Imagine this happened to you. Your favorite musician is in concert in Australia, and you have the time and money to fly 8,000 miles to be there. Just imagine all the preparation that you would have to go through: buying tickets, packing, getting hotel reservations, passports etc. Are you with me? After a very long flight and much anticipation, you finally arrive and check into the hotel only to find that the airline has lost your luggage. Ok, just a little speed bump in the vacation, right? But then the next morning on the day of the concert you find out that the concert has been cancelled and now you have to fly right back home. This would definitely qualify for the gold medal in the bad day Olympics, wouldn’t you agree? This is exactly what happened to Denis Imhof who flew all the way from Australia to Springfield Missouri just to see Willie Nelson, and this is his story.
By: Karl Wiggins
October 14th 2014
The first thing I noticed about the man taking pictures of my truck in the parking lot at Wal-Mart was that he looked like one of those guys you see being interviewed after climbing Everest. His face was wind and sun burnished under a head full of tousled blonde hair, and he had an easy manner and a rugged look about him that is common to adventurers. The man’s look contrasted greatly with the pale faces and hurried activity of the shoppers that migrated to and from the Wal-Mart. I sipped on my second cup of coffee and looked across to my road dog Gary Moffett and his new PSD “Bob”, and we all seemed to be thinking the same thing- they must not have trucks where this guy is from-because these are just ordinary commercial trucks, no extra chrome to get ya home, no extra chicken lights or big stacks or anything and that’s why I thought taking pictures of our trucks was a bit odd to say the least.
I already had one cup of coffee with Bob while we had waited for Gary to wake up, and Bob had declined a second. Guess not everyone likes their coffee so strong that you could walk on it like Jesus walking on water but to each their own, right? I sat my coffee down and grabbed my Cannon EOS 7D and sat back down and started taking pictures of the guy who was taking pictures of us and my big camera clicking brought him to my window.
I opened my door and the guy introduced himself as Denis Imhof from Cloncurry Australia and, like us, he said he was also a truck driver. We shook hands and I introduced myself, the dawn of understanding forming a grin on my face. I couldn’t help but think “Crocodile Dundee” as Denis answered my questions about why he was taking pictures of our trucks and how had he come to be in Springfield, Missouri, of all places. Denis said he had decided to go on a “walk about” to Wal-Mart because he had never seen one before, but before Denis could be sucked into the twilight zone black hole void of Wal-Mart, he saw all the trucks and had decided to take a closer look and get a few pictures because, like Wal-Mart, he said that that they did not have trucks like these in Australia.
I learned from Denis that after flying more than 8,000 miles from Brisbane Australia to Springfield Missouri just to see the Willie Nelson Concert at the Shrine Mosque, Murphy’s Law had taken a great big bite out of his vacation sandwich when the airline “misplaced” his luggage in Chicago, and Mr. Murphy didn’t stop there, oh, no sir, because after arriving without his luggage Denis also found out that the concert had been cancelled due to illness and that’s when Murphy swallowed the rest of Dennis’s vacation sandwich in one great big gulp and Denis was left sitting in a room at the Double Tree Inn looking out the window at Wal-Mart at the intersection of Kearney and Glenstone on a grey misty morning in Springfield, Missouri. Welcome to your worst nightmare.
I couldn’t help but like this guy right off. I couldn’t help but feel for this trucker brother from down under so I invited him to breakfast at our terminal, and Denis, being the true adventurer that I had guessed him to be, accepted. We started the tour at driver line up where Larry Bowman shook Denis’s hand and welcomed him to Prime and had a visitor ID made for him. From there, we took a quick tour of the terminal and everyone loved meeting Denis.
Denis checking out the Prime Cafe
Denis pretending our sweet Halloween Rock Band is Willie Nelson’s Concert!
At breakfast, Denis, Gary, Tom and Bob and I talked trucking, and I learned that Denis was not only a truck driver but that he owns URC Trucking. URC stands for Urban and Rural Contracting and they have eight trucks. These guys are the extreme opposite of “Ice Road Truckers.” Denis’s company provides materials and equipment for road construction in extreme rural areas of the Northern Territory of Australia, an area that is least populated of all Australia with a land mass that covers roughly 548,640 square miles. If you have ever watched the Discovery Channel, you may have seen a program about trucking “Trains” in the Australian outback. Denis’s company has trucks that pull anywhere from one to four trailers that they call “Trains”, and these “Trains” can weigh as much as 280,000 pounds. They roll on mostly all dirt roads in hot hostile desolate areas. Denis said that they carry most everything they need for comforts and repairs because as you may imagine there are not a lot of truck stops in the outback. Denis said the “truck stops” are usually about 200 miles apart and nothing like the ones here in America. I also asked about log books, Denis laughed and said “log books?”
Denis went on to say that when they are in the outback there are no “Scalies” or what we call DOT officers out there for enforcement. In one of the pictures he showed me, there is a “rest area” which is a small tree in the middle of nowhere. I’m talking about a vista that is so flat and barren that you could watch your dog run away for three days, yet there is a sign that says, “NO CAMPING.” I couldn’t stop laughing; no matter where you go, even in the middle of nowhere, the “authority” wants you rolling, not welcome-keep moving.
In the urban areas, the HOS are much the same as here, which are a rest period of 30 minutes for every 5 hours and stop for 10 hours after every 14 hours of work. After 72 hours (not including time spent resting or sleeping), a driver must spend 24 hours away from a CMV. In most of the larger carriers such as TNT, much like FED-Ex or UPS they actually employ 3 cameras in the cab of their fleet trucks.
Of course, I had to ask about kangaroos, and Denis said they are like deer over there. They are everywhere and will jump “literally” right in front of you but that all his trucks have “bull bars” because, like deer, you try not to hit them but it happens. After breakfast, our final stop was at the company store where I bought Denis 2 hats, and I imagined that if I were him I would tell my friends about flying all the way to America to see Willie Nelson and all I got to show for it were these two damn hats. That’s a lot of miles and a lot of money to end up getting the three penny tour of Prime and a “walk about” at Wal-Mart. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Denis as I dropped him off. Denis thanked us for the tour, and we said our good-byes. This story proves that no matter which side of the road you drive on or what part of the world you live, that trucking and truckers are universal and connected by common threads, and remember that even with the best laid plans, Mr. Murphy can strike anytime, anywhere. Denis handled this misadventure in true John Wayne style when he said with a smile, “Make your journeys into adventures mate,” and with a “Righteo’ it’s all good n prawpah” he was gone.
My former student and Trainee Tom Altom and Gary Moffett had arrived in Springfield to the terminal at all about the same time, me to see the Doctor, Gary to pick up his new PSD Bob and Tom had already been there for a few days having body work done so with my good friend Rusty Housley from the outbound side of Driver Line Up, we all got together and had a great night hanging out and having dinner, and our meeting Denis the next morning on that cold, grey day was the perfect end to a great weekend of trucker camaraderie.
You can learn more about Denis’s company and “trains” and “Trucking down under” at http://www.urc.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=6
Follow Denis on Facebook by searching for “Denis Imhof” from Alice Springs Australia, Northern Territory.
