United States of America

Mostly the type of trucks I started to drive professionally would have been Peterbilts, Kenworths.

one being a 1974 gas job Chevy that I did not enjoy at all. The truck was under powered and very uncomfortable to handle for long periods of time.

(Boy how wrong I was!!)  I only did that for a summer, before I had enough of there obnoxious hot tempered plant manager.

The next adventure I had was driving for another customer of mine. This time it was by filling in as a substitute school bus driver, which believe it or not, I really enjoyed. At the same time the electrical work started to slow down in the area. So after I learned from a fellow electrician friend who was back in Salt Lake, that some big Industrial electrical projects where manning up. I decided to apply for the same project that he was working on and I was hired right away.

The Project was located just outside of a small “hole in the wall of a town”, called La Barge Wyo. The job was a huge gasification plant for Exxon that was set right on top of a mountain. I was there for almost two years (The last six month's we worked 7, 12 hour days. Plus a 2.5 hour bus ride to and from the man camp!) After the project started to finish up, I headed back to Salt Lake City and hauled sod locally. Until another big project was set to start up right in Salt Lake.

The sod company I hauled for was Meredith Sod out of Sandy Utah. I delivered the sod all through northern Utah and as far away as Evanston Wyo. Some times on the weekends, I would go out to the ranch and pick up an extra load for the next week. The trip took about 2.5 hours and it included a 35 mile shortcut on the old pony express road. (The ranch even had an old pony express relay station)

I was there for 2.5 years before it finished up (side note, the project had 218 electricians and I made it to the final eight before leaving) From There, I moved next door to another big project that was going on. It was at the “Hercules’s Corporations Trident 2 rocket plant.” They produced the propellant for the Trident 2 rocket. Once that project was finished the Industrial work pretty much slowed down in Salt Lake City. I did have an offer for another big EXXON project in the state of Washington. But I was tired of living in man camps and the life style that came with it. 

So since the upcoming October was going to be my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and nothing holding me in Salt Lake City. I decided to spend some of that money I had stashed away from all those long hours. I sold everything except my motorcycle a tent and I hit the road. First place I headed was to Southern California. I stayed for two months with a very good friend of mine, who had moved there from Salt Lake City. While staying there, I traveled down to southern Mexico on my bike and toured around the western desert of California. After leaving southern California, I rode the coastal highway (hwy 1) all the way to San Francisco. Where I had some other really good friends of mine, who would come and stay with me in salt lake for there ski vacation every year.  After staying there for a month, I took hwy 1 up to Oregon and cut across to the state of Washington, where I spent a week with a guy I worked with in Wyoming. 

After leaving there, I stopped in Harlowton Montana. I had three uncles and a ton of cousins living there. After the short visit in Montana I headed a cross the Dakotas to Minnesota, where I stayed with my little sister for a month. But time was running out and I needed to head on to Wisconsin. So I could attend my mom and dads 50th anniversary party that was coming up soon. Once there, I got settled in and I easily found plenty of electrical work to keep me busy. But it wasn’t long until the road started to beckon me back once again. So after the small electrical contractor, who I was working for went belly up. I decided to follow up on a job offer that I had received while I was a foreman on a huge food warehouse in Salt Lake. As I was wiring the dock levelers a “Rite Hite” dock board rep from Milwaukee Wisconsin stopped to see how the progress of the huge installation was going. During our conversation, I had mentioned that I too was from the Milwaukee area. After seeing my work, he gave me his card and said to give him a call if I ever find myself back in Wisconsin and needed a job.

At the time, living back in Wisconsin was not even a thought. But like the old saying “never say never!”  When I did end up back in Wisconsin and looking for work, I called him and told him that I did find myself back in Wisconsin and looking for work. He laughed and said when do you want to start?  I did mention to him, that I have one stipulation; I want to travel some more and this time to do it in a semi and not a motorcycle. That was when I landed the ultimate job for a “diesel fume fanatic” I was to haul and install dock boards all over the country. I was on the road first with a 1978 cab over Pete and then onto an 89 KW aerodyne from 1989 to 1995.

park the trucks for a while and start running big electrical construction projects. But as anyone knows, especially since you’re reading this. “Once the sound and smell of that diesel get’s in your blood, there is no getting away from it.”  I still enjoy driving those big old trucks like always. But my main passion in life is being with my family, I only drive locally and part time. Just enough to get my fix!!

       Keep on Trucking , --- Terry Wilson.
 

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