Raising Rural Runges: Trucks, trucks, trucks!

In the middle of all of life's busyness it's nice to have traditions, no matter how simple they are. A little backstory: Scott and I both work for his parent's trucking company, G & M Runge, Inc. I do paperwork from home and Scott spends his morning and afternoon dispatching drivers to haul grain for our local coop, WFS. When he is done with that job he goes from the office to the shop where he is also the company mechanic. Friday night Scott, his Dad (Glenn), and Jacob went out to Sioux Falls to pick up a new truck. So as tradition would have it, I took the kids to the shop Saturday for the first ride in the new truck. Since I have been around trucks for the last 18 years, I take for granted being right at home around the massive equipment, but thought I'd give you a little tour in case you are not.

First off, this is Ol' Blue - otherwise known as 1741. I couldn't do a post about trucks without sharing her first. There is a special place in my heart for this truck - while it is not the prettiest, newest, or most comfy truck in the fleet, it is the truck Scott used to drive and the one I've taken the majority of my rides in. A cool fact we share during Ag in the Classroom is that this truck has about 1,480,000 miles on it which is enough for it to have driven around the earth 59 times! And it's never been in an accident!

Back to the new truck... Just like our pick-ups are Fords and are tractors are Case IH, we like the best for our trucks - that's why we have Kenworths! ;) This is what a brand spanking new, super clean engine looks like - don't worry, it won't stay that way for long!

Our future truck driver, Jake - he could sit in a truck all day long - even if it's not moving!

This is what the dash of a truck looks like - never mind the small piece that is removed while Scott was installing some new technology. LOTS of gauges, switches, and dials and truck drivers have to know what every one of them does.

Now to the bunk - this is behind the drivers seat. The top cabinet is a closet for clothes and personal items. The bottom is a built in refrigerator. The little black panel on the left side of the cabinet is the rear controls including lights, radio, alarm clock, door locks...

This is behind the passenger seat - more storage and a TV mount.

A new safety feature for team drivers is a net with a seat belt to keep them safe while they are sleeping and their teammate is driving. In older trucks there was just one belt across the middle of the bed. There is currently no one that team drives at G & M, so no need for use of the net just yet!

Keeley, Kate, & Jake are the official truck testers and have been taking trucks on their "first drive" since they were in infant car seats!

Yep - I love a truck driver! Never thought those words would have come out of my mouth when I was little and playing house! ;) Truck drivers are real people, too, and some of the hardest working and nicest people I've ever met.