 Good morning my fine friends from the jaw of Moose, Saskatchewan, formerly known as Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Just leaving the Petra Pass, truck stopped to go next door, because they got better coffee there. The Petra Pass has better parking, so I parked at Petra Pass overnight, and I'm gonna go over to Flying Data Grab Coffee. Is that rude? Probably is, it's probably a little rude. If Petra Pass feels any, if it makes Petra Pass feel any better, I bought coffee there last night. So it's not like I parked there and didn't buy anything. It's just, it's the morning time, I need something to kick me in the pants. FlyingJay's got the coffee to kick me in the pants. It's stronger, I don't know, I've developed a desire for strong coffee. And their coffee that they got here is just a little bit, got a little bit more of a kick. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, maybe it's just a personal opinion, but... Here we are anyway, living the dream of this guy. Sometimes I feel sorry for these pike drivers, there's so few places for them to park. Truck stops are not designed for them, or some of them are, but even when you design a truck stop with parking for these big guys, other guys go and take up their parking spots that don't need them. So then they come in the parking lot and they don't have anywhere to park. Okay, so we fueled up here last night, remember that? So we're fueling ourselves up this morning. Just grabbing a coffee, I got some breakfast in here already. And we will be home tonight. Seven hours of driving. A little over half a day. Last time we were in Regina we were saying that we think that their bypass is complete. And next time we come through we'll be able to test her out and let you know how they did. I think today is the day. We're just coming up on the west side of Regina headed east. And we'll see. Is it open or is it not? We're going through a construction zone right now. They got us all the way down to 60 kilometers an hour. Let's see. Okay, we're gonna try it. Here we go. First time on the bypass. You guys excited? Sorry, I gotta watch this window so you can see where we're going. That sign says Winnipeg, TransCanada One East, this way. Yeah, looks like it's open. Wow. No more slowing down for the city. This truck on past. I bet you they didn't even put traffic lights on this thing. Come on, pick a gear truck. My next truck's going to be at 18 speed. None of this automatic sissy stuff. There's rattling over here. Stop it. You're ruining the moment. We'll see you to the highlighted route. Oh, you don't even know where we are, Karen. For once, you don't know where we are. She thinks we're driving through a field right now. That's how new this highway is. Oh, and I do not want to be behind this grain hauler. He's going to drain my washer fluid in half a mile. Just coming out the other end of the bypass here. I must say, what an honor to drive on this road before it starts to crumble. That was beautiful. What a beautiful smooth ride. I didn't even have to slow down. 110 kilometers an hour speed limit all the way around. I can't even do the speed limit, but it's nice to know what you can if you want to. Or if you're able to. Look at this. Just a seamless reintroduction with the TransCanada over here. I really hope that this highway holds out. So often we build these new highways and everyone's like, wow. And six months later, it's just a hellscape. Potholes that'll knock all the screws and bolts loose off your truck. You know, roads so rough that things are flying off your shelf and your sleeper. Let's hope that it lasts more than six months. Ah, hey Karen. Nice to know you're back. That road was so new. It wasn't even in my updated GPS yet. I just updated it yesterday. And if you get on that, Regina, you gotta call the map gods and let them know. Your bypass is open for business. That was a very fine bypass. Good job, guys. You did a good job. I'm in a hurry. I want to go home. I'm back into myself. I avoid a lot of trucking forums on the internet because unfortunately I find them to be a little depressing. I find a lot of people are very negative about the trucking industry. Maybe that's why I make videos to sort of either change stereotypes or show another side of it or maybe just to show my view of it. I love doing what I do. And it has become so much better. Trucking has become so much better than it used to be. It keeps getting better. Don't listen to these people on the internet that go on and on and on about how terrible their job is and how terrible trucking is. If they don't like it, they shouldn't be doing it. Okay? That's simple as that. I mean, just driving the truck. We're coming up to the mountain top of the border here. Very smooth roads. But these trucks ride like Cadillacs compared to how they used to drive, alright? When my dad was my age, the truck he drove could give you a back injury driving down a road just like this. They