Kalamazoo, Michigan.

____Day 1: Overnight temperatures of -18 Centigrade and a fresh layer of snow greet me as I leave on a Saturday morning. Also, trailer D52 has been left with a blown-out tyre. Not the best way to start and things get no better when I find central Minnesota is under a Winter Storm Warning. My first chance to see how the Peterbilt handles on hard-packed snow and ice. It has a shorter wheel-base than the old green Kenworth, but handled just as well; having 20 tons of cargo helped. Eventually, I made it to Wilson; cutting the 1000 mile trip in two.
____Day 2: Someday, somewhere at some boring dinner party, someone will say the word "Kalamazoo" and I will pipe up with; "Been there, delivered a load of peat-moss." The same as I do with, "Bill Clinton went to Oxford? I went to Oxford; delivered a load of sugar to the Co-op." But when I park-up overnight at my delivery point; I find nothing distinctive in the town except it's name.

Flyin Eagle #02

____Day 3: It's the week of the big Thanksgiving holiday in America and everything needs to be done before Wednesday afternoon. The peat-moss is off the trailer by 9 o'clock but the re-load from Fort Wayne, Indiana, isn't going to be ready until Tuesday. But I do have the satisfaction of knowing that the office has found something for Winnipeg; so it's a leisurely 120 mile drive down to the Fort Wayne Truck Plaza and an early finish.

Peterbilt Showtruck photographed at Angola, Indiana.

____Day 4: Fifteen minutes to load 15 hot-tubs; shut the doors, ask the nice lady in the office to fax the customs papers and I'm on my way home. But not before I have wandered around the warehouse and picked out my all-time favorite hot-tub. Half swimming pool, half hot-tub. 24 foot long x 8 foot wide, 4 foot deep; seats and jets up one end and at the other: water flows in and you swim against the current. I think Master Spa are onto a winner; serious exercise combined with serious fun. Onto Hasty for the night, meeting up with Mr. Ramsden at South Beloit and running back in convoy.

Master Spa's brilliant swimming hot-tub. [Photo from their web-site.]

____Day 5: A foggy start; waiting for daylight seemed to have been a good idea as plenty of vehicles littered the grass verges of Interstate 94; all the way to Fargo. At the Stamart Truckstop, they have a new brand of winter diesel and reading the blurb on the pump; I decide to try it. Yukon Diesel should be just the stuff I need as I head north into the icy waste land that is Manitoba. No additive necessary and only two cents more expensive. Only thing..... by the time I get back to the yard: Manitoba is enjoying afternoon temperatures of plus 14 centigrade. Almost unheard of in late November.
____Overall Distance: 3669 km.

Yukon Diesel pump at Stamart, Fargo. Note big filter at top of hose.

Taking Home Big Bucks.







I'm not a vegetarian or anti-hunting but there is no need to display animals in such a manner.



Copperhead Road.

____Day 1: The eleventh of November, a public holiday and the biggest line of cars that I have ever seen at the US border. I follow Neal Trickett, in Flying Eagle #24, down the hard shoulder as we go through the deserted commercial vehicle checkpoint. Neal is heading for Georgia; my load is for New Jersey, both for delivery early on Monday morning. I make a comfort stop at Hasty, but I catch up and am right behind Neal's shiny new trailer at the off-ramp to Osseo. At the red light, I see a sticker; "Let Jesus carry your Load." Not a Flying Eagle trailer; lost him.
____Day 2: Few trucks on the road as I cross Chicago with the 20 tons of lentils destined for a cannery on the Eastern Seaboard. Like many truck-drivers who did Commie-bloc and Middle-east trips, I'm a big fan of canned food. Lots of variety, sturdy packaging, no eat-by dates; living out of a tin never did me no harm. Camion Stew Rules. Two-thirds of the trip done by the time I park-up at Upper Sandusky.

The new two-tone green standard issue Big Freight truck.......................only kidding.

