This week on the Oakley Podcast, guest host Megan Cummings chats with Ashley Jones & Jamie Hutchins, wives of some of our owner/operators at Oakley Trucking. During the episode, Ashley & Jamie discuss what it is like being married to a truck driver. They discuss the unique challenges and rewards, including the loneliness and long hours on the road. The conversation highlights the importance of communication, trust, and having hobbies to maintain a balanced life whether your spouse is home or on the road. The episode also underscores the financial stability provided by Oakley Trucking, the essential role truck drivers play in the country’s infrastructure, insights into the resilience required in these relationships, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Previewing the episode with Ashley and Jamie (0:54)
- Discussion on Challenges Wives Face (1:46)
- The Importance of Support Systems (3:06)
- Personal Introductions for Ashley and Jamie (6:03)
- Daily Life as a Spouse (8:20)
- Handling Emergencies (10:50)
- Support Networks Among Wives (11:25)
- Financial Management as Owner Operators (13:29)
- Respect for Truck Drivers (15:14)
- Adjusting to Spouse’s Return (19:02)
- Home Cooking and Truck Life (20:54)
- Finding Hobbies Outside of Trucking (23:39)
- Adjustments in Marriage (26:20)
- Advice for Future Truck Driver Wives (28:44)
- Communication is Key (29:41)
- Final Thoughts and Takeaways (30:32)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Jamie Hutchins 00:12
It can be hard sometimes, you know, lonely. Yeah. And, you know, they really get lonely out there too. I mean, just looking at a road, yeah, eight or 910 hours a day and, and, you know, being in their truck, you know, their truck is kind of their home away from home, right. And they’re in their truck at night and, you know, bother themselves and so, you know, we call each other quite a bit and check on them, you know, how’s the traffic and I don’t want to tell you how he answers that sometimes. But it’s like I said, what they do is rewarding and challenging, but, I mean, it takes a special breed to do it. Welcome
Jeremy Kellett 00:54
to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley trucking headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner operators and their families by giving them up to date information concerning Oakley trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories. Also to give an insight to outside truck drivers who might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. My name is Jeremy kill it and I’m director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking and I’m your host for this podcast along with my co host Megan Cummins.
01:29
Howdy,
Jeremy Kellett 01:29
How are you doing? Great. I appreciate everybody listening to the Oakley podcast every week. This week, we actually got one record that we’ve already done, or I should say, not Megan has done. And Megan, why don’t you just tell us about what the what’s the episode about
Megan Cummings 01:46
We had two lovely ladies that joined us. They are wives of two of our owner operators here in Arkansas. And you had them coming to the office? Yeah, we had them come into the office. Yeah, they’d never met each other before, which I had. I guess I just never realized that until they got here. And it worked. It went really well. I really liked this podcast, some of the things I was gonna say I just, I kind of wanted to highlight the fact that, yes, driving is a very hard job. You know, we don’t give it enough credit as people who don’t do that. But there’s another half that’s, you know, that’s really difficult as well staying at home. You know, that’s a job in itself. If you have kids, if you have, you know, a home instead of renting you take care of all of the duties at home mowing, killing the bugs. Yeah, I made sure to bring that up. So I was like, okay, so what happens, you know, but they did really well. And I noticed that they had an I don’t know, maybe they just maybe it was just written in the stars, but they have really good chemistry. Oh,
Jeremy Kellett 02:47
yeah. Never met each other, never met you sit down here in the studio. You started talking to him?
Megan Cummings 02:52
And they just had I mean, I’m not sure if they had anything else in common, but they had that main, you know, yeah. things in common? Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 02:59
Probably when you meet another spouse of a truck driver. Do you have something in common? Yeah. Do they hit it off?
