The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Labor Day Reflections and Culinary Delights. Next steps in the making of Hyfield Trucking!
What happens when a motorcycle trip, a minor surgery, and a gourmet meal all intersect over a single weekend? Join us as Melissa Buttermilk recounts her picturesque motorcycle ride to Harlem, Ohio, navigating crosswinds with Vince, while Eric shares his daily battles with the high desert winds in California. Patrick reflects on his challenging recovery from surgery over Labor Day, attempting to savor his favorite lobster mac and cheese amidst the discomfort. The weekend may have been short, but it was undeniably packed with memorable moments and cherished friendships.
Have you ever tasted the magic of Amish cooking? We savor the mouthwatering delights of The Old Dutch Family Restaurant, from buttery rolls to a hearty turkey sandwich, all while marveling at the scenic Hocking Hills. As we discuss Ohio's current drought, we contemplate a tantalizing trip to Pennsylvania's largest all-you-can-eat buffet, imagining the logistics and sheer indulgence of such an adventure. The conversation seamlessly blends culinary joy with thoughtful reflection on environmental challenges.
Ever wondered what it takes to keep a trucking business rolling? We share our gritty tales from the road, starting with the purchase of our first truck in 2013 and the rollercoaster of breakdowns and repairs that followed. Learn about our strategic responses to frequent mechanical issues, the evolution of managing tolls and fuel expenses, and the nostalgic charm of truck stops from yesteryears. Through personal anecdotes and hard-earned lessons, we highlight the resilience required to thrive in the trucking industry.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
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Hey everybody, it is Melissa Buttermilk from the studio here in Columbus, Ohio, with the Outer Belt and my friends go ahead.
Speaker 2:Eric Jerry.
Speaker 1:Patrick, julie and we have some exciting stories to share today, and first and foremost I'm going to talk about the weather, because that just seems to be the way we start. The weather has gone from summer hot, blazing, 90 something down to mid-70s and it was just a really lovely weekend over Labor Day and Vince and I took advantage of that and we got out on Sunday and took ourselves about an hour hour and a half drive on our motorcycle and went somewhere new. I can actually say I've been to Harlem. That's so funny.
Speaker 4:Harlem, ohio Did you go to the Apollo.
Speaker 1:Oh, harlem, ohio Did you go to the Apollo. Oh, Harlem, Ohio. Should you have blinked, you would have missed. The only stop sign in, I guess, was their town. But it was really fun. We went out, we explored, we saw some new sights and just kind of out and back I had fun. The weather was perfect for riding it was like 77. It was a good time. Yeah, the weather was perfect for riding. It was like 77. There was a breeze. But yeah, we had a good time this weekend, A Labor Day weekend and got to hang out with you and Eric, I'm sorry you were riding on a motorcycle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And there was a breeze.
Speaker 1:It was quite a breeze, wouldn't that just be any time you ever ride the motorcycle. No, there's like a cross breeze. There's a cross wind.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you cross a couple of long stretches or bridges over a couple different rivers and when you have that wide open and the breeze comes down and hits you, it kind of affects the way you ride a little bit. Is it scary? No, it's not scary.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it feels like it's going to pop my helmet off. It does.
Speaker 3:If you turn your head a certain way, yeah, it'll catch the wind a certain way, but it'll move the bike over in the lane a little bit and you just adjust.
Speaker 4:So it's not like drastic, like oh, we're going to tip over, no, no, you just adjust. I know, when we were driving truck back in the day we had some like a really light-duty truck that we don't have anymore, and that thing, if you got in a valley or crossing some bridges, just so enough wind would push you over and it was downright scary. You had to really jump on the steering wheel and finagle the truck back into place or whatever. But that's what I imagine, but it's not like that at all.
Speaker 3:It's not like that at all. No, I used to ride when I was in California, my commute to and from work. In the afternoon, going home, I went across an airport, so it's open on all sides, and it was in the high desert of California where every afternoon the wind would pick up and blow at 25, 30 miles an hour. So I would ride home, turning left the whole way, which meant that I was leaning to the left into the wind to stay straight.
Speaker 4:Now, when you crossed uh through the airport, did you tell, like the air traffic controller, I did not to let any airplanes go? I would. I would call and ask for clearance first.
Speaker 3:Okay, before. I rode across as you do it would grant me clearance if it was clear. Otherwise they'd tell me to hold Approach stop sign at that marker and hold.
Speaker 4:I could see that being exciting. You're in a motorcycle because you could chase an airplane.
Speaker 3:You could chase an airplane.
Speaker 4:That'd be cool.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's a Mission Impossible movie or something it feels like it.
Speaker 4:Probably two or three of them let's be honest At this point.
Speaker 1:It just was a good weekend. Labor Day was great, you know, hung out on the back patio with you two, you and Eric Yep, and yeah it was fun. It was quick Three-day weekend, but it went by quick.
Speaker 4:It did, it did. It was a weird three-day weekend for me, if I'm being honest. Okay, as all of y'all know, but maybe the audience members know, on Thursday I had a little minor surgery. They pulled out what was essentially the size of a small strawberry out of my arm or not my arm the side of my chest underneath my arm and then stitched me back together. They said not to worry, that Tylenol and Advil should be fine, and so I'm not going to them ever again.
Speaker 5:Those lying.
Speaker 4:And so, no, I was in quite a lot of pain Thursday night but by Friday morning felt great. I'm like, okay, I can do this, Not such a big deal. Stayed on my pain medication. Set my my alarm made sure I took my pain medication and it was a little town on anvil. I didn't get any um codeine or which makes me sick, so I wouldn't have gotten that anyways. But like any other pain, I think that stuff.
Speaker 4:So but I stayed on my talent, on my anvil, I took my my um antibiotic, as supposed to be, and everything felt good enough that friday night, uh, well afternoon, we decided, hey, it's labor day, let's go head out get some. Uh, happy hour. Happy hour up right yeah I know I didn't want to drink any alcohol, but I would still go hang out and have. Uh, the place we're going has this lobster mac and cheese. That will make you, uh, not get lobster mac and cheese anywhere else ever again.
Speaker 4:It is outstandingly delicious so I knew I was going to have a little half bowl of it, not the whole thing. Eric and I split it Probably 30, 45 minutes into that. I just realized it was a mistake.
Speaker 1:You had overdone it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just that quickly. Just that quickly. I was like, oh, this is not good. And it just went downhill quickly. After that. I did my best to hold out and at some point y'all were like you need to go home. And so that's what I did. Uh, went home and spent the rest of the night on the couch in pain. Then on saturday I I did nothing. I literally felt like someone, like I just got in a fight. You ever seen those movies? And the guys on the laying down on the street and he's knocked out, but the people are just going crazy and kicking him on the side anyways, and it's like it's in so many movies yeah and then there's always the one person like he's down, stop kicking him, and all that.
Speaker 4:That's what I felt like happened the night before. I was in so much pain I didn't want to do anything it sucked hearing how you felt saturday, when you told me you called saturday.
Speaker 3:It made me feel like I made the right decision and not allowing them to use still toes when they were kicking you when you were down.
