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From the Editor’s desk...
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The truck show season is over and, while we always look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones, when VOLUME 16, ISSUE 9 looking back at the shows once they are over, it’s hard not to let out a sigh of relief. Don’t get me wrong we love them and PUBLISHER/EDITOR John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca we are by far not the only ones who put in a lot of work to make them happen. The drivers who bring out their trucks PRODUCTION/CIRCULATION make a huge sacrifice in time and money. Many nights and Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca weekends are spent detailing these trucks and then there is ADMIN/SPECIAL EVENTS the last minute rush, often 24 hour scrambles, including a John White Donna White donna.protrucker@shaw.ca few days off, to get the trucks ready. ADVERTISING/MARKETING Taking BC Big Rig Weekend inside this year was amazing. In the 70,000 John White john.protrucker@shaw.ca Tori Proudley tori.protrucker@shaw.ca square feet of indoor space we had 60 trucks, the trade booths, beer garden and stage as well as a bouncy castle and miniature golf course. Jamie Davis’ booth CONTRIBUTING WRITERS at both BC and Alberta had constant line ups as he signed posters and posed for Dave Madill • Mel McConaghy pictures with his many fans – both young and old. Ben Proudley • Scott Casey We changed the layout for the grounds at Alberta Big Rig Weekend and it too Frank Cox • Ed Murdoch Colin Black • Dennis Ruttan worked out very well. The children’s area with bouncy castle and miniature golf also included some amazingly realistic radio controlled trucks which everyone PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Proudley • David Benjatschek loved. It is always good to see the reaction of people from BC who come to Alberta HEAD OFFICE and in turn the Alberta people who come to the BC event. The common comPh: 604-580-2092 Fax: 604-580-2046 ment from people from both sides of the Rockies is, “Wow, I had no idea you had Toll Free: 1-800-331-8127 such beautiful iron out here.” Published eleven times a year by This year we were asked by Master Productions, out of New Brunswick, to Pro-Trucker Magazine Inc., The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any organize a Show and Shine for Truxpo 2014. I was very apprehensive at first means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the because in the past the turn out for show and shines at trade shows in the west publisher. The advertiser agrees to protect the publisher against legal action based upon libelous or inaccurate statements; the has been very poor. But our friends came through and once the word was out we unauthorized use of materials or photographs; and/or any other were inundated with requests to be there. I wish we could have invited everyone errors or omissions in connection with advertisements placed in Pro-Trucker Magazine. The publisher can and will refuse any but we were restricted to 30 trucks and we wanted to include as many categories advertising which in his opinion is misleading or in poor taste. The publisher does not endorse or make claim or guarantee the as we could. As usual some the trucks were called out at the last minute but a validity or accuracy of any advertisement herein contained. All quick call to other drivers quickly filled the spots. You can see pictures of some materials submitted for publication are subject to editing at the publisher’s discretion. The act of mailing or e-mailing material of the trucks on pages 30 and 31. shall be considered an expressed warranty by the contributor that the material is original and in no way an infringement on Shocking Statistics – 158 Canadian soldiers died while serving in Afghanistan. the rights of others. Pro-Trucker Magazine is written and proSince their return 179 soldiers have taken their own lives. Of the 250 soldiers duced in Surrey, B.C., and printed by Coastal Web Press Inc., Langley, B.C. who served with our writer Scott Casey in Sarajevo, a peace keeping mission, 1 PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT was killed in action, and 11 have since taken their own lives. #40033055 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE For those who have not seen the documentary that Scott participated in you CANADIAN ADDRESSES can go to YouTube and search for “Sector Sarajevo.” It is an amazing film that all TO CIRCULATION DEPT. 9693 129th Street. Canadians, especially our politicians, should see. Their director, Barry Stevens, SURREY, B.C. V3T 3G3 recently won the 2014 Writer’s Guild of Canada, Screenwriting Award for the Email: tori.protrucker@shaw.ca film. The truth will shock you.
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LETTERS EDITOR
week and passed away within 6 weeks. The decision was made to take on the whole show and go ahead and hold hite zine W n the event in his memory - hence the by-line, “A Trucker’s h a g Jo r Ma rucke T to the o r Dream.” The Dale Feechuk Memorial Trophy is the most P John White gazine sought after trophy at BC Big Rig Weekend. It is awarded Pro-Trucker Ma each year to the winner of the Best In Show Working Truck category. There are now 14 very proud truckers out there whose names are engraved on Dale’s trophy. Originally named Big Rig Weekend, BC was added two years later Hello John I was very pleased to pick up the last 2 issues of Pro- when we took Dale’s dream to Alberta and started the Trucker and see you are keeping the memory of Dale Alberta Big Rig Weekend. Feechuk alive. Dale had a vision but sadly did not live to see his dream come true. He would have been so pleased Letter to the Editor: On August 9th, 2014 the 20th Anniversary of, ‘Hot Nite that 14 years later BC Big Rig Weekend is still going in The City’, downtown Kamloops BC was invaded once strong. It is a huge honor to have a trophy in his name. Thank again by the semi’s. This year we were fortunate enough you to John and his Pro- Trucker staff and the Major to have 10 awards, five of which were provided by ProTrucker Magazine. Congratulations to Chester De Raspe Sponsors and Trophy Sponsors who make it possible. -1st Place Logging Truck; Ryan Ellis/LeBeau Contracting Eileen Feechuk (Dales Mother) - 2nd Place Logging; Bruce Shantz – Vintage; and 2nd Don Zilkie (Dales cousin) Overall - Ron Stokes. The Best in Show was awarded to Editor’s note: Thank you Eileen – I hope all is well with Bruce Shantz and his very impressive 1965 Kenworth. you. For our readers: Dale Feechuk was the truck driver There’s never enough hardware to present to our amazing who started it all by coming to us in the late fall of 2000 trucks and drivers - thanks to Pro-Trucker Magazine for asking for help organizing a trucker’s family weekend. allowing us to recognize these very deserving participants We finally agreed at a meeting in January of 2001 but at our show. Thank you, John, for your support over the unfortunately Dale was diagnosed with cancer that very years.
