 I feel like I'm in downtown Denver. Do you get that vibe at all right now? Oh, not at all. No? Yeah, I'll put it there. I have a yes, I have a no. Yeah, this is definitely, this is definitely like Colfax. I love Denver. Yeah, Colfax. Oh, Colfax. I should have at least another 20 people mad at me, but yeah, that's fine. We're doing good at whatever. I haven't even had anybody honk at me yet. I don't think we're doing great. Hey Tiffany. What? Have you ever paid for parking for a big rig before? No. I don't know if we pay for it. I'm not sure if anyone else has either. Do we pay for one or do we pay for two? Do we have to hit that little button that goes wait? Wait. Wait. What if like in Texas instead of saying wait, it was like hold up a man and partner. That'll stop now. So tell me the kind of conversations that you were having with Ian, the terminal manager, what kind of conversation was it that led into like the office position? Was that something that you had specifically asked for or? I did let him know that I did, but we didn't have any specific conversation. My son and mine, our former driver manager is now working as a recruiter in the main office. So I reached out to Evania and told her I wanted to be in the office. So she kind of advised me on what to do and how to search for jobs and that kind of thing. That's awesome. So with her guidance, I started applying for jobs in the office. Yeah, like just going online. Just going online and submitting my resume and that kind of thing. And then I was coming back to go on my home time and I happened to pass Jesse and Alan in the parking lot. And here, right? Turn right, yes. And I had told him that I was interested in going to work in the office at some point. And Alan told me, hey, you know, you need to go talk to Ian because I'm pretty sure there's going to be a spot opening up. Well, he didn't tell me. I like Cox. Yeah, he didn't tell me it was going to be his. He just said a spot. That's funny. I went in and talked to Ian and said, hey, you know, I heard there's going to be a spot opening up. Go in this lane. The left one. Yeah, sorry. And I would be interested in it. Can you make it through that little narrow bit? Sure. Sure. Anyway, I just mentioned to him that I would be interested and he told me to go ahead and do an application and all that. And he would try to get me worked in for an interview, which he did. No, actually he did. I didn't get an interview for that. For that role? For that role at that time. A DM driver manager position came open. So I interviewed for that. Yeah. And that didn't produce anything. So I just went back out on the road. For Alan. This all transpired probably within about four months. So then the safety position came open and then we started from there. But this was not Alan's position? No, they had hired somebody else for Alan's position. So I had ended up applying for a driver manager and then Alan's or interviewing for those two. So it took a little time to get everything squared away. And then finally they allowed me to have Alan's position. Oh, that was interesting. That's fun. So it ought to be fun. Yeah. I think it's going to be a fun position to be. Get to be home every night. That's what I'm really looking forward to. So I lived in Alaska for three years. You lived in Alaska for 20? Yeah, it was 19 and some months. We call it 20 or I call it 20. Yeah, I would too. I think mine wasn't quite three years. I rounded up because of how cold it was. It's a pretty amazing place, I thought. Everybody should see it at least once. That's exactly what I say. Would you go back and live there again? No. No. I don't think I would either. My wife won't. Yeah. I could. You know, I have a lot. I still have good friends there. I have my oldest son and grandchildren still there. Oh, okay. You know, so I would love to be closer. You'll be visiting, I'm sure, then. Unless they come down here. Yeah. And what it has shown me is what my parents went through their whole life now because they were here and I was up there. And now I understand the torment they went through. Yeah. Just being away, not seeing the grandkids. Right. Just missing out on the life, you know. Yeah. But, you know, Alaska is an amazing place. It's beautiful, but it rains a lot. The winters are a little long. The mosquitoes are very large. They are. The bears are even bigger. I don't think that the summer times are beautiful enough to make up for the winter times. Well, they're too short. Yes, very much. For me, the Phoenix winter is the last in the summer. It's true. But it's much longer. A little bit overcast. I just was always so upset because I come from, I was raised in Phoenix and I was used to being able to wear like sandals and sun dresses in the summertime. And up there in the summer, you're not wearing that. Like you're wearing some rain gear. You just didn't get used to it yet. I probably didn't. The locals were. I was in like two layers as opposed to the wintertime. I was in five layers. When the temperature hit 65, we were at the lake with the jet skis. Exactly. That's the other thing that I noticed too. So I'm kind of a planner. We talked about you being one as well. So I'm going to plan out my day. If not like a week in advance, like at least that day, I'm going to map out like I'm going to hit the gym. I may go to the grocery store, whatever. And in Alaska, you don't really know how the weather is going to be all the time. So when it's sunny that day, like you drop everything that you're doing. The sunshine. Yeah. Like let's have a barbecue. 