bestbooties:
John,
You no doubt saw my contribution in “Badhdad Trucker”.
Oh, yes. Your photos are the best. And there are some quotes from you at the beginning of the book, page 5. I had to reinstall Internet Explorer to see your stuff on TopRun.ch (I use FireFox now for a browser, and Toprun is the only site I have ever had trouble with). What is a Tonka driver?
bestbooties:
All through reading the book myself,(Which was sent to me direct from the publisher in return for my input),I thought I must know this Kevin Noble,but although I did the job for 12 years,some guys you met almost every trip,some you might only meet once in a lifetime.It was near the end of the book when Kevin mentions the episode of him falling asleep and running off the road in what was then Yugoslavia and ending up to his axles in a field.He said that for the week he was there,several English truckers stopped and tried unsuccessfully to tow him out,that’s when I realised,I KNOW THE GUY!
That was the only time I recall meeting him in his 3 year M/E career.I was running down with a pal when we saw this Davis rig in the middle of a field,with his boss “Taffy” parked up on the road,asleep in the cab.My mate and I strung ourselves together,and I had a 40 foot steel rope which was needed to reach him,he was so far off the road.No matter how much we pulled and snatched,no movement,and to avoid damage to our own trucks,we had to leave him,allbeit,with his boss.
Ha ha. I get the impression that Kevin Noble had to eat humble pie from time-to-time when Taffy Davies had other plans for him!
bestbooties:
I can only echo what most M/E drivers thought about our time down there,it was not so much a job,more the greatest adventure anyone could be involved in,bar none!
I can see that! Longhaul trucking here is more tame, but several times I quit so I could be home every night and, I thought, become bored to death. As it turned out I found night-shift jobs at small, motorway fuel stops near home, and I have many stories to tell about that. Here in the USA, there is no telling what too expect rolling in at 2-3:000AM. Sometimes it can be a circus, sometimes dangerous. I only mention this because Brits and Europeans tell me that firearms are strictly controlled. Well, on this nightshift job in a rural area, I kept a pistol on me. The first time I had to pull my gun I saw the perps get out of their car (big glass window in front of the shop) and begin to stuff big revolvers into their jackets in plain view. Duh! When they marched in I had my 9MM out and aimed right at them. “Get the ■■■■ out of my store!” When they high-tailed it I was so proud of myself I forgot to call the police. Turned out they went on to rob another fuel stop down the road and beat up two truck drivers. That said, I can’t imagine any job more interesting than longhaul.
bestbooties:
I think anyone of us who was lucky enough to have been part of that era,finds that any subsequent job can never come within a mile of the excitement and daily change that we enjoyed. The early days were great,but as time went on,new legislation in some countries,civil war in others,realisation of police in countries like Turkey and the Commie bloc ,that international truck drivers were a never ending source of “back handers”,made the job ever more difficult. … It was difficult to pack the job in and move on,but as one of the few long term M/E drivers to still be married to the same gal,when she said enough is enough,that was the time to call it a day.
Are you retired from driving alltogether now? Methinks you could write your own book.
bestbooties:
Thanks to BB’s like this, can keep in touch with old colleagues who did the same job,and pass on some pics and anecdotes to younger guys who have heard all about it but unfortunately will never be able to be the "Young warriors"that we were.
I know that feeling! My 2nd wife, Cheater, and I have been married 26 years now but she was a baby when we first hooked up. Now she is getting old! ‘:P’ She is from a small town in Alabama and her first two weeks in the truck with me we just happened to hit all the major east-coast cities: Boston, NYC, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami, Washington DC…and she was hooked. She now misses longhaul, too.
I have been running my mouth and I hope this message is not too long. 
Think about writing your own book. The public, I found, eats up trucker stories, partly because we drivers are a mystery to them but also/maybe because the citizen life is boring?
And what about that name “Crusader”? Methinks that no longer flies in burqa-babe country, but if the doctor told me I had only one more month to live, what a hoot it would be to run that baby though the Middle East loaded with western toilet paper. They’d have the choice of blowing me up or scoring a few rolls.
