Bigrig Ch. 13

"I understand."

"Good, do you have your CDL, Tony?" He smiled at Jonathan, and then looked to his friend.

"Yes, I do." He reached into his pocket digging out his wallet to be sure.

"I may let you help me with some driving. If we keep rolling, there's less chance of any of us coming up missing or worse." He commented.

"I agree." Tony pulled his license out of his wallet inspecting it. "Yeah, this is it, right?" He handed it to Bruce to look over.

Bruce glanced it over for the right class. "Yes, this is it. We'll need to get you a logbook, too. I don't want the D.O.T. to give us any problems."

"Sure, you'll have to refresh my memory on it though."

"No problem, Tony. I'm sure once you look at mine, it'll all come back to you." Bruce savored another swallow or two of his gourmet coffee.

"You guys have to remind me to call Greg at least once a day." He put the cup to his lips.

"Okay. That's a good idea, by the way. It'll take some of the worry out of his day." Tony approved.

"I agree, plus he asked me, too." He looked at Jonathan who was fidgety. "Drink your coffee, Jon. We'll leave here at six thirty." He informed him.

"Okay." the young man lifted his cup, drinking as if to give himself something to do.

At six twenty, they were loading up the car of all their belongings. Tony went back into the room to be sure they left nothing behind. When he returned, Bruce drove across town to the yard where he had hid his truck. The gate was unlocked as was the huge garage door where the familiar big black Pete was parked.

Connected to the garage to the right as they approached was the office where Dispatch, along with all of the other office personnel worked. The fuel pumps where to the left of the garage.

Bruce pulled up to the closed door next to the bay where his truck was. Jumping out, he climbed up into the truck starting her up. It grumbled a bit, not use to sitting so long. And Bruce eased it out into the open, coming to a stop just past the car.

Tony got out opening the trunk. Jonathan rushed around to help him unload it into the truck. Bruce popped open the passenger door grabbing what Jonathan had in his hands, placing it all on the bunk in the sleeper. He had decided to allow Jonathan to put everything up for them being he had so much energy that morning.

And the young man rushed back to the car, grabbing what he could carry that Tony had placed on the gravel. Back to the truck he went handing it up to Bruce. To the car he raced again. Back and forth he went until it was all in the truck.

When he had handed Bruce the last of it, he turned to see Tony getting in the car behind the wheel.

"Come on up, Jon. He knows where to hide it. You can start putting everything away. I've gonna get fuel and check in with the office. We'll go get the load then." The man said as he reached for him.

Jonathan took his hand being helped up into the cab. Once in, Bruce closed the door as Jon made his way back to the sleeper. He made quick work of putting all of their belongings away in its place and was sitting in the passenger seat before Bruce had returned from the office and was finished fueling.

Curiously, he reached for the saddle bag that was draped across the seat, to the pouch hanging beside it with a large leather book in it.

Getting it, he unzipped it studying Bruce's logs. The pages were all the same forms with green background and white blocks for each letter or number. There was a four line grid that began at midnight, ending at midnight, encompassing twenty-four hours. Beneath it were large blank areas for load numbers or shipment descriptions, as well as an end of day inspection report.

Jonathan looked through the used logs getting an idea of what had to be done. He made mental notes of how Bruce had logged his fuel stops, rest stops, and other important factors of his job. Coming to the last day he had logged, it was closed out and finished. But that had been four days prior. He didn't know if he should start the next log on the following day or if he should make it the last day off duty. So he only filled in the blanks leaving the date and grid untouched for Bruce to finish.

He jumped suddenly as Bruce opened the driver's door climbing into the cab. "Whatchya doin', kid?" He grinned knowing right well what he was attempting.

"Trying to catch this up for ya. It's not too hard, but I'm still not sure." he confessed.

"Let me have a look, Jon. I'll finish it. I appreciate you trying, bud." he reached for the book that the young man relinquished to him.

Placing it open on the steering wheel, he looked it over. "Good job, kid. You've just about got all you can do. The rest is really up to me."

Jonathan stood approaching watching him finish filling out the date. He realized his first instinct was correct. He also watched as Bruce drew a line straight across the grid on the top line.

"What is the line you're logging?" Jonathan asked.

"It's 'Off Duty'. It means I'm not driving or behind the wheel for any reason, or attending to any of my other duties." He then went on to explain the remainder of the grid-lines.

