Is Long Haul Truck Driving A Tough Job?

Can be. Like someone else said, if you have kids/family at home, it’s hard to meet your family obligations when you’re gone all the time. Most long-haul jobs want you gone a minimum of 2 weeks, and you can plan on being out a month at a time if you want to see any money. There are regional/local opportunities out there that make it easier to be home more, though.
If you’re single, laid back and pretty flexible, it’s not that bad. When I started I was single….I put all my stuff in storage and I’d stay out here 3-4 months at a time. I met my husband out here and we still do the same thing, only we’re not as lonely/bored at times! We run hard for months and take our time off in 1-2 week “chunks” wherever we feel like it….if we want to go to Vegas or see the Grand Canyon, we schedule time off in that area, rent a car/hotel room and GO!
You don’t have to eat in truck stops- there are 12V coolers and hot-plates that plug into your cigarette lighter. Or you can put an inverter in your truck (converts 12V into household current) so you can plug in a mini fridge, microwave, crock pot, electric grill….not to mention a TV/DVD/game system, etc. Most Wal-Marts on the road have truck access and you can do your grocery shopping there, fix meals on the road and eat much better (and cheaper!) than in the truck stops.
Some truck stops are clean and have decent showers, some of them are crap-holes. But you learn where to go and where to avoid. You can usually ask on the CB whether or not a place has decent showers….you may get a good answer, you may not. Just wear flip-flops in the shower and carry a spray-bottle of disinfectant cleaner to spritz the shower floor & surfaces if you’re going somewhere that doesn’t look so nice. The water’s clean and it’ll get YOU clean, and that’s the main thing.
It’s by no means a glamorous lifestyle….there is bad weather, traffic, idiot drivers, jerk dispatchers/shippers/recievers. There’s breakdowns, delays, sitting-and-waiting for no-particular-reason. There’s loneliness and boredom. There’s the difficulty of finding medical care if you get sick. There’s driving in the Northeast, LOL….or any big city for that matter, it can be a headache. You will have days where you wonder why in the world you picked this career.
But if you’re lucky, you’ll have other days where you see beautiful places, see interesting things, meet good people, and realize that you’re lucky enough to be free from the 9-to-5 rat race that most people suffer through. You’ll sit in rush hour traffic in Chicago, and realize that even though it’s aggrevating, at least YOU don’t have to sit in it EVERY SINGLE DAY on your way to work, like the poor schlubs in the cars all around you. You won’t get to work and have some boss breathing down your neck, or obnoxious gossipy office workers playing games of office politics.
It’s all in how you look at it, your preferences and your priorities. I love it, clearly other people hate it….all I can say is try it and see what you think.