Trucker Talk: By John & Kim Jaikes As many of us who have been on the road for decades are beginning to reach retirement age, we often wonder what we will do after living most of our lives on the road? Most can remember when we first hit the road, but we never could have imagined how quickly the millions of miles and memories would go by – it seems as fast as a round from the east coast to California and back! I’ll say this here, I’m not retired from the road yet, but I’m closer than not. And we sure have made a lot of memories along the way during this amazing life trucking has allowed us to have. It’s 238,900 miles to the moon, so with 4 million miles under our belt, we’ve gone there and back 16.7 times. And all that we’ve got to see in those millions of miles is pretty incredible when you stop to think about it. I say we’ve been paid to see our country, and what a great ride it’s been. Over the years I’ve always taken a lot of pictures, but I do wish that we would have had the quality cell phone cameras that we have today to document more of the early days back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I have always loved photographing the sunrise and sunsets, and no two are ever the same, as each one is spectacular in their own right. The full moon coming up over a mountain in Wyoming or the Arizona desert is awesome, along with everywhere else you get to see it, as it rises on the horizon on a clear dark night. I can remember seeing the Hale-Bopp Comet in 1997, which was visible to the naked eye for months. But it really stood out on a clear dark night running across I-40 in Arizona or I-80 in Wyoming, or anywhere else that the lights of a nearby city didn’t take away from its amazing display across the sky. Winter experiences would include driving through snowstorms over Donner Pass between Reno and Sacramento, and heading into black storm clouds while running west through Nebraska. Another memorable location is the Virgin River Gorge – that 29 mile stretch of I-15 in Arizona between Utah and Nevada. At first it looks like there couldn’t possibly be a road, just a mountain, but there is. The road runs through the gorge, crosses seven bridges over the Virgin River and, when heading east in the winter, you come out the other side and are usually out of the snow in Utah. After passing through the Virgin River Gorge at night when heading west, following a short bit of driving, you are suddenly overlooking the ocean of lights we call Las Vegas – a sight that never gets old. And speaking of Vegas, we watched it grow into the giant “sin city” (or tourist trap) it is today. Back in the day, the Excalibur (the castle) stood pretty much alone, and back then you could park your truck in the dirt and go enjoy the buffet. Then, the Nevada state bird (the construction crane) took over, and that infamous Vegas skyline hasn’t stopped growing ever since. I’ll never forget the first time we were heading east on I-80 in Nevada and saw the salt flats. Once you go through Wendover, NV and get on the flats in Utah, if you look to the north, there are mountains that have mirages. The mountains are continuous, but they look like there is a cloud here and there that makes it look like there are breaks in the mountains. Another memorable sight at night can be found while heading east on I-40 and seeing the beautiful lights out over Albuquerque, NM (there is a row of lights that stand out that must run along a main street in the city). One of my favorite rides running west was through Provo Canyon, from Heber City, UT to Provo, UT. Heber City is a beautiful little town nestled in the Wasatch Mountains. A two-lane road off I-80 was the way you had to go to Heber City before they built Hwy 40 from Silver Creek Junction. Then, you went down through the canyon on Hwy 189 south, which was restricted to 48’ 76 10-4 Magazine / August 2025 A TRUCKING LIFE
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