I look a little scared here.  It’s because he was taking his eyes off the road to smile for the pic. I didn’t like it. 

I did something I last weekend that I haven’t done before. I rode in a semi that my husband was driving. It was wheat harvest, and my husband was taking his wheat from the field to town. This is a skill I didn’t know he had. I knew driving a truck was complicated, but I had no idea just how involved it was. I rode with him to take two loads to the elevator, and after doing so, I was compelled to write about it.

For a long time now, I’ve told Scott that I could probably drive the truck for him. I drove a wheat truck for my dad several summers – it was an older tandem axel truck. It was sort of like driving a pick up, other than it was loaded down with wheat and the brakes were questionable. But I got along just fine.

After watching Scott drive the semi, though, I’m scared to death to drive it, and I have a lot more respect for truck drivers.

As I said before, it’s complicated. There are all sorts of buttons and switches. There’s an extra five gears. The engine has a brake, which I still don’t understand. There’s a lot going on just to make it go. 

But there’s even more going on to make it stop. There’s the engine brake that I mentioned before. It’s gawd-awful loud and many towns don’t allow them inside city limits. If the truck is loaded with grain, it can take a mile or so to slow to a stop. Then there’s the park brake. It operates with air and makes a disturbing loud noise when he would press it. I jumped every time. Every. Freakin. Time.

Narrow county roads like this are pretty typical. 

Operating the truck is complicated enough. Navigating the roads is another issue. The picture on the right is extreme, but not unusual. Wheat fields aren’t always right next to a highway, so the trucks have to drive down narrow country roads, dodge potholes, and stay away from a really low shoulder. Scott didn’t have to go too far on roads like these, and most of the road was pavement, but that’s not saying much. The paved road he uses doesn’t have a shoulder, and it’s a narrow two lane to begin with. When he meets a car, he has to get really close to that shoulder – dangerously close. If he were to go off the shoulder in the wrong place it could roll the truck. 😱

Other issues- those trucks are long. Really long. It feels like forever to cross through an intersection, which is kind of scary. People pull out in front, and not realizing that a truck can’t stop quickly like a car can. Trucks are tall and the wind whips them all over the place.

We all have stories about bad experience in sharing the road with a semi truck. They’ve taken up too much of the road and nearly run us into the ditch, or they hugged the center line making it difficult to pass, or they sped up when you were trying to pass, or….. well you get what I’m saying. As with anything, there are some bad/irresponsible players out there.

But during the harvesting season, there’s a good chance that driver is a farmer, just trying to make a living by driving his crop to town. So, when you meet a big semi truck on a rural highway, slow down and move over to meet them. Don’t pull out in front. Show a little grace. Someone’s husband/dad or wife/mom (just not this wife/mom) is driving that truck. Truck driving is not his or her main job, and they’re probably just as nervous as you are. Please do what you can to help them come home safe.

My sometimes truck driving husband.