www.atravelpath.com

 

🚛 What An Awesome Episode We Have In Store Today!

 

In this podcast, we talk to people from all walks of life on how they have been able to set their lives up for travel. Although we see them all the time on the road, did you consider that being a full time trucker offered the flexibility and freedom that could satisfy your travel dreams? I certainly didn’t and in today’s conversation with Jeff Czaja, I learned all about it.

In Today’s Show You’ll Learn All About:

🪪 How to get your trucker license.

📉 Just how real is the trucking shortage?

💡How to handle some of the self-doubt when you make such a drastic career change

 

📝And much, much more on this episode of The Travel Path Podcast. Buckle up and enjoy the show!

 

Music:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

 

Show Resources:

New England Tractor Trailer Training School Somers, CT

https://nettts.com/

 

Werner

https://www.werner.com/

 

J.B. Hunt

https://www.jbhunt.com/

 

Trucker Path App

https://truckerpath.com/trucker-path-app/

 

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts, and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.  

 

Transcript:

 

Jeff Czaja how are you doing today thanks for coming on the show I'm doing great thanks for having me so I know you as your past client of mine we were on the topic of travel we were talking one time and you had a pretty unique story on how you travel it's something I hadn't really thought about too much of and that's why I wanted to have you on the show was a very intriguing kind of a lifestyle so yeah it's different definitely it is different yeah why don't we start by having you share a little bit about yourself and then telling the audience what your travel lifestyle looks like I grew up in Connecticut uh I've lived here my whole life uh I do have have relatives in the New York area I spent a lot of time in the city I grew up a Catholic so my road was always set you know like I always had a direction my whole family always kept me on that that path I just kept going with it but I I found it to be a little boring and constrictive there's a lot of things that happened in my life that put me toward the path of trucking to try to get away from it all my grandfather passed away he was a big role model in my life when he passed away that was uh the start of a snowball where you know I had a lot of issues actually and uh you could say I kind of hit rock bottom uh I had a high school sweetheart that I had been with for a very long time and uh that that ended at around the same time my grandfather passed away then my cousin who was only 16 at the time she uh committed suicide so there's a lot of things that actually started to happen in my life right around mid 20s and uh I started saying to myself you know what am I doing you know I want to get out more I want to see more I want to be more and so uh that's when I decided you know I'm throwing away my four- wall office I I used to be an accountant I I was like I just want to break out of this whole little cocoon I felt like I was in that's when I said I'm going to go get this CDL and see what see what it brings me I mean I knew it would give me a lot of ability to network you know cuz once you start going around the country like you you meet people and people are not bad I mean you know I I really feel like you know it helped me open up which is what I wanted to do spread my wings so to speak so but it was a big big deal for me to just I just wanted to not quite be the same as everyone else in my family like you know go to college you know get your degree get the job that you want to have and I did go to college I went to Marshall University so I'm not one of those truckers that you know just uh you know their family history is a bunch of truckers that that is actually the way it is uh to for a lot of truckers they come from a long line of truckers and they start when they're 10 their dad's put them in the truck and get them I am completely different than that I I I went the college route I got my accounting job I did it for a few you know a good eight years and I I I was like this just isn't for me and uh that's when I was like I got to just see the world a little more it was ended up being the country the entire country I saw all 48 states to me you're not learning and experiencing life if you're just in I'm sorry to say I'm not a big person on just staying home yeah I I feel like if you want to really experience life and you only have one life to live you got to go you got to go take it by the rains and like you got to see things you got to meet people too that's another reason why I actually jumped into Trucking myself I thought that was a good way to actually meet people who live in these areas and can tell me about the areas that I'm going to and visiting and now I have friends in California Oklahoma I mean I could go all over the country and stay for free it was what I needed to do my cousin dying you know that that she was the one cuz she was only 16 and I was young at the time when she did you know commit suicide but she was the that really like made me think to myself what am I doing you know like I want to I don't want I want to be more than this like I want to be more than Conneticut I want to you know I want to be somewhere I want to go somewhere I want to you know know more people than just my my small little crew that I had at the time you know family and friends I can relate to that quite a bit where you're you have you're in one job location you you have vacation time but you're not able to take enough vacation to really see everything I remember I we had a big Cal we wanted to go cross country and I wanted to take off for 2 months and my work told me you know they kind of laughed and said the longest anyone's ever left for is one month and they were really lucky you'd be lucky if you got you know two weeks yeah I I agree wholeheartedly on that too I