____Day 3: Ohio done; three hundred miles of Pennsylvania and a lot more trucks on the road. Chronic bunching on the rolling hills of Interstate 80; an indication that more US fleets are limiting their trucks to 65 mph as diesel soars to well over 4 bucks a gallon. A Sunday afternoon to prove that car drivers go as fast as they want: truck-drivers go as fast as they can. On to Secaumus and a parking spot in the road outside the factory; as recommended by Bryn, pilot of Flying Eagle #18.
____Day 4: Soon unloaded and on my way through the rush-hour, to my first pick-up. Emigsville, 186 miles westwards in Pennsylvania. A collection of 44 computer desks for a school in Gimli, Mb. Then, south-west, across Maryland and into West Virginia. Finishing at an independent truck-stop at the strangely named "Jane Lew."

Now is the time of year that tests a driver's resolve to keep it clean.

____Day 5: Seventy miles to go and all of it through isolated communities in the Appalachian Mountains; some of the poorest places in the US. The twisting, turning Highway 33 following the floor of steep-sided, thickly-wooded valleys, copper-carpeted in fallen leaves. Sporadic meadows with shabby habitats, the smell of wood-smoke in the early morning rain. You can almost taste the moonshine, hear the banjos. Eight stacks of 8'x4' rubber mats from Spencer, going to Winnipeg. Loaded and with Steve Earle on the stereo: orders to head for Chicago as the office searches for two more pallets that will fill the trailer.
____Day 6: A late start from Remington, Indiana, giving the office more time to find some cargo but also letting me miss the Chicago rush-hour. Eventually I get the call to "Bring it home." Pushing on to Hasty as the temperature plummets. Time to get out the Tri-Pac instruction manual and find out how to make it warm the cab; as opposed to it's summertime cooling duties.
____Day 7: The familiar final run; Interstate 94 to Fargo, turn right, Interstate 29 to the border. Now a snow covered flat land. Back to the yard, with the trailer going for deliveries with the city truck. Back home by late afternoon.
____Overall Distance: 5892 km.

Carlsberg don't do headache racks...............................................

Louisville, Kentucky.

____Day 1: November is the month when the snow-chains should be back on the truck. But with such a heavy load of flax-seed; I postpone their carrying in favour of a few extra gallons of fuel in the tanks. There are no mountains on the way to Ohio and the strange-named town of Washington Court House. As far as Wilson in Wisconsin for the first night of the trip.
____Day 2: The second day of driving into a strong wind from the south, but at least it is a warm wind. Wind is also a problem in the truck-cab; the annoying shituation of not knowing if it's a Horse'n'Cart or a Pony'n'Trap. Stops and starts all the way to the Indiana/Ohio border and the Stateline Petro at New Paris.

Searcy O/O with Harley Davidson inspired KW paintjob.

____Day 3: Flax-seed for the pet-food factory that has a yard full of Wal-Mart trailers and then south-east on the nearby Interstate 71. One hundred and sixty miles, through Cincinnati, to Louisville on the northern edge of Kentucky. Another heavy load, this time; bags of powdered clay for Alberta. Then, when weighing at a nearby Love's truckstop; the women at the fuel desk question my pronunciation of the word: "Scale." Excuse me! I am English; speaking the Queen's English. I do not have an accent! I get plenty of support from the line of drivers behind me and the one-liners fly in thick and fast. Most memorable: what's the difference between northern and southern women in the US? Northern women say, "You can." Southern women say, "Y'all can." Back to the north, around Indianapolis, onto Bloomington for the night as the wind subsides and the rain starts.

Sugar factory in North Dakota, where beet becomes crystal.

____Day 4: A big push of 1100 kilometres, Interstate 39 and then 94 from Portage. It's hunting season and the Whitetail deer have been thoroughly disturbed. There are as many victims of roadkill as there are mile-markers on the Interstates of Wisconsin. Into the Fargo Stamart for an evening meal and a wash for #31 at the Northstar.
____Day 5: A frosty night with clear skies; I get the clean truck back to the yard on dry roads and without a bug splattered bumper. Snow starts to fall as I drive home in the early afternoon; Winter has arrived on the Prairies.The temperature doesn't get above freezing, all day, and for probably not for the next six months.

____Overall Distance: 4242 km.

Concrete grinding machine that levels the patches on Interstate 29.

Taking The Rough With The Smooth.

