Tag Archives: Hurricane Camille

09/20/12

Grandpa and the Truck: Book 2 Available for Purchase

Here he is– this trucker who awoke to find the roof blown clear off his hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, in August of 1969.  Fiction?  Heck no…It was the night Category 5, Hurricane Camille whalloped that seaside town, leaving devastation in its wake (and experts recently worried about Isaac’s 80-mph winds!!!)

This trucker had many experiences in his 30 years on the road, and we tell of the most exciting ones in the Grandpa and the Truck stories.  But they’re decidedly “Not Just for Boys”.  In Book 2 (same one that has hurricane story), “Girl Truckers,” focuses on two Rhode Island women who showed the men just how good women could be at long-haul trucking. They were two of the forerunners of women, today, who drive the big rigs…

Each of the Grandpa and the Truck books is comprised of two beautifully-illustrated stories, Questions sheets that help with discussion, Trucker Terms, and Maps to help children acquire other-than-GPS knowledge of our great country.

Books are $9.99.

Soon will be the season of shopping for little ones, for Christmas and Kannukah.  Then, too, there are always those inevitable birthdays one must run out and buy a child’s gift for?  What’s better than educational  books that teach many things to little ones?

These books just could be the hit of the party and the books that child will cherish.

08/21/12

Long-Haul Trucker Relives a 2-Day Gridlock in One Instance…

Nature’s Fury in Another…….All on the same road trip!

Hubby had a crazy thought this week. It occurred to him that one particular trucking gig years ago saw him experience two monumental events in one week:  The Woodstock Music Festival, in Bethel, New York, on Aug. 15, 1969 and Hurricane Camille in Biloxi, Mississippi, on August 17, 1969.

He experienced both… as only a TRUCKER can.

First, he headed out on a northwesterly route, out of Rhode Island and was driving along in that central region of New York when he hit the “parking lot” the highway had become. Cars had been ditched everywhere, in breakdown lanes and on grassy strips of median dividers.

Truckers from the opposite direction hadn’t been able to warn him of the problem—they got stuck, too, and their CB radios were out of range.

Everybody just sat there, watching the human parade pass by–young people carrying their favorite accessory—boomboxes, shouting the music they loved.

Many would be stuck for 3 full days, as unintended ‘guests’ of the Woodstock Music Festival.

You’ll read about what this trucker did, during that event, in Grandpa and the Truck Book 3, coming out later in the Fall.

What book’s out soon?  Grandpa and the Truck, Book 2, with “Grandpa Meets the Hurricane” and “Girl Truckers” (remember…it’s for little ones 4-8 years old.) That 2nd. story (every Grandpa and the Truck book has 2 stories) tells of 2 Rhode Island women who made male truckers sit up and notice, as they became phenoms in their industry…

But they didn’t start out as such.

What’s ironic?  Hubby did the Biloxi run on the reverse side of the Woodstock Music Festival run….two potent events on the same road trip…. two that might have driven anyone else (but a trucker) “bonkers.”

Book 1 and 2 are available now on the www.grandpaandthetruck.com site ….

Book 2’s story with “Girl Truckers” has been endorsed b Women In Trucking. OOIDA gave us a shout-out, too, and Overdrive’s given us two.Women InTrucking and OOIDA’s edorsement are proudly affixed to the back of every Grandpa and the Truck book.

PS…We know you’ve got your own ‘chilling moments’…every trucker does. We aim to tell them to a public that knows very little about what we truckers do—via stories told to little ones.  After all, they’re our best Fan Club.