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Sue Adams Big Rig Coordinator Hot Nite in the City 2014 Editor’s note: Thank you Sue, it was mainly through your efforts that a few years ago trucks were finally included in what was originally a car show. I know how overprotective some car owners can be of their shows but if you think about it, their efforts pale in comparison to what logging truck drivers like Chester De Raspe and Craig LeBeau and his crew go through to get their trucks ready for a show after coming straight out of the bush. If you want NEW Extended Hours Mon-Fri 8 am- Midnight • Sat 8 am- 5pm to talk quality I would also put any number of working trucks, not to mention the show trucks, up against the footprint therefore increasing the carbon tax. cars and I’m sure they would hold their own on the score 3) Given that many people drive with their brains five miles behind their vehicles, due to stress, drugs, booze, sheets. texting or talking on cellphones increasing the speed allows less reaction time. Attn: John White; Great letter re increasing the speed limit from 100kph 4) Insurance claims will rise due to accidents caused by the to 120kph. This is a very well written letter and should be increase in speed as will insurance costs. Please see letter sent to every newspaper in B.C. B.C. Transport Minister, from ICBC re costs (enclosed) Many lawyers become poliMr. Stone states “facts are facts.” Here are some other ticians and with accidents, lawyers make money. 5) As the costs increase to the trucking industry, so do facts not mentioned by Mr. Stone: 1) Increasing the speed limit which will increase fuel the costs to the consumer which of course will increase consumption on all vehicles thereby increasing the fuel the PST and the GST on the products hauled. The consumer will wrongfully blame the trucking industry for tax. 2) Increasing fuel consumption will increase the carbon the increased costs and not the B.C. Government or the
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transport minister. 6) Any accidents involving trucks, even if the truck and or driver were not the cause, will be blamed on the trucking industry. Just a short note: I grew up in Fort St. John, B.C. and our company Bowes and Heron Ltd., owned large wreckers. I started driving on the Alaska Highway when I was 16 and have seen more than my share of death and destruction from accidents caused by speed, booze and poor and dusty road conditions. I suspect that the increase in tax revenue from the increased speed limit may be deemed more important than the safety factor. I would like to suggest that you meet with Mr. Stone in Victoria and stress safety issues on behalf of professional truck drivers and the trucking association of B.C. If you decide to go and want
OCTOBER 2014
some help, please call. Sincerely, John Herron To John White Hello. My name is Bill Collins and I am writing this in regard to an article in your July Pro-Trucker Magazine about the driver Jme and her story about a vehicle that went into Woods Lake. I am the husband of the lady that went into the lake in her vehicle. To all the people that tried to help that day, about 10 people, that was amazing. There were several people that went into that very cold water including Jme. Our family are very proud of all those and the effort that was done. To all the people we give great thanks and are proud of you all. Jme, don’t feel bad about the final outcome. You all did
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more than the average person. Jme we missed you at the revenue generator of another 2.4 billion dollars. This is a total of 3.6 billion dollars per year, and we see very little awards ceremony. Hope we meet again someday. Thanks from all of us. pro-active in helping the residents of British Columbia in B. Collins & Family 604-314-2160 trying to reduce the overall usage of fuel. We don’t see any effort in twinning a number of highways so that traffic Editor’s note: We are all very sorry for your loss Bill. To can flow freely, without having to dodge slower vehicles our readers – Bill is referring to Jme Andrew, our July on a two lane highway, and having passing lanes that go 2014 Rig of the Month driver who, while driving her rig to the top of a hill instead stopping 3/4 of the way up, or one December day, came upon a vehicle accident where having speed curves every couple of kilometers that cause a lady had gone off the road into Woods Lake. Jme was a vehicle to slow down and then pick up speed again. We awarded the Bronze Medal for Bravery for going into the also don’t see the government working on any of the hills freezing water with other people in an attempt to save the on our highways on cutting them down, to help reduce driver. Feeling guilty and very stressed that they were not fuel usage. able to save the woman, Jme could not bring herself to Also noting the construction signs when work is being attend the awards ceremony. done they put a price on how much they are investing in the project, that range in the area of $800,000.00 per kiloGood Day John, meter. Once again if my math is correct this would build I liked your article in the August issue on how much 4,500 kilometers of highway every year, (we have about money the government rakes in on the carbon tax. The 10,000 kilometers of highways) and over the last 10 years number is a big one at 1.2 BILLION DOLLARS and the we could have had the best and safest highways in Canada. province claiming to be the most pro-active in climate Instead we pay the highest fuel taxes and have most daninterests. gerous roads in Canada to drive on. With this tax we see very little being done to improve As for the increased speed limit, as you say increases our roads throughout the province to reduce the so-called fuel consumption and it really helps with the carbon tax dreaded “GREEN HOUSE GASES”. You did forget to revenue, the reason the speed was adjusted upward. mention our ever so called fair road tax at I believe 16 Have a great day cents per litre, which in turn if my math is correct, a Dave Patraschuk, Patraschuk Trucking Ltd.