Jonathan then pumped him full of questions about the logbook. Bruce patiently answered each one as simply as he knew how.

"There's still more you'll learn today when we go get the load. It has to be inspected. I have to hook up and make sure all the lights and equipment is working--"

"Damn, Bruce..." Jonathan giggled. "...When do you get to drive this thing?"

"After..." Bruce put the logbook back in the pouch after starting his log for the day. "...And where the hell is Tony, now?"

"Ain't no tellin'." Jonathan sat in the passenger seat looking around. "Here he comes." He stood moving to the sleeper, sitting on the lid of the portable toilet so Tony could sit in the passenger seat.

"Sorry, I was just making sure they hadn't followed us here." He volunteered as he climbed in. "We need to get going before they figure it out."

Bruce drove out of the yard and headed down south of Macon where he and Jonathan hooked up the trailer. The man then walked the young man through the inspection he had to perform. They got into the trailer inspecting the load to ensure it wouldn't shift in transit. Tony brought back the load locks and straps handing them up to the two. When it was done it looked like a tic-tac-toe board in the back. But at least nothing of the load would fall or lean.

Finally, they were under way, headed up toward Atlanta. Jonathan watched as Bruce dodged several accidents that could have happened because of impatient motorists. And soon they were stopped in traffic on I-285.

"Damn at all the cars." Jonathan fussed with a giggle.

"It's like this everywhere, kid. You just gotta sit back and take yer time or someone might get hurt." Bruce commented.

"I noticed that comin' up here. Don't these people realize you can't stop this thing on a dime?"

"No, they don't. They're in a hurry to get wherever, and just don't think about the dangers at all. It pays to stay back and just let 'em go on, keep a good distance, if at all possible, between the nose and the guy ahead. And just try to stay calm."

"Well, you're more man than me, 'cause I might a cussed one or two back there." he chuckled.

"What for? They don't hear it. And you get all upset over nothin'."

"I could shoot 'em." Tony jested.

"Yeah, right. You keep that thing where it's at and I won't go to jail." Bruce quipped.

"True." Tony grinned. "But I would get the satisfaction."

They laughed a bit.

"Look at that jerk!" Jonathan pointed out a guy in a pickup trying to push his way ahead of Bruce.

"He probably needs to get off at the next exit, Jon. I'll stay back and let 'im go." Bruce reasoned.

"Man, you've got the patience of Job. I couldn't do this." He piped.

"It takes a special person to do this job. And patience is a virtue that is very much needed out here. We are gone for long periods, usually with little rest, if we intend to make any money. Lonely, most of the time. Risk our lives day after day, you name it." He motioned for the driver of the pick up to go on and fall in line ahead of him. The guy waved a thank you at him and eased on up into place.

"Wow that was nice of 'im."

"Some do, some don't. But we all get where we're goin' sooner or later."

They inched along for a few minutes. The pickup did exit at the next ramp to Jonathan's surprise. And the traffic began to move again not long after.

Soon they were headed west on I-20. Jonathan sat up for a long time watching the scenery as they went. Into Alabama, he began to feel drowsy. By the time they made it around Birmingham, he couldn't keep his eyes open.

"I gotta lay down, Bruce. This riding is makin' me sleepy." he admitted.

"Okay, babe. We'll getchya up if we stop somewhere." The man leaned as Jonathan planted a kiss on his temple. The young man ducked in the back pulling the curtains and crawled into the bunk.

"He didn't last long." Tony chuckled.

"It's okay. He didn't sleep all that well last night either." Bruce confessed.

"Yeah, I heard you guys goin' at it. Thought you'd never stop." he laughed lightly.

"Sorry if we kept you awake." Bruce grinned.

"Don't start subbing to me, Bruce. I like you much better when you're strong and dominant." Tony admitted.

"Well then, kiss my ass, Tony."

"Okay, bear it."

"Oh, you gonna let a little material stop ya?"

"Blow me, Bruce. Jonathan needed that last night was all I meant. You two ain't had no time together."

"I know. And I couldn't wait any longer either."

"I appreciate you guys givin' us some time. We really had fun." Tony confessed.

"Looked like it. And I want to thank you for not hurting him. I must admit, I was worried about it."

"I know, but I kept my wits about me, as hard as it was at one point."

"You did good, Tony."

"When you gonna quit?"

"I hope to get to Shreveport. If I can, you should be able to at least get us to Dallas and I'll take it back from there."

"Okay..."

