Lessons on the Road of Life.....

Many times I have seen deer crossing the highway, in front of my semi truck and trailer. Most of the time it takes only two leaps and a bound for the deer to cross the roadway, and get out of harms way. It is both a beautiful and amazing sight.
I have seen many smaller animals that can really move, too. Yes, they can scoot pretty quickly across the dangerous highway if they see, hear or smell a truck.
It always makes me happy when critters manage to stay out of the way of my truck driving. I am not out on the highway to kill animals, and I am not out there to kill myself.
In 1974 I lost a dear friend that never should have died the way he died. My friend drove truck for the same company as me, and was pulling a set of doubles (tractor and two short trailers) to Boise, Idaho.
At that time, the road from Winnemucca, Nevada to Boise, Idaho was called the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" by all of us truckers. It was a narrow and winding road, a dangerous one.
While driving north on this two lane highway, my friend rounded a curve only to find two cows standing in the road. David tried to avoid the cows, swerved and left the roadway, crashing at full speed into a concrete drainage culvert. Death was instant, and one of the cows was also killed.

I made a vow to myself at David's funeral "I will not leave the road for any animal."
I had to think this thought over and over to record it in my subconscious. It is still there today, and hopefully will always keep me from making the wrong decision when a critter is on the same road as me. I pounded it into my subconscious, hoping I will never make a split second decision to leave the safety of the road just to avoid hitting an animal. I know some of you still have one of those bumper stickers on your Yugo, that says, "I swerve to avoid animals". Just thought I'd let you know, if you swerve in front of me to avoid a baby duck, you are the one with little or no brains. How do I say this tactfully? I AM NOT GOING TO SWERVE FOR YOU IN YOUR YUGO, OR THE DUCK. BOTH YOU AND THE DUCK WILL BE FLATTENED BY 40 TONS OF TRUCK, DRIVEN BY A TRUCK DRIVER THAT WANTS TO LIVE TO RETIRE.
I have had a few occasions to test my subconscious on this matter, and everything worked as I hoped, I survived but my truck flattened a few critters. I love animals, but I believe that humans have dominion over all animals. The creator of everything declared this, and I am not going to argue with God.
No, I don't swerve to avoid animals in the road. That is, Until, (yes here is the exception.) One rainy day a few years back, I saw on the roadway in front of me, a very large turtle.
In a heavy rain storm, turtles try to reach higher ground, so they won't drown. Yes they are excellent swimmers and spend a lot of time in the water, but they head for high ground in downpours. Asphalt and Cement roadways are a turtle's favorite place in the rain.
My subconscious for some reason failed to respond as I had programmed it.
I took a big risk and tried to avoid the turtle. I was successful, and the turtle and the truck avoided each other. Yes, it was scary, but everything turned out fine.
If it had been a deer, I would have tried to stop, but would not have swerved to avoid it.

I was puzzled. Why did I not run over the turtle?


I am a compassionate person, and I realized how long it took that turtle to get not even halfway across that highway.

I have personal knowledge of only a small amount of history. In the 50 years that I have paid attention, My country, America has always been the most powerful nation on earth. The USSR was the only serious threat in any of these 50 years, and it amuses me to think how we feared them so much. Communism will always lose out to Capitalism. One of our greatest presidents knew this to be true, and because of his determination to bring the evil empire down, millions have thrown off the chains of communism, and are now free. Yes communism will always lose out to capitalism. Humans naturally desire to be better than everyone else at something, not equal to everyone else. In the 50's America was frightened of the Soviets though. I remember the ridiculous duck and cover drills in the 1950's. Excuse me a minute, I must laugh at the memory. LOL
Yes, the memory of my teachers explaining how all of us students were to crouch under our school desks if and when the sirens went off to alert us that the USSR was firing atomic missiles at America. At that time in my life I didn't question if it would happen, I was concerned only about, when it would happen.

In 2005 America is still the most powerful nation on earth. Some people have a problem with that. I don't and won't.

America is the big powerful truck barreling down the highway of life. Germany, Japan, Cuba, The Philippines, Mexico, Grenada, Panama, Korea, England, and many more nations can tell you about the highway of life and the big powerful truck.

All of these countries have met our soldiers, in war. And in war, we have kicked their behinds, yet they for the most part are still free. The nice thing about fighting a war with America is that your country will be OK, after the battle. You will lose, but you will prosper after you surrender..
So on the highway of life, America has never swerved to miss something in the road.

Oh, wait a minute, what about Iraq??

Iraq is the turtle on the highway in front of the American Truck. America swerved to miss Iraq. We could easily have leveled Baghdad in short order, and taken over all of Iraq's oil fields. Yes we could have saved a lot of our wonderful fighting women and men's lifes, and bombed Baghdad into submissin. But we didn't, what happened?
We chose to swerve to miss the obstacle on the road. We are doing just fine, there was no big wreck. Iraq is free today because of our quick reflexes.
Iraq was on the highway, trying to find relief from the Saddam Storm, and luckily America swerved to save Iraq, and now we can live happily ever after. Iraq and America, friends forever. Oh did I mention, to the rest of the Middle East, Iraq will become the SNAPPING TURTLE.

When crossing the highway from slavery to liberty, the turtle takes a little longer to cross, but God forbid I harm them on the journey.