Freckles and Elvira were completing school and getting their licenses. Willie and I were going through the motions, nervous and excited about the prospect of spending life on the road with our wives. Time seemed to slow to a crawl waiting for each call or text update. Two beautiful women, moms, and friends. They were tackling the world of trucking, no easy feat for a man or a woman.

We got the final call stating that they both had their licenses, and that was indeed an amazing feeling. Willie was going to have Elvira in his truck for training, Freckles was to spend a month or so with a female trainer. Big dreams take commitment and courage. These two ladies had that and more.

I knew a little about what Freckles was in for, not long ago I went through it. The long hours of intense focus, discovering things that I didn’t even know existed. Going to sleep while someone you just met drives across the country, your life-their hands. Your dream, their hands. Your chance to be with your soulmate again, their hands. That’s not even to mention, you have their life in your hands as you do things you’ve never even thought about before. Negotiating curvy mountain grades, almost everything counterintuitive. Finishing a drive shift that didn’t go well, laying in the sleeper wanting to cry, or indeed letting the flood gates open before simply exploding.

Thoughts like, “This is harder than I thought it would be.” Or, “I miss the warmth of my home…and sugars and ooweeees (hugs) from my girls.” Missing my mom, my brother, my golfing buddies…

My youngest daughter graduated from high school, I was not in the audience. Birthdays, funerals, and holidays… without either of us in attendance. We thought we were ready for that, that was the reason for getting our loved ones’ blessings to do this. I’m here to tell you, we could never be ready for what that feels like. To wake up every day, or night sometimes, and try to literally remember where we are, where we are going, and why. Every assignment a monumental journey, no blinking allowed. The measure always being, how far are we from home? How long would it take me to get there if the universe finally recognizes I don’t belong out here?

One step at a time turns into one second at a time, and indeed the true value of a second is captured. The realization that we never really knew what tired was, and that there seems to be no bottom to fatigue.

I teamed back up with the owner. Willie and Elvira rode off into the sunset, literally. I couldn’t be more proud of Elvira, more proud of Freckles. It was really the hardest time for me, I was still trying to become what I needed to be, and now Freckles was out here somewhere. It almost broke me, almost. Everyday felt like a lifetime, and a lifetime is heavy for a small Florida boy. What I couldn’t carry, I thought I dragged behind me. Now I know God carried it.

The day Freckles met her training requirements, has to be one of the greatest days I’ve ever had. When I saw her, she was more beautiful than all the scenery I had driven through, all the kind acts I had witnessed, all the insanely difficult maneuvers I pulled off. This was my wife, my best friend, my daughters’ example in life. I hugged her so hard, and for so long… my ripped up heart melted back into one piece.

We got in our truck and drove off into our own sunset. Here is a woman I had been in love with most of my life. I left her to embark on a journey into the unknown. She took the same journey just to be with me. My best friend, my lover- and literally, my ride or die.