Speaker 4:I appreciate that. I appreciate that you know carbon. Carbon toes do give a little bit they do give a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, they do. So I was happy that I actually stopped them and they were like why are you stopping us? I said take your stilt toes off, switch to some soft-toed shoes and then continue to take out your frustration with Patrick.
Speaker 4:And I ended up having a couple days of reprieve and literally just doing nothing, moping around the house Not even really around the house because I tried not to move as little as I could and then come Monday I was'll start getting a little, start crazy a little you know, like yeah all right, I'm ready to like I don't want to go anywhere, do anything.
Speaker 4:It's funny because that morning I was talking with eric and I was like well, it's labor day, what are your plans? Because in my head I'm thinking like he's gonna want to go do something. And I was like in my head I'm like I really don't want to. And he was like in my head I'm like I really don't want to. And he was like I don't know, might go work on the yard some or really just not do anything. And I was like, oh, thank God. I said because I really don't want to do a single thing. I was feeling good, but I was so scared of getting hurt again. Yeah, I did reach out to y'all at some point and asked what y'all were up to and you said you were going to make the chicken pizzas which, if you saw, we had on the Outer Belt. It's one of the videos we made.
Speaker 1:We have done that.
Speaker 4:A few months ago. Do you need to make more of those videos? Yeah, but you said you're gonna make those, yeah, and and I was like you know what I could that I can do. Let me go over their house, hang on the back porch. Y'all are very hospitable. Thank you so much, very courteous. Didn't make me get up and do a whole lot, so they ended up being a really fun night. It got cold. It got so cold last, or not last night, but monday monday night.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it got so cold, it was like freezing outside. I had brought my coat because I saw that it might get cold. I think Eric had to bundle up in. Like he borrowed a coat, a coat, and we were just sitting out there just like hanging out trying to relax or whatever. And it just got to a point where I was like all right, we're good. Yeah, it's just too cold out here, the fall chill took over.
Speaker 4:The fall chill took way over and I had shorts on. I was not prepared to get that cold, so it's like all right. Now I need to start thinking about if it's 75 degrees outside during the day, it's going to be cold at night. I need to start planning ahead again it was still a good time. But it was a great time. The food was amazing, as always. Those are good pizzas, they really were.
Speaker 3:Leftovers were good Damn delicious for lunch the day after when they were cold. Oh my goodness. Very good, that's very cool Very good.
Speaker 4:Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I, just the cold man, I don't know. And then I see, you know what was it? Wednesday, thursday 85 degrees again. It's like, oh my gosh, like it's just hot and cold and hot and cold and hot and cold and it's just.
Speaker 1:It's the layer season.
Speaker 4:It is.
Speaker 1:You start off layered or with a coat and by the end of the day you're Back into a coat. Well, maybe, but not midday. Midday you're probably back to shirt and shorts. Jerry, how was your Labor Day weekend?
Speaker 2:It was good Saturday ran some errands and Sunday clean house. And then Monday we jumped in my car and took a ride out to Hocking Hills.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful out there.
Speaker 2:It's gorgeous. Got to put my car in sport mode and get on some roads and had a little fun.
Speaker 4:So do you still have a CDL?
Speaker 2:I do, it was had a little fun. So do you still have a CDL? I do, it was a lot of fun. Went on a couple highways out there that I'd never been on but I seen online that had like a lot of like bike rides basically. So I was like, okay, that should be fun to take my car on. And we got out and walked around for a while and done a little exploring and stopped off at this restaurant called the old dutch the old dutch family restaurant.
Speaker 4:It's amish cooking, oh yeah really I was gonna say oh my god were you uh, were you compliant with your diet?
Speaker 2:oh god no, they had these rolls. Yes, I swear. One roll was two times the size of my fist. Oh, nice, I mean it was just Were they soft, oh soft and just buttery, Like it was just all. The food was just good. Don had an open-faced turkey sandwich, which is something he loves. Yeah, it was a really good day.
Speaker 1:Sounds like we need to take a motorcycle ride.
Speaker 2:Sounds like it does, it's really good.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't expensive at all. It was really reasonable. That's good. That was down there in Hocking Hills area.
Speaker 2:Yep, as soon as you enter into that area, I'll have to look it up and give you the directions. Sure, sure, it was a really, really good day.
Speaker 1:Nice, are the fall colors turning down there.
Speaker 2:There was a few trees that were already starting to turn. We noticed that.
Speaker 4:I saw on the news they were talking about the weather, the leaves changing early this year and if it feels like it shouldn't be changing quite as soon as it is, you're right. It's not supposed to be, but we are having an unprecedented drought. The last time it was this bad was like 1930, 1931, something like that Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw where. This is the third driest summer in Columbus.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, I've still not watered the lawn.
Speaker 4:I don't have a lawn.
Speaker 1:Yes, you do I have a fire hazard.
Speaker 3:We all do. At this one we do, but we're not having any fires out back.
Speaker 4:It's supposed to rain at some point. Actually, yeah, it's supposed to rain over the next couple weeks, but not.
Speaker 1:But it's not measurable.
Speaker 4:It's just storms. It's just a real quick downpour of a little bit of rain and then moves on. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:It's not long-lasting, it's not a drench for three or four days and just gloom and doom.
Speaker 4:We don't really get those in Ohio, though, but still, we get more than this. Usually it's just crazy dry.
Speaker 5:It really is.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, we had that El Nino and now we're in El Nino and they said it was going to be dry and boy, they were not lying.
Speaker 3:No, they were not lying.
Speaker 4:It's crazy to think that something in the Pacific Ocean can affect us.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 4:And it's not even the Pacific Ocean. I mean it's down by Ecuador Like it's way out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's what's causing us not to have rain. It's just bananas.
Speaker 3:We're supposed to have a cold, wet winter, so at some point it's going to change and we'll deal with cold and wet.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, cold and wet is better than hot and dry, right, sure?
Speaker 3:This says nobody ever. I'd rather have hot and dry.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, I think we're too woodsy out here to have hot and dry. You're talking about the Amish place. I was watching a video on YouTube and they were talking about this smorgasbord out in Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, and it's the world's largest all-you-can-eat buffet. That kind of sounds like a fun time. Is it ridiculous to drive you know eight and a half hours just to go to the world's largest all-you-can-eat buffet?
Speaker 1:Where do you even start or stop?
Speaker 4:Well, they said that a lot of people will actually come in they'll pay for the breakfast and then stay for lunch. But if they do see you're staying for lunch, you do have to re-up, you have to pay for the lunch one. Wow, but that's what a lot of people do and I'm like I mean, I guess if you brought cards and the seats were comfortable you know what I mean.
Speaker 4:You can take a nice two-hour break and it's like I'm going to go for some more mashed taters, I don't know A couple rounds of Skip-O.
Speaker 1:Oh sorry, and the same foods you normally do, or are you going to try something different out of the smorgasbord?
Speaker 4:Well, the fried chicken was by far their like. Everybody was saying the fried chicken's amazing.
Speaker 1:Sure, so you get a winglet so you can have space for all the other food.