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Hello and good day, Thank you for letting us join in the Alberta Big Rig Weekend. It was a great time and an experience we will never forget. Thank you for the great hospitality, and the joy of showing our radio controlled mini big rigs to the world of trucking. Very excellent show! Excellent turn out of drivers and trucks. Some very beautiful iron out there. Had a great time talking about and showing our rigs. Thank you for letting us be a part of the family. Hope your drive home was safe and uneventful. We are already getting excited for next year’s show. The expressions on some of the faces when I let them drive my rig was awesome. From kid to adult, they all got to feel what it is like to run one. Be safe and keep them tires turning. Thank you again. Shaun Legaarden, Edmonton. Editor’s note: Thank you Shaun, your mini trucks were a big hit with everyone. It was great to see the kids turn into imaginary truckers when handed the controls but it was even more fun watching the drivers turn back into kids.
time, wondering if I should send it in. Josh is now 6 years old, and the photo was when he was 2, learning to potty train. We used Pro-Trucker mags to bribe to get him to go potty, and it worked every time. He has loved trucks and machinery since he was born and has sat in the passenger seat of his Daddy’s crane truck since he was just weeks old. When he was 2 he could name all the semi’s coming at us on the freeway, just by looking at the grill, and he was right EVERY time. It blew me away. He definitely will be following in his Dad’s footsteps. We love your magazine, and Josh screams like a little girl when Daddy brings home the new one for the month. Randy always brings home 3, one for himself, one for Josh, and one for me. Keep up the great writing guys, we love ya, and figured you could use a good laugh. Thanks again, so excited to see Josh’s face in Pro-Trucker, and show all our trucking friends and family! Tanya Byles, Randy’s Crane & Trucking. Chilliwack, BC.
Editor’s note: We love to see our young fans reading the magazine and it was great to meet your family at Truxpo. But I’m sure that about 20 years from now Josh will not be too happy to see this picture up on a big screen at his Hello John, wedding. I have only one question – were all the pages I have been hanging on to this picture for quite some still in the magazine when he was finished?
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Idle Time
By Scott Casey Scott, our Rig of The Month for May 2003 has written “In the Devil’s Courthouse” a book about his years as a gun toting truck driver while serving as a Canadian Peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia
Reptilian Rage There is a disturbing rise in reptile population in western Canada. I’m not referring to little frogs, salamanders, or snakes. Those are living creatures with a purpose in our global food chain of maintaining balance and harmony. Nor am I making reference to politicians or bureaucrats. The creature in question is capable of taking a bite out of a tractor-trailer with such severity that it can render it immobile with one strike, going straight to its airway, tearing it out as only a predator can. The fate is even more deadly for the smaller cars and trucks, with a fatal blow being dealt so swiftly that its 10w30 blood can be spilled in seconds or the automobile can actually be hurled off the roadway with one flick of the tail. This influx of evil has only been compounded by the high temperatures of summer in combination with an increase of the posted speed limit and second line tires, better known as retreads or caps. Confused yet?
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the tire up. With heat comes pressure, and the separation process can now begin if the compound has a weakness. Add an increase in speed and ambient air temperatures and the heat inside the tire rises exponentially which eventually leads to a failure. Trucking companies can reduce this road hazard and negative cost by educating and policing their fleet’s drivers on the effects of driving over 100kmh. Drivers can also save themselves the headache of lost time by slowing down and protecting our overall highway environment from these nasty predators.
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By Ben Proudley Ben has been a Class 1 driver for 15 years. He started out driving wreckers and currently heavy hauls for Hertz Equipment Rentals. Ben was our Rig of the Month in March of 2008
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It Could Happen to You! I try to write about things that I am passionate about and this subject is very close to my heart. It is the Slow Down/Mover Over Law and I feel that it does not get nearly enough press or attention from mainstream newspapers. Being an ex-tow truck driver, having close friends in law enforcement, and personally having to work at the side of the road while doing my current job,
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#5-32860 Mission Way, Misson, BC it is always on my mind. I haul equipment with an oversize trailer for Hertz Equipment Rentals and I often find myself loading equipment at the side of the road. There are still some backward places where it is not the law but I do not think that should matter. As professional drivers we should lead by example by practicing this at all times. We are the biggest vehicles on the road and if we hit someone the chances of them surviving is very poor at best. We would then have to live with the knowledge that our lack of consideration was the direct cause of someone’s death. There are also ways that we can help to protect them. Check out Guard Rail Angels on Facebook. It is a page trying to say thank-you to those who help protect our towers, law enforcement, and maintenance crews. In my case I have now started to block a lane when there is a tow truck trying to load off the fog line. I have yellow beacons, so the law works for me as well. Taking 10 minutes out of your day to help make sure that a driver is safe while loading is not a big deal. There is nothing more important than a human life. Trust me, the driver will be very thankful for this small gesture of kindness. We all need to remember that these people have families, like we do. They too want to go home when the day is over, in one piece - not in a body bag. On the 17th of September one of Aggressive Towing’s drivers was struck on the side of the road. He is ok, cracked ribs and bruising and more than a little sore to say the least. He
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towing. This is a prime example of why we all need to put down the phone and watch the road. In 2012, 41 drivers were killed. In 2013, 51 were killed. This year 2014 we are losing one driver every six days. At this rate we will lose 60 or more tow truck drivers in North America this year. What is even more shocking is that it is more than all Policemen and Firemen killed in the line of duty combined. Below are a couple of photos of my truck and trailer loading on the side of the road. Not a lot of room to work. With cars flying by at 80 km/hr. it is not fun. It is part of was clipped while changing a tire on the side of the free- the job, but that does not mean it has to be more dangerway in Abbotsford. It was also a hit and run, so if anyone ous than it already is. Please remember to slow down and witnessed this please contact the police or Aggressive move over, it could be my life you save. r