10 people are coming over. We're barbecuing. Like what? What is this? It's insane. But it is so beautiful. Especially the summer days that aren't raining. Yeah. Which. When it's sunny. Yeah. And 75. That happens. My parents came up one time and all that time. For two weeks, it rained every single day. My gosh. Yeah. And they weren't real rain people. We grew up, we're from Wyoming. It's sunny there like it is in Arizona. Yeah. Not very often, huh? The farmers there, which a lot of people grow, like have their own gardens. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So the fruits and vegetables there and the grass just grew like crazy. Yeah. No need to water. Yeah. From all the light that you get in the summertime? We lived out in the valley out in Wasilla area. And there was one house we lived in, the grass literally grew 8 to 10 inches a week without watering it. Yeah. So regardless of what you're going to be doing, you are going to be mowing the lawn. Yes. So. Hopefully it's going to be sunny and pretty weather for you to mow the lawn. Yeah. Don't count on it though. What was your favorite city to go and visit when you lived there? Like to do like a vacation too? We didn't do a lot of vacation stuff. We spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth for Fairbanks. Oh geez. That's far. Actually, I guess if I had to pick a spot, I would be like down on the peninsula, Homer, you know, I was going to say that. Yeah. My former boss has a fishing charter that he runs at a deep creek. Okay. So we would like to go down to his place. Yeah. Thanks dude. We'd like to go down to his place and go fishing and that kind of thing. Like dip netting? No, we go out on his boat and fish for halibut. Oh yeah, my favorite. And then in the winter we'd go down there at Snowmobile out of there. Yeah. Polebenders. Polebenders. Polebenders in Deep Creek, Alaska. Captain Greg, your best captain on the water. And out to Captain Greg. Captain Greg. I love that. He better. Those folks are great people, I am. Is that near Homer? Deep Creek? Yeah, it's probably about 20 miles or so north of Homer, I would guess. There you go. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I think one of my favorite places that we visited was Homer. I love Seward though, I absolutely love Seward, but Homer, it was such a cool experience like going out on the spit, going out on the peninsula. Oh my gosh. And there were sea otters everywhere. Oh my gosh, like you obviously have caught on to how much I like animals. So seeing the little sea otters like swimming around on their back or like trying to open the shells, like muscles and clams, whatever it is. They try to like, they put a rock on their stomach while they're swimming around on their back and just try to like bring it over is the cutest thing. It's amazing that they're that smart. Yeah, right? And then so many bald eagles there too. The bald eagles are beautiful. Just like scavenging on the beaches. I was very lucky. I got to travel, I spent some time on the North Slope and I was able to go down to the Aleutian chain to Dutch Harbor. Were you working? Did you work at Fisherman? No, no, no. I had a little maintenance company going on where I did some window maintenance just over a weekend. What did you do on the slope? I helped them with the shutdown, just clean up some of the pump stations and stuff, do the maintenance on it. Who did you work for when you did that? That was Viko. Viko, when was that? Oh man, that was back in... That was back probably 95-ish. Is that CH2M Hill? It is now. And that's who my oldest son works for now. Oh really? He works on the slope now. Good for him. What does he do? You know, I don't really know. It's like manual. He's studying to be an operator and I know he's been training to be an operator. But I don't really know exactly what he's doing. Have you heard of American Marine Corporation based out of Anchorage? No, I don't think I have. I worked on the slope when I was up there for an environmental company. Okay. I just planned all the logistics for their crews, but there was another company called Alaska Clean Seas. I have... You heard of that? I think so, yeah. It's a non-profit that gets all their funding from the oil companies that are up there, that operate up there. So they just get their annual budget from them and then they promise to clean up any spills that any of these oil companies will have. Well they, Alaska Clean Seas, in turn, came back and would hire our crews. So we were kind of like feeding them the crew that they