32 10-4 Magazine / February 2026 For most truckers, our lives are a journey. We spend our life behind the wheel moving freight from shipper to receiver, going from state to state, with many of us crisscrossing the North American continent multiple times a year. We know the roads and can recite them in our heads without having to look at a map. We can give directions from New York City to L.A. like most people would give directions to someone who’s looking for a local neighborhood grocery store. For truckers who live the lifestyle, many grow up in trucking families, and the highway is in their D.N.A. But for others, life sometimes takes us down a different route, and we find a passion for the open road that we never knew we had or could have even imagined. For 80-year-old trucker Steen Gronlund of Longmont, Colorado, he has experienced the journey of a lifetime with a story that is truly unique. Born in 1945 in Copenhagen, Denmark after World War II ended to Aage and Gurdun Petersen, Steen told me a little about his father Aage. “He was a professional photographer, and official photographer for the Kingdom of Denmark and the Danish Royal Family, during that time.” Sadly, Aage died from cancer in 1949, leaving his mother Gurdun and uncle to operate the business, which struggled without his father at the helm. In order to provide for Steen, along with his older brother Bent and younger sister Ulla, Gurdun took a job as a housekeeper for a well-to-do farmer named Baldmar Gronlund, who had recently moved back to Denmark after operating a farm and living in Canada for many years. Two years later, Gurdun and Baldmar were married, and he also adopted Steen and his brother Bent and sister Ulla. In 1954, Baldmar decided to move the family to Canada. “I remember the ship and crossing the North Atlantic. It was an eight-day voyage and quite the experience for someone my age,” explained Steen, as he has fond memories of the trip as an eight-year-old. Steen then continued, “Both my brother Bent and mom were seasick the entire trip, so my sister Ulla and I had to fend for ourselves. I can remember going for dinner on the ship and playing with other children.” While most of the passengers spoke English, Steen told me he did not know how to speak English at the time. “Honestly, it didn’t make much of a difference, as we only joined the other passengers for dinner, but we kept ourselves occupied the rest of the time,” said Steen. Once they finally arrived in North America and the ship docked in New Brunswick, the family made its way west via a two-day train ride, nearly Truckapedia: By Mark Harter another 2,500 miles across Canada, to the small Village of Carievale, which is located in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan. “We actually lived about 12 miles south of Carievale in Elmore (just across the U.S. border from North Dakota) where my stepfather Baldmar had a farm,” said Steen. “I remember milking the cows and we rode horseback to school,” as Steen continued, “It was a one-room schoolhouse, and all grade levels were taught there. That’s also where I learned to speak English.” But in 1968, at the age of 23, this is where Steen’s trucking journey began, when he went to work in the Canadian oilfields of Saskatchewan for Kissinger Drilling. “We moved an oil rig from Saskatchewan to Gillette, Wyoming, about that time, and I was able to get my U.S. Visa as well,” said Steen. “I then went to work for Exeter Drilling and there was a company there, Corky’s Water Hauling, that used to deliver water to the Exeter drilling rigs at that time,” explained Steen, continuing with, “I was talking with the owner Corky one day and he told me he was short a driver and asked me if I knew how to drive trucks. I lied a bit and told him I had been driving trucks on the farm since I was old enough to reach the pedals, and next thing I know I’m behind the wheel of a 1958 Mack B-61 equipped with a Quadruplex (two-stick 5x4) transmission. Needless to say, I figured it out and taught myself how to drive that old Mack.” For the next nine years, Steen worked on the oil rig during the day and drove the old Mack for Corky at night. Tired of the cold weather and wanting a change, Steen left the oil fields and, after talking with a friend, decided to become JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME
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