Long Way

ALLYSON “ALLY” DELMEGE is a food server for St. Louis’ Theresa Avenue Pub and Grill...a popular Midtown attraction famous for its hot-chicken-wing-eating contests. Sometimes, its CUSTOMERS use the dining room for a bathroom.

Her longtime buddy, roommate, and fellow Saint Louis University grad, SHERYL HASKINS, works in the human resources department at STL Plastics, Inc. Not only that...many a time, due to an inept crew, Sheryl’s had to slip over to the company’s production area to make machinery repairs.

After three years at their respective jobs, Ally’s tired of being a target for flying cheeseburgers, eaters trying to hit on her, and vomit-filled plates. And Sheryl’s had enough of all the running around she’s forced to do because her firm can’t keep good mechanics. Plus: She’s good at do-it-yourself work.

The twosome’s solution: They quit their present jobs and decide to train to become truck drivers...just like their grandmothers.

Generous, unpretentious Sheryl and independent-minded, sometimes-forgetful Ally announce their decision during a two-family Memorial Day weekend outing in the duo’s birth city, Des Moines.

Ally’s and Sheryl’s career change excites the latter’s grandfather, VIRGIL HENRY...a patient man whose late wife, Bernadine, drove as part of an over-the-road twosome from 1979 until her death in 2017. Even more ecstatic about the shift: Ally’s adventurous grandma, VALENTINA MCCOMBS...Bernadine’s spunky partner who herself pulled over for good in 2021.

The two young women find two more supporters in AUSTIN HENRY and Bernadine’s sister MADELYN VERSER...Sheryl’s carefree uncle and brainy aunt, respectively. Still, the roommates’ decision to shift gears in their lives confuses Ally’s kooky dad TIM, puzzles Sheryl’s whimsical mom BRUNELLA, and angers two other people: Sheryl’s highly-opinionated dad DARRYL and Ally’s brutally-authoritarian mom NATALIE.

To Brunella, Darryl, and Natalie, it’s as if Sheryl threw away her own management science degree and as if Ally tore up her general-studies diploma. In Brunella’s words to Sheryl: “We didn’t raise you to work in an office that runs on diesel fuel!”

For Sheryl and Ally, it’s all about the freedom their grandmas tasted as OTR truckers...and a chance to experience the kind of travels and stories Bernadine and Valentina did.

Ally sees another incentive to follow in Valentina’s and Bernadine’s footsteps: A chance to make bigger financial contributions in the apartment she and Sheryl share. After all, the twosome ditched cable for YouTube TV...a move that nets Ally “all the Hallmark movies I can stand. At no extra cost.” Trucking offers Ally an additional carrot: A chance to shake free from the substance addiction that’s toyed with her during her adulthood.

So...Sheryl and Ally bone up at home as well as at a local driving academy...and meet an instructor named CALEB LEDWON, who goes out of his way to prove women just can’t cut it as truckers.

The two women beat the odds, earn their commercial driver’s licenses, and hook up with a suburban firm, I&M Trucking...whose president, IRWIN SHEPPARD, decides to split Ally and Sheryl up.

So much for following in Bernadine’s and Valentina’s footsteps.

Irwin sends Sheryl to go after a load in San Diego. Right off the bat, another big rig chases Sheryl’s Kenworth T680 in an encounter straight out of that classic TV-movie “Duel.”

As the chasing truck crashes in Topeka and misses bumping Sheryl’s rig, Ally stops her own trailerless Volvo VNL 860 in Memphis...where she teams up with fellow I&M trucker RON BATCHELOR, a man who can’t wait to get high on weed. Ron and Ally take off for San Antonio in his rickety pigsty on wheels...otherwise known as a Freightliner Cascadia.

An Ally who’s out to show she can get high on life bickers with a Ron who wants to pass the J and who still can’t believe she can handle a big rig...when Sheryl faces a robbery attempt at a Denver-area truck stop. When would-be assailant GLADYS FARMER can’t pull off the theft, she climbs onto the back of Sheryl’s Kenworth...and rides all the way to Grand Junction, Colorado.

When this stunt that bridges, creeks, and the Rocky Mountains prolong ends, Sheryl and TWO COLORADO STATE PATROL OFFICERS learn that Gladys was a Hollywood makeup artist-stuntperson before Tinseltown’s 2023 strikes forced her to mooch off her son and daughter-in-law back in the Mile High City: “Well, it was this or rob the midnight train to Georgia.”

Ally and Ron reach Texas...where he takes so ill he stops his newly-cleaned-and-sanitized rig in the middle of a lane in Beaumont. But her nursing him back to good health and her doing most of the driving still don’t convince him she’s for real...and he charges after her (and loses) in San Antonio...where she picks up a trailer and finds out she must load up in Del Rio and drop it off in Amarillo while Ron scoots back to Memphis with a disabled truck tractor.

Speaking of fights...phone time at a truck stop in Mesquite, Nevada leads to a truce between Sheryl, Darryl, and Brunella. Sheryl tells her folks that she got her toughness from them and from Bernadine...and mentions that trucking didn’t kill Bernadine.

Bernadine’s heart attack came from watching the news and finding out Ivanka Trump took that unpaid White House job.

Sheryl’s own call to Ally, who’s stuck in San Antone, cheers the latter up...and gives Ally the impetus to put her own foot down and tell Natalie: “I love trucking...and I’m gonna stick with it.”

A week into the double hire, Irwin discusses Ally’s and Sheryl’s double debut. He expresses concern over Gladys’ stunt on Sheryl’s truck and Ally’s friction with Ron...and concludes: “I don’t know what to do with you two. Whatcha think?”

When the twosome mention their successful longtime ties, Irwin exhibits a change of heart...and lets the duo travel together.