A day in the life of a trucker (20 July, 2026)

Hey!

This was Saturday morning. I had stopped for a few hours during the night to catch a wink, after which I resumed my drive towards Moncton, New Brunswick. And by Moncton I mean Salisbury.

Getting to spend the rest of the day with my girlfriend, and part of Sunday, is a nice thing.

As for the music, we'll have some Gio Pika (Гио Пика) today.

He's a Russian rapper of Georgian origin whose music blends hip-hop, rap, and Russian chanson, also known as blatnaya pesnya.

Now, it's really not a genre I'm naturally drawn to. Hip-hop and similar styles don't usually appeal to me, although I have a lot of respect for the artists, musicians, and singers who create it, and for the work, effort, and skill they put into making music that means something to so many people.

Gio Pika is one of those rare exceptions for me. There's just something about his music that really clicks, and I find it fits so freakin' well with Muay Thai training. He's also reportedly been critical of what's going on in Ukraine and all that.

The image above I made for the playlist I am creating on Spotify, adding songs occasionally. I simply searched "russian bleak" in Google Image, found this one, cropped it square, and added "Гио Пика" at the bottom.

So... here's some Gio Pika.

Буйно голова
Гио Пика
Rivière-du-Loup QC

Короли и лорды
Гио Пика
Woodstock NB

158
Гио Пика
Salisbury NB

Коробка с карандашами
Гио Пика
Fredericton NB

Parked for the weekend. It's now Mélanie time! Yay!

PUPPER !!!!

We were at the drive thru window for some coffee at McClown.

Moncton really has nice things to see.

This is our thing, me and Mélanie. Anywhere we go, we drop by the local Giant Tiger. We're sort of half-jokingly saying that we should visit every Giant Tiger we see, anywhere we go. I think we should make a checklist and check those we've been to, haha.

She loves to find me "ugly shirts" because I'm a "I dare you to wear this in public" kind of guy, for almost anything, and I will wear this in public for sure.

She bought this for me. And made me try it on, to see if it fits, in the middle of the store, no fitting room needed.

She also got me this one.

We went a bit south of Moncton, on the Riverview side of the Petitcodiac River, also known as the Chocolate River, to a small town named Hillsborough.

Mélanie likes that I get her to step outside her comfort zone, outside the box, for a lot of things, including food. While she can't eat as spicy as me, she will dare try things, up to a point, that she doesn't know. I'd say I have an Anthony Bourdain approach. She likes a few cautious waypoints. But with me, she will dare stepping outside her comfort zone a little more.

All that to say that Saturday we went for Thai food. I had looked up for a few places to eat, and with a huge car show in Moncton and a few other events, Moncton was packed, and it wouldn't have been fun going out to eat in town. So, I looked around town, maybe an hour drive away at the most, and found this little place. Very well reviewed, and a very, very simple menu.

We got a mango salad to start things off. I asked if they had papaya salad, but it's not something that sells well, so they don't have it anymore.

And, to be honest, papaya salad, done the proper way, is very spicy, and not for everyone. Even some of those who say "I'm good I can handle spicy" cannot handle a papaya salad.

So, mango salad. Very good.

Mélanie had the Pad Pak.

And I had the Pad Kee Mao. This is usually spicy, and I asked for the spiciest they can make it...and...it wasn't spicy at all. Maybe it was, for ordinary people, but for me it wasn't spicy at all. Like, on a scale of 1 to 10, this was maybe a 2. Definitely not a 3.

Which reminds me of a Korean Buldak restaurant near Montreal.. and I had asked the boss, who happened to be there one time, to make it as spicy as possible. Not "americanised toned down spicy", but proper spicy "the way you'd eat it in Korea".

And he did.

And it was spicy as fuck. I was sweating. But I finished the whole thing, and licked all of my fingers clean of all the sauce. The guy was flabbergasted. He came to me and say "Man, you're a fucking soldier!".

Hey! I can handle spicy. For real.

Anyway, this place here in Hillsborough was really nice, the food was delicious, and prepared with care. Thr staff was polite, friendly, and professional. I would recommend this place without hesitating, to anyone in the region who want to try something good, that are not burgers and fried stuff. They're also originally from Thailand.

And, before leaving I did my best to thank them, and wishing them goodbye, in Thai. ขอบคุณครับ, khop khun khrap which is a polite way to say thank you, as a male. Female has a different ending. Mélanie would say สวัสดีค่ะ, khop khun kha. And for goodbye I kept it simple with สวัสดีครับ, sawadee khrap.

