* Washington - Day in the life of local hay trucker includes two round trips
-- McNeight Express Inc. truck driver Thomas "T.J." Jackson’s day started at 3 a.m. Tuesday as he prepared to haul hay from No. 9 Hay Trading Inc. near Ellensburg to the Port of Seattle and back... A regular day is two round trips, back and forth, and Tuesday’s schedule was routine... Heavy, wet snow at the Snoqualmie Pass summit caused no problems, though it was unusual weather for mid-April... Jackson, 59, said lately he’s mostly been hauling hay in the standard, 40-foot-long, 9-foot, 6-inch high containers for No. 9 Hay. He gets up around 3 a.m., leaves at 4 or 5 a.m. with a container of compressed hay bales, gets it to the right port terminal, has it unloaded, goes to another port terminal to get an empty container, then heads back to Ellensburg... He returns to the valley anywhere between 9 a.m. to about 10:30 a.m. to unload the empty at No. 9 near the intersection of Hungry Junction and Reecer Creek roads, gets another full container and then takes off for the port to repeat the operation... The earliest he’s gotten back after two trips is 4 p.m., the latest 8 p.m. when things were close to routine... Jackson brightens up when he talks about his grandchildren, especially the three he’s closest to who live in Western Washington. There’s a 12-year-old granddaughter he’s taking special care to help at this time in her life... He recently gave his daughter-in-law funds to begin work on fitting the granddaughter with expensive braces. He also bought her a laptop for school and a cell phone to keep her in touch with Mom, Dad and family... “I don’t want her to get into drugs or drinking or trouble,” Jackson said. “I want to be there for her and the other kids. That’s what I’m here for; really, that’s why I’m working” ... Whatever happens, he’ll keep trucking for McNeight for as long as he can, to keep hay moving, come what may, the best he can...
(Photo by Brian Myrick / Daily Record: Hay truck ride, with Thomas "T.J." Jackson, a driver with McNeight Express. Heavy, wet snow hits the windshield Tuesday afternoon as he reaches the Snoqualmie Pass summit on his way back to the Kittitas Valley) -- Ellensburg, WASH, USA - The Daily Record, by MIKE JOHNSTON - April 18, 2015Labels: truckers' stories
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