Bill Humphreys reflects on “The Magic Carpet Ride” that has been his life.
Back in 1967 when I was 23, and driving a truck over the road, before C B radio’s, movies and country western songs made the drivers into folk hero’s trucking regulations were not enforced the way they are today.
I was a rookie on a 2 driver rig that just kept going down the road. One guy sleeping the other driving.
Then when the #1 driver quit out on the road I kept his log book and continued to drive a 2 person schedule illegally. (I was getting paid by the mile) and much of my freight was over-weight, so I had to learn how to get my rig around the DOT scales at each state line.
When we got to the home terminal in Dallas we sometimes had a day or 2 off and the drinking at roadhouses with the cowboys got pretty crazy mainly because we went bar hopping with our tractors and trailers.
I was weighing in around 220 pounds at the time and could eat a large pizza while downing a 12 pack of beer no problem.
If you had told me then that six years later I would be on the first fully sponsored American (Cycling) Team to ride a stage race in Europe and then go on to represent the USA at The Worlds Championships in Barcelona Spain, I would have looked at you in total disbelief.
(What is a stage race anyway?)
Now at age 72, I am back behind the wheel of a big 18 wheeler roaming across the country wondering,
“What have I done with my life?
“Where have you been my blue-eyed son? My darling young one?”
“I have dined in palaces & drunk wine with King’s & Queens.”
The songs on the radio late at night bring back an amazing array of memories of days gone by that I never had time to reflect on until I heard that diesel roar once again.
- Hitch hiking across America doing college interviews in 1963 coming back home to Connecticut with an O’Neil’s Surfboard.
- Being a Pot Washer in the galley of a modern day freighter from Port Newark, New Jersey to Lima, Peru and back when I was 19 and living to tell about it.
- Walking into a local working class saloon and getting standing ovation from the boys at the bar for some legendary antics I’d pulled.
- Drinking all day with Lee Marvin in South Mission Beach, San Diego my hair at shoulder length with full beard, I would meet him again on a flight to Johannesburg South Africa after I had transformed myself into a clean cut International cyclist on my way to a race in Cape Town.
- Riding my bike across the USA from San Diego to Quebec City to CT during the summer of 1972 and being selected to race in The Tour of Ireland and The World’s Championships one year later.
- (I have notebook from the ride and can compare notes to my training diary of 73. From the plains of Kansas in 72 to breakfast with Phil Liggett at The Tour of Ireland one year to the day later)
- Being the first cycling coach in residence at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs with Eddie B.
- Coaching a group of Juniors who would go on to win The Tour de France and win Olympic Medals in Los Angeles 1984.
- Going back to college at UMASS Amherst Sports Management School at age 50 and helping teach event management courses, getting credit for my life experience and graduating with a 3.4 GPA
- Landing a mid-management job at Bicycling Magazine, getting married buying a house and having a baby boy at age 54, had I finally become a true American?
- Travelling to the Netherlands on a regular basis to do business in cycling, and importing.
- Getting another round of applause 19 years later from the entire staff including publishers of Mountain Bike and Bicycling Magazine at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco for closing on two major sponsorship deals.
- Producing major international bicycle races from 1983 to 89 with Tour de France riders and $12,000 prize lists
- At no point along this magical mystical tour did I ever think I would ever be back driving a truck for a living.
- Going back to the truck driving school I graduated from 46 years earlier to get my CDL at age 69 and now I am driving the big rigs through-out the Northeast getting home on weekends.
- Getting out on the highway at 4:00AM and jumping into a pace line of other rigs is a world that millions of Americans that share the road with us have no clue about.
- Going thru small towns around Boston that I still associate with training on the bike in preparation for racing trips to Europe and classmates from my prep school days.
- (How did their lives turn out? Most are retired now with grandchildren the same age as my son).
- Back to reality, as I envision my 18 year old son, Ian, in the seat next to me so that I will keep the risk factor down while jamming my rig between others on the approach to the George Washington Bridge at 5am.