Speaker 4:Well, those that looked like half chickens. I mean it was like you know. Wow, it looked like breasts the size of a milk carton. You know what I mean. Like thighs that were gigantic Legs. Look like turkey drumsticks.
Speaker 1:They look like healthy chicken. We're definitely not hitting the salad bar. You can skip the salad bar on an all-you-can-eat.
Speaker 4:I don't know I mean I like to go and get the cheese cubes at the salad bar.
Speaker 1:So no lettuce, just we're going to select.
Speaker 4:No lettuce is filler.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get it yeah.
Speaker 2:I ended up getting the buffet at this restaurant.
Speaker 5:Oh, was it a buffet too? It was yeah.
Speaker 2:And, and I skipped all the salad stuff because I knew I wouldn't be able to.
Speaker 4:You wanted to try the good food. Exactly, yeah, but you and I eat differently.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, though, I didn't even see the dessert table. Don pointed it out to me and then, okay, I've got to go over there and check it out. Like it was all like homemade, like dutch apple pie oh my gosh pie, I wouldn't think about blueberry pie. Uh, then they had you like your chocolate cream, strawberry cream, coconut cream banana cream and it was all like homemade, like still in the pie tins. You know, cut it yourself. It was all really really good cut it yourself.
Speaker 4:yes, see, that would be good, because then you could do slithers, you could do like, yeah, a nice little piece, or you could just take the whole pie yeah. I was just thinking. Like you know, when you go to Golden Corral or Ryan's or Iron Skillet or some of the other buffets around the country, I find the desserts are usually like lacking. They're usually like they kind ofoned that in yeah, but I would imagine an Amish restaurant, they didn't. I mean, that's what they're known for, right? Amish bakeries, that's like the thing, Like the.
Speaker 1:Citadel Homemade. Yeah yeah, pastries. Well, it sounds like we definitely have a road trip.
Speaker 4:Yes, thanks for doing the intel for us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's what going back? Yeah, it is Weekly.
Speaker 1:And the drive is pretty.
Speaker 2:Gorgeous, did y'all hike?
Speaker 5:anything.
Speaker 2:We walked around a little bit. We went to like the main area that's got like the welcome center or something. We walked a little bit, but not much.
Speaker 4:Am I the only one who hasn't been out there? Yes, yes. So I went. We had a couple drivers, mm-hmm. So I went. We had a couple drivers, a couple people used to drive for us. They were really great friends. We still wish them well. They're down in Louisiana. They just got off the road. They don't drive at all anymore. But they ended up getting married in Logan, which was kind of right in the middle of Hocking Hill area. They invited us to come down for the wedding, so we did and it was a really cool, beautiful area for the wedding. So we did and it was really cool, beautiful area. They were like perched up on top of a hill, um, and overlooking the surrounding area and everything for the, for the wedding venue and all. It was very, very cool. So I've kind of like seen some of the area. I've just not been to. The state park or anything like that had a great campfire out there, but it had been raining, so it was fine.
Speaker 1:Our neighbors had a fire last night.
Speaker 4:They did A little one Enough to s'more roast. Last week we talked about the Highfield history and I understand we're going to continue that.
Speaker 3:I think we're calling this the Highfield origin story. The Highfield origin story.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Goes along with the whole, you know, Marvel.
Speaker 4:I like it.
Speaker 3:DC universe, yeah, so this is the HCU the High? Fault Cinematic Universe.
Speaker 4:Well, last week we talked about our first six months out on the road. We're going to pick up with our first year as owner-operators Because, as we ended up last time, we said that in may 2013 we bought our first truck yes and, uh, that truck right here, 2008 kenworth t660.
Speaker 4:It was a, uh, factory sleeper, uh, but it did have the studio sleeper on it, uh, so it was. It was the nicest pretty much the nicest factory sleeper you can get. Caterpillar C13 engine. Now, if you remember from last week, I said that the truck we were driving for X Better Services we were driving in a C11, which was bulletproof. You couldn't do anything to it. It was a great engine, truck ran awesome. This is a C13.
Speaker 4:This was the same engine that that very first truck we picked up was. That made it one whole day with us, right? And then we had to swap it to a different truck. We figured that was just coincidence, right? We? Actually, when we were looking at trucks, we had a choice between an 07 T600 or an 08 T660 from Kenworth, one being the C11, one being the C13. And we actually decided to go with the C13, the 08, because it had a DPF filter on it. At that time, california was requiring you to have a DPF filter to go into their state. If you didn't have it, you couldn't go. So the old C11s, the old T600s they were no longer California compliant so we wanted to buy one that we could at least run in and out of California with.
Speaker 4:So, that's how we ended up making that decision. This truck was a massive piece of crap. I believe that's the affectionate way of putting it right, eric.
Speaker 5:It was a true blessing. It was a true blessing.
Speaker 4:If you're familiar with Caterpillar engines, it was a twin-turbo Ardhead ACERT engine.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 4:And they were just absolute junk. It is the reason the C13, 2008 and 2009 C13, c15, is the reason Caterpillar quit making on-highway engines. They were so problematic and they cost Caterpillar so much money that they said you know what we're done.
Speaker 3:Going to stick to tractors.
Speaker 4:Going to stick to tractors and everything else, but so that was the truck we bought. I'm glad we got it. I'm glad we started our business that way. Right Like you, can't completely crap on what got you where you're at Sure, however, yeah, what were our choices?
Speaker 5:Yeah, however, we didn. However, yeah, more choices, yeah.
Speaker 4:However, very many of them no, and at the time we were doing some freight that was going in and out of California that we wanted to be able to keep doing. So it wasn't like we tried it out of our business model because back then and if you remember, kevin Rutherford was saying at the time, right, california, a business model I don't know if you were paying attention to- trucking back.
Speaker 3:Then Were you.
Speaker 4:OK. So back then he was literally saying like these emission systems are terrible for trucks. Don't do it, they're going to cost you a ton of money. Just write that completely out of your business model and a lot of people did. But with what we were doing, we really didn't feel that was an option. We didn't want to be limited and we knew we wanted to buy more trucks and we didn't want to limit our future contractors, sure. So we went ahead and got that truck and we're like we'll just deal with it, make it work.
Speaker 4:Um, the issues started before we even bought the truck. Um, you know one of those things where you see an ad and it looks great. We go down there, we look at it and one tire is completely bald, of course. Um, there was no lift gate on that truck. There's no custom sleeper, so a lot of those little issues didn't exist. That is the nice thing about factory sleepers is they are typically a lot easier to maintain. Had a Tri-Pak on it, thermo King Tri-Pak on it, which was a really good APU. It's a great option. We run Thermo King reefer units Big fan of Thermo King. But we get there, like I said, one tire's bald, completely bald. Um, there's no fuel in the tanks at all, which, when you're buying a used truck or a new truck from a dealership, a lot of times they take a fuel, yeah is is part of the deal, right?
Speaker 4:they showed the pictures, showed like all the load bars and straps and everything inside the truck. We get there and there's none of that there, just all that, little things like that. I want to say. We found maybe some paint defects, little things like that. So we told them you know what, this isn't the right truck for us. And they were like well, I had no experience negotiating with dealerships at that point, so they're like what don't you like about it? Let us know. So I made a whole list, I typed it on Apple Notes on my phone and then put in an email and sent it over to them. And they're like you know what? We'll take care of all that stuff, not change price, we'll just take everything.
