capital of which I and, apparently, anyone I know have none. This is when the idea of returning to trucking re-occured. Trucking is suprisingly lucrative especially to people like myself without what corporate america might call motivation.
My sister and I had these plans to take a big cross country roadtrip in the summer and, in July, I quit at Echo Hill and we did that. You can see some pictures from that trip at http://www.flickr.com/mhbourne. Click on The Cross Country 2007 Set.
During that trip i sort of fell into the romance of open road and big trucks all over again. silly, i know. but here I am.
I wanted to return to the road but i wanted to impose a bit of discipline on the life that would make it hopefully a more rewarding, and less weight gaining, experience. One of those bits of discipline was to write, maybe to write a book. To talk to people and try and paint a real and unsensationalistic view of trucking. This blog is a way of getting some of those thoughts down in some way.

So when Sarah and I got home I dug up that pre-approval letter and called the number:
"Werner Recruiting this is Amber!"
and i was underway again.
I got set up to attend an orientation in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is where I am now.
I would be at orientation for 3 days and then on the road with a trainer for a refresher period of 105 hours behind the wheel since I had not driven in almost 2 years. I was to report to the Days Inn on Bulldog Road on the west side of Allentown on tueday evening. Wednesday morning I would meet the shuttle driver at 6:30 in the Spruce Room and I or we would be taken to the terminal 3 miles away. A lot of this was familiar from my Schneider training in Green Bay and Gary.

On Monday (yesterday) my sister and I headed up to Westtown where she teaches. Today after driving through the endlessly light rain to find an affordable and in stock 26" HD LCD TV for her apartment Sarah drove me up to Allentown. The traffic at King of Prussia was absurd. I saw a few Werner trucks. i hoped that I would not find myslef in this part of the country too much in the following months.