It will be a year in February 3rd, 2024, since my employer, Daimler Truck (Freightliner), suddenly fired me for probably talking to OSHA about amputation injuries at another plant. I can’t really discuss what happened at my employer, but I have a friend who was going through a very similar situation. There were some very serious injuries and issues at this persons plant. His company would never admit it, but it all started about a week after they were fined $175,000 for a couple amputations that occurred. Their culture for safety by upper management was very poor. Production was #1 priority, Manager bonus was #2, and safety was somewhere down around #5, near annual budget reviews. He tried to hang on to get to full retirement, but they just proceeded with a mean and rude way to terminate him. They have no sympathy and certainly no empathy for their employees. Every day is “what have you done for us today?”.
The Original Plan
The strange thing about my firing episode is I was planning to leave in a month anyway. I had already signed up for Social Security and Medicare. I had paid off or closed all my loans and the bills I could. I had a 3 month travel plan all arranged and reservations made. And I had 7 weeks of vacation banked to cover a good portion of it. Honestly, I had done a similar thing for leaving in October 2023. That was my 5 year anniversary and I would be fully invested in all my 401K money. But since the winter was coming and there is so much holiday time I figured I might as well stay until March. But when my boss called me into his office to berate me personally and say I did nothing for the organization, I decided to hang on (maybe just to irritate him). He placed me onto a “Personnel Improvement Plan”, (a PIP) giving me a list of tasks he felt I did not do. Fortunately I had already done most of them, as they were tasks we did monthly. Apparently he knew nothing about what “Safety Managers” do. Which also made me think this PIP was coming from Corporate HR/legal.
What Happened
Anyway I was at a quarterly meeting in January with the other Safety managers and Union Safety People and said I would probably not make the next meeting, as I will be gone. That got back to my boss and he went ballistic. Apparently in his mind nobody should every tell anyone they are likely leaving. So he gave me a “Final Written Warning” saying anything I do wrong will end in termination. And so the next day I was terminated. Apparently coming to work is wrong. So they cashed out all my vacation, Dumped my 401K on me, and escorted me out the door with a box of my personal property. Good riddens!!
It takes a while to adjust to freedom. As an employee I did what my boss and my employer wanted 10hrs a day and also tried to keep people from getting hurt. When I arrived in 2017 the injury rate was 12%. When I calculated the injury rate at the end of 2022, the injury rate was 2%. In the prior 10 years they had 2 deaths and numerous disabling back, knee, wrist, hand injuries. We didn’t eliminate those injuries, but we greatly reduced them and made a lot of people smarter about how to work safer. I was very proud of the union employees that were active in helping reduce the injuries and felt empowered to be in control of their own safety. It was definitely one of my crowning achievements in industrial safety improvement. But now it was time to work for me (and Akela).
Getting The Mental Feel
First thing we did was buy the 2020 slightly used Wolf Pup off FB Marketplace. The Aliner was very tired and had several repairs that needed to be done. However, we did take it for “the Big Trip” to take 3 months for the North American Aliner Rally, Aliner Factory tour, then up to NY and through New England and Maine. Unfortunately a major storm came up the coast and washed away most of the roads in Vermont and New Hampshire and Maine didn’t fair too much better. So I had to change plans. Luckily, during my wondering around NY, my Laptop screen, which I do my videos on, died. So I had to return to get it fixed anyway. Funny how these things seem to work out.
I did have to go back in August for the wedding (my 1st born son-see his video) and still took the Aliner, which did great. Again though it rained most of the time and the Aliner was a bit water logged from all the rain and from 2 wet bodies (one covered with hair) coming and going in it all the time. While the Aliner is an awesome camper, it does lack some room for hanging wet stuff up to dry and lacks water resistance during heavy rain on the highway. And of course mine is 15years old and heavily used. And never garaged. but I still love it!
So now we are traveling with the WolfPup. We had a minor “growing pains” between Akela and the Wolf pup. When we were camping in the muddy wet forest of Kentucky I yelled at him for jumping on my bed with muddy paws and belly. After that he would not come into the WolfPup. He slept in the car (its his car), and every morning gave me that look like “Happy?”. But when it got below freezing I told him he had to come into the WolfPup. He can sleep in “his kennel” under the dinette, or in the bunk bed, or with me in the queen size bed. He of course considered them each carefully, then decided to try to force me out of the queen bed. Luckily we didn’t hit cold temps until we got into middle Georgia. The campsite was grassy and paved and did not have all the Florida sand he would have added to my bed if he had decided he wanted “his bed” back while we were there. I just thoroughly dislike Florida.
Whats Next
So, its now 2024, January 2nd, to be honest. We have 4 trips planned and are planning 2 more. So we should be set to roll and enjoy. Seems this “Retired” thing does grow on you eventually. I guess its a lot like this “YouTube” thing. I can’t seem to stop doing it. We have more or less completed all the big mods to the WolfPup (battery, solar, off grid inverter power, bedding, bearings, springs, tires, microwave, and more). But there is a list of things to do to make it more comfortable and efficient . We are confident we can boondock for 5-8days and will be traveling longer, further, wider in the near future. Heck, we might even cross the Mississippi. but for right now, I’m keeping my trips to a few weeks at a time so I can continue to maintain my house and monitor how my small nest egg for retirement works out. I have no pension or massive pile of money, but I think I can keep going for a t least a few years. Then we will have to see where the revenue from YouTube is. And if it doesn’t provide enough, I may have to open an “Only Fans” account for a different kind of video…lol. There is a way to help if you so choose “$$ Make a Donation $$” link. Also I will be adding a page for WolfPup files and Mods and costs and stuff. I also will post my Itinerary of where I have been and what it costs and the best campsites in the campground. So Check these things out.
Again, funny how things just seem to work out! So Happy 2024!! We Hope to see you on the road !!
Rick & Akela