needed so they didn't have to have that crew on staff all the time. Sure, sure. So that's what we did. It was a really cool experience, obviously, working in the oil field. Yeah. And it was nice because I was able to have, like, schedule like two weeks on, two weeks off. Right. So I could come back to Arizona and visit my family all the time. But it was so lonely up there. It was just... Like, when you're up there, you're working 86 hours a week. Right. If not more. Work, work, work. So, yeah, that's all that you do and eat food. Yeah, that's what they say. Work and eat. And you can tell with some of them that they've only been working any day. Yeah, one of my best friends works up there as well and then my son. That's cool. And when I went up for the shutdown, I could have went back and went full-time. Yeah. They asked me to, but I felt like it was more important to be home with the boys and try to be there for them. Yeah, that's why I decided... Well, one of the reasons I decided to move back was I just need to get a normal career. Like, this is not a career that I want to do long-term. I couldn't imagine being a mom and having to leave my children every two weeks to be away from them. I know my son struggles with it because he's got two boys. Yeah, how old are they? One just turned 13. Yeah. And the other one, seven, I believe. I guess it's similar to, like, a trucker lifestyle, too. Similar, except they get two weeks off. Yeah, that is nice. See, I'm kind of a believer that for every week you're out, you should get two days off, just like everybody else can. Yeah. There's... I think that that can be coordinated. It can, I think. But we don't have that setup in the system. It's not setup, but if they work with the driver managers, it can be worked out. The driver managers are so accommodating as long as if you come in and work hard and produce, be on time, be professional, they're going to do anything they can to help you. Yeah, it's true. You know. I feel like part of the reason I am where I am now is because I feel like I was one of the better producers. Yeah. I ran hard. I was nearly always on time. A couple of times I made mistakes, but, you know, I'm human, but nearly always on time. Most of the time I was early and I just... I was dependable. They knew if they'd give me a load that I was going to do whatever I possibly could to get it there on time. I guarantee you that they checked that out before they brought you into the office just to see, like, how reliable you were. Oh, I'm sure of it. Yeah. But I don't think they had to look. I think they already knew. Yeah, that's true because you worked with them already. Yeah. That's a good point. But yeah, I'm sure they knew. That's cool. You'll have to let me know how your transition goes. So far, it's been awesome. The folks have been real patient with me and, you know, I'm making baby steps today. I felt like today was almost kind of a milestone day. You know, I just was able to make some things function without stumbling too hard. Yeah. I didn't get a bloody nose in the process. That's so awesome. Your wife hasn't gotten sick of you yet, being home? Well, she hasn't voiced it yet. I'm sure it's gone. At least you're gone for most of the day. Well, she's working on it, so... Is she really? Oh, absolutely. She works full-time. Where does she work? Does she have her own? She leases a station from... I can't think of it right now. Is it close to home? It's up off the I-17 and Cape Creek, not Cape Creek, but Carefree Highway, Carefree Salon. Oh. Does she have a lot of clients? Oh, yeah. She's been in the exact same place that we got here in 1907. Oh, jeez, yeah. So she's been there a long time. She doesn't like to move. She just wants to come in and do her job and go home. Oh, yeah. Build relationships with her customers. All of her customers, her long-time customers, they just love her. Being a hairstylist is... Is that the proper term? Yeah. Hairstylist? Yeah. It's such a relation-based business. Oh, yeah. And I love it. Like, I love the conversation that I have with my hairstylist. You know, like, it's just... It's cool. Because you're generally going to spend quite a bit of time with them. Oh, absolutely. If you didn't like their personality, you probably don't want to spend that much time with them. Yeah, well, she's been doing it since 88, 87. Ah, it's crazy. So... It sounds like she's been doing well, like, financially speaking. She's always done really well. That means she's good at her job, then. Yeah, yeah. Is your wife from Dallas? She lived... She lived in probably as many states as I've driven to. Wow. Yeah, but... But a lot of Texas, Louisiana... Okay. ...time, but she's literally... You said she's Cajun, right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And influenced. Cajun inspired. Living down there. She cooks very good Cajun, from what I understand. Like I said, I don't eat it. But everybody does. Why? It's so good. I think it's part of it's a texture thing, I would think. Like the rice? Or the budan? The budan, I've