Flight 837 & the Triple Digit Midget

One of my best friends I've ever came across in my career was a man named Mike Bruno, or we just called him Bruno. His handle was trouble, but I always called him the 'triple digit midget', because he wasn't much over 5 foot tall, and he had a fast damn truck! It all began one night back at Navajo, around 2003 in a town called Napolean , Ohio at the campbells soup plant. See I was sent there to do a relay, and when I met Bruno he had a company orange and white 379 Peterbilt, that he had fully decked out, train horns and all. This is where my fascination for chrome really took off, up until that point it had never really been a thing for me.

So I got his number and we talked almost daily for the next two years, until I left Navajo in 2005.
But about Bruno, see even though he had a company truck, he knew some people, know what I mean, and he was like the owners right hand man, so he was kinda untouchable,so to speak. This gave Bruno quite the big ego, he would often run meat loads up to the northeast and get back hauls back to Denver, and he would always brag about how fast he could run, and poor me, I was in an actual governed company truck.

Now just before I had left Navajo it came time to get rid of his Pete, but the owner had his own truck which he had gotten from an owner/operator who failed to go through with his purchase,so the owner turned it over to Bruno as a company truck, again with certain "favors", it was a two tone maroon 379 Peterbilt, and it wasn't long before Bruno got to work and added his own special style to it, and had it looking real nice, even putting it in a few small truck shows.

So anyway, I left Navajo in 2005 for a small carrier in Ohio and bounced around several companies for the next two years, eventually I lost regular contact with Bruno. Fast forward to summer 2006, when I was driving for Jamestown in my red Classic XL, and one afternoon I picked up my regular run to Denver and set out across I70, strolling in the hammer lane looking large ya know! I make it across Indiana and into Illinois, all the way to Effingham, and by this time it was dark out. So I'm cruising the left lane through Effingham, almost to the big cross and the 57/70 split when I come up on a Navajo trailer in the right lane. Then I see the maroon Pete and all the chicken lights, I'm like this has GOT to be Bruno! So I said I'm gonna get this sumbich tonight!

So I rolled up right beside him, reach up and grab the ol' mic, I hollered "Hey Bruno!" He said "Who is that?!?" I said "It's Sleepy man!" He said "Damn Sleepy, where the hell are you?!?" I said "I'm right beside you!" So he looked over, he's like "Damn you done got you a nice ride now huh!" I said "Yeah and it's wide open, and I gotta be in Denver tomorrow, let's go!" He was going to Denver to of course, so we set out across there, got to MO and we hammered down, me on the front door all the way. I think we finally went to bed somewhere out about Kansas, got up and I led the way all the way to Denver doing about 80!

So I finally got to ride with my ol' buddy, the triple digit midget, after all those years of him leaving me in the dust everywhere. It was fun, and it made me feel like the big dawg for once!