____Day 1: A Monday, 7.00 am. departure from the yard with the hot-tub load; taking it right through to Calgary. After a busy Winnipeg Perimeter Highway, it's cruise control on the limit as far as Redcliff, Alberta. A day of watching the geese formation flying across the Prairies.

Friday breakfast at the Brahma Grill, Neepawa, Manitoba.

____Day 2: An early start; to make Calgary by eight and straight to the wrong address for the hot-tubs. Then from last year's Western Canada distributor to this year's warehouse; right across town. When unloaded, orders come over the phone for the re-load: drop trailer at distribution depot, take eight hour break, collect trailer, drive 500 miles to Regina, make three early morning supermarket deliveries. Canadian regulations allow a truck-driver to use his unit during his break for personal use; so I go for a meal and a shower. Four hours rest on the bunk, but no sleep. Then at 8 o'clock in the evening I leave for Regina; making the Ab/SK border at mid-night.
____Day 3: Coffee stops at Tim Horton's, Redcliff, Swift Current and Regina, keep me awake. The supermarket back-doors do their job and the trailer is empty by 8 o'clock in the morning. I go round to the Husky Truckstop; completely shattered. Twenty-seven hours without sleep; I switch off the cell-phone and draw the curtains. It's all legal on the log-book, but not the way I want to work. But it is the first shit job in the five months that I've been at Flying Eagle. Let's hope it's another five before it comes round again.

95% of drivers have a Cuddly-Toy. This is Deef...[ Dee for Dog ]

____Day 4: Late Wednesday; I headed from Regina to Angusville, Manitoba, for the next load. Loaded in the morning with flax-seed, bound for Ohio; then back to the yard. Not a good weeks work; five shifts to go to Calgary and back; normally done in three. Less than 600 kilometres a day.  A switch from day-shift to night-shift and back again; very tiring. And so much caffeine!
____Overall Distance: 2945 km.

New Freightliner Coronado Condo #37 posing with Eagle One.

Deliver: Nazareth. Reload: Northumberland.

____Day 1: It could have been any one of the Canadian women that I have dated; when the office told me that my next load was "Crackers." Luckily; it was 60 pallets of square savory biscuits from a bakery in Winnipeg, going down into the US. After a customs examination at Pembina, I make my way to Wilson in Wisconsin on a busy Sunday afternoon.
____Day 2: The crackers are for two RDCs; the first in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook which does have a truckstop at my Interstate 55 exit. With an early morning appointment, on Tuesday, it's convenient but not the sort of place to stop if you don't have to. Another short mileage day, which will be the pattern for the whole trip.

A Peterbilt and a Kenworth, in the long and low style that is so popular.

____Day 3: I hate Regional Distribution Centres and judging from the large number that have banned me from premises; they don't like me too. But Bolingbrook is brand new and with plenty of eager staff, pleased to be out of the unemployment line. In and out, inside an hour, how it should be. I wonder if it will stay that way? Onto the next drop; east along Highway 30 for a night at TA Lodi in Ohio.
____Day 4: The next delivery is not booked in until Thursday morning; so another low mileage day. Interstate 80 through Pennsylvania with only 13,000 lbs of biscuits on the rolling hills; cloaked in orange and brown  autumnal colour. I continue the experiment; to see if modern man can survive on coffee and Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen chicken tenders, with plenty of visits to the Travelcenters of America along the way.

An alloy-wheeled eleven-axle steel-hauling B-train.

____Day 5: The RDC at Nazareth is typical of the Regional Distribution Centres that I loathed so much in the UK: long wait to get unloaded, long wait for paperwork, unhelpful staff and its pouring with rain. This one also has the added annoyance of the "Lumpers" system; where a driver is expected to pay for his trailer to be unloaded. I take the option of unloading the crackers by myself; which would have been easy if the pallets hadn't been loaded the "wrong" way round. The notches cut out of the solid pallet side do not align with the pallet truck that I have been given to work with. It takes a lot if lifting and wedging; then ramming and dragging to get the 15 pallets off. After all the messing about, there is still time to get reloaded at Northumberland, two hours west. Fifteen hot-tubs and covers; loaded in 15 minutes.

