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Let me set this up... Five years ago I retired from the profession I had been working in and moved to the mountains with my soulmate-cum-fiance. I had been very lucky, made some good investments, and played everything just right. Things were great, nay, more than great right up until the financial downturn.
Soooo, I took a great outdoor job as a Tour Guide with a zipline company. Fucking awesome. I make my wage ziplining, and guiding our guests down our zipline course. I make 'em nervous, and sometimes I scare the SHIT out of them. I make 'em laugh, and I give them confidence when they tell me they're afraid of heights. Then I send them down a 3/8" steel cable while they hang from a pulley and a nylon harness for as far as 850', as much as 50' off of the ground, at 40 mph. What could be better than that? Sometimes I go in front of them and greet them at the end of the ride. Whether I send them, or catch them; when I go down the cable I hang upside down and spin in an attempt to put on a show. During the Winter, the other Tour Guides and I encourage them to throw snowballs at us when they're on the ground.
It pays the bills during the Summer. During the Fall, Winter, and Spring? Not so much. Not so much in a sense that I took the job to pay some off the credit debt my now wife and I had accumulated before the downturn. Like I said; it's a shiny dime during the Summer, but that's about it. So no joy in paying off the credit debt. I've given it a year, and it's been a sweet ride. But, it's time to move on.
All I need is to gross $30-40k for a little over two years and the net will retire the credit debt completely. Then, I can retire myself, or go back to being a Zipline Tour Guide on an entirely part-time basis, working no more than it takes to keep from being bored. My main goal is to be able to stay here in the mountains, live a moderately comfortable life, fish when I want, golf when I want, and travel when I want.
So I'm going to start training soon to become a Long Haul Trucker. Getting the license (commonly known as a CDL or Commercial Driver's License) will cost a little over $3k, and employment is guaranteed because I'll be going through one of the trucking companies to get the license. I'm actually pre-employed already, pending getting the CDL. It'll take two weeks to get the license, then four days of orientation with the company, then I'll go on the road for 30 days as a trainee. During that time I'll cover as many as 15,000 miles. After that I'll drive as part of a team, and average about 5k miles per week. 20 days on the road, followed by ten days at home.
Aside from getting the credit debt retired, I'm actually looking forward to doing this. I love driving, and have probably driven more miles in 33+ years than most will drive in their entire lifetime.
Me, Chris... a Trucker. Truck Stops. CB radios. Kids pumping their fists out the windows of their parent's cars on the open road trying to get me to honk the horn as their dad passes me, impatient to get miles in before sun sets. I'll honk the horn EVERY time someone wants me to because I'm the guy who NEVER fails to honk the horn in a tunnel or in the middle of a traffic jam.
My Sister laughs at the notion. My Wife supports it, with a little hesitation. My Mom says I'll need a good jacket because sooner or later I'll drive to somewhere where it will be cold when I get out of the truck. My Dad? When I told him about my plan, I heard a certain kind of envy in his voice while we played the 20 question game. He taught me to drive, and took us on epic road trip vacations that crossed 37 states. He just turned 76, and his long distance driving days are over. Not because he's not capable, but because my Mom can't tolerate sitting in the seat of his truck like she used to. Back in the day we had a cabover camper and on the back was the state decal of every state we had driven through. When we grew up and the camper no longer suited my Mom and Dad, I helped him carefully peel off those stickers before he sold it and now they occupy a place of honor on the drywall in his garage. Someday I'll take that piece of drywall out and keep it.
This is gonna be fun, albeit a lot of work. My wife promises she'll fly to a city I'm destined for at least once a month. She knows I might drop one load and pick up another and be back on the road in a matter of hours, but she says it anyway.
Come April, I'll be posting from the road as often as I can, with pictures. I'll be taking my EVO phone with its WIFI hotspot and my laptop.
Wish me luck...
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