A Story From The Highways of Life: A Well-Traveled Path Verses The Less Traveled Path

One of the things that you learn very quickly when traveling the highways of this country is that a well-traveled path is more expedient and gives you safer travels to your destination. As a man who has driven this country’s highways for almost a half century in an eighteen-wheeler if I were to take the less traveled path in getting to my destination it may cost me time and money and sometimes much more and the result may be never getting to my destination on time or at all.

Before I make any trip at all in my eighteen-wheeler I sit down and figure out the cost of the trip in terms of time and money. If I did not do that, how would I ever determine if I was going to make any profit to live on? This takes some planning on my part and some research into the path of travel for the best outcome for me as an owner-operator of a semi-truck and for the customer’s convenience and profit. That said, even as a company driver I had to figure out the best route because sometimes the routes given were not open or expedite to get to my destination on time.

Sometimes though the less-traveled path is the best option. This means that you must rely on experience of traveling that path and your gut instinct and faith that you will make it. Weather, road construction, accidents, and many unforeseeable events may prevent you from using any path you may take. I have traveled many hi-ways and interstates in my time as commercial driver and there are some roads I will never take again. This is what I meant by experience in driving earlier. Some roads are just not meant for trucks. But many times, especially in city deliveries you must use the current roads meant mainly for cars to make your delivery.

One time I took a short cut path through a city’s roads with a half-loaded trailer of refrigerated food that needed to be there on time. I paid the price for it by getting a ticket for overweight. I did not know the roads and apparently many truckers did the same thing, so the city installed weight sensors in the roads. As soon as I rode on them, they knew I was there, and it did not even take five minutes for me to be flagged over by a couple of police cars and given a citation. The cost $250 and the company paid half of it for which I was thankful.

Another time I went a path that my boss directed me, but I must have misunderstood him, because I was unfamiliar with those roads. I wound up on a mountain road with a lot of curves and had to be towed out of that area. I learned in the process of doing all this driving that it is better to take the well-established path.

But sometimes it is not possible because of a road closure or weather. What do you do then? I pray and learn what to do through some of those circumstances. If you go the less traveled path, I recommend praying about it first. It will save you a lot of headaches. When you do have peace about it go for it and enjoy it but be careful.

I want to give you two examples that happened to me out on the hi-ways, the first was the wrong way and the second was the right way. After that I want to apply it to your life.

The Wrong Way: I have always regretted what I did to a company as I was transitioning to another company. That said, what I did was to travel 300 out of route miles to get the load to them because the roads were closed. I made this decision in haste. I got the load there but destroyed my relationship that I had with this company for seven years. They were there for me many times. When I got to the company, I was going to go to work for next it seemed like the grass was greener at the time, but soon the grass withered away and me with it. Yes, I learned some very important things about life going through that experience. The Right Way: If you are going to make a job change again pray about it then do what the Lord tells you to do. But always be transparent with those that you work with, especially supervisors, and let them know your intentions. This is called integrity and having some of it goes a long way in life, and it will help others to trust you.