From Montana, we would be delivering small arms ammunition to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Although this is a French name meaning “Prairie of the Dog”, Merlin referred to it as “Prairie Chicken”. I drove through Montana, across South Dakota, and into Minnesota before I ran out of hours.
On the first night I had driven, my gear shifting had been pretty good. On the second night, it was almost as if I had forgotten how. I was grinding gears like a little old lady in a Dodge Dart, and often missing them on the first attempt. This trend would continue through the third day until I finally started showing some signs of improvement on the fourth day.
From Wisconsin, we got a load of sporting goods going to North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte is home to Bailey Yard, the world’s largest rail yard. During the 1930’s, high crime rates and corruption caused North Platte to be infamously known as “Little Chicago”. Mobster Henry Hill once worked as a cook in North Platte. I feared that Merlin might have the desire to “whack” me after I made my first attempt to back into a dock in this truck. I finally got the job done but suffice it to say—it wasn’t pretty.
When Merlin coached me during a maneuver, he often tended to get a bit overzealous—sometimes to the point where I perceived it as yelling. I had already politely asked him not to yell at me, and he explained that he did not mean to be yelling; he just had a high-strung personality. I knew this to be true, so I took him at his word. After that, he seemed to be making an attempt to tone down his passion and I, in turn, made an attempt to overlook it when it spilled out.
At this point, it may seem that Merlin and I struggled to get along, but regardless of the minor disagreements we’d had, I found him to be a very congenial person. He had a terrific sense of humor, and he provided a constant source of entertainment. During our time together, we would essentially share one another’s life stories, and I would come to respect Merlin and think of him as a friend. We discussed everything from fishing and poker, to Shakespeare and Kierkegaard. While Merlin did not have an academic background , he had the inquisitive mind of a philosopher, and he never seemed to tire of discussing it. It gave him infinite delight when he felt that he had “bested” me on a philosophical point.
After North Platte, to my delight, we got a load going to Athens, Georgia. I would have the opportunity to stop by my house to check on Kitty, and to pick up my permanent driver’s license. It had been necessary to have a Hazmat endorsement added to my license before going to work for this company, and I was currently driving with a temporary license on which the expiration date was rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, the Georgia run was not to be.
Merlin found out that Mona had fallen ill on the road and had been taken home for medical tests. He called Calvin and offered to swap loads so that Calvin could be at home with his wife. So, we swapped loads at a truck stop and now, we were headed to Green River, Wyoming. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to stop at home, but I could not fault Merlin for being a good friend to Calvin.