Well maintained old Mack tipper had to be heard to be believed: awesome exhaust note!

____Day 6: From the TA at Lodi, with the first chance of the trip to put in some decent mileage. The average for the five days is only 700 km. Now I need two days of over a thousand, to get home. Crossing Chicago at the wrong time doesn't help, especially when the truck in front has a bump. A car cuts in on a truck, going into some roadworks, and the truck can't stop. Normally the driver of truck would be at fault; but this guy gets out and gives this woman such a piece of his mind that she jumps in her car and drives off in tears.
____Day 7: Flying Eagles #28 and #31 pull out of Black River Falls in the Saturday morning darkness; heading for home. The popcorn on #28 has yet to be popped; so Darrin's load is much heavier than the hot-tubs, which are empty. We chat on the CB for a while, before the undulating terrain of Wisconsin causes the distance between us to increase and the signal to deteriorate. A full days drive back to the yard with coffee stops at Hasty and Fargo.
____Overall Distance: 5454 km.

One of many Allied Orange Big-Sleepers doing light-weight removal work.

On The Blood Red Roads Of Minnesota And Wisconsin.

____Day 1: A midday start on a Tuesday; running up to Beausejour to load peat moss before crossing into the States at Warroad. East to International Falls before picking up Highway 53 southbound. Then BANG. Animal strike. I saw something flash across the headlights of an on-coming pick-up truck. He clipped the hind legs of Whitetail doe and sent her spinning into my path. I was on the brakes in an instant; but at 55mph with 44,000lbs of dirt on board, 18-wheelers can't stop on a dime. It's a sad fact of life that truck-drivers don't swerve $150,000 worth of equipment into the ditch to avoid an animal; so Bambi's mum got stamped on the butt with a Manitoba license plate. Fortunately for Flying Eagle #31, the creature was on it's knees and the bumper took the impact; saving the hood, grill and lights from damage.

Raw peat-moss being brought in from the mine.

____Day 2: Late away from the Nemadji Truckstop, on the outskirts of Superior; heading to the Flying'J at La Salle in Illinois. The peat-moss is for the near by town of Granville; so this going to be one of the rare sub-1000 mile trips that I've done for Flying Eagle.
____Day 3: A good tip at the huge greenhouse complex of the Mid-American Growers site before heading north to the Il-Wi border and place that sounds like a question, Genoa City? Apart from glider engines and rocking-horse pooh; probably the lightest load that I have ever carried: 64 giant rolls of bubble-wrap filled the trailer to capacity. Going to Winnipeg; I reach Hasty for a night at Olson's.

A cracked bumper was light damage compared to what could have happened if the deer had been standing-up.

____Day 4: Back to the yard; to show them the damaged truck. Nobody is too surprised. For high mileage drivers, it's not a case of IF you hit an animal, it's a case of WHEN. At over a million kilometres and five years, here in North America, this was my first deer strike. My last was in 2001; a little AX Citroen took the antlers off the head of a young buck, along a country lane in deepest darkest Dordogne. My animal-loving lady picked up the stunned creature and put it in the car. Back at the farm; I was just lifting the thing out of the hatch-back when Marie-Odile's eldest daughter came out of the house and screamed,
"Eeeeeeee, une biche!"
The startled deer kicked me in the balls as it exploded into life and then ran off.
____Overall Distance: 3052 km.

Seed-carrying bulker, off to the fields, where winter wheat drilling is in full swing.

You can all go to Hell and I shall go to Texas : Davy Crockett.

____Day 1: The 2200 kilometres from Niverville to Madisonville are possible in two days driving but to make things easier and to get the truck washed; I leave on the Thanksgiving Monday afternoon. Henry, the head man in the workshops, had come in to service #31, earlier in the day. He had agreed to do the work, last week, before he realised it was a holiday. Good to see that he was prepared to keep his word.
____Day 2: From Fargo's Northstar Truck Wash to the Flying'J at Salina, Kansas. A load of peat moss for a Texan mushroom grower, along the familiar route of Interstate 29 and Highway 81 with the usual coffee-stops at Vermillion, Norfolk and York.


The soya and maize harvest brings out all the old work-horses like this Peterbilt 362.

