Long-Haul Larry - Truckerology: Moving Stories From An American Trucker

Photography by: Brian W. Paules

Cover and eBook design by eBook Prep

www.ebookprep.com

Introduction

By John Vollrath, JBG Travels

Larry and I bonded over an obsession. It was supposed to be a hobby but it really was an obsession.

Larry used to co-own and manage a hobby store called Hobbytown USA near Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

It was around 1998, I was a twenty-three-year-old on-and-off-again truck driver, living in my dads basement and heavily consumed with building radio-controlled airplanes. I bought a lot of stuff from Larrys store. Thats how we met.

We also both belonged to a local radio-controlled airplane club where we were the oddballs. Everyone in the club was really uptight about not crashing their planes. Larry and I would spend our flying time trying to hit each other in the air.

I guess you could say we became friends over a shared obsession and a mutual desire for destruction.

Larry and I would fly anything. If it had wingsor something that looked like wingswed put an engine and a propeller on it and make it fly. It was a lot of fun for many years.

Larrys the kind of guy whos always thinking, can turn anything into fun, and knows how to make things happen. He may also have a squirrel cage in his head, one thats always spinning out new ideas.

In our town of Sheboygan, there wasnt much for people to do. But we had lots of lakes and rivers. So Larry got the idea of selling radio-controlled boats, and soon the Kiwanis park was full of people racing boats on the Sheboygan River.

It was fun for lots of people and Larry made it happen. He saw a need and created a solution. Thats the kind of guy he is.

Of course, somebody had to come along and complain to the town fathers which pretty much put an end to it. But it sure was fun while it lasted!

Larrys also the kind of guy who knows when to show up.

We each rented a storage unit across from where I was living with my dad. Thats where we did our hobby work.

One Saturday morning I got up, planning to head over to my unit, and discovered my dad had died in his sleep, sometime during the night. The medics said around 2 AM. The first person I told was Larry.

Next thing I knew, Larry, who was across the street, was at the door. He walked in and gave me a big hug.

You gotta know that Larrys not a guy who expresses his feelings muchhes a manly, man. But that day I needed a hug and it came from an unlikely place. Ill never forget it.

After my dad passedthat was around 2001I had to get serious about working. It was just me, now, no dad to mooch on, so I got more serious about my truck driving career.

Which brings me back to Larry.

Larrys a quick learner and largely self-taught.

One evening I asked Larry to go on a night run with me from Wisconsin to somewhere around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Larry agreed, hopped in the passenger seat and off we went in my 10 speed truck.

He seemed interested in the mechanics of shifting so I told him to put his hand on the gear shift and not to move a muscle, just feel the gears. Then, without making a big deal of it, I put my hand over his and let him feel the gears mesh as I did the shifting. This is the first and last time I held hands with Long-Haul Larrywe both pretended it wasnt awkward.

With Larry feeling the gears and watching my feet and movements, he learned how to drive a 10 speed transmission in about five or ten minutes.

Now, I do hesitate to confess to this next part, but I set the cruise control, we traded places, and Larry immediately became a truck driver as he drove from Port Washington to Wisconsin.

Ive never known anyone to pick up something so complex so quickly, even though hed grind a gear from time to time.

When we hit the Illinois state line, I took over before the toll roads. Switching seats, I noticed Larry looked kind of pale, like hed seen a ghost. So I asked him, how was it?

He said, That was really something!

I could tell the trucking bug had bitten.

Afterward, he went to a professional truck driving school, and thats how Long-Haul Larry was born.

But Larry is so much more than a quick learner who knows how to make things fun, a faithful friend who knows when to show up, and a good truck driver who also knows how to fix em. Hes also a gifted storyteller.

And, no matter how much this may surprise you or me, there is no one more surprised than Larrys high-school English teacher who often banished Larry to the hallway for one squirrel-brained prank or another.

To her I say, Look at what Larry did, now!

Aint I a stinka?

So its my honor to introduce you to my long-time friend, truck driver, mechanic, and now storyteller extraordinaire, Long-Haul Larry.

Peace.

John Vollrath