Speaker 1:Wow Cool.
Speaker 4:So I get back. You know, one drive tire had been replaced, the one right next to it hadn't, so you got a brand new.
Speaker 1:You know 22, 30 seconds drive tire next to an 8, 30 seconds drive tire.
Speaker 4:So I'm like, okay, well, whatever, at least it's one less tire I'll have to buy. I'll just buy the other one, no big deal. A few other little things they had taken care of. The truck still had no fuel in it and they're like we have it solved, no worries.
Speaker 5:So I was like okay, what's?
Speaker 4:that you remember this, Eric.
Speaker 5:I think I do.
Speaker 4:So they had one truck parked next to a loading dock. And they had us drive our truck into the loading dock, so we were lower.
Speaker 3:And then they siphoned the fuel from the first truck into our truck, oh my, goodness, they didn't even call to get it fueled?
Speaker 4:No, and not even with a pump. I mean like a hose and suck real hard on it.
Speaker 5:Oh, my goodness, I remember the guy had to start, that he had to suck the gas out of the hose and then spit it on the ground. It was a riot.
Speaker 4:He had to suck the gas out of the hose and then spit it on the ground.
Speaker 1:It was a riot, it was something.
Speaker 4:So that's our welcome to own truck ownership right. And then from there we get the truck, bring it back down to Louisiana, got to do all of our titling and registering, which we'd never done before, didn't know anything about it At that point. It was actually cheaper for us to register everything ourselves. So, like, the carriers will do that for you if you want them to. You still have to title it, but they'll do all the registration and handle all that paperwork if you want them to. But if you only have one truck, it's it's very expensive if you go that route. It's cheaper if you do it yourself. Now, if you have a bunch of trucks, the carriers will typically cut some money off that and help you out, which is what they do now. And so, like, right now our carriers actually plate for us. But back then we were getting started and if you only have one or two trucks, a lot of times it is cheaper to do it yourself.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 4:So we did it ourselves and we're trying to figure it out and we, you know, go to the DMV and they're like no, you don't have this paper and we had to go back and figure something else out. It was a back and forth like crazy.
Speaker 5:Welcome to the IRP.
Speaker 4:Oh man, it was a nightmare, but we finally figured it out. We're able to go run, I'm trying to remember. So we had our truck. It was still sitting in Memphis, and so we left. Louisiana, do all the paperwork and come back than it was to burn the fuel when you only have one truck. You're doing that math. You're trying to figure out if this is $600 in fuel, but it's a $100 car rental and $45 in fuel. Well, let's rent a car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 4:Get back. We're moving the truck Ready to go and we were killing some time and drove out to the mall in Memphis and we were just doing some shopping killing some time. It was like a Friday, so we knew there was no chance of getting a load until Monday. And lo and behold, we get a phone call in the middle of the mall saying like hey, we have this load for you to pick up. It's an immediate pickup. At that point FedEx was saying you had 30 minutes to get there. If you remember that like, uh, if you got that call, you accepted you had 30 minutes to be there. So Eric and I accepted the load. It goes to Canada. Eric and I are running through the mall like crazy people trying to get back to the truck, jump in the truck, log in, do the hours of service, all the stuff right and then go straight to the pickup and then get on the road we were. Our first load was in a couple hours of picking up our truck. It was crazy wow that almost never happens.
Speaker 4:Got started that way. Then had uh, two loads back to back. One. Uh, second load was hazmat. No, second load was to new york city. Third load was hazmat, so we just went ahead and knocked everything out.
Speaker 5:Canada new york has been all this stuff out it had a great time in it.
Speaker 4:Uh, for a little while everything seemed like it was going to be all right and uh how long is a little while? A couple months, oh, okay a couple months of things being so you got more than three loads in. So we got more than three loads in. And then our first breakdown wasn't really a breakdown. Our Thermo King quit working, our Tri-Pak quit working. Now, when we bought this thing, it had like 20,000 hours on the.
Speaker 3:Tri-Pak it was tired.
Speaker 4:So I think the compressor went out or something. So I remember we brought to a thermo king down in florida and, uh, they worked us in, but it was going to be a couple hours. It was around lunchtime, so eric and I took off on foot.
Speaker 4:We found a barbecue restaurant that was like an hour away by foot so we walked to the barbecue restaurant and we're in the middle of a swampland and there's like gators around and stuff and we're just walk over to the barbecue place and ate, and and they got the call there and then we couldn't figure out how to pay for it because, again, when you buy your own truck they don't give you a lesson in how to do all this stuff. So we knew we had, like, the fuel card and we knew that we had more money on the fuel card which we could use for maintenance, but we didn't know how to get that money to the vendor. So we're at the barbecue restaurant eating and I'm on the phone with—. I thought we were working with Express Services still. So I'm on the phone with Express Services and I'm like so how do we do this exactly? How do we get the money from here to them and what do we like? Just trying to work all that stuff out like it was.
Speaker 4:Now it seems crazy, but when you don't know, you don't know, so, going through all that, and then we're like alright, cool, got that resolved, got them paid, learned how to use that account properly, we're golden. And then the Caterpillar C13 Got them paid, learned how to use that account properly, we're golden. And then the Caterpillar C13 Ardhead shows its true colors. Oh no. So once we finally got, I will speed up real quick and say the Ardhead is like a seventh injector with a spark plug on it. They take diesel and they throw it into the exhaust and then they light this little area, combustion chamber, and they actually make your exhaust superheated, so even hotter than it is coming out of the engine. And what that does is helps the diesel particulate filter capture all the particulates and lets only the clean air come out.
Speaker 4:That sounds complicated it is, and it's not worth a crap. So eventually we learned the secret is every year you just replace it, whether you think you need it or not, just like you're doing an oil change. Just once a year, replace it, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Is this during the time? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they have just the DPF filter, like this was before the fuel?
Speaker 4:Yes, there was no DEF. No DEF, there was no diesel exhaust fluid in this, my truck was the same way, okay. And some were okay, like we had a truck we'll get to later that was a DPF as well, but it didn't have an ARD head, it was a Mercedes-Benz engine and that thing was flawless.
Speaker 1:Will, it was a Mercedes-Benz engine and that thing was flawless. Will you spell that word? You're saying it, but I just want to make sure R-A-R-D.
Speaker 4:Oh just.
Speaker 1:A-R-D. Making sure it didn't have an H on it.
Speaker 4:Nope, ardhead, ardhead. And so the first time it breaks down, eric and I were in Albuquerque and we were on our way to pick up a load. And we were on our way to pick up a load and we didn't make it there to pick it up. We broke down before we got there. So they actually towed us from. Oh, help me out here. Okay, so in New Mexico, east of Albuquerque, is it Santa Rosa?
Speaker 1:That sounds right.
Speaker 3:Yes, it does sound right.
Speaker 4:And there's like a truck stop there, but it's not a name brand one, it's a mom-and-pop independent truck stop.
