Laura McGuire:  

Life Greetings to all of you whom my brothers and I grew up with. I pray this finds you well and happy. While browsing, it appears many of you are far away now. Like the boomerang I seem to be, I am recently back at the old McGuire homestead here in Abalone Cove. It hasn't changed much in the last 45 years. I don't know how long I'll stick around this time. Those of you who know me are probably quite certain that I left my common sense somewhere when I quit what you all thought was my quite cushy motel/property management job in Marina del Rey in 2001 to move clear across the country to reunite with the love of my life, after 17 years. Actually, the story really was quite romantic. The nerve of me to leave my daughter and my precious grandson (and my now son-in-law) to fend for themselves. As if I had any right to think, for even a minute, that it was all about me. It was so hard on them that for some odd reason they all moved to Las Vegas, and I'll be damned if 4 months later I had to swing by with the U-haul and pick their little butts up on my way back home. Now, those of you who know me also know of my great love of this big beautiful country we live in. I was a single woman, again, but I needed to get back out there. I also needed a job. What safer way could there be to travel about this country as a single woman and get paid for it than on 18 wheels? What an adventure!!! From the first day I picked up the Commercial Drivers License Handbook, to the day I graduated in the top 10% of my class at 43 years old and 115 lbs, to the day I finished detailing MY rig that I picked up out in North Carolina, to the day I caught the first snow while heading south out of Denver, CO, to the day I descended my first mountain with a full 80,000 lb load; I think it was between Albuquerque and Gallup, to the day I cried freely along with a room full of truck drivers in the Sparks, NV T&A Truck Stop while watchin...Expand for more