It's certainly got downsides - Hard to have much of a social life being on the road all the time, have to deal with all the idiots and traffic on the roads, society looks down upon you, etc. It's got some practical upsides too - Really good money (I'll make less after my degree, at least for a couple of years), getting paid to go places I'd want to go anyway, helping other people achieve financial freedom, and having a corner office. ;)
But, there are certain days that just make every bad part of the job worthwhile. I've got to share the last couple with y'all, it's been almost as cool as flying.
I turned my latest trainee loose on the 9th, and I'll pick up my next one on Friday. In between, I got a solo trip to Santa Clara, CA. It's my fourth west coast run this year (Boise, ID/Santa Clara; Spokane, WA; Hayward, CA; Santa Clara again). I think everyone should make a road trip through the wilds of the American west at some point in their lives. Yes, this is one I'd almost rather drive than fly!
I left Wisconsin on Saturday and made it to Nebraska, continuing to just west of Salt Lake City on Sunday. That's where I'll start my story... And this is what the start of my work day looked like on Monday:
Beats the side of a cubicle for sure!
I proceeded West on I-80 around the south end of the Great Salt Lake and continued towards the Bonneville Salt Flats. I-80 goes straight across the flats - Nary a turn for 45 miles!
Now, there is some similarity to flying here. One of my favorite things when flying is to look down at clouds. Believe it or not, that's possible from 0 AGL out here. This picture is somewhat poor quality because of the salt on my windshield and the low-light conditions causing my flash to go off, but you can see that up ahead is a cloud layer below my altitude. Very cool.
Night fell, and I was in the soup for a while. After crossing Donner Pass and coasting 40 miles downhill into Auburn (mountain driving requires some concentration), I noticed clear skies again. I parked around the corner from my destination in Santa Clara and went to sleep.
California has some very interesting contrasts. Coming down from Donner Pass you're in the wilderness of the Sierras. Once you hit Auburn, it's suddenly populated. It also turns a lot greener when you get down below 1000 MSL and get close to the ocean. The weather down in Santa Clara was a balmy 60 degrees today, with me wearing a t-shirt while the locals sported fleece pullovers. Weather wimps. :P ;)
Unfortunately, California has a disproportionate number of real jerks on the roads. I was almost hoping to have a day to play around and maybe go fly, but I was just as happy to get away from them. I went straight to Stockton and picked up a load headed for Clearfield, UT. Wanting to beat the afternoon traffic around Sacramento, I left as soon as I was loaded. I didn't completely miss the traffic, but it wasn't too bad.
I climbed into the Sierras again, again enjoying the beautiful scenery on my cubicle walls as the late-afternoon sun cast shadows of conifers across the sand-colored mountains. I grabbed a quick bite to eat in Reno as the light faded slowly from the sky. I listened to the last few chapters of EarthCore on my iPod to pass the time as I moved across the vast expanse of Nevada.
This is where it gets good. After a quick pit stop at Carlin, NV I turned off all of the various noisemakers in my truck. One downfall of driving in the winter is that you usually miss out on a lot of scenery because a good portion of your driving is at night. However, this time I could see a lot anyway since the full moon reflecting off the snow-covered ground lit up the night, peacefully revealing the beautiful landscape around me. I saw a meteor streak across the sky.
Much like flying, I enjoyed the passing scenes of nature undisturbed by any noise except the constant growl of the monster under my hood. Such noise is quite easy to tune out for the most part, and a serene feeling settled over me as I watched snow-capped peaks pass by, dotted with dark spots where trees jutted up through the snow.
Another meteor fell, this time tracing a bright vertical line through the sky and disappearing behind a mountain about 20 degrees to my right. I haven't seen two on the same night more than once in my life. I let some of the air out of my seat, lowering myself to get a better view of the night sky. The full moon combined with a lot of haze left over from yesterday (you can see it in the first pic above) blocked out all but the brightest stars, but there were still many more than you'd see near a city these days.
Another meteor fell, a big one. A spectacular fiery streak split the sky, looking more like a comet than anything else. Chunks broke off and made sparks fly around the main tail while the main meteor's glow turned bright green before dying out in a true blaze of glory. I've never seen another one like it.
The whine of the turbocharger as I began ascending a mountain brought some of my attention back to the truck long enough to flip on the engine fan and downshift. I quickly shifted the angry diesel roar again to the back of my mind and enjoyed Mother Nature's fireworks show against the beautiful moonlit backdrop of rough, rocky terrain.
I had the road almost completely to myself, occasionally being passed in the opposite direction by one of my fellow ground-pounding freight dogs. I-80's lanes are far enough apart that I could pretty much ignore them anyway.
Meteors continued to fall, some just a brief flash, some blazing through the sky trailing sparks and flames as if they were attempting to launch themselves back into space. It was a show the likes of which I have never seen before.
As I neared the end of Nevada, I crested a hill just above Wendover where the light show turned manmade. The Pepper Mill, Rainbow, Montego Bay, and Red Garter casinos threw multicolored light everywhere, their tens of thousands of marquee lights vying for the attention of anyone within miles, but their flashy displays simply couldn't compare with the splendor of nature.
I noticed another set of lights, headlights arranged in a long, straight line coming across the salt flats, looking very much like a line of airplanes in the night following an ILS into a big-city airport.
I continued onto the formerly-monotonous stretch of highway crossing the salt flats, leaving the artificial lights of Wendover and the rest of Nevada behind. In the moonlight, the vast expanse of white salt extending for many miles on either side of the road created the illusion that the highway had been built on top of clouds rather than salt deposits. Highway in the sky, indeed. Mountains several miles distant appeared to float above the whiteness surrounding me.
From my warm perch, I watched the last few meteors pierce through the cold, clear sky; nineteen in all. The light show against the backdrop of faintly illuminated scenery gave way to the lights of Salt Lake City; the stars disappeared and the show was over. I maneuvered my behemoth into a parking space, huddled between the other manmade beasts as its roar became a purring idle, keeping me warm for the night so I can sleep.
I have to "work" again tomorrow.
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