Speaker 3:Is it a well-known independent truck stop out?
Speaker 4:there? I think so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can't think of the name of the place, but I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4:Anyways. So we were broke down there and they towed us from there and brought us all the way to Albuquerque. Crazy, expensive tow, Because, if you know, coming from east into Albuquerque you've got that whole mountain.
Speaker 1:You've got to go over and everything Tucumcari and Santa Rosa.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't remember which. It was one of those two, I don't remember which one.
Speaker 4:So they tow us in and we get to the Kenworth dealership and it might have been a cat dealership we got brought to. That was the nice thing about having a Caterpillar engine in a Kenworth truck because you had two different places you could go either a Caterpillar or a Kenworth Nice. So we bring it to one of the two dealerships and they get to working on it and Eric and I check into a hotel. They had just listed hotels inside the shop and they had one that the guy recommended and it was a good little hallway. It was in Old Town, albuquerque, and it was probably 30 minutes away from the shop. Called the guy and he was like I'll send someone else to come pick you up, like cool, from the hotel.
Speaker 4:From the hotel. They had a shuttle. Come to find out. The guy that ran the shuttle owns the hotel. It's that kind of small mom and pop. I think it was an Econo Lodge, but it had really good reviews and so we were pretty comfortable with it. So we got there. This was pre-hotelscom before all that stuff, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Back then you had to go to like Priceline or you had to go to like choicehotelscom and book directly through them, and his rate was better than theirs. So we went there. Nice place, indoor swimming pool, which was great. I remember going there and like actually going swimming a couple times.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 4:But even better was it was right next to Old Town, albuquerque. Now it's like the original mission, right Like the original 150-year-old place, that all the shops are Pueblo-style shops and it's like crafty shops and cafes and really cool funky vibes. Oh, how fun it was a lot of fun and I remember we went to one place, a coffee shop. Remember the coffee shop, Eric.
Speaker 5:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:Freaking coffee came out in a bowl that looked like a soup bowl and did it have a heart on it. What did it have on it? I think they did a heart or something in there.
Speaker 5:I don't remember what was on it, but I remember it almost took two hands to hold it was ridiculous, and I didn't get a coffee, I got an espresso like I normally get.
Speaker 4:And you were like, oh my gosh, you have to try this. So I even tried it and it was outstanding, Just having a blast. And that's when I think we started taking the name and calling them Breakdown-cations during that trip.
Speaker 4:Breakdown-cations Yep because it was like all right, we're broke down but we're trying to make the best of it. We're not just sitting in the hotel room losing our mind. We're trying to enjoy what we can out of you know something we don't want to be a part of like making the best out of a bad situation. That was really successful and they got the truck fixed and the guy brought us back and everything was great. Really enjoyed it and that repair lasted like three or four months Maybe not even that long, and then we broke down again in Buffalo.
Speaker 1:Same problem.
Speaker 4:Same problem.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 5:I said before we learned you need to go under schedule.
Speaker 4:Yes, so this one. We broke down in Buffalo, got towed to the Kenworth. Now, this one was really weird. So on this trip we actually got towed to, and right there that's a picture of the truck getting towed. Crazy. We actually got towed to, we were loaded, we got towed to the GM engine manufacturer there outside of Buffalo and we had one pallet of pistons had to come off.
Speaker 4:Yeah, had to come off, so they just towed us there and had us unloaded there, instead of trying to do another swap with another truck. Well, here's the problem that particular GM plant well, I guess all of them are union plants and that particular one part of their union contract says they will not unload a truck that didn't drive in under its own power.
Speaker 1:Oh, for Pete's sake, yes, wow.
Speaker 4:So they wouldn't unload us, and so the managers in there like not managers, but like the upper, upper managers in their suits people in their literal like I was going to say Armani, but probably Dillard's suits. Literal like I was gonna say armani, but probably dillard's suits.
Speaker 5:they get a pallet jack and like walk inside because we're not allowed to touch the truck because it's a union truck, yeah, our union shop.
Speaker 4:So they actually go in there with their pallet jacks and they together palleted or lifted up and pull it out and then, once it's off, then the union guys could touch it oh my goodness it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life. Then the guys towed us over to Kenworth and we went and stayed at a hotel. I think we rented a car in that time and it was middle winter.
Speaker 5:So that time— we went to Niagara.
Speaker 4:Not that time. So that time we ended up going to the mall and just hanging around in Buffalo. And the cool thing about that mall is they had an indoor go-kart track Like they actually had like a racetrack inside the mall.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool.
Speaker 4:Very cool, right, and it makes sense because Buffalo gets tons of snow too, and cold and tons of snow, so this could be running all year long and really just had a pretty good time there. That was a pretty quick fix. We were only down for a couple days and it wasn't the art head. It was when they had replaced the art head.
Speaker 1:they didn't replace the injector.
Speaker 4:Oh, so all they had to do was replace the injector. Okay, so we're out running you break down again.
Speaker 1:Guess what happens? Again you break down. How many months did you get in between?
Speaker 4:not long, it wasn't long at all and we broke down again. This time we were at a caterpillar. The shop got to send it out, no big deal. We were out running a little bit longer and broke down again. This time we broke down in san antonio, texas, and holt caterpillar in san antonio got our truck. We ended up getting a hotel, um in, near not in, but near downtown san antonio. Um, at that point I discovered I discovered Hotwire, hotwirecom, and so I was going online. Because we broke down so much, I started learning things. So I went on there and found a hotel for like $53 a night and it got us really close to downtown, or in downtown San Antonio, and we were able to just walk over to the Riverwalk. Oh cool, and that's where we did our breakdowncation. That time was at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Have you all been to the Riverwalk? Oh cool, and that's why we did our breakdowncation that time was at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Have y'all been to the Riverwalk?
Speaker 1:in San Antonio.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Have you? No, it was good, it's really fun.
Speaker 4:It's really cool. The river makes like a giant square in downtown San Antonio and it's below grade, right it is. It's like a floor down, if you can imagine, from the main street and they got lush trees and it's all well manicured and there's restaurants and shops. And there's a big mall on one corner of it and it's a fun way to kill a couple nights walking around and seeing things I know we've been. Oh, it was that trip actually and we went to the piano bar they had I can't remember the name of it.
Speaker 5:I can't remember the name of it either but it's a dueling piano bar there. It may not be Howl at the Moon was it Howl at the Moon?
Speaker 4:I think, it was Howl at the Moon. So we went to that piano bar and had a great time. Like again, just how do you make the best of a bad situation? Because now, at this point, we're pissed. We broke down for the same issue four times. A couple days later, holt calls us, gets out of the shop. They replaced the art head under warranty, so the art head had gone bad again.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:Replaced under warranty. Replaced the injection injector and replaced the combustion tube. So all we had to pay for was the combustion tube, but everything else was covered under warranty. Replaced the combustion tube. So all we had to pay for was a combustion tube, but everything else was covered in a warranty. Got us back on the road. That being said, they actually fixed us. So replacing all of that actually put us in a spot where we were.
Speaker 5:We were good to go.
