OOIDA members Troy and Cathy Hart of CNT Trucking, Amarillo, TX, run seven trucks. Hart says that while he expects a lot out of his drivers, he tries to show his appreciation for their hard work with home time around the holidays.
“I work with a broker, who works extremely hard, to make sure my drivers are home for the two most important holidays – Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Hart says.
“The plan right now is for all of my drivers to be home with their families on Thanksgiving Day, then some will head out on Friday, while some are scheduled to head back out on Sunday.”
At OOIDA headquarters in Grain Valley, MO, staffers who talk to thousands of truckers a day report while many truckers and OOIDA members will treat Thanksgiving Day like any other working day this year, on the most part large numbers appear to be planning to spend the holiday with friends and family.
DuWayne Marshall, Watertown, WI, says he won’t make it home. Marshall says he is California and has five more pickups to make before he’s Wisconsin-bound.
OOIDA member Rusty Wade’s plan for Thanksgiving this year was to truck, so that he can take some time off in December. But, he got a load Tuesday, Nov. 20, in Kalamazoo, MI, with freight that will get him home to Brundidge, AL, the day before Thanksgiving.
Dave Becker, Calhoun, GA, hopes that the freight has his truck Georgia-bound for the holidays where he plans to share turkey dinner with his brother.
Lake Andes, SD, is the home of the Spirit Horse Ranch, and that’s where company driver Bill Croysdill hangs his Stetson. When he’s not driving, he’s ranching. But Croysdill says he will be in Illinois during Thanksgiving holiday, visiting his son and daughter-in-law.
OOIDA member Lonnie Ramsey is spending Thanksgiving at home this year.
“Trading the 18-wheeler for the four-wheeler,” Ramsey reports. “Before I had my daughter, Jess, I did not care were I was for the holidays. Now I see things through her eyes. It’s all new – even trucking.”
Work hard, give back
While OOIDA member Craig Hansen of High Ridge, MO, won’t be out on the nation’s highways this Thanksgiving, he won’t be at home either. He is pulling the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s float in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in St. Louis.
Hansen says he admits he has a problem saying no to helping with a good cause, even if it falls around the holidays and he has to give up some of his home time to help out. He’s known as one of the “Truckin’ Santas” and has already volunteered to take another load of toys down to a church in Biloxi, MS, to help out families still struggling to financially recover after Hurricane Katrina.
While he says truckers are some of the most giving people he has ever met, he said donations are down because many truckers have fallen on hard times because of high fuel prices and low freight rates, but also said he understands they must take care of their own families’ needs first.
“Last year, we only had about 18 truckers that were able to donate, don’t get me wrong, we were grateful for every donation we got,” he says. “I know times are hard.”
Hansen says donations have been low again this year and that he plans to take his pickup truck and a trailer he plans to borrow from his church this year instead of his big rig – partly to save on fuel costs and because of the shipment of fewer toys this year.
“My wife and I love doing this, even though we often use our own money to help these kids. Last year, we spent $1,500 out of our own pockets,” Hansen says. “This was our present to each other – we just looked at each other and said, ‘Merry Christmas.’ ”
Just thankful for another day
For OOIDA Life Member Daniel Kupke Sr., who has spent the past four years working for KBR in Iraq, Thanksgiving Day will be “just another day” for him – a day spent trying to avoid RPGs, IEDs and land mines, which are daily threats for drivers along the open highways in Iraq.
“Thanksgiving Day will just be another day for me. I work at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” Kupke said in an e-mail to Land Line. “The days melt into one another and you lose track of what day it is. Weekends don’t exist here.”
Kupke writes that he spent his first three years as a convoy commander running 20 to 25 trucks and his truck back and forth from Baghdad to Kuwait on the highways with military escorts, hauling supplies for the military and the state department, including Sherman Tanks, food and water.
Now, he hauls people. He drives a bullet-proof Suburban and transports State Department officials to and from the airport and around Baghdad.
Kupke, who has been trucking for more than 28 years, says he is thankful for many things in his life – including being alive himself.
“People don’t realize how precious life is till they see it end before their eyes,” he says. “This experience over here has made a lot of changes in me as far as how I look at life in general … don’t take anything for granted … especially when all of your family is gathered around you during these holiday times and there is a soldier watching from his outpost at the same time in a war zone trying to make this a safer world to live in.”
His involvement in a Trucker Buddy program with a fifth grade class at Lincoln Intermediate School in Monmouth, IL, has also helped him cope with being overseas during Thanksgiving. The class recently sent him letters, telling him what their plans are for Thanksgiving. One student wrote to Kupke, “You’re my hero” and signed it “From your best friend, BreAnna.”
He is also thankful for his wife, who he met in Kuwait while she was there working as a beautician. She is back in the states waiting for him to come home – hopefully he will be home for Christmas.
“She is all I need to survive in the world,” Kupke says.
What are you thankful for?
On the OOIDA Members Only Forum, Land Line asked the question, “What are you thankful for? While we couldn’t include all of the messages we received, we did get some touching responses – most are about the importance of family.
OOIDA member Timothy J. Begle of Dale, IN, wrote on the Forum that he is thankful for his wife, who he has been married to for 25 years now.
“It’s not always been easy and it’s not always been the best, but my wife has always stood by my side without complaining,” he wrote.
Begle said he is looking forward to spending the next 25 years with his “bestest friend.”
Barry Lamb, Hephziban, GA, said he is thankful for still being able to have Thanksgiving dinner with his parents, who are both in their mid-70s.
“I know at their age I won’t have many more Thanksgiving dinners with them, but I’m sure thankful that I still have a few left.”
– By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer
clarissa_kell-holland@landlinemag.com
Editor’s note: Donations to Craig Hansen’s “Truckin’ Santas” project can be made over the phone by calling the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which handles all the donations for the Truckin’ Santas at 1-888-930-4438, including credit card payments, or donations can be mailed to:
Truckin’ Santas
c/o LCMS
1333 South Kirkwood Road
Kirkwood, MO 63122