Megan Cummings 03:06
They did. They did. They did a really good job. I did want to mention, I had asked them a question about this on the podcast. I wanted to bring a little focus to support systems support groups. I know that if we have any wives that are watching, obviously, you’ve got your family, you know, while your husband’s away and stuff like that. But the party, the Oakley party, I know some of the drivers talk about how their wives will stay in contact with other wives all throughout the year. Just see him at the party. Oh, because they met each other. Yeah, make a lot of friends at the party Facebook groups because it’s not an easy job. You know what I mean? You’re juggling a lot by yourself, kids , how stuff like that. So I want to encourage you guys to reach out and make some friends. What a great episode. It was a really good one. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
Jeremy Kellett 03:54
I’m having back on you being a little nervous about doing that. But you did good by yourself. Let them have the talk about their husbands being owner operators and being spouses in all the different cities. It’s a great episode. Yes. Appreciate you doing it for me.
Megan Cummings 04:08
No problem. I’ll be here all week. I was on assignment. Important. G 14 classified assignment.
Jeremy Kellett 04:14
So here we are. Listen to this episode where Megan sits down with a couple of spouses of our owner operators here at Oakley and I think you’ll enjoy it. Appreciate Joe, you
Arrow Truck Sales Commercial 04:22
so my truck is a great way to kick off your career as an owner operator on a budget and buying from a reputable dealer like Arrow Truck Sales ensures you’re getting a reliable truck that fits your needs. They carry trucks from all the major manufacturers and the trucking industry and perform a thorough inspection of every check on their lot to ensure safety and quality and give you confidence that you’re getting a reliable truck that will last you for years at a price that you can afford. Being a longtime partner with Oakley trucking and the Oakley podcast. We trust them to provide our owner operators with the truck that fits their needs and matches our qualifications. So whether you’re a first time owner operator or just looking for a new T rig, be sure to give Keith Wilson and trade visor Call at 573-216-6047 and let them know you heard it here on Oakley podcast.
Megan Cummings 05:08
Hey guys, welcome back to the Oakley podcast. I am Megan Cummings, I’m your guest for this episode. This week, we’ve got some very special guests. We’re joined by a couple of our I don’t want to call you drivers wives, because that kind of takes away from your personal identity. So we’ll say I’m joined with Ashley Jones and Jamie Hutchins, some lovely people who just happened to be married to our drivers. Okay, all right, perfect. So we wanted to kind of get a different perspective. We talked to a lot of drivers from week to week. And this is just a little bit of a just as girls podcast. So we’ll kind of deep dive, you know, on the other end of the spectrum, because you know, what you guys do is a job in itself. So, shed some light on you guys this week. Who wants to go first? Don’t go all at once. A little introduction to you guys. Okay,
Jamie Hutchins 06:02
we’ve got on the podcast. Well, I’m Jamie Hutchins and I’m married to Darryl Hutchins, who is least on here with Oakley. He will be here for 10 years next month. I was looking at that. God Tom has gone by fast. He has been a truck driver for over 40 years. Wow. And we had been married for 28 years together. 30 years. Oh, so
Megan Cummings 06:27
you’ve been there through the whole thing.
Jamie Hutchins 06:29
I’ve been here. The most of everything. Yeah, yeah. All
Megan Cummings 06:33
veteran 40 years. Yeah. Has that ever been? Have you ever sat back and thought? This isn’t what I thought I was getting into. Now. I really haven’t. So it’s just been a way of life. Yeah, since you guys now. Okay. All right, Ashley.
Ashley Jones 06:48
I am Ashley Jones. I’m married to Bobby Jones. He has been with Oakley for six years. We’ve been married seven times this year together. And before that he was in the oil field so he was always gone too. So him being gone all the time is kind of just always been the thing. Okay,
Megan Cummings 07:09
So you both are veterans in the game? Yeah. Okay. So how is this something that I’ve, I’ve always wondered, do you guys both have kids?
Jamie Hutchins 07:17
I mean, we don’t know kids? No, we just have dogs and chickens. So pretty
Megan Cummings 07:21
much the same day. Yeah. So how does the day to day life look, you know, because you’re basically the head of your household while you’re, you know, are you guys what kind of trailers do they pull? Are they in dumps hoppers and down in dumps? He
Ashley Jones 07:35
was pneumatic. And he just switched back while he started and went to pneumatic and he’s back at the end. Okay,
Megan Cummings 07:40
so they’re gone for a couple of weeks at a time, give or take from home?