It's my way of being respectful and trying simple words in someone else's language as a sign of appreciation.

Moncton is amazing.

They even got that Heinz propane.

For scale.

Large.

It could have been larger. But, it's okay.

Chess.

We decided to visit that Butterfly World exhibit. Simply because we drove by and we thought it could be nice and relaxing.

Follow them rules.

I'm sure they all have different names and all that, but I'm no expert in differentiating them, or telling them apart.

This one here is probably John.

This is Emma.

Oh, hi Frank!

For supper, I opted for greasy fries and burgers. Hah!

And boom! Monday morning. Got my coffee.

And waited a bit before departing. My delivery is only three hours from here, and only scheduled for Tuesday morning. No need to rush over there just now.

I'll head out on the road early in the afternoon, top off my fuel at the New Brunswick / Nova Scotia border, go in for a shower, and head to the construction site.

I saw on Goggle Maps that I might have some room to park to the right of the gas station. Maybe. I'll see when I get there how it plays out, considering they might have all sorts of machinery around. If I can't park there, I saw a few places within fifteen minutes where I could probably park for the night.

Отечество казённое
Гио Пика
Salisbury NB

Fuel stop.

For all the Tumiliks out there.

Time for a refreshing shower.

Clothes ready.

Piping hot.

Цена
Гио Пика
Aulac NB / Amherst NS

Дом
Гио Пика
Truro NS

Буйно голова 5
Гио Пика
Sackville NS

Северный ветер
Гио Пика
Windsor NS

There was enough room to back a truck. And that is perfect. I'm on site, ready for delivery tomorrow. The store is open all night, and I'll have coffee in the morning. That's alright.

Downtown Windsor is across the small lake.

There's a hiking path that goes around the lake, and I'm guessing probably about two and a half kilometres. I guess I'll loop it once or twice.

View from the other side. Can you see the truck?

Right there, heh.

I ended up going around the lake twice. One loop walking, one loop running. I then did a few sets of jump rope, a bunch of stretching, and followed by some shadow boxing drills.

It would have been easier to simply sit in the truck, eat junk food, and do nothing except doomscrolling. I don't do easy.

This would be better with Mé'nie Pooh !!

And that's it. Trucking is more than just driving around I guess, hah!

I can't wait to see this movie! I watched the trailer for the first time last Wednesday, and it gave me an extra boost of motivation to train.

I've always loved the Rocky movies. Back when I used to train after school at Marie-Esther high school in Shippagan NB, and even after we moved to Beresford after I graduated. I remember watching Rocky IV one time, and that scene where he's training out in the snow, in the woods... it fired me up so much that I went and did the same thing. So I'd head into the woods behind the house, along the railway tracks, I'd tie a rope around big fallen trees and drag them through the snow while running.

Back then, I was doing three hours of gym every day, Monday to Friday, plus around 70 kilometres on my bike every single day, seven days a week. There was even a plan to open a boxing gym in Bathurst, and I signed up... but for all kinds of reasons, it never ended up opening. Maybe there's one now, but back then it didn't work out. Not to brag, but back then I was very, very strong. Even in high school.

At the gym in Beresford I would train wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and some of those who trained for bodybuilding shows came to me saying "Man, I didn't know you were that strong, you don't look like it." Yep, it never was very apparent. Some have labeled me as a "sleeper", where I look normal but I'm actually super strong. In my peak gym days I could bench press 300 lbs, do biceps curls without swinging at 75 lbs, do leg press at 950 lbs + 1 person sitting on the weights (the bar wasn't long enough to add more weight), or shoulder shrugs at 120 lbs per hand. I was doing upper body on Day 1, lower body on Day 2, cardio only on Day 3, then do Day 4 same as Day 1, and Day 5 like Day 2. I would do my 70 kilometres of biking before the gym as a warmup. That gym still exists by teh way, in the same stripmall thing where the Shell gas station is.

I then went to college and started working and ended up not training at all, and slowly gained weight. Then, toward the end of 2024, I looked around at some truck drivers who were really out of shape, and I thought, "If I keep doing nothing, I'm gonna hit 50 with an extra 75 pounds, aching everywhere, and end up just like them." So I got back into training. And somehow, that eventually led me to Muay Thai, on top of training for the military.

All that to say... Rocky may be just a movie, just fiction, but it's always inspired me to push a little harder.

And smashing a heavy bag, or heading out for a 10K run while listening to Eye of the Tiger... that's just priceless.

Go, go, go!!