Speaker 4:We didn't know that because, hindsight's 2020, sure, we were terrified of this truck. So every time we're driving somewhere, we're just like please don't break down, please don't break down, please don't break down, please don't break down. Ended up in Washington State, got a load offered to Alaska and I know, jerry, you've done the Alaska load. They call you and they say we have a blank check, what will it take for you to go to Alaska? Pretty much, and we said nothing, like I won't do it, because we had broke down so many times with the exact same issue that we were like we just can't take the risk. I don't know what a tow in Alaska, a tow in Canada, would be. That would be a nightmare.
Speaker 4:If it's even possible, yeah, being in the middle of all that, so we passed on it entirely Again. In hindsight, the truck never broke down again.
Speaker 3:From that point.
Speaker 4:Holt was the one that told us every year replace the hard head and everything, and we did it never. Had an issue with that again, like so frustrating, so we missed out on Alaska. We didn't have to, but we were so scared of the truck. Yeah as you should be. We didn't know what to do, so, and that was our only opportunity to go to Alaska, and we missed it.
Speaker 1:And again, hindsight's 20-20. Hindsight's 20-20.
Speaker 4:You could have broke down, could have broken down.
Speaker 1:Didn't know what was going on and was very nervous and was very different, very different. So we actually Was there a point where you thought you were going to throw your hands up and towel in?
Speaker 4:There was. So about a year in, we were pretty frustrated with the truck, and so we actually reached out to the dealership and said hey, we see you have some other trucks in your lot. We'd be very interested in trading this thing in and buying another truck. We're not going to try to do whatever. We want to keep in business. We're not throwing our hands up and getting out of the business.
Speaker 4:We just need a different truck. Talked with them and kind of explained our situation. They said you know we can't take it back on trade. That's not our dealership's model. But what we can do is, if you want to, you can buy another truck, Because two trucks running is a little safer of a model if you have people to drive it. Two trucks driving is a little safer because when one's have if you have people to drive it two trucks driving is a little safer because when one's down you can kind of pay for the other right so we're like all right, well, something we want to do anyways is is is have a fleet of trucks.
Speaker 4:So this does go towards that particular uh goal. And at that point we had pretty much knocked most of the issues out of that truck and we were doing decent still nervous, but but doing decent, um. And so they invited us out for an event they were doing in, uh, may of our april of 2014 and, uh, we went out there and they showed us a truck and we were kind of the only ones interested in it, so we made an offer and ended up buying that particular truck.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 4:That brought us to two units. That was our first year driving. Wow, that'd be frustrating.
Speaker 1:I could see parking it and walking away. How frustrating, yeah it was frustrating.
Speaker 4:It was scary. We spent a ton of money because we had to put a big down payment on it and then we got this big loan that we didn't know we were high risk and all this stuff. So we're paying a good size interest rate and just the not knowing, the constant breakdowns, is the lost revenue, the additional cost of repairing the truck and all this stuff.
Speaker 3:And you're still paying the note while the truck's in the shop.
Speaker 4:You're still paying the note while the truck's in the shop Still paying the insurance, Still paying the Qualcomm fees. Now we're paying for our own hotel stays, our food, everything. So it was a lot of like we made more money, sure, because we owned the truck, but it was a lot more expense because of the constant breakdowns.
Speaker 4:Right yeah, and so getting the truck fixed, that truck, we did actually end up a couple years, like three years later. I will go ahead and speed up and say we had to have the entire engine rebuilt, and so we did that and ran it for another year and then we sold it.
Speaker 4:Wow so it's no longer in our fleet, but we did actually rebuild the engine to extend its life a little bit longer and then send it on its way. It was scary. That first year was Wow, what a risk it was. It definitely opened my eyes to as an owner-operator. It's such a high risk, Such a high risk, and I understand now why so many owner operators don't make it oh, I imagine and it was only because, eric's, you know our cfo and he is extremely conservative with the money and we lived in that truck.
Speaker 4:We actually, during that time, once we bought that truck, we actually, um, we had two houses at that point er Eric's house and my house and we put both of them up for rent and sold all of the furniture, sold everything.
Speaker 5:Sold our vehicles.
Speaker 4:Sold our vehicles If it couldn't be stored safely. And by that I mean, like in South Louisiana it's very humid. So if you store something like wood furniture in a storage unit if it's not climate controlled it's going to warp and be trashed. So if it couldn't be stored safely, then we just sold it. So we got rid of a lot of stuff. We kept, like I have a metal and glass shelving unit. We kept that Like there's no risk there, right, it's not going to get hot and warp.
Speaker 4:We kept knickknacks that were personal, that you you know the life mementos and stuff that you don't want to lose, kept a bunch of that stuff, but everything else went fire cell, just got rid of everything and we lived on the truck. We came back to Baton Rouge. We'd see our families A lot of times. We'd park in Denham Springs, louisiana. If y'all know, there's a pilot there, it's a ratty, terrible, nasty pilot. We would park there and a lot of times my dad would and mom and dad would come over and they would drop us off one of their vehicles and we'd have that to drive around. Or if they needed both vehicles, we'd rent a car at Enterprise and that'd be how we'd get around. But we'd still sleep and live in that truck and that's how we got started. We did that for a while.
Speaker 1:How long were you in that truck for? I don't want to speed your story up, but just curious.
Speaker 4:We will talk about that next week.
Speaker 1:Fantastic.
Speaker 4:It's a good question. Yeah, Because buying that second truck a lot of things changed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how many years total, though, though? I know you could answer me that, because you said you sold it after we sold.
Speaker 4:We had that trick for four years four, four years, okay and then got rid of it, yeah, no, yes, four years, that's right. Okay, because we paid the loan off and then we sold it, yep, and that was a four-year loan, okay. It's funny, the things you use in your mind to like help you remember things that's one of them but, uh. But we sold that thing with 800 or 900,000 miles on it. Almost it was just under 900,000 miles.
Speaker 1:We put a good amount of work on it, all the things you had to learn for like a first timer, like you said, the EFS card and how to get the money from point A to point B.
Speaker 4:Absolutely you know as a bigger company now with employees, I think you make that pretty streamlined and easy with the maintenance guys and you pay for things absolutely and and we don't even use some of those original companies, like the original company was t-check, everything was phone based. Today we use efs, which is um internet based you know, like the tolls.
Speaker 4:what do you do for tolls? We have best pass now which covers every toll in the nation except except for a very few odd, and in ones. Back then you had to have five trucks to buy a Best Pass, so we actually had to grow into that.
Speaker 5:You know what I?
Speaker 4:mean, there were just a bunch of little things. We used to send out the envelope or the zipper pouch, like the know, like the, the bankers, with a hundred dollars, something like that cash in there, and they'd have to send us the receipts. And then, whenever that emptied out, then we had to issue them a new um t-check to be able to get more money to fill that up, like that was for tolls. That's, that's how it was. Way back in the day. You've had to do something like that, didn't you when you driving, because your toll transponder didn't cover everything.
Speaker 2:No, it didn't.
Speaker 4:Especially not California or Texas.
