Dedicated to the Kenworth!

(Note: There are a lot of photos in this blog, so if it loads slowly, this is why ... Let me assure you though, that these beauties are well worth the wait. A lot of the photos were borrowed from www.kenworth.com )

The Kenworth! Ah......the Kenworth .......

To me, no truck glistens as beautifully under the sunlight as the Kenworth does.

I was driving to work this morning, the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly, shiny grills of Kenworths were beaming at me as I passed them along the way. There’s something about the design of the Kenworth that is so beautiful… all their models are really classy and well-designed in their own way.

My favorite Kenworth is the W900. (As you can see, it is no coincidence that this very truck is the one displayed in my blog heading...) I love that gorgeous, big, shiny grill. When it rolls up on my bumper in rush hour traffic, it’s delightfully intimidating. This truck is so majestic, especially if they’ve been polished and cared for in a way that a W900 deserves to be pampered!

Then there’s the T600 … and I’m not sure that a big macho big rig, nor a macho truck driver, would want to hear this… but the T600 is sooo cute! (If that makes me sound too girly, so be it….it IS cute!)

With that stripe down the middle, the nose is so small & dainty and with the big head lights (i.e big “doe eyes” or "puppy eyes") it’s simply adoreable! There's no better word for it.
(But let’s be clear however, it IS a big rig… it’ll crush your little Honda Fit in a second, so don’t let it’s cute & innoscent appearances fool you…)

The T600’s big brother is the T660. It’s not quite as cute as the T600, it’s bigger and has more muscle, it’s certainly more intimidating than the 600.

It's fun to observe the different styles as they've evolved through the years. Personally I'm a bigger fan of the more "square" look that these truck grills used to have, but the new & more "modern" look they have now isn't bad either. This truck is like the "in-between" child in my book ... it's nice looking, don't get me wrong, but between it's oh so cute little brother and it's big & menacing big papa (coming up in next paragraph), it kind of remains a little anonymous...

The “big papa” is the T2000 … I love passing the T2000s on the road, that humming from their massive engine is like some kind of a soothing sound, it’s very relaxing & I wish I could stay next to them and just relax in their shadow for awhile, but we all know that lingering next to a big rig is not a bright idea, so I just resort to passing while turning down my radio for a second.

Ah yes, this is a shallow, shallow blog … but I couldn’t help but blogging about the Kenworth today, there were so many of them on the road this morning and it’s just really nice to have something pretty to look at while stuck in traffic… I know I could write much more about these trucks, such as power and evolution through time and how many awards they have won through the years, but I just really wanted a blog about the exterior today ... Perhaps another day, I'll go more into detail about each model. Today was not that day.

These awesome photos below are from the Wes Kerney Collection and I shamelessly copied them from http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/ - if you are a big rig fan, I strongly recommend that you visit Hanks' Truck Pictures, there is a LOT of eye candy there...

Please enjoy the lovely Kenworths displayed below ....

A Trucker's Prayer

A Trucker's Prayer

Dear God above bless this truck I drive

And help me keep someone alive

Be my mortal sight this day

On streets where little children play

Bless my helper fast asleep

When the night is long and deep

And keep my cargo safe and sound

Through the hours big and round

Make my judgement sound as steel

And be my hands upon the wheel

Bless the traveler going past

And teach him not to go so fast

Give me the strength for every trip

So I may care for what they ship

And make me mindful every mile

That life is just a little while

Amen

Broken Down

Driving home from work today, I passed a broken down big rig that had pulled over to the side of the road. Me, I was eager to get home and get my weekend started. TGIF! Then as I passed the truck, I felt a great deal of sympathy for the truck driver, whoever he or she was and then almost guilty because I was almost home while this driver wasn't going anywhere.

It was dark already when I passed the truck, so I don't know if it was someone from out of state or a local truck. Being stranded only a few miles from home would be depressing, but not nearly as bad as being stranded on an unknown highway by a small town you have never heard of (and believe me, this guy was stranded exactly there), on a Friday night... which from what I understand is most people's favorite night of the week.

Whether the truck driver had to call their family who were waiting at home, eager to go out for dinner to celebrate the end of the week, or they were waiting to reach a truck stop to hang with fellow truckers and soak up some companionship after several hours on the road, breaking down would certainly mean a less than thrilling start on the weekend.

I'm fairly sure things will just roll downhill from there for awhile. Once the trucker has been rescued and the rig has been towed, no doubt there is a big repair bill waiting at the end of that tunnel and perhaps, just perhaps, the rig that was once new and shiney is participating on one of its last runs. It's sad.