"West bound..." They heard someone calling on the C.B.

"Go ahead Eastbound." Bruce grabbed the mic answering.

"You gotta 10/36 on yer side at the seventeen yard stick. Traffic's startin' to back up a little."

"Any lanes open, or is it at a dead stop?"

"Both lanes are blocked, driver. If yer in a hurry, you might find a way around." the voice answered.

"'Preciate it, driver. I ain't seen nothin' back that a way, come on big."

"That's a good deal, driver. You keep that dirty side down and outta the ditches, you hear?"

"10/4, you do the same."

"Gotta accident ahead, already." Tony shook his head.

"Yeah, look in the atlas and see if there's a route around it. We don't need to be sitting and have 'the world's most wanted' find us there."

Tony chuckled at Bruce's reference of Maurice. He pulled out the Motor Carrier's Road Atlas thumbing through the laminated pages until he found Alabama, (the first in the alphabetized maps). Of course before that were the 'Weight and Bridge Laws', the 'Permanent Weigh Scales', 'Restricted Routes for Motor Carriers', 'Vehicle Inspection Illustration', 'Instructions on how to properly complete a Logbook', so on and so forth. Just that part along was thick enough to make an entire book alone.

Looking over the map he found a good truck route. "Get off at exit 23. Head south to U.S. 11. Hang a right and go to S.R. 17 North. That'll bring us right back to I-20."

*****

Seven and a half hours later Bruce made his way off the interstate at exit 8 in Shreveport, La. Pulling up to the fuel isle he set the brakes and climbed down fueling the truck. After washing the windshield and all the windows and mirrors, he pulled into a parking spot that luckily emptied as he pulled forward of the pumps.

It was six thirty pm. and parking would be hard to find now. He waited for Tony to return with his fuel ticket before he stepped back to wake up Jonathan. They went into the restaurant to eat a hot meal, returning to the truck about an hour later.

Bruce unlocked the truck and Tony got in behind the wheel filling out his logbook before he started out on the road. He was a little rusty at the shifting, but it would soon come back to him. And Bruce never complained about his grinding a gear or two, knowing it had been a long while since he had driven one of these.

"They've got motion scales up here, now. So, be sure yer in the right lane when you get there." Bruce advised. "Plus, you've got Prepass. The green light is the bypass indicator. You don't even have to go into the coops if you get it. Just keep rollin'."

"Coops?" Jonathan asked.

"Chicken Coops. Scale house." Tony defined for him.

"Oh."

"Yep. We're west bound and down, loaded up and truckin'." Bruce chuckled.

"And a rooster cruisin', mashin' the gas, totin' that ass." Tony added.

"Dodgin' them coops, come on big, Rubber Duck." They laughed.

"Kickin' the cat, walkin' the dog..." Tony added more.

"Kickin' the dog, walkin' the cat." Jonathan barked.

They laughed again.

"Well, we know who likes cats and dogs around here." Tony quipped. "Know any bad cat jokes?"

"Don't torment the poor guy just 'cause he likes furry felines." Bruce jested.

"Cats are sneaky little critters. You gotta watch 'em." Tony commented.

"Yeah, but their so cute and cuddly." Jonathan chimed.

"Dogs are cute and cuddly." Tony stated.

"Their mean and vicious." Jonathan fussed then.

"Ah, that's right. You didn't have a run in with your Uncle's Dobermans did ya?" He glanced back at Jonathan for a second, then back at the road.

"Once or twice. They cornered me a few times like a thief or something. I wanted to shoot 'em both." he returned angrily.

"Sorry to hear that, kid. But you know not all dogs are like those two. It all depends on how ya train 'em."

"Well, I'll just stay the hell away from 'em for now." Jonathan quipped.

Tony made it across the Texas line as they talked. Bruce stayed up with him for an hour to let his meal digest before retiring to the bunk.

"Just give me about two or three hours, Tony. I'll take it from there." He stood patting Tony's shoulder as he went to the back.

Jonathan remained on the portable toilet while the man peeled off his shirt and jeans. He left his boxer briefs on and crawled into bed. The young man then joined him, knowing he would want him beside him. The man curled and arm about him pulling him close.

"After I fall off, why don't you try to sit up with Tony for a while? Keep him company. He ain't slept yet." He requested. "If he gets tired make 'im pull over. I don't want to wake up in a ditch somewhere."

"Okay." Jonathan agreed.