I feel like in our country we are a little too strict especially when you have these office jobs with you know being like stuck to a certain amount of time which isn't enough time like you're kind of pointing out it's just not enough when you're trying to go away for a week you don't want to actually spend all seven days away you you'd like to rest get prepared to go it just to me it's too rushed when you take a week off and you got to go do it and then get back you know it can be rushed yeah yeah I feel like it is a little bit rushed I do wish we had a little more time as a whole as a whole I just feel like we don't have enough time off to experience more things than just what we do it's not just in your family where that routine and that tradition of you know going to college getting a job that's just the way Society is it's go to school get to college get a good job and then work till your 60 retire and then go and explore then that's the reason we started this podcast because we met people when we were on our trip taking long hikes we're pulling up in this you know a brand new van and older couples especially would ask us how are you able to do this you know we wish we could have traveled in our younger years while we still had our knees and could take these long hikes versus you know waiting till you're 60 years 70 retired and you can just go to the overlooks and you really can't do the the real Scenic things so what was your family's response when you said um I have this great accounting job benefits I would imagine and all of a sudden hey guys quitting and I'm going to get my Trucking license well they they were actually shocked I mean obviously cuz none of them trucked none none of them I mean my grand parents they came from Europe to to live here so they understood travel a little as far as just dropping everything and getting going but for me like when I told my parents they were a little bit uh a little bit like taken aback like you know they're like well what are you going to do with your diploma what are you going to do like you know why why do we send you to college me personally I just believe that in any profession if you you want to make money you can make money to me that's another thing that I feel our country puts on people is uh you know you got to do it this way and that's the only way you know artists can make money if they work at it you know what I mean like I I I just don't think that you have to go to college and you have to make the money that way I I do feel like you can make money in any field you want to and I I you know once I have kids I'm going to definitely tell them that I I feel like you know that's got to get out there more like you don't have to do things by the book per se I hear that more and more I don't know if it's just the podcast I'm listening to but there's more and more of that you don't really need to go to school unless you know exactly what you want to do or otherwise it's four or five years of your life and a lot of money a lot of money that you I have friends that are still paying off loans yeah that you're potentially going to be walking away doing something you don't enjoy doing that you're doing for the rest of your life and there's a lot more to consider you know if you don't know what to do like my what I my response to that is just get into sales if you can sales is a very easy thing to get into it's it's cheap you don't really need money to get your real EST license or if you want to sell cars whatever it is it's going to get you skills where you can talk to people communicate and the cost burden for you know getting a real estate license is $300 you can start selling houses in you know six months and start making money versus you know doing the four years and not really knowing what you're doing it's it's a good path to take if you're not sure what you want to do so speaking on that it's we we'll kind of switch gears into the requirements to get your it's a Class A Class so class 18er I would imagine you made the decision first you wanted to kind of exit your accounting job did you have any other ideas you wanted to do or is it immediately Trucking well you do want to always save up money when you're making a big business move as far as your life is concerned you know so I had a little foundation and I did check out I I went to New England tractor trailer training school right here in Summers Connecticut that's where I decided to go so I looked up how much it would cost and you go there and you have to go through they do have uh you know regular classes that that's all written exams and and you know you got to learn some history about Trucking some of the rules obviously and then they also have a drive driving portion so there's a two it's like a two-part thing that you go through with them and then of course you got to have the do will come and that's the big day is when you got the dot there and they'll give you the same you just like a regular license you go for your little written exam and then you have a uh the driving portion and now on the driving portion with a CDL though you will have to do a pre-trip because you got to make sure these big rigs are good so you're not going to hurt anybody out there so that's very important to know and you know I feel like that's some of the things when you talk about the bad drivers out there the bad Trucking drive truck drivers you know they uh they they don't pay attention to the pre-trip which is very important you got to make sure your wheels are good and and all that but yeah that's another portion of the test for a CDL which I don't think they do for cars I don't think they have a pre-trip exam for the I don't believe this a pre-trip I know actually I didn't tell you this but I got my Class B A while back and I remember doing the pre-trip inspection I used to when I plowed snow but I remember doing the pre-trip it's obviously way different than me having to backup tractor trailers