The Trucker Newspaper - December 15-31, 2015

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24 AT THE TRUCK STOP Presented by Cat Scale, visit weighmytruck.com Scan here to learn more about Cat Scale Trucker Lindsey Bell, wife Lupita weather hard times, finally find their home in trucking Get the free mobile app at http:/ / gettag.mobi Story and photo by Aprille Hanson Special to The Trucker aprilleh@thetrucker.com NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Trucker Lindsey Bell and his wife Lupita plan to celebrate their first Christmas together as a married couple this month. Thinking back on the last four years, it’s a far cry from where they’ve been. “We were both in a shelter” in Texas, Lupita Bell told The Trucker at the Petro Stopping Center here. Lindsey Bell, primarily a dump truck driver for 15 years, had nowhere to turn after a trucking job did not pan out. He walked to a shelter in San Antonio and stayed there to save money until he could get back on his feet and ideally into a new ride. It was there he met Lupita, who had also fallen on hard times. “He was a nice guy,” Lupita said upon meeting Bell. “He had seen me around and he was adamant I was going to be his girl.” After leaving the shelter and with a new driving job for Lindsey, the two soon began renting an apartment, but pouring money into a place they rarely stayed at seemed like a waste, Lupita said. So, they hopped into the truck, making it their fulltime home. Though Lupita did not have much experience with the the trucking industry, it has been Lindsey’s livelihood. He now drives a 2011 Peterbilt for TSL in Stockton, California. “I like traveling and being your own boss,” he said, adding he’s not one to shy away from certain areas like some fellow truckers. “I like New York; somebody has got to go up there.” Bell said last year he and Lupita got stuck in all the major snow storms, but his experience helped him to remain calm. “The most important thing is safety because things happen unexpectedly,” Lindsey said. “You have to practice patience.” That patient attitude came in handy when he waited and waited for Lupita to say “yes” to marriage. “I just like going new places with him,” Lupita said. “I had never been to Vegas and we got married in Reno” this year on July 4. Though Lindsey asked her many times before to marry him and Lupita’s father also wanted her to take the leap, she explained she actually made the final proposal. “We were driving through Reno … I said, ‘Hey, let’s get married.’ He said, ‘Are you serious?’” Lupita said. “It was kind of a spur-of-the moment thing. He’d been asking and I guess I was finally ready.” The couple travels with their two furry road companions, Suspect, a 4-year-old alley cat, and Velvet, a Siamese kitten. They love batting around anything they can get their paws on, Lupita said. “Velvet likes to drive … She has boundary issues. She’ll get in front of the dashboard where he’s driving and he’ll say ‘you have to get the cat away,’” Lupita said. “She’ll knock you in the head a few times with her paw when she wants to play.” Suspect is more subtle, though his alley cat past makes him more risky. Once, when the truck was parked and the window was cracked, Lupita noticed Suspect wasn’t around. “I’m in the back [in the sleeper] and I look up and he’s sitting on the hood and looking directly at me,” she said. “It’s in his blood; he wants that freedom sometimes.” The cats will experience that freedom more often once their new home is built in Tyler, Texas. The couple broke ground two years ago on land where her parents and two daughters, 12 and 13, stay while they are on the road. “I’m on the truck 30 days on and 30 days off” while the house is being built to help her father complete it and to be there for her daughters, Lupita said. “I do a lot of parenting over the phone; it’s hard, but it works.” Lindsey has been driving non-stop for the past year and sends money back so the house can be finished. “It’s a big sacrifice for family because you’re always on the road,” he said. “You’re doing a man’s job … when I started driving it was the No. 1 most dangerous job in America … the harder the job, the harder I work. I feel like I’m doing my part.” Once the house is completed, Lyndsey said his focus will be on saving up enough money to buy his own truck. “I’m trying to come up with a down payment,” he said. “I want to buy my own truck so I can be home more.” However, regardless of whether he becomes an owner-operator or not, he said he will not be leaving the trucking industry anytime soon. “Truckers stick together,” he said. “We’re family.” 8
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