On the Road with Gina Stumborg

Slice Of Life Truck

Hello Everyone,

This adventure began back in ’09 at the M.A.T.S. in Louisville,Ky. I test drove the Cascadia truck at the show and never thought it would have taken me down the road it did. Here is the story.

I found out about a contest that Daimler Trucks North America was having and it was an essay contest. The prize was the privilege of driving a Cascadia for a year and blogging about the experience. So I entered the contest not really thinking I would win; but I did. Out of 400 entries my essay was chosen. What was it about you ask? Well it was simply about my career and all the turns it had taken up to that point and why I love driving so much.

Summary is 18 years driving and everything from student to company driver onto a trainer and even a dispatcher for a while to finally be back on the road to become an owner-operator. I Love driving because I can drive down the same road everyday and look at the same tree and it will be different. You just have to take the time to look.

So on June 3, 2010 I was given the truck that I was going to be driving for the next year. It was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to get this adventure started. I asked for a mountain scene since I was raised in Colorado and I missed the scenery. I couldn’t have asked for a better mountain scene than Vomela, the vinyl graphic company,  gave me on the truck. I had the truck set up with an UltraShift and super singles. I had never had either, so that was going to be something new too.

As the program got started I was introduced to so many people in the industry and learned so much from them that it would take way too long to thank them each individually; but they know who they are and thank you.

Since the start of the program my life has changed I got married to my best friend and I am now running team with him. We are loving being together however that being said running team does not leave much time for the Slice Of Life program. I feel that if I cannot give the program my 110% effort than it is time to say good-bye to the program so this will be my final blog.

New Freightliner Cascadia

It is now time to move onto my next adventure running team in my new Cascadia that Don and I had built and took delivery of on the 1^st of this year. We will still be out here running down the road and truly believe in the Freightliner brand. Keeping in mind that 11 years ago I would not have stepped foot on a Freightliner property. I was a Kenworth girl all the way. I will say this Freightliner is not what they used to be from customer service in the shops to the way the trucks are built now. If you have not driven a Freightliner in a while you need to. You may just be pleasantly surprised just like I was.

Thank you again for the wonderful adventure to Freightliner and Daimler Trucks.  To those of you reading my blogs and coming to meet me at the truck shows these past 2 years. I will never  forget what a privilege it was to be in the Slice of Life program. I always end my blogs with a saying the reason I do that is to me there is nothing more important than family. I love mine and the support that they have given me over the years in the Trucking Industry. So until I see you out of the road at some truck stop be safe and make it home to your families.

Gina, Don and She-La

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 8:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.