When Ryan was a kid he watched the movie CONVOY at least one thousand times, he literally knew every single line in the movie by heart. And the song too, I think he used it for one of his legendary wedding toasts, maybe Tommy's wedding??
Rest in paradise Ryan . You were so loved
I should have said something about Ryan’s skill as a truck driver. Balls of steel. This guy would back into any driveway. He was a very good driver. I’d put him up against anyone. And he was so short he looked like a kid driving. Awesome.
Ryan wasn’t much of a mechanic. He could do little things but usually he would just make it worse. I kidded about it but we can now put his tool box away. It consisted of a hammer and a screwdriver.
Ryan loved that I started my business and trucks were involved. As soon as he was 16 I started teaching him how to drive a semi. Shifting is involved you know and the trick to shifting is coordinating the rpms and getting into the next gear. Most truckers like myself don’t use the clutch except to get started from a stop. We had our parking spot near University a d 280 in St. Paul, so it was on University that he started out. I never heard so much grinding as I was getting him to coordinate the rpm’s. It didn’t take him long though but I get flustered easily. Not a good teacher. I can’t tell you the number of people Ryan taught to drive. He was a wiz at it and he loved it. He taught all of his brothers and a few others. I’m gonna miss that guy. We worked side by side in the first days of business. He could tell you some stories about me too. I’ll think of another one soon.
If any of you has been a passenger with Ryan either by car or truck you know how proud he is to have complete domination of the road. I began working for Mid-North(FT Paid Employee) in May of 2003. Ryan was recovering from knee surgery and was very anxious about being able to get various Fridays off during the Sprint Car Racing season so that he could travel with Travis. The only way this would happen is if he could train me behind the wheel in a semi in a pretty short period of time. So I spent every day with Ryan for probably 2 months while he showed me the ropes. He HATED when people passed the truck, pulled in front of us and slowed down. One day we had stopped at McDonalds and were heading back to the shop up in Albertville. I was accelerating away from a stoplight and some clown was going to try and beat us on the short merge lane on the right. There was no way this guy was going to make it without cutting us off. I let off the accelerator and immediately Ryan said, "Don't you effing dare slow down for this guy!" He took his McDonalds bag that had fries and ketchup along with his soda and 1/2 a burger and slammed it on the guy's hood as he tried to pass. Dangerous? Yes! I was laughing so hard I had to pull over. It was one of many times that he did something spontaneous like that to make me laugh. This is just a funny story that comes to my mind. I have a million of them.
Rest in paradise Ryan . You were so loved