Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I haven't written in a while and I'm sorry about that. I'm on the road in a trainer's truck and right now, we're sitting at a Love's truck stop in Hogansville, Georgia. Since finishing orientation with WEL Companies last week, I spent a weekend running from De Pere, Wisconsin, to Quincy, Michigan and back via Kalamazoo and a place with an unpronounceable Indian name in Wisconsin with lots of O's in it. That was a great trip, what with dealing with an 80,000 pound truck, almost hitting several deer, and a blinding snow storm that completely obscured the road. It's amazing how "fast" 10 mph can seem at 2:00 a.m. On a backcountry, rural road in near-whiteout conditions. I also spent the week making local deliveries around the Green Bay area, which was fun. Then it was on the road for three weeks and three days, which is what I'm doing now. I have a really good trainer, Lee. He's a quiet Georgia boy who pretty much lets me drive as much as I want and make all the mistakes I can. It's the best way to learn all this and I appreciate him for it. He hasn't been home for more than two weeks, so he's visiting his wife about 10 miles away; that's why I'm here, alone in the truck until this afternoon. The company does not force routing or fuel stops and the load we have delivers in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Monday. How we get there is up to us as long as we make our delivery at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. That's good to know since I have children and grandchildren in Oklahoma City. So far, I've put 4,179 miles on the truck and have about 7-8,000 or so training miles to go. I get off the training truck on April 2 and take the final road test on April 3. After that, I get my own truck, driver manager, and deliveries. I'm pretty excited. Oh. And I get a new granddaughter in early April, too! And you KNOW I'm excited about that!