McCoy,
My apologies! I was trying to respond to your post and I inadvertently edited it. I was able to salvage one piece of it. Sorry about that!
Anyway I think you hit the nail on the head!
Peevananda, no sweat, are you too a truck driver?
Yes, but of the smaller variety. 98 Ford Ranger. However, I did work at an all night truckstop for a about a year. The truckstop I worked at was run down and not a big hotspot. However, I did learn a few things from talking with some of the truckers I met. First of all, my general impression of the truck drivers I saw was tension. They seemed to be highly stressed and heavily worked individuals. The loggers were the most haggard. The commercial drivers were a little more polished.
Truckers are the mules of the modern world. I met a man who worked for a company named ESTES. I never did figure out what it was they hauled. Most truckers tell you they haul "a little bit of everything". Do they even know what they are carrying? Maybe not. But this particular driver was an older man, getting on in years. He knows that the smallest mistake, such as a traffic violation, and he can be fired. Because of his age, he feels that he would be fired more easily than a young man because of the few privileges he has gained over the years, like a vacation. This isn't available to the younger drivers so they are thought to be more desirable to the company. That was his theory, anyway. He seemed to stress the impersonality of his relationship to the company he worked for.
Some other truckers own their own trucks and it is a bit of a lifestyle. Some of those trucks are very expensive and have a wide range of furnishings. I even saw one that was a camper/truck. So, the man lived in his truck and his wife likely lived with him if he was married. Many regular size trucks are carrying wives or girlfriends along for the trip. But the trucker who owns his own truck is like an independent contractor. He is kind of like a freelancer. He finds his own jobs using computer programs. He decides what jobs to take and so on. This version of the trucker lifestyle seems to be the most appealing in a way.
And don't let some of them fool you, they can pull in quite a bit of money if they are good.
I like that movie "Over the Top". It put arm wrestling on the map, and made truck driving seem pretty damn cool.
There is also a phenomenon called the "lot lizard". These are women who hang around truckstops and will "tap, tap, tap" on your door at night (truckers sleep in their trucks and park in parking lots). For money they will give you a BJ or sex or whatever. Ask Stevo about prices.
Truckers are constantly harassed by cops. They have to produce logs showing how long they have slept and stopped, etc. They are required to have a certain amount of "sleep time" etc. Their truck has to be parked for a certain time period. One night a saw a truck that appeared to be on fire. The man admitted he was burning his logs. I'm not sure why.
