When your life is behind the wheel on the road, driving a truck across the country week after week, you get used to being alone. It’s just you, your vehicle, some music playing in the background and hundreds of miles of highway. But we are also humans; we do miss the experiences of meeting our family every day, meeting friends, and having daily interactions. Once in a while, we do find people, at the most unexpected places, real people, the kind who turn a lonely job into something much warmer.
I’ve made friends in truck stop diners, in line at fuel stations, over CB radio channels, and even during breakdowns on the side of the road. There is something very different about being out here that strips away the small talk part. When you only have 30 minutes before you hit the road again, you skip the fluff. You get honest.
This one time, I struck up a random conversation with a fellow driver from Nebraska over who had the worst load that week. Turns out we were both hauling meat; his was leaking, and mine was running late for delivery. We just shared a laugh, quickly swapped numbers, and have been checking on each other ever since.
Another time, I helped a new driver back into a tight spot at a crowded rest area. He was stressed and sweating bullets. I talked him through it, and later, we shared a midnight breakfast and talked about family, burnout, and the weird joy of catching a good sunset from your cab.
Friendships on the road are different; they are fleeting sometimes; just one random conversation, a cup of coffee, and you’re both going your own ways. Other times they last, I still text a few people I have just once. Though we dont see each other that often, we are on the same map, living parallel lives, just with a different route every time
And it’s just that my friends are only other truckers; I’ve chatted with farms at the gas station, night shift waitresses who work two jobs to support their family, the occasional curious traveller and many of these sorts. The road brings together a strange mix of people you’d never meet in a normal 9-5 job life.
These connections don’t fill the same space as being home with family, but they help. They remind you that you aren’t the only one out there. Even between all the empty roads and alone travel, there is scope for human connection.
So, most of the time, I am alone, but not lonely, not out here on the road.
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