In The Beginning....

This adventure actually started almost a year ago, (Aug. '06).

AUGUST 2006
Leroy had done some construction work in the past, and more recently, some Telemarketing, and HATED both jobs. I had been in office work for some time. I liked the work, but wasn't going anywhere.... so we started looking in the newspaper for jobs.
Low and behold there was an ad to come and listen to a 2-hour seminar about Trucking. We went and got really excited. It was a career that we could be together, see the country and get paid for it. It sounded perfect. So we applied... but Leroy was turned down because of an incident in his background.
We spent some time in prayer, and decided to find a local Trucking School, and get our CDL licenses, then apply to trucking companies..... thus started our "long haul" adventure of getting into the Trucking industry. Little did we know what was to come.....

SEPTEMBER 2006
We were positive, we were excited! and we thought that we should be able to do this transition right away. So we sold one of our cars, our motorcycle, about 90% of our "stuff" (in three consecutive weeks of yard sales) and put our mobilehome up for sale. (After all, we won't need any of these things if we are going to be living out of a truck... right?)
Well... our mobile home wasn't selling because of a hole in the flooring. So we decided to move out of the mobilehome (9/23/06), and in with my parents (who are great, and supportive, and gracious), so we can repair/remodel the mobilehome and sell it to get tuition money for the Trucking school.
We were thinking.... a month, maybe 6 weeks, and we would be all set...... Trucking here we come.

OCTOBER 2006
At first we were going to pay someone else to do the work, but we didn't have enough money for that.... so Leroy volunteers to do the work. We buy the materials and start.
The end of Oct... Remodeling is taking forever! The sub-flooring needs to be torn out and replaced. (Things always take longer than you think.) My brother, Jon, comes and helps for a couple of weekends, but it is still taking time.
One good thing.... we found a really good church in Santee, CA.
Pathways Community Church. The people are great and the services are inspiring.

NOVEMBER 2006
We are painting the whole interior white, and sub-flooring that needs to be replaced - we are getting quite a workout. We go over every day and work. We don't have any other jobs at the moment, so my parents are supporting us.

DECEMBER 2006
The painting is finally finished (with a lot of help from family and friends), and Leroy & Jon finally gets the sub-flooring pulled out and reinstalled. Next comes installing new carpeting throughout, and new linoleum in the kitchen, bathroom, and third bedroom. Pheww.. what a pain.

JANUARY 2007
January 14th, 2007, IT IS DONE! We list it in the PennySaver, and on Craig's List for sale. Hopefully it will sell soon. We have borrowed money from my mom - both for the finishing of the remodeling and for tuition. (She took money out of her 401k account to help get us started. Thanks Mom.)
January 15th, 2007, We start trucking school with United Truck Driving School in San Diego, Ca. Love It!! It has been a long time coming, but worth it. We are excited!

FEBRUARY 2007
We are finishing up our two weeks of driving. It is totally amazing that they had us up-shifting and down-shifting on the second day. Leroy gets some instructors that are not that great, and they end up quiting half way through our driving training time. I get a pretty good instructor, but he leaves to further his own trucking business, again, right in the middle of our training time. Leroy finishes his training and finally gets his license on 2/27/07. I (however) am delayed. I miss the last couple of days of training because my left knee swelled up like a balloon, and the pain is enormous. The emergency doctor says it is just tendonitis because of excessive use, and to stay off it for 7-10 days. I get crutches, and stay off it, with not much improvement, except now my right knee hurts because of all the excess use to that knee.
On 2/23/07, I have hernia surgery (it was scheduled previously) and continue to let my knees heal.

MARCH 2007
My primary doctor has xrays taken of my knees to rule out arthuritis. (Yea, No Arthuritis.) But we discover that my kneecaps are 'out of alignment'. They are both tracking to the outside, but the good news... that can be fixed with physical therapy (Thank God, no surgery). The bad news.... physical therapy is backed up, and won't have an opening until May.... So I wait.