but I take it the barrier to entry in terms of finan it's not how much roughly does it cost to get into your class A license honestly I'm not sure cuz I did mine about 17 years ago and I did hear now that it actually went up uh mine cost it about $5,000 back in the day yeah now I I think it's actually more um but I I'm not I could find some numbers on that for you maybe down the road so you can maybe say something and if I find any information on that I'll link it below in the show notes so you can check that out roughly 5,000 maybe give or take the startup cost and then the time frame how long roughly since the day you start your school till the day you take the test each person is different cuz again as a trucker like there's there's many people that won't make it in trucking and then there's people that will the length of the course it actually is dependent on you I mean if you work hard and you you know you you study and then you go out and you do what they ask in the driving uh they have little obstacles set up and they try to have you pass each one and you move along and then once you do take care of all of that that's when they'll send you to to have your test taken so you know for me it was about 3 months I think sure yeah and uh so it could take a little less there's a few usually it's two months is the best people you know like those are the guys that actually do come from the families I they can get in and out of there pretty fast to get their license because they've done it before you know me being a guy that had never been in a truck before until that moment actually that was a good 3 months I would say to have the ability to take the test sure so not too long I means heck of a lot quicker than a four-year degree and you're looking at like a $5,000 startup cost and then after that you're pretty much making money right you're even when you go out um most of the big companies they'll have you train with their drivers for a a good month at least some more they make sure you're actually driving their trucks good because it's funny I do find it interesting in the profession that when you go to these big companies they're really good about not paying much but they will give you the nicest trucks you've ever seen like I started with wner myself and I'm not trying to knock wner at all but they give you this big beautiful truck with all the amenities in the truck and then uh you you you don't get paid quite as much as you would with a smaller company but they take care of you as far as comfort you know when you first start out so I did like that actually you know being a guy that never trucked before I I needed all those amenities you know like having the refrigerator and the TV and the truck and yeah all that stuff so yeah that helped me you know be comfortable out there you know all right so about roughly three months $5,000 in you you've got a job with Warner yeah and you train and they did do give you training pay and it's not as much as uh you you make when you get out there on your own because you're you're with a guy um or a woman and they do pay you though through the whole period Mo most of the good companies will feed you too in that process like they'll pay for all the food like they even tell their trainer to buy you you know like I had one he actually took me to some of the nicest restaurants we would walk in with jeans you know into these fancy restaurants cuz you know that's just what we're wearing on the road and we sit down and they they wouldn't like throw us out that you know he explained that you know we're just over the Road Truckers and just looking good food so yeah and and you know we'd sit there in our jeans and have a nice meal you know um I will say a lot of meals are fast food sadly but you know overall like you can stop you know you find ways to stop again it's all about being smart out there if you just sit in your truck all day it's kind of like being in the office so me I I always found ways to get out and about and see things you know as I was out there and I had heard during we talked about this during covid they were talking about the whole the trucker shortage and when we were talking you had said that there's no shortage whatsoever there's a ton of truck drivers out there is that still the case or I don't really believe that there's a a truck shortage I mean there's I know again I have a lot of friends that truck now and and they always say like they're looking for work they just want more money yeah so like the the people that say there's a shortage there's not really a shortage it's just like the drivers want to take the loads that are worth some money so the people that are like claiming that there's a shortage are the ones that are trying to pay people nothing for the load you know to travel 7,000 000 miles or 2,500 miles across the country you know that's something that really does get me CU there's no shortage there's guys that want to work but they can't work for pennies on the dime you know we you know we are trying to make a life out there and and stuff like that so I I don't believe in the shortage thing I now when you first get your class A and you're you're going to all these different companies trying to get a job so you were in a position where you wanted just to get out travel as much as you could someone who has a family back home say they want to stay a little bit more local how easy is it to try to negotiate how long you're away from home versus how much you're actually traveling all over the country if you want to really do this and you first get into Trucking my suggestion is to just work a year and be solid be take your time out there all you want to do is is you want to go in in my opinion you should work for a mega carrier the column because they will give you the nice truck you'll be as comfortable as you're going to be as a trucker again not everybody's cut out to be a trucker you want to take about a year out there