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Hands and Brain Free The other day we were progressing down the road at our usual sedate pace (read slow) when the man started yammering a mile a minute. I figured that he had finally stepped over the line and officially lost his marbles and then I realized he was talking into his latest hands free device. You know - that ugly thing that made him look like he was auditioning for a job at Ronald MacDonalds. The last one he had met a crushing death under the wheels of our loaded supertrain when it fell off his ear at the Cowichan Bay Sawmill! He was convinced at the time that, because he had purchased all of the warranty packages and he had all the now very flat pieces, that it would be replaced by Telus! I kept telling him that the girl at Telus would just laugh at him. Oh No, he went in the store ranting and raving and was politely told “NO”. This of course didn’t sit well with him but he finally purchased a new Blue Parrott. He says that this over the head set is clear as a
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bell but he still only hears what he wants. As I have said many times before, this guy has a serious problem with selective hearing! The only time he gets things straight is when he is coercing Dean (his oldest son) into helping him work on the truck. Somehow it slips his mind that Dean works long hours also and has his own truck to maintain. The Man’s offers of money doesn’t sway Dean either but the constant calls about a problem will often get Dennis the help he needs. Dean learned a long time ago that it is better to bite the bullet and help than to have to listen to an old man cry the blues about his poor truck. Dean is good at maintaining a truck. Dennis on the other hand has a tendency to let little things go until they
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threaten to become big things. At which time he is going to be out of work if the original minor problem isn’t fixed immediately. This is when Dean usually gives in as he would rather get it over with than put up with the Man’s constant whining. A case in point is the other day we had a left low beam that would only work when it wanted to. I caught Doggy Doo-Doo for about 400 km when Dennis saw it was out even though I know it was working when I did the pretrip. He didn’t believe me until he checked it again at the dock and it was on. Then about 1 km down the road another Marpole driver (Pete) came on the radio saying it was out. Of course Dennis didn’t apologise to me as he would have to admit he was wrong and that would ruin the distorted self-image he has of himself. Dennis’ first attempt at fixing the problem was to change the light which left me confused as I have yet to see a burned out bulb that would sometimes come back to life. I suggested that a wire may be broken but he just gave me his, “I’ll decide,” look and proceeded to change the whole plug and harness. When the light still didn’t work he finally looked at the wiring and after cutting off about 2 miles of tape he found the broken wire. Ignoring the fact that I had suggested a broken wire was the problem, he held it up grinning like he had just won the Stanley Cup. Dean quietly suggested to me that maybe the phone running directly into his head through the new headset
M T AND T ACCOUNTING Specializing in the Transportation Industry: Bookkeeping - GST - Payroll Corporate & Personal Tax Planning and Filing Visit our website at mtandtaccounting.com or give us a call at 403-398-2476 had finally tipped the old boy off the scale. On the other hand I really think the hands free devices are the way to go as they are definitely a safety device. In fact almost all the sawmills on Vancouver Island have taken it to the next level and banned the use of cell phones all together. They feel that 100% concentration is needed to be an alert, safe, worker and that, hands free or not, if you are on the phone you are a ‘Brain Free’ accident waiting to happen. *****
I said, “Pardon?”
A Judge was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce, and he asked her , “What are the
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grounds for your divorce?” She replied, “About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by.” “No,” he said, “I mean what is the foundation of this case?” “It is made of concrete, brick and mortar,” she responded. “I mean,” he continued, “What are your relations like?” “I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, and so do my husband’s parents.” He said, “Do you have a real grudge?” “No,” she replied, “We have a two-car carport and have never really needed one.” “Please,” he tried again, “is there any infidelity n your marriage?” “Yes, both my son and daughter have stereo sets. We don’t necessarily like the music, but the answer to your questions is yes.” “Ma’am, does your husband ever beat you up?” “Yes,” she responded, “about twice a week he gets up earlier than I do.” Finally, in frustration, the judge asked, “Lady, why do you want a divorce?” “Oh, I don’t want a divorce,” she replied. “I’ve never wanted a divorce. It is my husband who wants the divorce. For some reason he says he can’t communicate with me!”
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Rig of the Month
by John White
Photo’s by David Benjatschek Wowtrucks.com If the Burgundy truck on the cover looks familiar there is a good reason – it was featured as the Rig of the Month in October of 2013 but at that time it was driven by Jake Barabas. It is still owned by Cen-Alta Oilfield Trucking but is now driven by Eric Duguay. His significant other, Tamara Weston drives the black Pete for Cen-Alta. Jake took the 1st place Company Truck trophy at Alberta Big Rig Weekend this year in Red Deer but Tamara came right back taking 1st at the Lesco Truck Show in Leduc. This is Tamara’s story: My name is Tamara Weston and I was born and raised on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I have an older brother and sister, and a younger brother - and I was daddy’s little girl. I fell in love when I was 5 years old; he was 10 years older than me, and a little rough around the edges. He wasn’t your typical first love, but he was awesome. He was a 1958 Kenworth that was converted from an old logging truck into a dump truck with a steel box that weighed a ton. He had a six-cylinder jimmy engine with a 4 plus 5 transmission. I loved that truck! My father couldn’t leave the yard without me tagging along - I told him when I was 5 that I was going to be a truck driver. Fast forward 15 years. I was a single mother, with two small children, doing what everyone else thought I should. I was taking criminology in university, while working in a dead end job, and doing whatever I could to make ends meet. I was miserable… Fast forward another 15 years. Two more children, a failed marriage and still doing what everyone else thought I should. Then it hit me, I started working with small equipPAGE 20
