Dash Cam of the Week: Mellow out

The internet, “the digital superhighway,” is a lot like the IRL (“in real life”) highway system: You never know what you’ll find when you get off the main roads. And that’s how we stumbled across trucker and vlogger Allie Knight and her beautiful adventures in trucking.

We were, as usual, cruising for videos with teachable moments when we found the first clip, featuring Knight having to swing wide to make an awkward left onto an LA freeway onramp—and impatient four-wheelers also turning left would cut in around her. But because Knight is calm and forbearing (although she finally blasts her air horn), and because four-wheeler lack of awareness is something truck drivers deal with every day, the incident didn’t really work as a Dash Cam of the Week.

But we happened to notice another video on her YouTube channel, “Upstate California,” and because the DCOW staff has a fondness for that part of the country, we gave it a look. Wow. Granted, many truckers have ripped California out of the road atlas and said good riddance to the Golden State and its “our way or the highway” trucking regulations. But here’s what you’re missing. Some days it's good to be a trucker driver. Most days, if your attitude is as good as Allie Knight's.

And, for those of us who’ve been stuck in California dreamin’ of somewhere else, here’s a little number from Jerry Jeff Walker to get the weekend started.

Well I can just get off of that L.A. freeway
Without getting killed or caught,
Down the road in a cloud of smoke
To some land that I ain't bought—
If I can just get off that L.A. freeway . . .