[preview]Whether he’s driving a big rig or raising his kids, father of 7 Ed Brooks knows just where to look for guidance.[/preview]
[p]Whether he’s driving a big rig or raising his kids, father of 7 Ed Brooks knows just where to look for guidance.[/p]
[p]Ed Brooks found the Trucker Path app the same way a lot of our users do (searching for a smarter way to get from the proverbial Point A to Point B), but the feature he’s used most often lately is a favorite of his son – Ed’s on-the-road companion for the past five months. “When you travel with an 11-year-old,” he says with a smile, “you need to know where the bathrooms are.”[/p]
[p]And not just any roadside truck stop will do, mind you. “We always check user ratings to see if the bathrooms are clean, and the atmosphere is family-friendly. Most times, we try to shoot for full-service truck stops. After all, if you have to stop, you might as well make it a good one.”[/p]
[h2]Not your typical driving experience[/h2]
[p]Ed’s been driving OTR since April – delivering RVs, buses and box trucks across the country. Before that, the Ann Arbor native drove several years locally for Uber and Lift – two jobs which offered a bit more, let’s say, ‘adventure’ than the average 62-year-old wants in life. “I drove a lot of students from club to club at nights, and it just got too wild. I wouldn’t even take rides after 11:00. By then, a lot of them could barely walk or talk.”[/p]
[p]Which, in a roundabout way, raises a couple of questions: Where does a 62-year-old get the energy to raise an 11-year-old son, and how’d that happen in the first place? “Oh, we’re joined at the hip,” says Ed. “We’ve been on the road together nearly full time since I took this job. My wife and I adopted Roman when he was 11 months old.”[/p]
[h2]Answering the call[/h2]
[p]Ed admits that, at the time, he and Linda weren’t exactly looking for number seven (of whom, three others are also adopted), “but the Lord intervened. Roman had suffered a brain injury as a baby, and we just felt like he needed us.”[/p]
[p]The injury led to early comprehension challenges, especially during pre-school and kindergarten. Roman’s going into fifth grade this year, and, Ed’s proud to say, “he’s doing well and making his grades. We home-schooled him last year,” which is how he was able to spend so much time on the road during April and May, “and now he’s all caught-up, and he’ll be going back to school this year.”[/p]
[h2]A message of hope[/h2]
[p]Although the next nine months on the road are likely to be a bit lonely for Ed, he’ll still have plenty of opportunities to make a difference when he’s home. A chaplain at the Washtenaw County jail for seven years before he began his driving career, Ed’s a member of Bethesda Bible Church in East Lansing – and still maintains an active ministry counseling recently-released inmates.[/p]
[h2]Making good choices[/h2]
[p]There is one upside to traveling solo for Ed: “Roman mostly liked eating at McDonald’s, whereas I do my best to stay away from carbs and starches.” Yet another area where his favorite driving app comes in handy every time he hits the road. “If a place ain’t on Trucker Path,” Ed says flatly, “I won’t go there.” Words of wisdom from a man who knows a little something about keeping it on the Straight and Narrow.[/p]
