Posted on November 22, 2017
The sun rises as another day begins on the plains. I was still working when I took this picture after being out all night on jobs.
As in my first blog I stated that I moved to North Dakota for over three years. Well it was three years and seven months to the exact day. On this article I want to speak of how I got to where I am today to financially be able to live the way most others dream of.
Sacrifice. This is the word that probably best describes what it took in order to live my dream. Just over four years ago I was at a point in life where I knew I needed something else. I had lived in the same small mountain town my whole life and even though I had traveled and worked outside the state a few times, I was at a place where I was not satisfied with where I was at anymore. I had completed my associates degree at the community college in Libby and was working different hard labor and food service jobs to pay my bills. None of this work was great paying though. I had recovered from my devastating knee injury and was ready for something new, something like more college or big money. I chose the money beings I was not sure on pursuing the degree path any further. My buddy David had been working the oilfields in North Dakota for two years at this point and I was finally ready to join! I went to the community college again but this time for a CDL. Even as I was trained to drive truck I worked two jobs. Basically most days I was busy from dawn till dark. Then, just two days after I got my CDL in the mail, I was driving twelve hours towards black gold. The next day I already had an interview and the day after got the call to work hauling production water in a vacuum water tanker semi. David left the very night I was hired so I was all alone housesitting for him on the prairie. He lived miles from Tioga, the name of the small town I worked out of. It was November twenty third and winter had just begun. I could barely shift the thirteen speed I was being trained on and there were snowy roads and icy storms to deal with. There was a time driving home from town that I encountered such a whiteout I drove off the road and had to shovel to get unstuck. I made it back onto the gravel road in my AWD Subaru and very slowly drove the rest of the way home. After much hardship the first few months I made it through a cold winter even for North Dakota standards. That summer I got put onto the night shift and I was happy for this beings night drivers made more money. There were two periods of time during my work in North Dakota where I did not make it back to Libby for almost six months straight because I worked almost every single day for twelve hours or more. During those times I saved, saved, SAVED! I could have bought a brand new truck and did everything to it a guy could want but instead drove a 2001 Subaru Outback. You might think me arrogant or prideful for talking about all the work and sacrifice that occurred and I understand that reasoning. All that really matters though is that you understand that it was far from a walk in the park to live my dreams. You see I had a goal. A goal that took me three years to get to. Then when I hit it I blew past that goal and quit shortly after. I planned my getaway for months in advance and when the time was right I got out!
During my time in Nodak I seen the best sunsets and sunrises anyone could ask for. I should have bought a decent camera during that time but I waited until I quit before buying my gear. I still got some stellar pictures with my galaxy S7 cell phone such as the one posted above. That one was taken while working past my normal twelve hour shift into the sunlight hours. North Dakota is a beautiful and exciting place even if it lacks the mountains and forests I am used to. Every winter and spring the northern lights would come out to paint the sky a light green hue. There is a wonder in being all alone at night on the northern prairie looking north at the green sky. Something about the plains creates a deep serenity inside ones soul that one has to experience to understand. It is also an exiting and scary place to be in at times. I loved watching the countless natural gas flairs burning as I drove down the highway. They shone like beacons in the otherwise dark night. There was a time I almost hit a cow on a narrow highway known as 1804. I also had a couple close calls nearly hitting a moose while driving the semi on the backroads and highways. All of these memories are imbedded onto my brain and remind me of times gone and nights long. But that is past now and we live in the present. Presently I am looking at my next adventure with anticipation and excitement, but thats for another time.