I drive a tractor trailer to pay my bills and keep the family solvent. Last year I was traveling north once again, driving through fog and raindrops, when I heard an idiot on a base in Newburg, New York claiming that truck drivers were scum because we were working on a holiday. He must think cops and firefighters, those in retail and food service, and others who keep the economy going on 'days of rest', are scum, also. I listened to him prove his ignorance, then told him something I would like to expand upon here.

I love my job. Let me repeat that. I. Love. My. Job. I get to roam around this part of the country and look at all the beauty.

I remember going across the French King Bridge at the peak of autumn colors. The mountains were yellow with orange tinges reflected in the river's lake that built up behind a dam. It is a solid sheet of color and nearly impossible to tell where the mountains and reflections meet. My company paid me for seeing that.

The Rocky Mountains as you approach them from the east are, as the song says, a "purple mountain's majesty," that should be viewed by all Americans sometime in their lives.

Scranton valley is a spectacle when it is lit up at night as are many valleys with cities in them. I received pay to see all this and more.

I also meet eccentric people, people with views other than mine, some of which are outlandish and off the wall.

Moreover, I get to drive, one of my favorite activities, and one that relaxes me. Those are the reasons I am out so much and only home forty hours a week.

If you do not enjoy long drives and nights or weeks or even months away from the house, then driving is not for you. You must love these things to put up with the crap you get, not only from the public who does not understand the physical and manmade limitations involved, but also from employers who should.

Driving regionally and nationally is a way of life, not a job. Take that away from many drivers and they would die of a broken heart.