ment, bobcats, then an excavator, then dozer, then a 30-ton rock truck and I was blissfully loving every minute of it. I worked up at Fort Mac for almost 2 years at one of the major oil sites and I was finally happy. After a while I switched it up a bit. I got a decent job with decent pay, dispatching fuel trucks. Then everything changed when I went on a fuel run with Eric. While I was in the passenger seat, I just had to call my mom and dad and tell them what I was doing because it was the first time in forever that I had been in the passenger seat of a rig. Next came the “the watch my feet…..hold my hand” academy of big rig driving (thanks Trevor S.) He soon had me doing laps and backing up a set of super b’s. (not very well - lol - but at least I tried ) That’s when I decided to get my class one. All the drivers told me that it’s a hard go and that all the best jobs require 2 years experience so it’s hard to get your foot in the door at any company. Eric tried to talk me out of it too but I’m the type of girl that if you tell me I can’t do something I absolutely have to prove you wrong. (right mom?) I went through Genaro Drivers Training in Edmonton. They were awesome and because I had a job they fast tracked me. For my second lesson I was hooked up to a 53 ft dry van, with a freightliner sleeper unit cruising along 137th street when I looked over and saw that my instructor looked gray. I asked him 3 times if he was ok before he answered. “I forgot my medication, he said, “I’m having chest pain, I need you to take me home”. In my head I’m thinking, “Oh great, I’ve given him a heart attack!” Next thing I know I am navigating this big rig through residential streets to get him home. Once we got there he refused to go to hospital
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and made me promise never to tell anyone at Genaro. I had a new instructor the next day and thankfully my first instructor survived, but he wisely relieved himself from teaching. I got my Class 1 on March 27th, and was just waiting for my training to start with Gibson’s when I was told about a possible job in Legal, Alberta. It was with Cenalta, an oilfield fluid company. I spoke with Eric about it and then decided to give them a call. They asked me to bring in my resume and abstract that very afternoon. I went in thinking it was a long shot - but what the heck. To my surprise I was hired! I had no idea what to expect and was scared to death. I went to work for them on March 29th 2012, as the first female driver they had ever hired. The day I was hired, they heard that my better half was hauling sales oil and they went after him as well. He was hired April 1. My first truck was a little Freightliner tandem tank truck that everyone called the Tonka Truck. I was beside myself when after just two days of training I was sent out on my own. A few months of running went by without incident and then I was given a Kenworth tri-drive body job and became their rescue truck. It was break up in the oil field and that truck would get in anywhere. I learned quite quickly that Alberta mud sucked! Within a few months I had a three axle wagon hooked up to it and was hauling down the highway. Every night I would practice backing it up, much to Eric’s dismay, because sometimes I would get it first try sometimes it
Tamara Weston & Eric Duguay would take 45 mins to get it backed in straight, but it HAD to be straight lol. I was switched between the tri-drive wagon combo and the straight tri-drive for about a year. I almost drove my dispatcher crazy at this point because he would give me loads and I would get them done before he was up in the morning and I would be calling and texting looking for more work. Then the day came (after much bugging) that he put me in a tractor with a tri-axle trailer. My first load was a load of water to a frac site and I had no idea what I was doing. I loaded my water and suddenly had a group of 4 guys coach-
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ing me. It wasn’t until I pulled onto the site that I realized what the fuss was all about. The site was completely full of equipment, trailers and high pressure lines. I had to nose my tractor up to a rig tank and pull 3 hoses to offload. Then I had to back out, with no room, and jack knife my trailer to get out. I am my father’s daughter and no amount of, “want me to drive that for ya” or, “that’s a pretty big truck for a little girl like you,” was gonna stop me. I was determined and careful and I got out. I did infield work for about a year and a half, doing whatever was needed, frac jobs, rig work, service work, whatever - and I loved it. Eric and I worked together for the first year and a half and if I was lucky I would see him once or twice during the day. Then came the day in Oct of 2013 that I was asked to hook up to a set of trains and run a load with Eric from Ante Creek by Valley View to Redwater. I was stoked! I couldn’t believe that I was finally going to get to run the highway with a set of super b’s. It was an interesting winter, learning how to run trains, and run highway 63. I soon learned that it’s not the highway that is the killer, it’s the people who drive it that make it dangerous. In late spring of 2014, I was given my pretty black 2015 388 Peterbilt and I could hardly contain myself. When she was given to me I had to track down my boss and give him a hug. ( I often wonder how many of the other drivers have
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hugged him?) He is always telling me how proud he is of me, and is constantly thanking me for doing such a good job. I have to thank my better half, Eric, because without him I wouldn’t be half the driver I am today. He was always there to answer questions, and he exercised a huge amount of patience whenever I would have to try and figure something out on my own. (Father’s stubborn daughter.) There were times when he had more faith in my ability than I did and he would talk me through a tough spot. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because I get to do what I love with the man that I love. It hasn’t been an easy road, being a female in a male dominated field, and I’ve taken my knocks but have given a few too. It has taken a whole lot of persistence and hard work but I’ve earned the respect of most of the men I work with. They learned quite quickly what my boundaries are and not to cross them. They also learned that I was hired to do a job not to watch someone else do it for me. I do my own work, and drive my own truck. I have to give a huge shout out to my boss, Danny T. He took a chance and gave a girl a chance and I will be forever grateful. He really is the best boss ever. This is Eric’s story: My name is Eric Duguay and I was born April, 1971 in Bathurst, New Brunswick. My father, Don Duguay, drove a delivery truck for Coca-Cola and he was very well known
as the Coca-Cola Cowboy throughout the Maritimes, Quebec, and parts of Ontario. The first truck I remember him driving was a Kenworth cab over and although I’m not sure of the year, I can remember standing on my tip toes on the passenger side so that I could look out through the windshield. His next truck was a Kenworth W600 that was painted in Coca-Cola colors. It had some really nice murals on the bunk and it did very well at the truck shows. When I turned 18 I went straight down and got my class 1. But without experience no one would even look at me so I went to work for Midland Transport in Bathurst as a dock worker. I loaded trucks at night and then I would go meet my dad, in the gravel pit where he was working, and drive his truck to gain experience. After doing this for a few weeks I miraculously found 2 years’ experience and applied for a job with Seaboard Transport. They hired me and I started hauling lead and zinc from a mine site to the bulk facilities. After about 4 years the mine closed and they asked me if I would be interested in running the highway for them and I jumped at the chance. So my life on the road started in a Freightliner with a 48” single bunk and one short stack on the passenger side – it was no dream truck but I was trucking. This is where I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of Mike Whelton who was a lease operator also hauling for seaboard. I was your typical young guy who
