Later, this love would have me catching a ride with one of the drivers, usually John Dreifuerst or Tim Tasch, and we’d travel the countryside. They’d pick me up around 3:00 AM, and I can still remember watching the pitch black out the front window and listening for the bellow of the truck’s Jake Brake. Back then the louder the Jake Brake, the better – it was a sign of pride. Down to Chicago or St. Louis we’d go. It was great. I can still remember Tim waking me up to show me the arch in St. Louis, and then getting decorative Merrimac landscape chips (that’s the orange, smooth river rock that was really popular for flowerbeds) dumped into truck and pup trailer. Back to Wisconsin we’d go and then do it all over again.
One of the great things about trucking was it allowed Grandpa “Pa” Buechel to have a longer career. As he got older, he couldn’t handle being in the shop anymore due to all the dry sawing he did in his early years. So they talked Pa into being a local delivery driver with a single axle Ford dump truck and a tag trailer to haul a forklift for unloading. It added years to his work life and made him feel useful. It also was great company PR. The local masons loved talking shop with Pa, and he even took Ma along often. It was a great win-win for everyone.
Over the years Buechel Stone Trucking took on several different forms, with a mix of pup trucks, boom trucks, and flatbed trailers, at one point consisting of over 20 total trucks. As time went on, the needs for a separate trucking company diminished, and eventually we downsized to just suppling the trailers and outsourcing the actual trucks and drivers.
… and that brings us to today