were so bumpy. Your freight could get totally tossed around and destroyed because your trailer didn't have air-ride suspension. We now have air-ride suspension. My entire cab is on air-ride suspension and my frame is on air-ride suspension. I got double air-ride. I got double air-ride suspension in my seat. Three different air suspensions keeping me comfortable. We take that for granted nowadays. A couple decades ago, it wasn't like that at all. Not at all. I remember driving in the passenger seat of my dad's truck when I was a kid. And I can just imagine how sore my back would be now at my age. I'm not that old, I think people get even older. How sore their backs would be driving those trucks all day every day. It has gotten much better. We now do all of our banking electronically so we can get paid electronically immediately. Money comes in faster. These trucks are more than twice as fuel-efficient as some of the trucks of the older years. Saving fuel doesn't help with the price of gas and diesel fuel. Diesel fuel keeps going up, but hey, the trucks are getting more efficient. Everybody hated the DEF, but it has made it better. Have you noticed that since the DEF has been put on every truck, there's no more black smoke or fumes coming out of the trucks? It's not nearly as bad. It did make it better. Some people like to roll a coal. I think it looks cool too, but it's not good. I fixed that. It brought with it a few more new problems, but it did make things better for the environment, let's say. Though I don't know what it's all made out of. Maybe it makes it more, I don't know. You know, GPS. How many of you can remember? I can. Remember the days of stopping to look at the Atlas. Having a little pen that measures distance so you can see how far it is to your next rest stop or something. You gotta roll it along the map to see how far it is. How many of you remember all the paperwork that we had to deal with just a little while ago that completely got taken away with E-Log? How much paperwork there was? And yes, I'm one of those guys that thinks that E-Logs made trucking better. I'm a minority. I know, but hear me out. We used to have drivers. A lot of them. Some of you probably know some of them or know somebody like this who would run with three or four log books popping pills driving 48 hours straight on the highways, hauling 80,000 pounds of hurtling steel down the highway. I don't want that. Having the E-Log Band-Aid put up a wall, you know? A wall of law forcing people to stay within the confines of the law. Forcing people to not be able to cross that line. They built a wall. And now it's much harder to cross that line, isn't it? I was obeying the law before anyways. Right? So it didn't affect me at all. I haven't lost nothing since E-Logs came in. I've actually gained. And plus having this E-Log here I can use this in court if I get into an accident where I'm not at fault and someone tries to sue me I can use my E-Log now in a court of law to prove my innocence because an E-Log doesn't lie. Whereas before I couldn't use my paper logs because they didn't know if I lied on my paper or not. Logs. We have dash cameras now that prevent us from being wrongfully accused when someone cuts us off or does something terrible in front of us that an accident happens and God forbid someone gets hurt or worse and it's not our fault. We now have dash cameras on our windshields to prove our innocence. Trucking has gotten better. It has gotten better. Our headlights have gotten better. This is why I'm so against high beams in my mirrors. I hate that because headlights today are not like headlights of yesteryear. In the 70s and 80s when people would flash their high beams in your mirror it would help you because it wouldn't hurt your eyes. Now we got these crazy LED projector headlights and HID bulbs that when you get those headlights in your mirror you see purple spots for 10 minutes afterwards and you got a headache. Lights have gotten better. Just be careful with them. Don't shine them in people's faces. You know? A lot of trucks have obstacle avoidance and sensors that have saved people's lives. Tires have gotten better. They last longer. I'm running retreads on my drives right now. You know? A few decades ago they would have flown apart. The technology has progressed to a point where they've been doing very well for me. Very well. I'll probably buy them again if this keeps up. Trucking has gotten better. We're driving condos down the road. Practically little mini studio apartments. The interiors are amazing. You know you got beds that fold up into a dining room. We've got fridges. A lot of us have microwaves. You can plug in your computer and stuff just like you would in your house. Trucking has gotten so much better. And that's why I can't stand so many of these trucking forums online where all they do is whine and complain. There's way too many truckers out there that are just whining and complaining