 ____Day 3: All interstate highway; #'s 135, 35, 45. The major cities of Wichita, Oklahoma, and Dallas before heading south towards Houston. There are plenty of billboards for a place called "Buc-ee's"; located at my Madisonville exit. But when I arrive; I find a huge empty parking lot and a hundred signs saying, "No Trucks." I park on a pot-holed, vacant lot just across the road. Thankfully, it is a rarity to see trucks excluded from places in North America. I go across to see what makes Buc-ee's so special that it doesn't need truckers. A very big gas station, convenience store and gift shop with the largest selection of beef jerky that I have seen anywhere. I make a point of buying nothing and then use the washroom; those sort of places hate that.


New piggy-backed Cascadias, sporting factory fitted moose bars.

 ____Day 4: Davy Crockett was pigeon-toed and at the age of four, every night for six months, went to bed with splints bandaged to his legs. My parents said that he never made a fuss and grew up to walk straight and true; adding that I would too. I also got a raccoon skin hat. Now, 53 years later, as I drive from Madisonville to Lufkin; I pass through a splendid section of woodland that is named after my boyhood hero. The Davy Crockett National Forest; run forest run.


The fields of bare mud left by the receding Missouri River after months of flooding.

 ____Day 5: The usual load of grinding powder from Lufkin, back to Winnipeg, before being transshipped onto an Albertan-bound trailer. North out of Checotah, after a night at the Flying'J, to Joplin and onto Kansas City. Interstate 29 has re-opened after months of flooding by the Missouri River. Plants cannot grow without water, but too much water kills them; hundreds of acres of land lay bare and the trees are leafless. Reminding me of a desert; but one caused by water and not the lack of it.
____Day 6: At the splitting of Interstates 80 and 29, near Omaha, the GPS mileage figure to the next junction was 614 miles; ten miles from home. Of course, "She-who-must-be-obeyed" wasn't quiet for all that distance; as I pulled off at Watertown for the night and at Fargo for fuel in the morning. Back in the yard at two in the afternoon.
____Overall Distance: 4884 km.


Class 8 Peterbilt Motorhome Conversion, spotted at York, Nebraska.
I want one!



Tennessee-Georgia-Florida.

____Day 1: A regular re-load for a flatdeck was high quality red cedar from North Plains, Oregon, to Steinbach. Now I'm at the other end of the factory; picking up a pre-loaded trailer of high quality windows going down to the US. A day of over a thousand kilometres; down to Mauston and a rendezvous with Searcy #202. 


Searcy #202 seeking out a quiet corner of the truck-park.

 ____Day 2: Breakfast with Mr. Ramsden; then another thousand-plus kilometres. Interstate cruise control driving only broken by a phone call from the office. The usual Monday afternoon question: "Did I draw fuel at the yard?" The fact that I recorded the fact in triplicate seems to be lost on this member of the office staff. They seem to think I might have forgotten; insinuating that I am not doing my job properly. Time for a rant; which should end the nuisance calls. I hope.
____Day 3: After a night in the hills of Kentucky, I reach the first drop at Knoxville just before midday. Sixty windows to be carried off, one at a time; carefully. Then it's on to Atlanta for number two. But they close at 15.30 so it's not possible and I have quiet night on a deserted industrial estate in north-west Atlanta.


Big bales of cotton in Alabama.

 ____Day 4: Surprisingly; the east-coast state of Florida has a section that is in the Central Time Zone. This is fortunate; giving me an extra hour to get down to Youngstown after delivering in Georgia. Into Alabama; at Columbus and south on US Highway 431, the self-proclaimed "Highway to the Gulf." A well surfaced four-lane passing through wooded country dotted with fields of cotton and peanuts. Empty in Florida and back north to Columbus for a reload of supermarket chiller cabinets.


Truck-driving dog owner looks like his pets.

 ____Day 5: A big delay in loading; which I eventually get to the truth. One of the cabinets has been damaged coming through the warehouse to the loading dock. Quality Control arrange for repairs and it 7 o'clock in the evening before I'm rolling. But getting stuck does have it's compensations; the view from the truck is over lawns running into pine woodland, very quiet and peaceful. Eventually; a late finish after cutting through Alabama and back into Tennessee on Interstate 65.