you tell your family you know hey I'm going to have to get away for a year do a year once you do a year even six months they say but I I believe a year gives you a solid foundation you can then work wherever you wish to work like uh if you want to work local very easy with a year six months you're you're taking a chance but even then like that's why I'm saying if you believe this is a field for you like you want to do like uh the six months can get you your foot in the door the year will get you in the door wherever you want to go is what I'm trying to say so if you want to work local and and be home every sing SLE night then after a year you'll be good I got to stop hitting that table kind of like any like the medical field or whatever field you're in you um once you have that first year of experience you have references and then you can kind of shop around and now that you have that experience you can apply for other places more local yes yes and you can really start to hone exactly what you want to get out of your your career too and for me I you know I I wanted to see all 50 states so I was traveling off you know 48 states you know got into Alaska and Hawaii I feel like that's that's how you want to do it you just want to get out and tell them what you want to do you know one thing I will say that's fun about it is you can meet your girlfriend your wife your family like I actually one time impromptu didn't even mean to my parents actually took a trip to Kentucky at one point and I ended up being in Kentucky so we got to hang out and I told my my boss I'm like hey I'm I didn't realize this but my parents are out here in Kentucky which was very random and uh I got to hang out with them for like a couple days and show them around I actually knew the area more than they did so Random stuff happens like that but you can also plan trips I was going to say so how much that once you have that experience and how much of that is your boss your employer telling you where to go versus you telling your employee hey I want to go here and then they they're coming up with the path it takes to get there when you get into a field like this and you want to use it to your advantage you want to learn to use it to your advantage when you work hard and you give your boss what he wants it's basically any profession if you give them what they want they're going to be nice to you too so I I found like you know after with with some time put in I'm big on putting some time in then they'll start to give you whatever you really want like I was starting to tell them hey I'm going to take a weekend here in Daytona Beach uh hey I'd like to stop in Vegas for a week I I actually met my girlfriend out there one time and we hung out for a week you know she flew out so there's pros and cons I mean that's a sacrifice yes you're living in a truck but everything you were able to see and obviously going back to that your original decision obviously made the right choice the four wall cubicle versus where you are now for worked and like I said you know everybody has their own opinions on life and what they want out of it and for me it worked and you know not everybody will be able to be a trucker I I I will say that because it's a huge vehicle that you got to get around some tight streets and and you know areas with that without hitting things because then you won't be in that career too long but if you can do it and you start to use it to your advantage which I I'm at that stage now where I basically tell people what I want to do and they let me do it I mean I'm and I make the money I want to make the first year to me is the toughest year because that's the one you got to sacrifice a lot I feel like you know that's the one where you have to realize you're going to be in a little confined area in your truck and that's basically your home you you don't necessarily stay out for the whole year though they will send you home every once in a while but once that year is done I promise you you can make some things happen with the with the career think you said like not everybody can do it but you're someone coming from you know no Trucking experience no family history of trucking and probably had never backed up an 18 wheer before and you were able to license I can attest if anyone if anybody saw me back up our camper this past summer you can you'll see how difficult it is to do something like that so it takes time it's everything's completely reversed but it is possible so speaking of that I know you touched on you said you know you are living in a truck what are some of those amenities you mentioned there's a fridge um you got a TV a fridge bed obviously you know and there is um you know another thing that's really nice about where I was working anyway I'm not sure if every place is like this but again that's why I say go with mega carries if you start out the you know they understand you want to live like a regular person so you tell them you want to stay up in a hotel and they usually will pay they'll they'll pay for a hotel stay for like a weekend you know if you want and once you start making your own money though that's when you start taking your weeks here and there you will be able to get showers too they have truck stops so every night like if you plan right and again that's a whole big part of this planning you got to know how to plan if you want to be a good trucker that's experienced the way I've experienced the the country but in the truck it's basically the TV the microwave uh they they have a refrigerator you know and a bed obviously night comfortable beds usually I mean are there like apps you can use and find like certain places to sleep oh I know you have the CB radio too there's trucker path there's CB radios uh the trucker path as an app that you can check out places that along that trucks can get to you know if you're not familiar you can you can radio put a call out on the radio and someone might pick up yep