For most truckers, our lives are a journey. We spend our life behind the wheel moving freight from shipper to receiver, going from state to state, with many of us crisscrossing the North American continent multiple times a year. We know the roads and can recite them in our heads without having to look at a map. We can give directions from New York City to L.A. like most people would give directions to someone who’s looking for a local neighborhood grocery store. For truckers who live the lifestyle, many grow up in trucking families, and the highway is in their D.N.A. But for others, life sometimes takes us down a different route, and we find a passion for the open road that we never knew we had or could have even imagined.
For 80-year-old trucker Steen Gronlund of Longmont, Colorado, he has experienced the journey of a lifetime with a story that is truly unique. Born in 1945 in Copenhagen, Denmark after World War II ended to Aage and Gurdun Petersen, Steen told me a little about his father Aage. “He was a professional photographer, and official photographer for the Kingdom of Denmark and the Danish Royal Family, during that time.” Sadly, Aage died from cancer in 1949, leaving his mother Gurdun and uncle to operate the business, which struggled without his father at the helm.
In order to provide for Steen, along with his older brother Bent and younger sister Ulla, Gurdun took a job as a housekeeper for a well-to-do farmer named Baldmar Gronlund, who had recently moved back to Denmark after operating a farm and living in Canada for many years. Two years later, Gurdun and Baldmar were married, and he also adopted Steen and his brother Bent and sister Ulla. In 1954, Baldmar decided to move the family to Canada.
“I remember the ship and crossing the North Atlantic. It was an eight-day voyage and quite the experience for someone my age,” explained Steen, as he has fond memories of the trip as an eight-year-old. Steen then continued, “Both my brother Bent and mom were seasick the entire trip, so my sister Ulla and I had to fend for ourselves. I can remember going for dinner on the ship and playing with other children.” While most of the passengers spoke English, Steen told me he did not know how to speak English at the time. “Honestly, it didn’t make much of a difference, as we only joined the other passengers for dinner, but we kept ourselves occupied the rest of the time,” said Steen.
Once they finally arrived in North America and the ship docked in New Brunswick, the family made its way west via a two-day train ride, nearly another 2,500 miles across Canada, to the small Village of Carievale, which is located in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan. “We actually lived about 12 miles south of Carievale in Elmore (just across the U.S. border from North Dakota) where my stepfather Baldmar had a farm,” said Steen. “I remember milking the cows and we rode horseback to school,” as Steen continued, “It was a one-room schoolhouse, and all grade levels were taught there. That’s also where I learned to speak English.”
But in 1968, at the age of 23, this is where Steen’s trucking journey began, when he went to work in the Canadian oilfields of Saskatchewan for Kissinger Drilling. “We moved an oil rig from Saskatchewan to Gillette, Wyoming, about that time, and I was able to get my U.S. Visa as well,” said Steen. “I then went to work for Exeter Drilling and there was a company there, Corky’s Water Hauling, that used to deliver water to the Exeter drilling rigs at that time,” explained Steen, continuing with, “I was talking with the owner Corky one day and he told me he was short a driver and asked me if I knew how to drive trucks. I lied a bit and told him I had been driving trucks on the farm since I was old enough to reach the pedals, and next thing I know I’m behind the wheel of a 1958 Mack B-61 equipped with a Quadruplex (two-stick 5×4) transmission. Needless to say, I figured it out and taught myself how to drive that old Mack.”
For the next nine years, Steen worked on the oil rig during the day and drove the old Mack for Corky at night. Tired of the cold weather and wanting a change, Steen left the oil fields and, after talking with a friend, decided to become an owner operator and go over-the-road. Purchasing his first truck in 1978, a brand-new Kenworth K100C equipped with a 110” double bunk flat top, the truck was painted white with brown and tan stripes, with a saddle brown diamond tuck interior. Powered by a 3406A CAT and mated to an Eaton-Fuller 13-speed, power was pushed to 4.33 rear-ends on 24.5 rubber and riding on a Kenworth eight-bag air-ride suspension.