Apart from feeling sad on behalf of the stranded trucker, I also felt happy in an odd sort of way. On my "My Space" profile, there is a box where I typed in "People that I admire"....

One of my answers is in fact "truckers stranded on the side of the road".

I feel that truckers make certain sacrifices in their lives on behalf of all of us. Without big rigs hauling goods up and down the interstate, what would we do? We'd have no clothes, no food, no iPods, no TVs... or if we did have these things, it would mean we had done one heck of a job fetching our items after purchasing them. What would we do? Rent a trailer and drive to Michigan for our new Ford pickup truck? Rent a car and drive to Seattle for our Microsoft Windows? (Oh, but wait...where would we get the car and the trailer from? We would have to WALK to a car plant, rent a car and then drive....oh geez! My head!)

Anyway, you get my drift? Without trucks and truck drivers, we'd be pretty screwed.

So when I see a driver stranded on the side of the road like that, I feel proud because I'm looking at a man or a woman who is hard working, who is pulling their weight in society (literally!), to make a living and make a life for themselves. In the process they are improving our lives by bringing us the goods we desire so much. And most likely, he or she loves their job. The few truck drivers I've known in my life so far, really loved their job. I totally respect that.

Far too many people are stuck in jobs they don't enjoy.

Tonight's stranded trucker was a lone one, but oftentimes I see that helpful samaritans stop to help the trucker out. Now, I am assuming that a person probably wouldn't pull over to help a big rig unless they knew something about fixing big rigs... i.e the samaritan is most likely another truck driver... Based on this, it seems to me that the comradery within the trucking business is a strong one. It's nice to see. Regardless of whether the helping hands are those of truckers or just regular passer-bys who wanted to help, it's nice to see that people are still willing to help each other out.

A couple of hours have gone by since I got home, and I hope the trucker has been rescued by now. Perhaps the broken part was a minor one that was not too expensive to fix. Hopefully it didn't put too big of a delay on his route, hopefully the dinner is still warm for him when he gets home... or perhaps there's a cold beer waiting at a truck stop somewhere, along with some good company.

(This is what I envision when I pass a stranded big rig... I guess people
have been stranded for as long as they've been able to travel :))

Why a blog about big rigs?

Since I moved to the US, I have developed a fascination for big rigs.
I’m not sure where this fascination came from or when it was developed. The only one in my family who is a truck driver is my father’s cousin. I remember he came to visit us once as he was passing through town. He parked his rig in front of a local grocery store, and when he was leaving, my brother and I were allowed to climb up and check out his cabin. It was very cool.
I remember that. Finding a bed in the back was surprising to both of us, and we realized that the cab of a big rig is more like a small apartment. Since nobody else in my family drives a big rig and I had no other big rig experiences that I can remember, that must have been the moment when I was smitten with these big trucks. I just didn’t realize how bad it was until I moved to the United States.

I grew up in Norway, and most of our big rigs are Scanias or Volvos. Due to measuring regulations, they’re also mostly cabovers, so the variety of trucks isn’t that great there. Here in the US, the variety of trucks is huge and the customization that is performed on some of these rigs is amazing. Some truckers invest a lot of time and money into their trucks, decking them out with lights, murals, custom coloring, tall smoke stacks and polished rims. I love it. (I guess it comes as no surprise that “Trick my Truck” is one of my favorite shows…)

Despite my fascination with big rigs, since I’m not around them, I don’t have that much knowledge about them. I know the various models of course. My favorites are Kenworth and Western Star. They’re gorgeous. There’s a little game I play when I’m stuck in traffic, I try to guess the model of a big rig just by its contours before I pass it. Seems silly but it has really increased my skill in recognizing most of these trucks on the spot and it gives me something to do.

In addition to liking big rigs, I also love blogging, and I thought, what better way to learn about the ins and the outs of big rigs than to blog about them!

So that’s the brilliant basis for this blog. The intention is to learn more while blogging about a subject I like. I plan on posting random thoughts, facts and information about big rigs as I think of them. Maybe I’m the only one who will ever benefit from this blog, but I don’t really care. I’ll enjoy developing it and learning something new in the process.

Note: I'll be taking photos on my own that I will be using in my blog, but for now, I'm using photos I find on the web. If you are the owner of any of these photos & would rather not that I use them or would like me to give you the credit you deserve for your photo, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.