Not another alien abduction return: A Rest Area tribute for the Saturn rocket-builders of Huntsville, Alabama.

 ____Day 6: Late finishes mean late starts, but after three relative short days, I have enough driving hours to get home without a re-set. Nashville, then St Louis, varying the return route; onto Cedar Rapids with another thousand kilometres going on the clock and taking it over the 100,000 mark.
____Day 7: Two big hits to get down to the drops. Now two big hits to get back home. At less than 10,000 lbs, I do have one thing in my favour; no incline takes the big Cummins out of top gear, all the way home. Returning 7.9 mpg for the whole trip and that's US gallons at 3.5 litres each. Not bad for a double-drive pulling a high trailer.
____Overall Distance: 6229 km.


Trailers of peanuts waiting to be roasted, salted and eaten.



Manitoba-Oklahoma-Manitoba.

____Day at the Races: The last meeting of the season at Asssiniboia Downs, and the sixth time that I have managed to fit in the horses with my work. Ten races on the card; of which two pay out. Not a profitable day but fine Autumn sunshine on a Sunday afternoon. A big crowd and big fields; as all the trainers seek that final win for their owners.
____Day 1: A load of flax to Oklahoma; the first time I have carried this product of the northern Prairies. The seeds from the low blue flowered plant that is also grown for it's fibre. A heavy load of 50lb paper sacks bound for a pet-food production plant, 40 miles west of Oklahoma City. South on the familiar Interstate 29 to Vermilion, before cutting across to Highway 81 and an overnight halt at Norfolk, Nebraska.


Two classic Peterbilts up for grabs at Cubby's in Nebraska.

 ____Day 2: After fuel at Salina; I take side-roads through rural Kansas and into Oklahoma. An area now experiencing an energy boom on three fronts. The high price of oil makes it economical to sink wells and new pump-jack sites are everywhere. Wind-turbines group together on the high ridges and the corn-fields are being harvested for the production of ethanol. An interesting afternoon drive down to Clinton; avoiding the toll of the Kansas Turnpike Authority.


Mainstreet, Smalltown, Mid-America; where there is no need to fold up your ramps when hauling your digger.

 ____Day 3: The flax-seed is unloaded promptly at the pet-care place; where it is used in the more expensive cat and dog foods as a fatty-acid oil that combats the growth of tumours. The medicinal properties of flax have a history going back to BC 3000. Then comes the news that the reload is at Southard, only 40 miles away but not available until the next day. However, Clinton does have an adequate truck-stop and is also the home of the Route 66 Museum of Oklahoma. Interesting exhibits and details of the Mother Road's history with old black and white films showing in the movie theatre.


Isn't it ironic; pump-jacks driven by the power of wind-turbines.

 ____Day 4: If the south-bound load was heavy; the north-bound load of gypsum plaster is even heavier. Scaling at 79,950lbs with the tanks less that half full of diesel. At the first DOT weigh-bridge; I sit at a red light for a long, long time before it thankfully flickers to green. Maybe the green was due to the fact that the truck is equipped with the Tri-Pac auxiliary power unit: a lot of states now give a 400lb allowance for the anti-idling donkey motor. The load is going to Saskatoon; but only to Niverville with #31. To the Flying'J at Sioux Falls for the night.


You can't park that here next to me, thank-you.

 ____Day 5: Interstate 29 all the way home. Any serious long-haul trucker will tell you that the Flying Eagle job is a good one. But there was one thing that had been niggling me: I was on a lower pay rate than other drivers. Something that I was willing to endure for my first three months and it was partly my fault as I presumed I would be paid the same as the others. I had never spoken to the office about money; but after 4 months, I felt it was time for a quiet word. And whoosh and zoom; I get a pay rise of half of one cent per mile, to take me level with the others. So would I have jacked in a good job because of such a small amount? Damn right I would; there was no way, after thirty-six years in the industry, that I was going to do the exact same work, for less pay, as a couple of Welsh blokes.
____Overall Distance: 3535 km.


Mummy and baby Longhorn.
You can tell it was a slow trip; when I have time to photograph cattle.