H&R Driver - Simeon Martin

Simeon hails from Spain, just north of Madrid and has decided to swap the Spanish truck driving scene for a life on the Prairies. He comes from a deep rooted trucking back ground, his father owns his own trucking business and he is married with 2 children.

I was asked to take Simi out on his USA mentor trip and we went down to Waterloo, up into OshKosh then back to Alberta. The training was a little slow at first coz of the language barrier, Simi's English was pretty good and i am fluent in Spanish in about 6 words, i am proud to say now that i have doubled my vocabulary and i think i've picked up a bit of a Spanish accent.

Anyway we soon got into tune and where words failed, arm signals and practical demonstrations won the day.

We had an interesting delivery in Waterloo, the Security guards (or as Simi and I now call them, "Barrier Monkeys" refused the trailer.

We turned up with the trailer diesel tank full to the brim so the needle was right over the (F). It was dark and when the monkey came out with the torch she said there was no needle and she wouldnt except the trailer till it was fixed. I tried to point out with my torch that the needle was there and showing full.

She got all flustered and stormed off, i went in and spoke to the other monkey who came out and looked at the needle, confirming it was there. She then went back in and spoke to monkey number 1 who apparently claimed to be a manager monkey (this proberbly means she has 1 more brain cell and earns $11 per hour instaead of $10)

Anyway manager monkey comes out and sees the needle, she says its passed the full so its broken, and needs to be fixed before she will accept it. Non manager monkey opologises and says manager monkeys word is final. I went back in to manager monkey and she grudgingly compromised. The compromise was that i run round to the cardlock and top the tank off.

I did this and bought the reciept back to the monkey house. Manager monkey was happy with this and the trailer went in, just in case you were wandering, i put 0.8 gallons ($4) in the tank so you COULD argue that it wasnt full 8~)

Apart from our monkey antics, the rest of the trip was pretty unaventfull, i got Simi to try as many American foods as possible and now he enjoys, corn dogs, big dogs, Dairy Queen burgers & ice-cream , oh yes and we even drunk Root Beer at the Canadian border (the propper Sioux City stuff) Once across the border i introduced Simi to Poutine, that was quite funny coz Poutan (scuze spelling) is Spanish for prostitute. The waitress had no idea what we were laughing at while we ordered lunch......................................

Anyway, it was an interesting and successful trip, Simi now has 1 more training trip and a classroom phase then he gets his charriot and out he goes roaming the great North American Continent.

Safe Journeys Simi, adios my friend.....................

Lyndon