Jamie Hutchins 07:45
Carol’s not he’s because he does a lot of local stuff. Okay. So, you know, he’s gone maybe a couple of nights out of the week now. I mean, when he first started, he would be gone, like maybe a week, you know, and now it just depends on where he goes, how long he’s going to be gone somewhere in just three days to two days. And it could be a week, you know, sometimes just depending on where he’s going. Right?
Megan Cummings 08:11
What does life look like, when you’re at home, Manning everything by yourself?
Jamie Hutchins 08:18
And not sure? Well, it was hard for a while. When we got married. He was working with what was Watkins motor lines. And then FedEx came in and bought him out. So he ended up with FedEx for like 25 years. Wow. And he worked nights. So I was at work during the day, he was at work at night. And we were constantly Crossing Paths, you know, which was hard. But I worked in the legal field. I’ve worked for a law firm here in Little Rock, and I will retire in 2020 to congratulate I don’t working now. So things are a lot easier now. But you do have a lot of responsibilities at home. Yeah, taking care of things at home while they’re gone. So they don’t have to be burdened with the load of things to do or worry about when they’re gone and when they get home. So what about you
09:09
ash?
Ashley Jones 09:10
It’s pretty chaotic most the time, we’ve got three kids that are always going so it’s solo parenting for the most part, especially when he was with pneumatic he was gone two weeks at a time so he was really only home about six days a month, which was a lot which is actually why he switched back to end up so he could be home every weekend. Because we’ve just got so much the kids are going constantly or no yeah, all the sports all the things are they all How old are your babies? 14 Almost 14 And then 11 Oh, okay.
Megan Cummings 09:44
Yeah, yeah, so it was a lot of stuff at that age that you want to be there for two yeah,
Ashley Jones 09:48
there’s so it can be pretty stressful when he’s gone. But kind of all we’ve ever known so we just go with it. Yeah. But him have been home every weekend again is A lot better
Megan Cummings 10:01
I could do it. That’s a big job, people. You know, we always think about the things that the drivers have to do on the road. But there’s a very real side, you know, that happens at home. I couldn’t imagine being at home and having to if there’s a bump in the night. Yeah, if there’s a spider, yeah,
Ashley Jones 10:17
especially since we live in the country now. Oh, I
Jamie Hutchins 10:18
called him one time I said, Darryl, he left the house. I said, there’s a snake on the front. What do you want me to take care of? So yeah, what do you do? Did you took matters into my own hands, and
Megan Cummings 10:36
you know, God bless you. i You’re a better woman than I am. I just there’s no way and I just, I really
Jamie Hutchins 10:42
do worry about big things sometimes happening while they’re gone. You know, what am I gonna do? Yeah, what will I do?
Ashley Jones 10:50
Sometimes that’s when it becomes good to have friends like, he was gone one time and our water heater overflowed in our garage. And I was like, I can’t do this by myself. And so he was like, Alright, hold on. And he had some friends come over and we shut it off and got it changed. And he actually was able to come back home and get it all worked out, too. But it ‘s when the big stuff that happens like that’s when it’s really helpful to have Yeah, people on your side, because then you’re like, huh, I need somebody to step in. Can you do the obligatory? Yes,
Megan Cummings 11:23
please. Speaking of people on your side, do you guys find that there’s a big do you have some kind of a support system where it’s like other drivers’ wives? It was like, you know, I’ve been there. I don’t know if they have. I know some people will meet up at company parties, Facebook, anything like that. You know, to kind of help.
Ashley Jones 11:45
I haven’t come across it. I’m pretty shy, though. So I haven’t really come across too much of
Jamie Hutchins 11:51
it. Right. I’m pretty independent and can take care of things. But you know, we have some families that live not far from us. DeRose brothers, and if something were to happen, then I really needed some help or something kind of to rely on them. Yeah, a little bit less.
Megan Cummings 12:13
Actually, do you guys have your family pretty close as well? Are you guys from Arkansas?
Ashley Jones 12:17
I’m not originally from Colorado, but his family? He’s originally from here. So his family is down here. He’s got two brothers, a dad and a sister that are within, like 10 miles of us. Okay, good. So that’s helpful. That always makes it easier. Yeah.