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wanted to impress the boss. I wanted to get my loads quick and get them off quicker and this habit could have ended my trucking career if Mike had not taken me under his wing. He taught me the importance of proper maintenance of my truck and equipment and that being the fastest didn’t mean I was good. He said that not having down time and doing my job in a efficient safe manner was what really impressed the boss. I have to thank Mike for guiding me, and showing me what’s important. After six years of trucking with Mike, and a total of 10 years of trucking the eastern seaboard, the oil fields of Alberta where calling my name so I quit my job and accepted a new one driving winch truck for a company out of Brooks, Alberta. Or at least I thought that is what I would be doing. A week before I was scheduled to fly out, the gentleman informed me that he had sold his truck and he no longer had a job for me. Back to the drawing board. I could have gone back to Seaboard, but stuck to my decision to quit and went to work for a company hauling cars. Hauling cars through eastern Canada and Quebec was a totally new trucking experience. It involved a lot of thinking outside the box, I got my second calling to the oilfield’s in Alberta and went to work for a small outfit in Fort McMurray, fueling equipment. But this job also wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and when work slowed down and I was forced to head back to New Brunswick. When I got back I went to work for an independent contractor floating equipment and hauling gravel in the summer and snow removal in the winter. This work was slow and I found it was hard to make ends meet. After hard times and a failed marriage my third and final call to the patch came from my good friend Arnie Sampson, aka Papa, and I went to work for AFD Petroleum in Fort McMurray . This is where Tammie and I met. After living in camp for two years we decided to move out of Fort McMurray to Red Water Alberta where I took a job hauling sales oil for Troy Yearly. About this time Tammie got a crazy notion to get her class 1. I tried to talk her out of it, but there was no way that was going to happen. I heard about a company who was looking for a driver as they had just lost a few. She applied and I was really surprised that they hired her because she had just re-classed her license and she had zero experience. Her dispatchers, after hearing I was hauling sales oil, had her call me and ask if I wanted a job. I’m not one to jump from job to job so I declined. The next day her dispatcher showed up at our house and after much convincing I went to work with Cenalta. It was the best decision I have ever made. Okay the 2nd best. (sorry Tammie!) Tammie and I went to work on the infield doing 6 to 7 short runs a day which meant we could be home every night. Based on my experience on the east coast I was not interested in running the highway again where you knew when you left but no idea when you were going to make it home. We ran like that for the first year and a half. PAGE 26
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Driving Through my Memories
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By Ed Murdoch
Ed has held a commercial drivers license for 60 years and has spent the better part of 50 years on the road. You can get Ed’s new book at www.drivingthroughmymemories.ca A woman approached me at the radio booth recently at the Salmon Arm Fall Fair. After a brief conversation about the radio program that I do, we spoke about her engineering qualifications. When she realized I was an old trucker she asked me if I knew where Kingsway Corner was. I looked at her and said, “Lady, I had an intimate relationship with Kingsway Corner in 1987, why do you ask?” She said, “My brother was killed there and it wasn’t his fault. He was pushed over the embankment by another truck.” There have been many crashes there over the years and much of it may be blamed on the unusual road gradient and poor engineering in the planning stage. If one is northbound with a topheavy load, when leaving the last curve, the entire unit leans alarmingly away from, rather than into, the corner. Kingsway Corner is situated between Spences Bridge and Ashcroft, BC and is so named because of an incident which occurred way back in the ‘70s when a southbound Kingsway Transport, coming into the series of curves, leaned over too far into the other lane and clipped a
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Terry 604-882-7623 Greyhound bus, ultimately killing two people. The driver was charged and went to court. While pleading not guilty he told the judge, “I can take that corner at that speed any day,” or words to that affect. The judge said, “Show me!” Court was adjourned and reconvened at the site of the crash some time later. The highway was closed and a re-enactment took place, unfortunately with the same result. The camera crew and all the onlookers were set up and standing in the path of the unit which was now sliding on its side. There was a lot of scrambling and the judge himself rolled over the embankment to get out of the way. This time the driver was convicted. When I had my ‘experience’ with Kingsway Corner my wife was accompanying me on a trip to Vancouver from the east. It was on a Friday of a holiday weekend when we were dispatched to pick up a company trailer in the Burnaby yard. We proceeded to pick up a load of very expensive cedar flooring for a big church in Toronto. It was a nice load of six, 20 foot bundles all nicely wrapped with three belts over each tier. The Coquihalla had been opened the year before but it was a Saturday and we were in no big rush so we took the Fraser Canyon. A fruit stand along the way looked appealing so we made a stop and picked up a flat of cherries. All was well, it was a beautiful summer’s day, we had both windows open and were ‘planting’ cherry trees along the roadside at a very leisurely pace. We entered the Great Bluff, that cuts through the rocks leading to Kingsway Corner and things were fine until we came out of the last sharp 40 km curve. This curve has a reverse slope to it. We were barely moving and as I attempted to correct and straighten out I was unable to bring the front end over and we started to roll while edging closer to the embankment on the right. I remember reaching out my window to push on the asphalt with my hand to get us back upright. Silly me! By then the belts had burned through at the scrub rail and the load laid down in the middle of the road all nice and neat, still tarped. The tractor and trailer came up on its feet and we then were able to steer into a small turnout and stop. The doors had sprung and we couldn’t get out until the frame settled down and the metal snapped back into place.
