I Take My Toddler On Long Hauls—But Last Week He Said Something That Stopped Me Cold

I’ve been hauling freight since I was nineteen. When daycare became too expensive, I started taking my two-year-old son Micah on the road with me. The road is his playground — he loves the vibrations, chasing the sun, and the steady hum of tires. We wear matching neon jackets, share peanut butter crackers at stops, and sing off-key ‘80s songs to stay awake.

One evening near Amarillo, while stopped at a rest area, Micah suddenly asked, “When is he coming back? The man who sits up front.” I was shocked — we’ve always been alone in the truck. That night, I found a folded note in the glove box with a pencil sketch of us and the words, “Keep going. He’s proud of you.”

A few days later near Flagstaff, a diner owner told me she saw a man with a beard and denim jacket standing by…

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