Megan Cummings 12:32
So Jamie, we were talking about you having just retired from the law firm or a law firm in Little Rock. Are you just spinning your days easy living now taking
Jamie Hutchins 12:43
care of dogs and chicken chickens in the house and mowing, doing a lot of things that Darrell doesn’t have to do when he gets home? Except for maybe some cleanup work? Like weight eating? Yes. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. So yeah, I have enjoyed it. While auditions
Megan Cummings 13:02
again. Ashley, do you? Do you do anything? As far as I
Ashley Jones 13:07
Stay at home? I was watching some kids, but they have now gone to school. Yeah. So as of right now, I’m just staying at home. Just manning the fort. Yep. All the husband’s away. Yeah,
Megan Cummings 13:17
absolutely admirable. So how is Darrell and Bobby’s job with Oakley help provide for you guys and your family? Is there anything that stands out as far as that goes? Well,
Jamie Hutchins 13:29
with Oakley being a great company. And having been a company has been around for many years. I was even pretty well, I didn’t really know of Oakley, but we had done some business with Oakley before the law firm. So I was familiar, you know, with the name, you know and stuff. But just the thing about being an owner operator is you can kind of make what you want. Yeah. And that you have to be able to manage your money. Well, yes. So it has been great for Darryl and us. Because, you know, if you get in a pickle and you need a little extra money, it can be there for him. You know, he can make it. Yeah. Or if he needs the time off and maybe Deden can kind of take a little break. Then they go lazy on him. You know, they don’t send them all over the place. So Oakley has been really, really good for Darryl. Darryl loves being a truck driver. He’s like I said he’s been in business for 40 years. And you know, it’s rewarding and challenging. You know what I do? I rode with him one time and he said, Well, what do you think? And I said, Hey, now I don’t really know how you do this. You do this all day, you know sitting in a truck and dealing with all this traffic and I do know one thing: four wheelers. A lot of times I do not respect them. Oh no truck drivers on the road in or out It really aggravates me. It really aggravates me because it’s like, there’s a lot of daredevils out there. I don’t know what they’re thinking, you know. But it’s a hard job. It’s a stressful job for these guys. I don’t know how they do it sometimes. But I respect them.
Ashley Jones 15:19
Yes, absolutely. there with the make makes the world go.
Jamie Hutchins 15:23
Yeah. Oh, Romain without trekkers, we
Megan Cummings 15:25
wouldn’t be up a creek. Yeah, it’d
Jamie Hutchins 15:27
Yeah, we would be way up in Korea. Yeah,
Megan Cummings 15:30
I know. There was a very real moment in time, shortly after I started working here, where you just gained an immense amount of respect for these guys, because it’s not just sitting behind the wheel and driving all day, it’s so much more. And then you realize the magnitude of if these people didn’t exists, you know, where would be what would we what would we have, you know, so I think that being married to one working with one, you know, it gives you a real insight on what it actually is like, actually, have you ever done a ride along?
Ashley Jones 16:03
Only one day? I only did it for a day. I am not a distance girl when it comes to being in the vehicle. I don’t love it. I never sleep. I’m a sleepy girl, especially in a car. So we went up to Batesville one time. Other than that, no, my oldest did though. And he was not a fan. Really? Oh, yeah. No Petey could not stand to be in the truck very long. Oh, yeah. And then the air went out in the truck. So. So now he’s kind of traumatized. Yeah, he won’t go back on the road with him. But yeah, I don’t know how they do it. I really don’t I try
Jamie Hutchins 16:39
it. It really takes special people to do it, though.
Ashley Jones 16:43
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Megan Cummings 16:45
They’re a different breed, that’s for sure.
Jamie Hutchins 16:47
They are a different breed.