yep and then your company sometimes will even tell you like where a nice place is that you can stay while you're visiting so and so area once you made up your mind you wanted to transition to trucking to actually getting on the road what was the biggest challenge you faced to getting there and how are you able to overcome that when I made that leap from being in an office working on math which is my forth day and I knew I was smart and that and I could handle it when I decided that hey you know I think I want to see a bigger world than what I know you know I I was thinking to myself this isn't going to work is it once I made the leap and actually started going through the process I really was like I don't know if I could do this cuz I don't I didn't come from a long line and and it is one of those things like some people just aren't cut out to be truckers but luckily I I made it through but I I certainly was nervous especially when they first gave me my my own truck like you know when you're driving with other people I mean I looked out I actually got a guy who was a million mile he'd been driving for like 40 years uh he was my trainer and so it was really easy to learn understand things but I heard horror stories with guys who ended up with some trainers that were not so great he he really taught me a lot and he always said like you know just take it easy then that's what you got to do and when you take it easy out there it turns into a job that's nice and calm and I just feel like it's great because it enables you to do so much like I've already pointed out so it sounds like the the challenge was it wasn't so much getting your license and and the cost it was more that mindset just your self-doubting and can you do it and then yeah there is a lot especially early on a lot of self-doubt like am I going to be able get into this spot you know I mean I there are times I was in the Bronx like you know trying to cross a street in with that's in a building and I I would just be like I don't know if I'm going to be able to travel like this cuz I'm not sure I'm going to do this without crushing seven cars you know knocking over 10 JW Walkers uh you know and and breaking the building on top of it that I'm trying to get into it's all about taking your time just keep that end goal in mind try if you can get good help a good Mentor to help you I can relate to that you know coming from a place where I didn't really enjoy my job and as much as I disliked it and I wanted to quit after I quit I still had those self-doubts am I doing the right thing can I even do do this what are some of the big frustrations that you still face on the road oh wow jeez there's there's a lot of those a lot of people think trucks can stop on a dime you got to be careful of that we can't stop on a dime you know that's one thing that needs to be understood there's like 880,000 lbs on these trucks so that that's one big thing direction is Big you really have to understand where you're going with a truck cuz you can't go on every road like a car you got to learn many more new routes to places you used to just drive to in your car like even your house you got to be careful where you you choose your house you want to be near a route usually so that way you can park your truck if you have to like me I'm lucky my position now we have a parking lot a lot of companies the mega carriers like you know Werner the one that I work for they're based out of Omaha Nebraska so you know they're they don't have a lot of parking spaces over here in Connecticut they do though they had a few but you know again that's why I'm saying if you do start out you do want to start with the Mega Car even though they'll pay a little less I feel like there's a little more Comfort cuz you know some of these places that will take you on as a newer driver they'll take you on and let you run for as much as you want but then when you want to go home to a place you know like Delaware or Connecticut the smaller States they don't have places for you to park so it's going to be up to you to figure out where those places are great so you're on the road I know you mentioned you got out to e sometimes your work pays for things sometimes once you're on your own you tend to pay for a few more things what does a typical monthly budget look like each month like you probably I always tried to keep it like $200 cash a week and then like if you need need to use a credit card for something important that's when you break that out but you know you want to set boundaries for yourself see Trucking is a little tough to like just put a set number on because it's really up to you like how you want to spend your money the other side of that though to me is I feel like in trucking you can make anything you want to make honestly I mean you're not going to be a millionaire I don't think ever Trucking but if you play it smart your car is right on the side and your side hustles are good and such you can make some money but even as a a regular trucker I do believe you can make over 100,000 I mean there's no no issues you know doing that once you get some experience under your belt and you start doing what you want to do your large expenses your fuels pretty much paid for all fuel is paid for and if you're traveling a year at a time you can rent your house out and have your you know your mortgage paid for and you could do that yeah you could do that I've never done that I know some guys that did though that's where that's where mind mine goes no that that's smart stuff though if you want to stay in hotels every weekend if you want to like you know eat the finest Foods you're going to pay a lot more money and some guys do that you know they they like to eat well you know every night and but you know if you do some fast food here which is that's how I do it I like to go cheap you know during the week while I'm working basically and then I'll I'll treat myself on the weekends you know and that's