Page 31 - ATR 6 2018 web

So teenage Lynn devised a plan.
“I’ll invite him to the basketball game
while I’m cheering. Then if he’s not cute THAT WAS OUR SIGN RIGHT THEN.
I won’t go sit by him, and if he’s cute I’ll
sit by him.” WE SHOULD’VE LISTENED.”
Lee remembers that Lynn sent her
friends up the bleachers first, and then
she came and sat by him. —LEE LUCY
Not much later, the Lucys started a
family. “I ran away from home, married
him at 16 and it just happened to work.
Most people said, ‘It’ll last a year,’ but when Lee started driving for Lucas tiles that hover over the palm trees and
we’ve made it 34.” Trucking in Camden, Ark., and when invite tourists to climb the steps inside
Of course, it didn’t just happen to her son Dakota was born in 1988. were magical, one of Dakota’s best
work. Lynn and Lee have both worked memories of riding with his dad.
really hard to raise a family and a whole A FLAMING SIGN “He thought he owned them,”
family of trucking businesses to support Today, Lynn and Lee run PLD Lynn says. “I would tell him, ‘Honey
themselves. Transport as president and vice presi- we can’t take them, but you can have
“Momma and daddy were not dent respectively with their son Dakota, them. They’re yours, but we’re going to
happy. Matter of fact, we went to who serves as the company’s chief have to leave them here.’” When Lee
Springfield, Ill.,” Lynn says. “Stayed operating officer. Lee drove for his would do the same run back and forth
there for almost a year before we came father’s small trucking business after between California and Jonesboro, Ark.
home. I thought my daddy would kill high school, and now his 80 year-old each week, Lynn would promise that
him.” father drives for him at PLD. They have Lee would feed them. “He thought he
Lynn acknowledges that their 69 trucks, 91 trailers, and a brand new had to go see his dinosaurs every week.
life milestones have not followed the brokerage business to keep up with the Just kid things,” she laughs at the sweet
expected sequence. demand of their customers. memory.
“I was a baby. I did everything It started with one truck in 1987, For Lee, having Dakota in the seat
backwards. I raised my children, and I leased to U.S. Express. They had sold beside him was good company when he
went to school when I was almost 40. everything to buy it, and on its very was out for a week at time. For Dakota,
I was worried about the empty nest first run, it caught fire. it was a family adventure.
syndrome so I went and started nurs- “That was our sign right then. We “We did get kicked out of Vegas,
ing school. Now, I am an RN. I recently should’ve listened,” Lee’s voice is dead- but I hit the jackpot on a slot machine,”
got my real estate license and do that pan, but on his face is a smirk. Dakota interjects.
now, part-time. I did it all backwards, Not deterred by the ominous sign, Lee picks up the story from there,
but I was fortunate enough the trucking they repaired the fire damage and kept “Mama had never been to a casino, so
industry kept us where I didn’t have to trucking. And it wasn’t long before we went up to Vegas and went to one.
work.” young Dakota joined his dad on the They wouldn’t let us go in the casino
In Illinois, Lee worked for a truck truck. because he was five. They said, ‘Y’all
stop with his grandfather, Papaw Dakota’s road trip stories are noth- could sit by the door.’ Well, they had
Snyder, before finding a job with the ing like the average kid’s road trip slot machines by the doors, and back
pest control company Orkin. They stories. Lee says he took his son on the then, you had buckets and coins. I gave
had a daughter, Phaleesha Jai, whom truck with him the whole year before him like $20 in coins. ‘Just put three in,
they call P.J., in 1985. And soon, Orkin he started kindergarten. “I can sleep so pull the handle.’ Lynn was wandering
transferred Lee from Springfield, Ill., good in a truck. I remember literally I around in the casino looking because
to Redwater, Tex. Just down the road in could sleep from here to California,” she had never been in one. She probably
Texarkana, they found a cute apartment Dakota says. wasn’t ... Were you even 20 then?” he
in a converted church. He reminisces about the dino- stops to ask.
The first few years were financially saurs they would visit on their way to When the machine began pour-
hard for the family. Lee describes filling California. The dinosaurs, he speaks of, ing change, police swarmed them. They
the grocery cart with a week’s worth are the famous roadside attraction, the were asked to leave, but still consider it
of macaroni and cheese boxes. “A good Cabazon Dinosaurs, over 60 feet high, a lucky day since they got to keep the
week we got to put hamburger in it,” and visible from Interstate 10. To a five- $700 Dakota had won.
Lynn laughs. She was still a teenager year-old, his visits to the giant steel rep- 

ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 6 2018 31