Megan Cummings 16:48
But you know what, I know, I keep circling everything back to you guys. They could say the same thing about you. I know. It’s got to be, you know, because you, regardless of what they were doing, when you guys got married, or when you met each other what you knew you were getting into it still, it doesn’t take away that it’s gotta be hard. Being away from your spouse for sometimes weeks or night, you
Jamie Hutchins 17:08
have to have a very good, strong and trusting relationship as well. Yes. You because our wife is home all the time? Yeah. I mean, I know he’s there, you know, we love each other, we trust each other. And we’re kind of used to the distance, I guess, you know, you get used to it over time, you know, when, when you’ve been around it for so long? And it can be hard sometimes, you know, lonely. Yeah. And, you know, they really get lonely out there, too. I mean, just looking at a road, yeah, eight or nine or 10 hours a day. And, and, you know, being in their truck, you know, their truck is kind of their home away from home. Right. And they’re in their truck at night and, you know, bother themselves. And so, you know, we call each other quite a bit and check on them, you know, how’s the traffic? And, you know, I don’t want to tell you how he answers that sometimes. But it’s like I said, what they do is rewarding and challenging. But, I mean, it takes a special breed to do it. Yes, absolutely. And I think it takes a special woman. Yeah, I agree to be able to be with somebody that’s, you know, you’re gone all the time. And some I mean, you can’t handle that. Now, they can’t handle the separation part. But like I said, if you have a good strong relationship, and you trust each other, and you have good communication, it works. Right. Dedication
Ashley Jones 18:35
is definitely key to that. It’s the key. Absolutely. Like, I mean, we know communication is key to any relationship or anything in life anyways. But especially when they’re gone, it’s so important, right to have that,
Jamie Hutchins 18:49
right. If you had a lot of marital issues and a lot of money problems and a lot of family problems, you know, with kids or stuff like that. I mean, that’s a lot of stress on them out there. Yeah, being a whale out there, they’re out there and then get to thinking about all this stuff on the road and stuff and it distracts them, you know, so it, you know, it’s an
Megan Cummings 19:12
ebb and a flow. You know, especially, I mean, you know, I get my head about stupid stuff all the time. And I just couldn’t imagine being by myself, you know, on either side of that, whether you’re the husband or the wife, you know, whether you’re the wife at home and you have no nothing else to do but think you know, you’re by yourself or, you know, if you’re on the road, just driving all day by yourself. I just don’t know, I couldn’t imagine it. Speaking of special breeds, I guess it’s not really a special breed. But we had a family friend whose husband drove for Walmart for like 45 years, and he finally retired. He had just had enough of his keys, and we all thought that she was going to kill them whenever he got them. You get so used to
Jamie Hutchins 20:01
kind of get used to your own space. Yeah. And your own time. And you think about it, this is what I want to do tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I tell you, I was coming in.
Ashley Jones 20:11
Like, great. I love to see you. But
Jamie Hutchins 20:15
you come on, oh, darn, I can’t go surfing and do all these things I wanted to do tomorrow. Yes. But now you do kind of get used to your own time and your space and your independence. You know, I mean, I hate to say that, but you do. Yeah, you know, and it’s like living on your own before you get married or something, right, you’re used to your own routine and everything and you’re used to your own space and doing things when you want to do I’m sleeping in when I want to sleep in, you know, eat what you want to eat. But if I know he’s coming home, you know, it’s like, okay, I feel like, you know, I gotta cook something. Yeah, because you want to have that home cooked meal but I do a lot of home cooking, because he has a refrigerator, in his truck, and a TV and so we do make a lot of meals, and he takes them with them just for ease. So he doesn’t have to go out and eat a lot. It’s kind of a money saver thing to you know, you can eat up a paycheck really fast by stopping at every restaurant, I’ve known the man in eating. So he’s a little concerned, we’re conservative in that way, you know, we make some good meals for him. And so he’s not out eating a lot of fast food and stuff and right. And he’ll get out of his truck wherever he’s at. And if there’s other truckers there, they talk and have conversation, you know, and sometimes we’ll say hey, you know, we’re gonna go eat here. You want to go with us now, my wife will cook me some food. So I’m gonna go in here and eat, you know, get him. So he would rather have home cooked meals and go out and eat.
Megan Cummings 21:46
Really? And you know, that’s got to get just so tiring after a while. Can
Jamie Hutchins 21:50
you imagine just eating fast food and stuff? Every day?
Megan Cummings 21:53
You know, whenever you come back from vacation, and you’re like, I can’t offer a pot of beans. Yeah.
22:00
Yeah, just something that I cook or something.
Megan Cummings 22:03
Yeah, warm, that is home cooked. Did comfort food. Yeah, absolutely.