that's how I would run how many hours a week are you typically working that is a yeah that's again it's probably something where you can work as much as you want right yeah it is it is but um I would say a good trucker that's making good money will be working approximately 50 hours there's law that says that you can't work any more than 70 as a trucker in in a week so that's the most you'll ever be able which is a lot that's 10 hours a day so it is a lot but I would say as a if you're a good trucker and you want to make good money and you want to have your fun you you'll work about 50 hours a week 40 to 50 hours a week and then how does vacation work for something like that that's where Trucking I love Trucking because I feel like anytime you want to take a vacation they're pretty much going to bend over backwards for you because they understand it's a very tough tough thing to do it's a lot of stress especially again like that's why I I suggest being clean that the early on 6 months to a year just take it slow be clean I mean I would tell them I'm stopping here and I want to just spend four days you know and and then like they'll be like all right now if you want to like you know visit family for Thanksgiving they do like you to tell them that hey you know give me a couple weeks notice cuz they can't have their whole Fleet off at the same time so they will like holidays are a little interesting because they'll try to have their guys Jagged they will try to make it around the holidays is where it's a little tough but vacations during the year I mean anytime you want really as long as you're working putting the time in that they'll let you stop where you want or you can say hey uh I'm going home and then I'm taking a trip to France you know for two weeks they they're actually they're very good about letting you get your time off that's one thing I didn't really I didn't consider that it's one of the reasons why I had you on too is because of a lot of people like myself we wanted to take a longer trip and I think you had said you took a multiple month just you took off one time yeah yeah they they really are good about time off that that's one thing I will say again you got to put the time in but once you put the time in they're they're very good about like you know hey you know you've been working hard out here you know for a mental breather and regular uh I don't I don't know how to word this because it's like we we live a regular life but it's a little different they don't want you to feel like you're just stuck in a truck all the time so they'll say you know if you need a month off go ahead if you need two months off take it is that Universal through all trucking or is that with your company Warner they're more loose with that yeah I'd say the mega carriers again or the ones that are company owned the smaller companies might not be able to be so lenient because their trucks do have to make money so they might not be so keen on the long vacations months at a time the mega carriers are a little easier with that Mega carriers just got a certain number of employees or what's it what defines that I would say like the top 100 trucking companies like your JB hunts the ones you see on the road the schneiders the orange the Big Orange drugs they're they're called the mega carries CU they just have a lot of yeah it's like tons of drivers and trucks you see them around basically we'll switch back to kind of budgeting have there been any travel tip money-saving hacks you've learned on the road while Trucking do that's where I I'm big on a debit card as opposed to a credit card out there because I feel like the guys I have some friends and they would just credit card everything and they then they'd be crying to me at the end of the month like oh my God Jeff I spent like $88,000 this month and I didn't even realize it to me it's very important for for yourself even if you don't want to get a debit card just make sure you're taking the cash you want on the road each time you plan on going out like you most companies want you to go out for at least two weeks and that's not the local local you can get home every night but most of the ones that want you to run around the country are they want you out there for two weeks so they can get a few loads on you before you head home and you'll have an idea of when you want to get back home so you'll start to learn yourself how much cash you want to use each time you head out for the time frame that you want to be out do you have trouble at all with internet and s service or not because you're really on the the highway that is funny I thought I would that was actually going in I thought that was going to be a future frustration for me when I first started Trucking I'm like I'm not going to be able to use my computer I'm going to be in No Man's Land Texas you know because there are some areas of Texas you're like where am I it's like one of the biggest states in the world and amazing enough though I I actually had great service I was with Verizon uh you know and I have been you know my whole career I feel like they've covered me well I I use my phone as a hot spot for my computer sometimes and I've never actually had an issue where ever I can't say I've ever been like oh my gosh I can't do anything you know I have no I've never had that issue I certainly can't say the same but I was sleeping in the middle of the woods so oh gee one question we actually just added to the podcast which has been interesting but has there been one thing that you thought you needed that you didn't need and one thing the contrary to that that you thought you wouldn't need that you absolutely need while you're Trucking um I would say just the knowledge of where you're going is needed planning is huge you have to have it so you got to get your atlases you want to get like you want to even look up like Trip Advisor stuff like where you might want to stay visit you might even want to