never really... I probably honestly have not tried the budan. It's like sausage, right? And I don't do... Yeah, I really don't do a lot of seafood. Oh, I love seafood. So, you know, like the crawfish... Oh, yeah. And, you know, the crab and all that. Oysters or fresh oysters down there. I love shrimp. And alibut. That's it. Alibut is delicious. There's no more seafood. That's probably my favorite white fish, and I miss that so much from Alaska. Beignets. You can't go wrong with that. I don't even know what a beignet is. It's like a little piece of heaven with sugar on top. Is that the little round tube thing? No, it's like... It's kind of like... Have you ever had a soapopeia? No, I can't... I don't know. It's kind of like fried dough, and then they put powdered sugar on top of it. They serve it at Cafe Dumond in New Orleans. Oh, well, if it's for fried dough, it's sure. Right, yeah. How can it be bad? It's like a donut. So, yeah, I would say I probably do like that. I knew we should have gotten donuts for lunch. No. That's breakfast food. I will eat a donut any time of the day. I don't, but I would love to. You sound like my son, Trent. We're driving down the road, and he'll be planting his fuel stops under which one's got a Dunkin' Donut. Smart. And the whole crew's amazing. Their coffee is good. I'm going to put it out there and say that their coffee's better than Starbucks. I truly believe in my heart that it is. Doesn't matter. Yeah, it's good. I don't drink coffee, but I've heard that it is the best. What do you get? Oh, caffeine, soda, Pepsi, Coke. And tea. I'm a tea toddler. You drink tea? I drink hot tea. Are you from Great Britain? Nope. Nope. Tea time? I'm sure that went, no, there's no none of this. I'm sure that came from my mother's influence. She drank tea. Yeah. And I have to tell you, I love the smell of brewing coffee. Mmm, me too. But I just never required the taste for it. Or when you grind it, like at the store with fresh ground. It smells great. But there's not enough sugar to make it taste good for me. When I went to, in Ireland, we went to a tea house and they had like little tea cakes and like the little sugar cubes. I was like, this is ridiculous. And my friend comes in there with like 10 layers of jackets on because it was so cold and she turns around and all the tea cups were like clink, clink, clink. Oh my gosh. It's terrible. Funny. Did they say bowl and bowl? No. Bowl in a china shop? Bowl. Oh yeah. Bowl in a china shop. Not a bowl. Bowl. Bowl. I can't say that word. Bowl. I thought you said you were from Arizona. Bowl. Yeah, this truck doesn't beep. It doesn't have the beeping, beeping deals. For what? Smart drive. Oh, sure it does. Is that what it's called? I just haven't given it a reason to beep. Really? Really. I feel like some of the other ride-alongs that we've done, they beep at everything. Like that one driver that cut you off? Well, I applied the brake, which kept it from beeping. Oh, that makes sense. There are ways around it. Basically what it's trying to do is to keep you from hitting anybody, but it's trying to remind you that maybe you're too close. Keep a safe distance. Keep a safe distance. So if somebody was to cut you off and you apply the brake and slow down to create that safe distance again, then you're not going to have any issues. It's when you stay in the gas and keep riding the bumper, the alarm goes off. You get messages sent to the DDM. It's my job to watch those videos. What do you call them? Performance counseling? Is that what you call them? Yeah, I think it is called performance counseling. And then if you get, you know, you're trying to keep a low score like golf and you want under 25 points or anything over that. Does that have bowling as too? Because my bowling scores are always very low. Well, depends on how you play it. Some people play it that way. My wife plays it that way. So how was your ride along with JR here? It was good. It was really fun. I'm really happy that we got to know each other a little bit better and it's funny that we both lived in Alaska for a little bit of our lives. You met another, what do you, you met another Alaskan? Yeah. Is that what they said? Neither of us were born there, but... But we were residents. Yeah, we were residents for a little bit. You're a resident. He pretty much must have been, you know. Oh, well, anyway. So how about you, sir? How did that go, JR? It went great. It was been fun. Yeah, how was the, what was any other place that we went to? The dressing room. The dressing room. Oh, yeah, the dressing room. Yeah, that wasn't so bad, huh? It's a weird name for a restaurant. Yeah. And there was no place to put clothes on in there. It was good. It was good. Yeah. I'm going to have to go back for the quarantine. You can do that tonight on the way home. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, thank you guys. I really appreciate it. It was fun to do. Thank you for coming along. I hope that all of our drivers do well and never have to get phone calls from you, sir. I hope that you too.