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The hood was out of whack and a corner of the sleeper had sustained a wrinkle and a crack. There were no injuries and nothing to do until the police and recovery vehicle came out from Cache Creek. A woman in a car following told the police that I was going so slow she wanted to get out of her car and hold up the load to prevent it from tipping. Good thing she didn’t. I had refused to haul the trailer initially but in a forced dispatch system on a long weekend, I finally agreed to pull it as long as the company absorbed any tickets or lost revenue because of it and then only as far as Winnipeg. “Oh yes. No problem.” I was told. As it turned out the trailer had been in some sort of trauma as it was bent in the middle, had four leaf springs on the front axle and two leaf springs on the back and it was a Fruehauf that had the large inside frame with the oval holes through it to save weight. The outside frame was all rusted and in a few places there were rusted holes right through the metal. It was a moving wreck. After we unhooked from this abomination I looked under the front end and noticed that the fifth wheel pickup plate had a ridge worn almost an inch deep on the driver’s side. Then I looked at the back cross member and ramp on the tractor and noticed burl marks consistent with the fact the frame on the trailer had hooked inside the frame of the tractor and tried to free itself. I drew this to the attention of the RCMP in attendance but they charged me with an
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unsafe load regardless. I said, “You’ll regret it. We’ll beat this in court.” The upshot of it all was that we had to bobtail back to Vancouver, pick up another trailer, go to Cache Creek to load the damaged flooring to return to the shipper, unload that and wait until Tuesday to reload. Meanwhile the company took $2,500 out of my account for the deductible. I hired a lawyer in Kamloops, got the tow truck operator to sign an affidavit stating that the trailer was unsafe outlining all its problems and waited for my day in court. It never came. The crown called the lawyer the day before and said they didn’t have a chance to win in court – so they were dropping it - have a nice day. I demanded the return of my deductible but the company kept $500 anyway because I had indeed moved the trailer. The trailer sat condemned in Cache Creek for many years. The tow truck operator told me recently he alone has made at least 15 recoveries at that location in the last 50 years. The lawyer cost me only half the $1,200 fee because we didn’t go to court and we lost the revenue that we would have earned if we had been able to keep going for the weekend. It just goes to show that even when justice is served the defendant loses. Keep on truckin’! ***** Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit. ~George Carlin
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TRUXPO 2014
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Reflections Thru My Windshield
Dave Madill
Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores.
Logging Protest Remember way back when we had the environmentalists, (tree huggers) blockading roads and doing things like chaining themselves to trees forty feet off the ground and other good things? Let me tell you a little story about what happened to me back then. I had left my truck and trailer way up a mountain and caught a ride back down with the logging crew. During the night a blockade was set up and the next day and for several days after that the roads were blocked and I was unable to get back to my rig. Finally on day four I’d had enough and had a buddy drive me to within 100 yards of the blockade where I slipped into the bush, climbed down into a ravine, bypassed the blockade, and climbed back up to the road about a half a mile beyond where all the excitement was. From there it was just a short hike to where my truck had been left and where I figured I could simply finish loading and scoot down the hill and get my truck back to the shop so I could catch up on
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some maintenance and maybe give the old girl a much needed bath. Do you know how long it takes to walk five miles uphill? After a few breaks and about an hour I was back at my truck only to find that the protesters had been up to the loading site. The windows on all the logging equipment, including my truck, had been smashed and both my front tires had been slashed. I had about three quarters of a load on the trailer at the time so I figured if I singled out the two front axles on my trailer and put those tires on my truck I could at least make it home. I got out the jack and picked up one side of my truck and off comes the tire with very little problem so I hunted around and found another jack and went back to the trailer. Houston, we have a problem! I had Bud wheels on my tractor and Daytons on the trailer and somehow this was not going to work! So I searched around and found a sledge, a falling wedge and a couple pry bars and got started peeling the tire off the Dayton rim – thankfully they were at least the same size. A short two hours later I had the tire dismounted and the empty rim back on the trailer. Then I only had to take the tire off my Bud rim and mount the good tire. This time it only took three hours and I got the tire on but my compressor does not have enough power to seat the bead so out comes my little bottle of ether. With a loud bang I seated the
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bead without killing myself and put air in the tire and finally got it mounted. On to the other side and where I finally managed to jack up the truck after it fell twice, as the ground was pretty soft on that side, and off came the wheel. Back to the trailer and yank the wheel and finally get it off. By this time it was getting dark and as I looked down the hill I could see the campfires of the protesters and at times I could even hear them hollering back and forth. There was no way I could turn my lights on without them seeing what was going on so I crawled in my truck and tried to get comfortable for the night. Next morning I was up at dawn and as soon as I saw movement down below I started working. I was in a foul mood with having no coffee and having spent a very uncomfortable night so I was working just a little harder than before and making a lot more noise. I had just started snugging up the nuts on my front axle when three protesters showed up to see what was happening. I am afraid that what I said to them as I chased them down the logging trail while swinging, and missing, with my pry bar, is not suitable for polite conversation and is completely unprintable in a family magazine so I will leave it to your imagination. After chasing them down the hill for a couple hundred yards I went back to my trunk, chained down the logs, removed what was left of my busted drivers windshield, fired it up and started down.
It’s funny but when I reached the protest line the road was cleared and the RCMP had moved all the protesters, loggers, equipment off to the side of the road. I breezed through with my air horns blaring and my Jimmy snarling. I was later informed that one of the people I chased off the hill had made it back to the line and warned everyone that a raving lunatic was coming down with a loaded truck and would probably go through them and kill them all if they didn’t move. It was only about ten miles to the log sort and I made it without problems except for the police car that followed me in and waited until after I unloaded to gingerly approach me. After politely asking me a few questions he said I was free to go but I would have to have my rig towed as it didn’t have a front windscreen. That was when I lost it and as I proceeded to load my pole trailer I told him what he could do with his badge, gun and his cop car. Guess he must have realized I was slightly out of sorts as he disappeared quickly and I drove back to town, double parked in front of the local coffee shop, and finally got my morning cup of joe before proceeding to the shop and then home for a good days rest. The protest ended about four hours after I broke their lines and someone mentioned later that it was because they told the protesters I was coming back. r
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Tyres Across The Pond
PRO-TRUCKER MAGAZINEe
Colin Black lives in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland and has been driving truck for over 40 years. His story shows us once again that the problems drivers face are universal.