Speaker 2:I always worked on the 60-40 split. I got 60% and I paid fuel and tolls and tolls. So the T-Check card was mine, all the money that went on there, because FedEx would give you 45% at the start of the load. So as soon as we picked up the load and did our departure call, as we were pulling out, whoever was in the passenger seat called it in and got our 45 percent. All that money was mine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I always thought that was crazy that they did it that way. Um, because our fuel program, that we were using it paid the fuel once you delivered your load, which means we also had to self-fund those first tanks of diesel.
Speaker 1:Because we didn't have any money to make out.
Speaker 4:Oh, you just weren't going around siphoning no, no, that was the one done at the dealership and we didn't do that the dealership did. I've talked to FedEx. I've talked to so many owners and I know you experienced it too, where you get a load load, they upload your fuel card and the load cancels and then talking to fedex about what happened when people would already have used that money and just all the insanity that came with that, I just that blew me away.
Speaker 2:that fedex did that I never ran into that problem, though, because we would always have the freight on the truck before I did the advance, and if something happened to where we broke down and lost the that's right, because you had to request it back then, didn't you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh yeah, you had to request on the C-Link?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you could not request it until you did your departure call.
Speaker 4:See, with our fuel program it was automatic. So as soon as you sent your proof of delivery in, it automatically went in.
Speaker 2:Interesting and if you would always have to look at the decimals and try to get as close as you can, because that was my money. I didn't want that going to the owner, so I wanted as much as I could get every penny counted, because that went to my pocket, you know.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Wow, like all the T-Check, I was in charge of all that. Like every week we had to reconcile it. Yeah, me and my co-driver at the time. We would split everything. We had to make sure we left enough money on there for fuel and all that stuff, and we would write ourselves T-checks and deposit it into our iCheck-in account.
Speaker 4:Man, I've talked to so many Boy, those are the days, yeah, that was a long time ago. I've talked to so many fleet owners who had that model back then, because pretty much now almost nobody does um, and it's because so many of them talked about irresponsible teams like you get that money upload, we deposit all of it into our account and then, oh, we have to deadhead 600 miles, pick up our next load. Well, the truck's on a quarter tank of diesel yeah how are we going to get there?
Speaker 4:and so the fleet owner ended up loaning them money and then having to get it back and everything. It was a disaster. A lot of fleet owners that was very, very, very common back in the day and it's completely changed now because of that stuff I bet.
Speaker 1:Oh, the good old days.
Speaker 4:So, um, but yeah, so for us, when we bought our truck that was our first time paying for fuel. So we had to learn all that stuff and then learn where to get fuel. And I tell you, the first year we were very like if Pilot's close and convenient, we'll get it at Pilot. If Love's is convenient, we'll get it at Love's. If TA's convenient, we'll get it at TA. Because we didn't really understand. We knew they had a fuel discount, but what's two or three pennies, right. But we, what's two, three pennies, right, like who cares. And then we it literally was our into a year and they were like, you know, it's like 60 cents a dollar a gallon. It's like, oh, that's huge. So you're telling me every single fill up is between 50 to 100 savings by using loves wow every single fill up, so that adds up.
Speaker 4:That adds up fast. So a lot of learning on our end fedex uses the uh.
Speaker 2:They're partnered with ta yes their biggest discount. So we would actually have a sheet of every single ta in the nation and we had a phone number that we would call. And, along our route, we would call all the TAs that we knew that we would be within stopping distance of and we would find out which one had the biggest discount, because they were all different, yes, and so, once we figured, that out then we knew whoever was getting up to drive.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is going to be your fuel stop. This is going to be your fuel stop because it could be, just like you said, anywhere from 42 cents off to 70 cents off.
Speaker 1:So were you using, like the quarter system to make your phone calls, or do you have cell phones in?
Speaker 2:uh, I had a cell phone back then, but it was way before iphones or anything. It was a regular flip phone. Okay, dumb phone, but yeah, we would sit there and make the phone calls and wow I had to do that on every TA to find out who had the cheapest, because you didn't know.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's rough, I like. So we don't use Panther's fuel discount system, but every single day Panther sends an email out, sends an email
Speaker 5:yeah, I get it Okay of the fuel discounts.
Speaker 4:So you can quickly just see like all right along my way, here's this and TA Petro, they're tricky. Like like alright along my way, here's this and TA Petro, they're tricky. Like you said, the discounts do vary quite a bit. At Love's they vary a little bit, not a lot, but it does vary from location to location because it's based on when do they buy their diesel and all that stuff, right, what refinery are they getting from, etc. But for the most part they're pretty close to each other. Ta has franchise stores, each other ta has franchise stores, and those franchise tas and those franchise petros give you like a nickel, as opposed to a regular discount which would give you 35 to 40 or 50 cents. Um, I can think of the classic example I've used was outside of um, kansas city. Is it the Kinley 95? No, not the Kinley, I'm sorry. The Jop 70 is not Joplin. It's Iowa 80? No, it's on I-70 heading to Kansas City. What is it? Oak?
Speaker 3:Grove. Is it the Oak Grove?
Speaker 4:70?.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Oak Grove 70,. That's right there. It's a Petro right across the street from it. It's a TA. The TA is corporate-owned, gives you a good discount.
Speaker 4:The 70, which is Iowa 80-owned gives you a nickel, but you wouldn't know that because the retail prices are the exact same and you're just thinking like, well, I get a TA Petro discount. Let me go to this one because it's a nicer store but it's actually a franchise. They don't give you that discount, wow sneaky. But TA and Petro, they're not always that obvious. Sometimes it just looks like a TA but it's really Jim Bob's TA. So you know that one's really tricky with TA and Petro, because I did catch some of that stuff once we started actually paying attention, because sometimes TA fuel is the same price as LUVs and so I know some of our teams like to get TA when they can, not so much now, but definitely back in the day when TA had nicer showers. These days I think it's completely flipped the opposite direction. Luvs has the nicer showers, but back then you would get teams that would mostly fuel up at LUVs and then they would grab a TA fill up here and again to get those nicer showers.
Speaker 5:Nice.
Speaker 4:So they would pay attention to those prices. But that's gone away.
Speaker 2:My trucking days was only TA back then before they bought out Petro and they merged. So, yeah, it was a lot different to only go to TA and the showers, like you said, different to only go to ta and the showers, like you said. And yeah, and I remember whenever they did merge, we were just so elated and excited because we were just like yes, there's like so many more places we can stop. I can imagine ta.
Speaker 4:Ta by itself is a small yeah it's pretty small. Ta petra is a good size, but ta period they're pretty small and the petros I don't. Again, by the time I came around it wasn't this way anymore. But the Petro travel plazas are massive. If you walk into a Petro, if you've never driven or really paid attention, you go into a Petro. A lot of the older Petros are huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:They have like hallways. They almost feel like a mall. On the inside Now it's mostly nothing, it's mostly vacant, but back in the day those used to be like barbershops and CB radio places. Way better food.
Speaker 2:Way better food and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 4:So the Petros used to be super, super nice, like basically a trucker mall that you could get stuff done. Not so much anymore, it's kind of gone away.
Speaker 1:Are they the ones that have the chapels outside?
Speaker 4:What was? The ones that have the?
