The big trucks roll at high speeds down the 2 lane highways loaded with sugarbeets. The drivers range from experienced CDL drivers to rookies still learning to manage the transmissions in the trucks they were introduced to only days ago. There are more wheels under them than they've ever had before and more tons behind them than most of them can fathom. For two weeks (or so) the 24 hour a day frenzy of people moving produce to market in North Dakota and Minnesota takes center stage to almost any other activity. It truly takes a village to complete this harvest. The mailman helps when he's done driving his mail route. The barber helps after cutting hair all day. The minister takes a shift and earns the respect of the locals and gains fodder for future sermans even though he's a less than average driver. Family members fly "home" to support their family's farm at a time when every able bodied person supports this all out effort to complete the harvest. The goal is to keep the sugarbeet harvestor lifting beets into the trucks. The trucks need drivers... and that's where I come in.
I'm a farm girl and grew up driving tractors and trucks and loved every minute of it. When I was young, I couldn't wait to get out of school to ride with my mom to watch the whole operation, whether it was grain, potato or sugarbeet harvest. She was a pro and could drive in the fields, under the harvestor, back up the truck, raise the hoist and dump the truck wearing pretty lipstick on her smile the whole while.
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