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Flatbed loads Back in my younger years when just about all the loads were moved on flatbed trailers, like most truckers, I carried a variety of strange, odd shaped freight. When I worked for the transport side of a shipping and packing company called Lep Transport, they were licensed by the MOD to pack and ship spare parts for the Navy, mostly submarine parts. A small engineering company on the outskirts of Edinburgh made all the parts to order and we called in about once a week to pick up what was ready. As you can imagine it was anything and everything that wore out or got damaged, a periscope tube or a propeller shaft, but it was all good experience in securing odd shaped loads. Like a lot of loading docks at old companies, space was tight when backing the truck and trailer into the sheds. This was because they were built when trucks were a lot smaller. Another engineering company on the south side of Glasgow caused me to think out my route back to base in East Kilbride. I loaded a large metal fabrication in there
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one day, tied it down and was ready to go, then I started to wonder what height it was. There was a railway bridge to get under before I could get back onto the main road, and it turned out my load was too high to get through. Luckily, the company was beside the river Clyde, and there was a ferry big enough to take the loaded truck at the end of the road. A quick check with the ferry man that he would take the loaded truck and I was away. Instead of turning right to go under the bridge, I turned left and onto the centre of the ferry, that got me on the side of the river I needed to be on. As I drove along I was picturing in my mind all the bridges between me and the depot and how I could avoid them. It’s amazing how your mind goes blank when you’re trying to remember what height bridges are that you go under on a
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regular basis. I’ve had a few wide oversize loads in my younger years and back then you had to be escorted by the cops. You had to call ahead and inform every police force your route was going to pass through and they would meet you and take you to the edge of their patch where they would hand you over to the guys in the next jurisdiction. Nowadays we work much the same system as you guys in North America, with big companies who do regular oversize work running their own escort vehicles. With the cops escorting you it could turn into a fast trip time if you got cops who just wanted to get you off of their patch. It wouldn’t be the first time an officer has said, “Well driver, how fast will this thing go?” My old Atkinson with the 220 Cummins and 6 speed David Brown box surprised a few cops with its 70 mph plus top speed. But the piece of freight that’s stuck in my mind for years didn’t fit on a trailer. I was doing a night shift run down to Warrington at the time and was almost ready to leave when the night shift manager came out with my manifest and a small box with holes in it. “This must be kept warm Colin,” he said. It was obviously livestock of some description, and nothing too big, as the box was only six inches square. Mice was my first thought, but there was no movement inside the box. Ok, no problem I said, what is it? Baby snakes he said. I placed the box and my manifest in the space between the seats in my cabover for the four hour trip to Warrington. When I got to Warrington the guys saw me coming and they opened the warehouse door so I backed right into the warehouse and shut the engine off. As usual the night shift supervisor came to the cab to get my manifest. He was his usual smiling self and said, “Hello Colin.” Then he froze when I tried to hand him the box of snakes and the manifest. Obviously he’d seen the box of snakes before and with wild panic in his eyes he backed away from the cab saying, “No, no, no…,” He was completely terrified - I imagine I could not have gotten a stronger reaction if I’d stuck a gun under his nose.
The ‘Semi’-bionic Man By Mel McConaghy
Mel is a retired veteran driver who has spent 40 years on the road. When I retired, at the young age of seventy-one, I didn’t really think and feel I should retire just because I was seventy-one. But then I had never been seventy-one before, so what did I know? In my opinion there were lots of people I knew who were younger than me but looked a lot older. One of the reasons I retired was because a guy offered me a good price for old ‘Olga’ - that’s what I called my truck. She was of Swedish descent. My wife’s health was not the OCTOBER 2014
best either, so it seemed a good time to do it. That and the fact that I had never retired before and I have always been open to new experiences. Wow, is that an understatement! Over the years the medical profession have been doing things to me to improve on my creators design. The first thing they did was to improve my sight because they seemed to think that the ability to see farther than the windshield might be an asset for a truck driver. So they put in new lenses and it was like a miracle. All of a sudden that red blur at an intersection became a stop sign! And I found that I didn’t have to stop in the middle of a busy intersection, jump out and run over to see what street I was on. I was also seeing other things clearly - those brown blurs turned out be moose, deer, and a multitude of other creatures that I had only seen up close after running into them. Next I got my bionic teeth and then my bionic ears. As a matter of fact I’m almost completely bionic from my neck up. This morning I went to an orthopedic surgeon to see if he could give me a bionic hip to replace the one that has a bad bushing in it and it seems that it too will be a go eventually. Now all this replacing of parts brings up a question, if they keep replacing my parts with store bought, uptown bionics, and they are going to make trucks that can drive themselves, maybe they will be able to install a USB port in my head and I can go back driving? After all, everything I have ever learned about driving, over the last forty odd years, is still in my head in a dusty old box somewhere. Theoretically all they have to do is plug my brain into the truck’s main computer, and we should be good to go. ***** Things You Would Never Hear A Southerner Say • Duct tape won’t fix that. • We don’t keep firearms in this house. • Has anybody seen the sideburns trimmer? • You can’t feed that to the dog. • I thought Graceland was tacky. • No kids in the back of the pick-up - it’s not safe. • Wrasslin’s fake. • Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace? • We’re vegetarians. • Do you think my hair is too big? • I’ll have grapefruit instead of biscuits and gravy. • Who’s Richard Petty? • Give me the small bag of pork rinds. • Deer heads detract from the decor. • Spitting is such a nasty habit. • Trim the fat off that steak. • The tires on that truck are too big. • Little Debbie snack cakes have too many fat grams. • Checkmate. • Does the salad bar have bean sprouts? • Hey, here’s an episode of “Hee Haw” that we haven’t seen. • “Who’s Elvis”?
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Superior Autumn
Dave Madill
Dave Madill was Pro-Trucker Magazine’s Rig of the Month in June of 2001 and he has been entertaining us with his poetry ever since. Dave has published three books of poems that are available by special order through Chapters Book Stores or amazon.com
I drive along the highway along Lake Superior’s shore, The colours in the autumn, no man could ask for more The beauty of the hardwoods touched by Mother Nature’s hand, Make me glad to be alive and to drive across this land. I park – walk through the forest, to a beach by waters blue, No painting can do justice to the beauty I walk through. I stand in silent wonder and above I hear a cry The lonely sound of wild geese winging south across the sky. I know that if I die tonight and go on to Heaven’s dream, It will not match the majesty of Superior’s autumn scene.
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