Stories from the Road: Creation Illuminated

I've been kicking around getting a new job lately. I've put in a couple of applications in the hope that I can find a decent job locally and put an end to my interstate trucking career. One of the jobs I think I have a good chance of getting an offer from. It's still in trucking, but it would be strictly in town, and I live in a small town. It would probably be less than 100 miles a day. As it is, I drive over 500 miles a day five days a week. I have a round trip dedicated run from Dayton, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and back. I've been having second thoughts about giving it up, but a couple of nights ago it just about pushed me over the edge. I broke down and that cost me three hours. Then, almost as soon as I got back on the road, I got pulled over by a D.O.T. officer who held me an hour while he inspected my log and my truck and checked out my credentials. Nights like that can make any driver want to get out of trucking.

Last evening, I took off for my route. I usually start at 4pm and if everything goes well I finish up at anywhere from 2am to 4am. It was a bright, sunny day when I took off, but as I got over into eastern Ohio on I-70 I noticed rain clouds ahead in the east. The sun was still shining off to the west, though, as the day was fading. Then there appeared a huge rainbow unlike any I've ever seen. It stretched from north to south in a huge arch across the sky. The colors were so bold that I could see the violet part of the spectrum clearly. I can't ever remember being able to see that part of a rainbow so well. As I drove on the sky cleared again for a bit and the rainbow disappeared. But up ahead in the darkening eastern sky I could clearly see a bright nearly full moon hanging over another rain cloud well off to the east as the sun was still shining in the west, not quite taken over by the horizon yet.

It was one of the most beautiful natural scenes I've ever witnessed in person. It was the kind of thing that mystical, fantasy novels are made of. I had a sense of the wonder, splendor, and sacredness of the world in which we live. What a sight to behold!

Then a little voice inside of me said, "Are you sure you want to give this up?"

I've been a trucker for over 21 years. I've been nearly killed or maimed on a number of occasions in the course of my work. It consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Two of my trucker friends have been killed in trucking accidents. I must be a damn fool, but still I persist.