Leroy - with new CDL license in hand, starts applying for jobs everywhere, online, newspaper, school placement list. A lot of places initially say Yes, then run a background check, and say No. It is getting very discouraging, but on 3/29/07, Leroy gets a break.
A company is finally willing to take a chance on him. They know he is a recent graduate, with no experience, but they give him the keys to a truck.

Leroy's Trucking career Starts!!
The load of nursery plants is going from San Diego, CA to Phoenix, Arizona, and they need him to take it quick. (I get to go along as his navigator.) He picks up the loaded truck in San Diego, and drives to El Cajon to get a couple of tires put on (per the owner). (He stalls the truck on the big hill heading into Santee. He remains calm, and restarts it.) Then we head east.
The load needs to be in Phoenix, by 8am Friday. It is now 9pm on Thursday. This means driving through the night. Leroy drives straight through the night, we are given No directions. As we are approaching Phoenix around 5am, we get verbal directions from the owner of the company's wife. (The directions are not that clear.) We see the freeway name and take the exit mentioned, but it comes out at the wrong place. Leroy drives down this surface road a long way.... and we think we might have missed the next turn. So we try to find a BIG place to pull into to get directions. We stop at one place and get further directions from some people at a McDonalds. We just need to continue down this road a little further. We end up turning the wrong way at the next turn, and we need to find a BIG empty parking lot, again, and Leroy pulls in. The turn around is tricky because of all the light poles, but he gets it around. As we are leaving we are approached by a rent-a-cop security guard, who stops us, then very firmly asks us to leave, then holds us up to let other cars pass. Go figure....
We finally make it to the customer's destination. We miss the driveway (it looks very narrow) and make a right turn, ....only it looks like a dead end. I get panicked, but Leroy remains calm. We stop, he sees that there is a road that goes around the block, then we call the customer to make sure there is room - not only to get in, but also a way to get out. They assure us that there is.
Leroy pulls in - around a curved driveway, with cars and plants all around. (Going slow is he key.) There is another truck being unloaded ahead of us,... so we wait. We arrived at 7:30am (for an 8am appointment). Leroy tries to sleep, but it is hard with No A/C in Hot Phoenix, and the unloaders bumping around in the back...... we are finally unloaded and leave at around 12:30pm.
We find out we have a load to pick up in Tucson tomorrow (Sat. 3/31/07) at 9am, so we head that way. We stop in Eloy, AZ at the Flying J. (Our first truck stop!) It is nice.
Since Leroy is new, it takes a little bit of time for him to back into a parking spot. But we finally get in, get a bite to eat and get some sleep.
We arrive in Tucson, AZ at 8:45am for our 9am appointment. We are picking up 'Windows', that are coming back to San Diego, (actually National City), but the Windows are not done and ready yet. The loader says they are making them and loading them as they go. It will be an ALL DAY thing.
We are assigned a loading dock at 10am, and get into position. We try to unhook, but the kingpin won't release. With some help from the warehouse crew and a forklift, we finally get it unhooked. The supervisor suggests we "bobtail" over to a nearby mall and see a movie (so we do) and we stop at Target to pick up some things. The loader says to be back at 3pm.
We get back at 2:30pm, they are still Not Done Loading. So we go next door to Dennys and eat a late lunch.
At 4:30pm, they are putting the final ones on the truck. Leroy signs paperwork, and re-hooks up. We leave toward San Diego at 5:30pm.
With stops for fuel, and a late dinner, we finally arrive back at Base at 2am. The load is still in the truck, and Leroy offers to complete the delivery on Monday, to National City.
Good Experience, and only a few near misses.
It was fun, and scary.

Monday, 4/2/07
The delivery can be made anytime between 8am - 12noon. I go with him again. Leroy drives down to National City, gets it all lined up and backed in and...... he (we) forgot to open the rear doors before backing into position. So Leroy pulls out, opens the doors and re-backs in.
Rookie mistake.
We return the truck to base, and we are done.
Pay $315. Leroy is now a Professional Truck Driver!

APRIL 2007
We did more runs... I'll blog those soon.

MAY 2007
We did more runs... I'll blog those soon.
Laurie starts physical therapy.

JUNE 2007
We did more runs... I'll blog those soon. And Laurie finally gets her license, on her 45th Birthday!