Ashley Jones 22:08
We don’t always do it like that. A lot of the time, we’ll get good snacks and stuff that he can eat. But otherwise, he’ll go stir crazy because he’ll just stay in the truck. So I don’t send all the food. Like he’ll have meals. But I don’t send all the food because I’m like, you can get out of the truck. You can go have a meal. You can because he’ll just stay in the truck. And like yeah, you gotta get out of that thing sometimes. Oh, absolutely. So yeah, what do we do about 5050? Send the food but then keep it on the truck. It’s okay. Go get something to eat.
Megan Cummings 22:36
Definitely a happy medium. Yes. Because the same thing happened at home. I mean, a couple of days at home. Mmm hmm. Yeah.
Jamie Hutchins 22:43
Do you want to go out and eat some more? Yeah,
Megan Cummings 22:45
yeah, you’re like, I’m done. Coach got out of the house for a little bit, you know? Same exact thing. Okay, so. So, circling back on that? Do you guys ever wonder what it’s going to be like, whenever they retire and come back home? And it’s just, it’s not just like your own space with your boyfriend visiting every couple nights or every couple weeks? Hi?
Ashley Jones 23:09
It’s gonna be a change? For sure. Yeah, I don’t know. Because the weeks that he is off, everyone’s like, she’s gonna kill you. By the end of this, you realize this? Right? Like, no, it’s not that bad. But then I’m like, What day do you go? Where I just need peace and quiet for Yeah, I just need my normal neck.
Jamie Hutchins 23:28
I think maybe before that happens, or you know, the time is getting close when they retire or something. Make sure he has some hobbies. Yes, my husband likes to play golf, and he loves to play golf. And he does a lot of that even now, you know, on weekends sometimes. And, he’ll probably do that a whole lot more. And we’ll travel a little bit. Yeah. You know, when they’ve been in a truck most of their life, you know, when you want to travel somewhere that’s not sometimes on the top of the list. You know, it’s only my drive in that. Oh, yeah. And think about that, you know, but, I mean, it hasn’t been like that with this, you know, too much more. So maybe sometimes, you know, it’s like, I don’t really want to drive 12 hours to San Antonio or somewhere, you know, or 10 hours or I said you’ve been in a truck all week. And you know, if you take vacation next week, you sure you want to go out of town and drive and I don’t make any difference to me. You know, that’s what I do. I’m used to it. So yeah, so we’ll just jump over so having some hobbies will be good. So that way you can still kind of do things that you want to do and they can go out and do his hobbies and you know,
Megan Cummings 24:49
very insightful. Okay, we’re putting that one down.
Jeremy Kellett 24:55
Oakley Trucking is a 100% Owner Operator company. We specialize in Hopper because I’m in dump and pneumatic drivers, we provide the trailer free of charge and you provide the truck. We have a large customer base that reaches the whole United States as well as parts of Canada. Our owner operators live anywhere from Texas to North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and everywhere in between and we get them home weekends. We take it seriously when you join Oakley trucking because we need you to be successful. Oakley offers great benefits and a competitive knowledge base. So you know that when your wheels are turning, you’re generating money, no matter if you’re loaded or empty. We understand that you want to make a good living and that you make our living. We only take on independent contractors and to be honest with you, we are very particular on who we lease on. You must have a good driving record, good work history and clean, dependable truck. So if you’re interested in Oakley trucking or just wants more information, you can go to Oakley trucking.com. Listen to our weekly podcast, the Oakley podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Megan Cummings 25:56
Okay, so both of the guys were driving before you guys got married. So this is kind of how Ashley was Bobby driving before he got married. He was in the oilfield. So it was still gone. Yeah. So this is kind of all you guys have known. It’s all good. So it’s just kind of, I mean, obviously, you make it work. And I’m not saying that it doesn’t get tough, but it’s kind of kind of it used
Jamie Hutchins 26:20
to really be tough, because I would be going to work and he would be coming home. And we’d be waving, you know, whatever you and then when I’m coming home, he was going to work. And he used to make like, two runs to Memphis at night. me how I did that, I don’t know, go to Memphis turn around, come back, unload low, go back to Memphis come back, you know, twice. And I and you know, driving forward, he’s not always the, you know, I think they’ve been doing construction on 40 I think, since I was in high school, you know. But we never saw each other, you know, through the whole week. So it would be the weekend, you know, we’re like trying to do things together. And he’s trying to catch up on sleep. And it was really hard, you know, back then it was an adjustment, because I’d be ready to do something on Saturday. And he’s coming in on Saturday morning, ready to go to bed, ready to go to bed. And so those days were pretty tough, but he still managed to have hobbies, then he would fish, he would fish and tournaments with his brother and still tried to maintain a balanced life where, you know, if you work and do nothing that you enjoy.
