Road to retirement
This summer will be a strange one for Jon Osburn. For the first one in decades, he won’t be on the road in a big commercial truck.
Osburn has decided to retire as skipper of OOIDA’s tour trailer, the Spirit of the American Trucker. OOIDA life member Marty Ellis is set to take over The Spirit upon Osburn’s retirement.
Osburn has captained The Spirit for nine years, stopping at truck shows and truck stops across the continental U.S. He has been driving truck much longer, since the late 1980s, and for 22 years he was a leased driver.
It was an uncle who first mentored Osburn as a truck driver. Until that time, he had been a hospital corpsman for the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, starting right after high school, and then a paramedic working in San Francisco. Both of his parents worked in medicine, his father as a county medical examiner and his mother as a hospital administrator in California’s Napa Valley.
He came by his nickname “Doc” legitimately. In fact, he delivered his first babies – twins, in fact – when he was barely 16 years old and working on an ambulance crew in a small town. He always carried an OB kit for baby deliveries on the truck just in case.
Osburn, the longtime skipper of The Spirit of the American Trucker, pictured here with his faithful co-pilot, Sassi.
Transition to trucking
Emergency medicine is high energy and stressful, so at a certain point Osburn considered some options. An uncle was a company driver for household goods carrier Mayflower Transit. Osburn followed him into the business and stayed in it through 2010.
His career thrived at Mayflower. He evolved from hauling household goods to hauling for truck shows and then special projects. He achieved the status of Elite Fleet Driver. In 1995, he was named the Mayflower Van Operator of the Year. He was the first temperature-controlled operator to earn the honor.
He got called to haul a lot of interesting loads while at Mayflower, including stuff for the daughters of President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush who were headed to college.
He also got to deliver a model of the USS Boise, a Los Angeles-class submarine, to a museum in Boise, Idaho. Osburn’s wife, Vicki, worked for the city of Boise, and signed the paperwork to receive the model ship.
Osburn also got a walk-on role in a 1994 comedy film, “The Scout,” starring Brendan Fraser and Albert Brooks. He was complimented on how authentically he handled a hand-truck stacked with Mayflower boxes.
While still at Mayflower, he heard about the Special Olympics World’s Largest Truck Convoy on the “Dave Nemo Show” radio program. That encouraged him to get involved in fundraising for the charity at the Mid-America Trucking Show in 2005. Then in 2008, he wrapped his truck and trailer to promote the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, his home base. He didn’t take part in the convoy until he had left Mayflower, though.
That happened in 2010, when Osburn grabbed the opportunity to combine his love for trucking with his medical expertise.
He organized MERV, the Medical Education and Resource Vehicle. Driving MERV to truck stops across the U.S., he offered basic medical services and screenings to truckers.
Osburn attended his first South Dakota Convoy that same year as driver of the MERV. Ellis, a convoy organizer, and some other OOIDA members convinced Osburn to join in.
The grant funding for the MERV ran out after two years, which left him open for a new opportunity. He got a call from OOIDA.
It was decided that Osburn would start driving the Spirit of the American Trucker on a trial basis. The first stop for him was at Wheel Jam in Huron, S.D.
The Spirit has been on the road since 2001. There were a couple of husband-wife teams hauling The Spirit around the country before Osburn hired on. He was the first solo driver.
Now The Spirit is hooked up to a Western Star 5700 EX tractor. Western Star has provided tractors for OOIDA’s tour trailer since March 2014.
As skipper of The Spirit, he has visited nearly all of the contiguous 48 United States, except for the smallest states where there aren’t truck stops to welcome The Spirit.
He and The Spirit went to Canada only once. “It was a nightmare,” he said, because U.S. Customs haggled over the value of Land Line Magazines he brought back and ball-point pens with the OOIDA logo.
Citizen Driver
Being named a TA & Petro Citizen Driver in 2016 was an honor of the greatest magnitude, Osburn said.
“It rates up there with Vicki saying she’d marry me and the birth of my kids,” he said.
The Citizen Driver recognizes professional truck drivers who have earned respect for the trucking industry through good citizenship and exemplary driving.
As part of the honor, the TA Travel Center in Boise was dedicated the J.D. “Doc” Osburn Travel Center.
A framed display board is posted inside the lobby that features photos of Osburn and his canine co-pilot, Sassi, as well as a story about his record of service.
Plans?
What exactly retirement holds for him, Osburn says he doesn’t know. Having three grandkids with two more on the way, he’s looking forward to spending time with them.
Beyond that, one option on the table is to take an extended road trip to every national park in the continental U.S. His wife, Vicki, said that would be old hat for him to travel the country like that. Osburn said it would be different not driving for work and not on a strict schedule.
“I haven’t done any of the touristy things,” he said.
He also used to volunteer for a nonprofit that provided eye surgery and fixed cleft palates for patients in medically underserved areas around the world, and he may find his way back to doing that sort of thing. He said helping return sight to someone blinded by cataracts or seeing a child after surgery for a cleft palate was heart-warming and rewarding.
Even in retirement, he plans to retain his membership in OOIDA, he says.
“I really cherish my senior membership,” he said.
Things he will miss
This has been a tough year to go out on.
“I would say this past year has been the hardest for all of us out here,” he said.
Before the coronavirus restrictions, not only were there places to get a good meal but cooks had discretion to create something special to the locale. The clampdown shut down all of that.
The closed diners and coffee shops have weighed on him a lot, not just because it is tough to get a good meal but also the manager, cooks and wait staff have become extended family over the years, stretching to before he drove The Spirit.
He also has witnessed new drivers become qualified professionals and prosperous business owners. And he has been involved in many projects, like the formation of the St. Christopher Trucker’s Relief Fund, when he happened to be at OOIDA headquarters when early discussions were taking place.
“The people. I think that is what I’m going to miss the most,” he said.
The feeling is mutual. LL