have a travel agent to call like honestly while while you're on the road like you know hey I'm down here in uh you know Missouri is there something I can visit you know like the Ozarks what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling that your jobs allowed you to do I just love meeting people I mean I actually met randomly down in New Mexico I I met a couple from from La Vietnam I got to talking with them and I I just thought it so interesting because they moved to the US for no other reason but they were worried about their children um still walking over mines you know from the war in Vietnam because there's still live mins that weren't found you know in and and like stuff like that is what I love about Trucking like stories like that just stick with you I couldn't believe when they told me that and I I was like I felt horrible almost you know even though I nothing to do with that war how could you live with like go you have your kids out on the farmland and you know there's a possibility they could step on a mind that's stuck with me as far as like seeing things though um I love Georgia Georgia is just to me a great state it's like for me the New York City of the South they have the big metropolitan area they have Savannah so I always love traveling through Georgia I always would try to stop and stay and visit a new new place like Athens or even mon Georgia if I was to move South I actually even think about moving to Georgia no kidding yeah Savannah in particular or just Savannah's really nice yeah Savannah is really nice another state I really loved that I always loved you know stopping and it was Virginia because you got the mountains on the west and then the coastline on the East and I was able to meet my girl there a few times and we hied the you know the alagan and stuff and if you could have listen to this podcast before you started Trucking is there a question you wish I would have asked today that I didn't and how would you have answered that I would I would say like you know what the hell are you going to do out there you know like what what why would you jump in the trucking you know like what would make you take that leap and I asked myself that to this day what interest you and like as a guy that's never known anyone in trucking you know I I don't really understand and that's where the travel comes in from you that was one of my focuses when I went out there you know was to see things and mission accomplished yeah exactly 48 states later awesome man when you were starting out were there any YouTube channels that motivated you or helped inspire you to get on the the road at all well one thing I I would say like if I looked back at my life like as a young child I I was one of those Matchbox car guys I would take over my grandparents house my my parents house and just have cars traveling everywhere looking back I I would say to myself like you knew all along you wanted to be a guy that was out on the road and and seeing things you know Trucking was just the thing to do for me I mean you know as a child was when I I probably should have known I wanted to be a guy that got into this career so yeah was it necessarily this career or was it just something that would enable you to travel the career is nice but yeah I don't know it's that's a tough question because I don't know if career is more important than what I've been able to uh like LifeWise experience life experience as opposed to Career the career side of it it has enabled me to pay for things that to do the things that I've done and then on the other side of it like I would never I would never want to go back on what i' I've made as a decision because again I I I have friends in a lot of places now and I I really appreciate that you know I I saw this meme somewhere if you're eating in peace thank a soldier if you're eating fresh food thank a farmer if you're eating food that was delivered which every pretty much all food is thank a trucker so there you go I mean if without truckers the one thing that you know you have to understand is you'd be traveling a thousand miles to go get your you know whatever you wanted you know whether it's a lawn mower or you know the P PPE for the co you know situation that we just had or truckers are important to the world and you know I would like to make that known I do wish we got a little bit more respect from some folks because uh we're not all dumb when we're not all dirty I promise you know we we've done stuff just like you have hey Jeff this has been great You Dropped a ton of knowledge at I I know I learned a ton everybody listening at home definitely learned a lot from this it's I never knew there was such an opportunity obviously you see truckers all the time on the road I did not know that there was an opportunity to actually have you know such flexibility and freedom and everything else with it so there is a lot of flexibility to it yeah so like I said thanks for coming on again um where can my listeners find out more about you I just kind of keep to myself I'm not really a big guy on the internet social media front but uh if you have any questions just I don't know even maybe message Tyler and he could get to me but you know sure and your company's Warner Warner Tru I'm actually with JB Hunt now JB hun H I work now with uh Bob's Furniture right here in Connecticut uh that's what I focus on their loads more than anything but we do help Costco and um we also helped CNS which is a grosser in this area but yeah I'm I'm more now in the Northeast than I was uh I don't do the over the road so much anymore I might get back into it when I get older but I am now trying to work on my relationship side of life which is one thing that is a little stressful with Trucking it's hard to keep your ladies happy you know because you are away sometimes so I I am closer to home now oh there you go good stuff Jeff thanks again man I appreciate you coming on thank you Tyler I appreciate it