Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Imagine my surprise! In the middle of nowhere on the Georgia – Florida border deep in the woods. Three guys standing around having no clue how to unload 48K lbs. of lumber. I decided to stay out of it. The tractor they brought couldn’t handle the weight. Night was not far off. There are no lights anywhere.

A Ford Expedition drives up. A woman gets out. She looks over the situation. She takes off her heels and puts her hair up. She puts on a pair of running shoes. “Can I borrow some wire cutters and your cheater bar?”, she asks me. I give them to her. “Wouldn’t have a spare pair of gloves, would ya?”  “No problem”, I say getting her a new pair of CAT work gloves that I recently bought at a Flying J somewhere. She hops up on the load and goes to work directing the three men how to proceed.

Her name was Sara. I don’t know where she came from or what she does exactly, but her arrival on the scene has saved the day. Unlike many men I meet, she is not afraid to work and break a sweat. And she bears a striking resemblance to former VP candidate and Alaska Gov. Sara Palin. Certainly, this Sara acted like a “maverick” just like the “real” (other) Sara. This Sara is from Korea and just recently moved to this country.

Keeping the guys moving – lifting and moving a lot of the lumber by herself – she had the trailer unloaded in about 90 minutes. It was about then that I learned that I was going to have to back out – about a 3/4 mile – to get back to the main road. “What’s ahead”, I asked. “Nothing”, I was told. SOB. The “head” guy didn’t mention that to me as he was directing me in to the site. I looked around. Sara had disappeared leaving me the gloves, wire cutter and my cheater bar on the step of my cab.

To make a long story short, I got stuck in the mud backing out. And guess what? I got out of the truck and there was Sara in her 4-wheel drive, “Got a chain?”, she asked. We connected, so to speak. She pulled me out, no problem. I got out of there just as the sun was going down. She had a McCain sticker on the back, by the way. Thanks Sara.Palin.

All photos by Marshall J. Gruskin.