Author: bjregan

Enjoying retirement activities. Main goals for retirement are to stay spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally healthy.

Des Moines, New Mexico

Until Mike’s phone call around midnight last night, I didn’t even know there was a place called Des Moines, NM. Yesterday afternoon we had made the 200-mile trip from Albuquerque to Raton, NM, with a plan to meet up with Mike as he was hauling a load from Dallas to Denver. After cutting northwest from Amarillo on Highway 64/87, his route would bring him through Raton. He hoped his schedule would allow him to spend some time in Raton, and, since we didn’t have anything scheduled for Monday, the meetup looked doable.

As the day progressed I kept in touch with Mike to see how things looked for him. It’s easy for us to plan a drive from Albuquerque to Raton with a reasonable estimate of our arrival time. It’s not that easy for a truck driver to figure out what time he will be in a particular place. Mike’s 14-hour clock started ticking yesterday in Dallas when he drove to the customer site at the scheduled time for getting his trailer loaded. If there were significant delays in that process he wouldn’t have enough time on his clock to make the 575 miles to Raton before having to shut down for the night.

The loading process went smoothly, but somewhere on the stretch from Wichita Falls to Amarillo a highway accident required a detour, slowing Mike down. We were already settled in our motel room in Raton by that time. Mike said he would still try to make Raton before he had to shut down, which would be sometime around midnight. I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep so I told him to call when he shut down, regardless of the time.

When my phone buzzed a little after midnight I wasn’t asleep and quickly opened the Map app on the phone to see how far he had gotten. And that’s where I saw Des Moines, the nearest named spot to the rest area where he was parked. It was less than 40 miles from Raton, which was good news for keeping to today’s plan of spending time with Mike.

When we met up with him at the rest area this morning he said he could hang out with us until 2 this afternoon, at which time he needed to be back at the truck to grab a couple of hours of sleep before making the drive to Denver. He’s scheduled for unloading at midnight tonight, another one of those crazy scheduling things that prevent truckers from having a normal life.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time touring Capulin Volcano National Monument. I’m currently taking a Geology class at our local community college and we just finished a chapter on volcanoes. There’s nothing like being in the field to help with the learning process.

Of course, the best part was spending time with Mike. I think of all the years he lived in Iowa and the special place in my heart for Des Moines, Iowa, because of the many summers doing the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). Who could have imagined that one day Mike would be a long haul truck driver and we would be eating lunch at a restaurant in Des Moines, NM.

Capulin Volcano is the type of volcano known as a cinder cone.
Sierra Grande in the distance is a shield volcano.

The End of the Road


My trucking adventure has come to an end, and although it will be nice to get a shower and regular bed tonight, it was very sad to see the Celadon truck leaving the truck stop in Houston this morning and I wasn’t riding shotgun anymore. Starting December 26 from Brackettville, TX, going up to Georgia, Tennessee, and New York, then back down to Tennessee and Indiana, then up to Chicago and back down to Indiana and Georgia, my ride ended in Houston, TX. Mike continued on with the load he needs to deliver in Laredo this afternoon. It made sense for me to stop here because it is easier to get back to Albuquerque from Houston than it would have been from Laredo.

In spite of all the hardships, it was an awesome two weeks and I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend this time with Mike and get a better understanding of what the life of a trucker is like. When I’m back to being a passenger or driver of a “four-wheeler” I’m going to be more tolerant of the trucks zooming by on the highway or crowding into the truck stops. Those drivers work hard and it takes a special skill and knowledge to safely maneuver such a huge, powerful machine. In spite, of what Mike says that “anybody can learn to do it”, I certainly could not do all of what he had to accomplish to successfully meet the assignments he was given. It was challenging enough just to be a passenger!