all the time. I know it's not you. I know my audience isn't like that because I scared away all those people already because I don't like them. They don't like me. I'm way too optimistic for them. I'm gloom. Trucking is terrible. I want to tell everybody trucking is awesome and it's getting better. So those people don't usually watch my videos so I know all of you are on the same page with me. If you're thinking of getting into trucking I encourage it. I'm showing you my life here on the road. You know how much time I'm on the road. I'll warn you that it's not always easy. It's hard being away from home. It's really hard. Depression can set in very easily and quickly. You've got to be careful. You've got to take care of yourself. Into Manitoba now. I just want to be clear. I'm not discouraging post-secondary school. It is important. I just want to let you know there's other options for you. Maybe what a good idea would be is to get your commercial license or maybe while you're waiting for a job after you're done school instead of sitting on all that student debt drive a truck for a few years until a good job pops up that your degree fits. You know, it's better than sitting there getting government handouts, right? Waiting for a job and you don't even need your high school diploma to be a truck driver. And it doesn't mean you're dumb as a truck driver. There's a lot of truck drivers I know most truck drivers I know make more money than most people. Meanwhile, you have people looking at us like we're dumb and we're just laughing because we got more in the bank than they do. But I don't want to discourage you guys going to school. I want to make sure that the parents out there know that I'm not trying to discourage their kids from going to school, okay? I just want you to know that there's other options where you can make really good money in trades being an electrician, a plumber, a truck driver, a carpenter, a framer. There's lots of jobs that are reliable that everybody's going to need a plumber. Always going to need them. Always going to need electricians. Always going to need truckers. Don't let people scare you with this. Oh, automatic driving trucks are going to take over the industry, it's not going to happen. Okay, the future of trucking is bright. We may have trucks that maybe help us down the road that stay in the lane for us and maybe drive down the main highways on their own. But they're always going to need someone to take the wheel as soon as they make an exit, right? To make the delivery, you're going to need a human to make the delivery. We don't have robots to tie down the freight, to tarp the loads, to back into docks to find the customer. It's not going to completely take over the industry. It may just make things better. Like I was saying, trucking keeps getting better. And it's still reliable. It's a good career to have. But I hear so many stories recently, especially of all the student debt that people keep complaining about. Student debt, student debt. You know you got to pay that back, right? And you got to remember that those loan people who give you those loans and the schools themselves are preying on you. They make money when you sign on the dotted line for that debt. They're making a lot of money. So just don't let them take advantage of you. Be smart, alright? If you see some advice, I'm sure you got some smart parents. The scale was closed coming into heading late here just west of Winnipeg. That's always a good thing. It's good signs. It's going to be a good evening. So we're facing east right now. We're going to go to the perimeter around Winnipeg. The Winnipeg might have with all the traffic lights and make our way slowly around to the other side. I don't know if you can see it out there or not. It's quite a ways away. Just off to the left side of the road there. There's a big old Canada flag out there. The Canada flag is showing us what we already know. There's a very strong wind coming out of the north. A moment of silence for what comes next. The Polar Vortex is on its way down to give us a visit. It's still not as bad as last year. Thank God. It is supposed to get down to minus 25, minus 27. Probably in the high minus or low, I guess low minus 30s with the wind chill. Close to minus 40. So as I go home for this weekend I'm going to fuel up around this guy. I'm going to fuel up, put some winterizing anti-gel in my diesel fuel so that it doesn't gel up on me while it's parked. And on Monday I believe I am off hitting the road again. Today is Friday when I'm filming this. I'm glad these crushed car haulers put that screen mesh around those cars. I can still remember when they didn't have to do that and they would just haul the steel just without that mesh around it and they would go flying off into traffic quite often. Yeah, I can still remember that. I'm not that old either. I wasn't that long ago. I was hoping to be home already. I wanted to be home last night.