Speaker 1:chapel. Or you can get your DOT medical card here. They always have a trailer outside.
Speaker 4:TA and Petra mostly have those little chapels outside. I always liked those because they always had those old GMC Astro cab-over trucks and stuff from like 74. You look at the thing and you're like that's pretty, but there's no way that engine will crank if you go try it.
Speaker 3:Well, these days it's just the trailer. There's no longer a tractor attached to it.
Speaker 4:Have they got rid of the tractors? Yeah, it's just the trailer. They're like. They probably realize all those tractors are collector's items now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:And each one is like 100 grand sitting there.
Speaker 3:They could sell them all off. Sell them and do the Lord's work with the money. Do the Lord's work, that's right.
Speaker 1:It's a different time and era, for sure. I mean even your era. You know you're talking T-check and dialing a zillion phone numbers to find cheapest fuel, and it's very different in a very short period of time.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, yeah. Well, I think back to being a kid. I remember going. My dad's best friend was Benny. We went to high school together and Benny became a truck driver Going to the Pilot in Denham Springs back in the early 90s. That was an old Freightliner cab over Like I remember sitting on the hump.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you've talked about that truck Freezing cold, like, like, so cold in there. Uh, but anyways, going into the pilot and a lot of times you still see them the backside of the old pilots, a lot of them have like a glass domed like atrium looking area with some tables set up and now they usually have just trash back there or it's overflow stock and whatever. But that used to be. You might I don't know if you remember this or not jerry used to be where they had the table set up and each table had a had a phone. Oh yeah, and that's where independent truck drivers would book their loads.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I remember him talking about going into there and saying I'm not leaving this station until I get a dollar a mile, because back then that was really good money and so that was his like I need a dollar a mile. And he would stay by that phone. He'd drink coffee, other people would be sitting there chatting with them. It was real community-based. And now those don't exist anymore. Or if you ever do go to a truck stop and you're like, why is there a a phone outlet, not a phone, but a phone outlet at every table? It's a remnant of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that world um when I first started driving, I didn't have a cell phone and I was just like my mom. We would buy the prepaid phone cards and so that way you could sit there at your dinner table or whatever and make your phone calls and call home and talk to everybody and wow technology, love it yeah, I always had the phone, but when we did start driving I had the the nights and weekend plan.
Speaker 4:You know that was free. So I remember like did a lot of phone calls at night and during the day it was strictly work.
Speaker 1:That's all changed now Nights and weekends, absolutely.
Speaker 4:I remember that plan or their friends and family.
Speaker 2:You had a list of five people that you could call anytime.
Speaker 4:We did have the friends and family was out by 2012. I think friends and family was already out. I could call my mom and I could call a couple of people.
Speaker 1:Were you on that plan. Nights and weekends, Vincent? Yeah.
Speaker 4:I remember being like I always so. I bought an iPhone when they first came out in 2007, and I'd always been on that kind of situation. Eric had a prepaid phone when we went out on the road. Every month he paid us $40 or whatever it was and kept his phone going that way and I'd never had a phone like that. I'd only ever had a contract phone so I remember even just being on the road, when we first got started, like just between him and I, that being different, yeah, um.
Speaker 4:And now you know, back then prepaid phones were like I don't know like they work some places and not others and it's kind of a pain. And now the prepaid phones are actually nice. What mitt, mobile and all these other companies are doing is night and day better than what it used to be, sure. So it's very interesting to see how that end of the industry has changed so much and really made it a lot easier and better for drivers out there. Same with, I think, the chapels. I don't think the chapels in the truck stops are as prevalent anymore, because a lot of people that do want to have worship on Sunday morning can do it from their phone, from their laptop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, most churches are streaming live, so you can just get your home church. I get it, yeah.
Speaker 4:I see it on Sunday, like Sunday when I'm strolling through Facebook, I'll see like three or four people I know, like your kid's one of them, but other people I know that they're posting their churches's sermons and services on there.
Speaker 1:Yep for Sunday service.
Speaker 4:So it's not nearly as confined or restrained as it used to be. Now there's lots of options. I'm curious are the Amazon boxes becoming more and more prevalent at truck stops?
Speaker 3:They are, yeah, they really are.
Speaker 4:I knew they were starting when we got off the road, but like very few.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they really are. There's tons of them.
Speaker 4:I wonder if that's one of the reasons. I mean, I'm sure it's a contributing factor to why the full-service truck stops kind of disappearing slowly Because you can just have stuff shipped there and pick it up Interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, and you also have Uber, Like you can take an Uber and go get yourself a haircut right True yeah, as opposed to going in and getting the haircut.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. You're not stuck to that. One person selling $35 haircuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to hear it too. I have to say I've not heard a lot of this, so I enjoyed that.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, I look forward to talking more and more about it as we go. We have we're only in 2014. We still have a decade to get through, Wow. So, that should take us at least what 10 more episodes.
Speaker 3:At least 10 more years 10 more years A decade Wow.
Speaker 4:Lots of things coming, y'all. We're just now starting our fleet. I mean, we already bought one truck and we were owner-operators, and next week we become fleet owners, and that's a whole new can of wax.
Speaker 5:I'm serious that's a whole new can of wax.
Speaker 4:It gets exciting now.
Speaker 5:A little teaser. We've had to replace more than one engine. We've got an interesting story on why we had to do the second one.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 5:That was not a mechanical issue. No, that was not a mechanical issue. That was a personal issue.
Speaker 4:That was an ID10T problem, so um.
Speaker 5:It was not me and it was not Patrick. We'll say that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, it was fun times back then. Anyways, uh, if there's anything else y'all want to hear about, talk about let us know.
Speaker 2:Leave a comment down below. Shoot us an email at theouterbeltpodcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 4:Which is again the theouterbeltpodcast at gmailcom. And what happens if they send an email there.
Speaker 2:Somebody will respond to the email. I don't have access to the email, but somebody will.
Speaker 1:Somebody will respond.
Speaker 4:We need to look into that, don't we Someone?
Speaker 1:will respond.
Speaker 4:Go, put up that email address. You can text live 37 emails.
Speaker 1:Where can you text live from?
Speaker 2:If you're listening to the audio version of this podcast, there is a text link down in the show notes, so click that and that will go to me and I'll respond to you.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Leave a comment down below. Hit thumbs up, thumbs down. Subscribe if you would like to hear more. Share this to all your friends and family. It's a lot of great information out there.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, and it's something we've requested. People want to know a little more about us, how we got to where we are. I think if you're a current contractor driver with High Film, it's a little bit of a behind the scenes of why we do the things we do. If you're not and you're curious how we got where we're at, or you're another fleet owner and you're going like, hey, how do they have as many tricks as they do? Here's a story. We're giving you all the data.
Speaker 5:Blood sweat tears and art heads.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been a fun story. It's been a fun ride, and you know we don't really get a chance to talk about this part of our business too too much, so it's kind of fun reliving these old memories yeah, so uh, thank you so much for everything y'all do, everybody y'all stay safe out there, make good decisions don't leave money on the table and keep those walls of tarnum bye.
Speaker 1:We'll be you next time.