Megan Cummings 27:36
What’s the point? It’s, you kind
Jamie Hutchins 27:38
of getting depressed. I mean, it’s like, you know, especially when you’re younger, and you start thinking there’s got to be more to life than just work. All we do is work, you know, work. So, but he still tried to do things, he ran some marathons, you know, and when he’d get off work, he’d go train with a group, you know, I don’t know, where he got the energy to do all this stuff, you know, or he would when he would get off work. Sometimes he would take Thursday and Friday off and go fishing with his brother. And so I wouldn’t see him through the week. And then I wouldn’t see him most of the weekend either because he’s out fishing a tournament, but you have to be supportive. You have to have a good marriage. Gotta love one another, to trust one another. And you still gotta let them do things that they enjoy. Right, you know, right. So
Megan Cummings 28:27
Do you have any advice? For someone who is saying to a woman who’s like, Well, my husband’s thinking about driving a truck, I’m not sure how to feel about it. You know, you guys have been, I’d say put through the wringer. But you’ve you know, you’ve been there for a while you guys have kind of lived to tell the tale. Is there anything that you would offer up to somebody who is
Jamie Hutchins 28:53
you have to be a strong person and you have to be you have to have some independence. I mean, you have you. If it bothers you to be alone, or you’re scared to death to be by yourself, and you have anxieties about being alone, maybe truck driving is not, you know, maybe getting with a truck driver or married, somebody that’s a truck driver might not be the thing for you, you know, because they aren’t going to be gone a lot. I mean, that’s how they make their money.
Megan Cummings 29:27
And it’s a passion. I don’t ever feel like anybody does it for a couple years or a couple months. It’s normally until you find it and you stick to it until you retire. Yeah, that seems to be a pretty common thing. Ashley, do you have anything to add to that communication,
Ashley Jones 29:41
like we’ve said before, just make sure you’re comfortable in your relationship where you’re like, you can talk to them, because it’s okay to be sad, a week and like, we roll down and miss them. And it’s okay to communicate that with them, because they’re going to understand it too. And then when they get home, you just gotta prioritize your time with them. Yeah. Like we always make sure that the time that we actually do get together is even if we’re just sitting on the couch, it’s intentional. It’s just time that we can be together and you just have to communicate and prioritize your time.
Megan Cummings 30:19
Absolutely. Well, I’ve decided maybe I should go find a truck driver to marry after talking to you guys. I think I’ve probably there’s
Jamie Hutchins 30:28
Nothing wrong with truck drivers.
Ashley Jones 30:30
They’re good guys.
Jamie Hutchins 30:32
They are good, hard working guys. They’re kind of the backbone of our country. Absolutely.
Megan Cummings 30:35
So it’s been lovely having you guys on today. Are there any final thoughts that you’d like to add? For our listeners? Your future fan base?
Jamie Hutchins 30:44
I don’t think so. I think we’ve kind of covered some grounds here. No, I don’t think so.
Megan Cummings 30:49
Peter came while Jamie. Ashley. Thank you guys for joining us. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe, follow, share the podcast wherever you can so we can get the word out. Thank you guys again for joining me today. It’s been lovely. Thank
Jamie Hutchins 31:04
you. Yes. You’re welcome.
Megan Cummings 31:05
We’ll see you guys next week.
Jeremy Kellett 31:07
Thanks for listening to this episode with Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience. So if you’ve got a question, comment or just want to say hello, head over to our website, the Oakley podcast.com and click the leave a comment button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.