“The truck would run 72 mph, but you have to remember, this was back in the days of the double nickel (55 mph) speed limit,” said Steen, referring to the truck’s rear-end gears. “Those gears probably kept me out of trouble,” he said, laughing about how hard he ran with that truck. “I hauled produce from the west coast to Hunts Point, NY, Philly and Boston,” as Steen continued. “I ran team with my friend Guy ‘Yogi’ Thomas for the first year with that truck until Yogi bought his own truck,” added Steen.
Trading in the K100C, Steen then ordered a new extended hood Kenworth W900A in 1980. Spec’d similar to the K100C, the W900A was powered by a 3406B CAT, mated to an Eaton-Fuller 13-speed with 4.33 rears, and riding on an eight-bag Kenworth air-ride. “I had every option you could get on this truck, including a full Seattle package diamond tuck interior and a 60-inch flattop,” said Steen. Leased to Lojex out of Anaheim, California, Steen hauled oxygen, helium, and nitrogen, and pulled gas and liquid cryogenic trailers with it, as well.
“I loved this truck and even raced it down the quarter mile at Bandimere Speedway in 1982,” said Steen. “I was just going to show it, but a friend of mine, who was drag racing his truck that same weekend convinced me, and I ended up finishing in second place that weekend,” Steen told me proudly. Sadly, though, later that year (1982) the truck was stolen out of the Lojex yard in Denver, Colorado. “They never found the truck, but years later, I had the police contact me when the sleeper from the truck turned up on another truck which was in the Denver Kenworth dealership for service,” said Steen.
After his W900A was stolen, Steen went to work driving a company truck for Danny Coleman hauling chemicals, jet fuel, and rocket fuel to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the Titan II missile sites, that were in the process of being decommissioned at that time in the Tucson, Arizona area. In 1983, Steen made another switch and began driving for Leprino Foods in Denver, Colorado. “I still remember my first truck when I was with Leprino – it was a 1982 Peterbilt model 359, and then the company went to Kenworths and I got a brand-new W900B with an Aerodyne sleeper in 1985,” said Steen.
Pulling reefer trailers and hauling Mozzarella cheese, Steen drove for Leprino for 20 years, running Kenworth trucks over that time, until they sold the transportation division to Navajo. While Steen went to work for Navajo for a few months after Leprino sold out, he didn’t like the culture at Navajo. After his safety manager Tom Lee decided to leave, Steen was one of five drivers who went with him to another Denver based outfit called Mile Hi Transportation.
Mile Hi Transportation is now known as TMT Trucking and is the transportation division of the Mile Hi Companies, servicing their bakeries and other logistical needs. “I’ve been at Mile Hi/TMT for 23 years now and am treated very well. I primarily run a dedicated route from Denver to a warehouse in Stockton, California, and back every week,” said Steen. Receiving a new Peterbilt model 579 last year, the truck is Cummins powered and has an Eaton-Fuller 12-speed automatic. When asked about it, Steen said, “I wasn’t real crazy about the automatic transmission at first, but I’ve gotten used to it.”
Loaded with every option, TMT also lettered Steen’s Peterbilt 579 with the numerous awards and recognitions he’s received in recent years celebrating his driving career. Some of these awards include the 2007 Colorado Truck Driver of the Year, as well as being awarded the TMT company driver of the month four times so far during his 23 years with the company. But the award Steen is most proud of is being recognized as a Travel Centers of America/Petro Stopping Centers Citizen Driver Award recipient in 2019. The Petro in Laramie, Wyoming is now named after Steen. “I stop there every week when I’m running I-80 to California and visit with everyone there,” said Steen.
While I was shooting some photos of Steen and his truck at the show in Louisville, Kentucky last year (2025) for this story, my good friend Susie De Ridder was also with me. Susie was the one who introduced me to Steen in 2023 the day of her TA Citizen Driver Award truck stop dedication ceremony at the TA Truck Stop in Barstow, California. But, what occurred to me when I had Steen and Susie pose with Steen’s Peterbilt for a few photos, between the two of them, there’s over ten million safe, accident free miles behind the wheel of a truck, with Steen having over six million and Susie having over four million. To put that into perspective, that’s more than 400 trips around the world or over 20 trips to the moon and back!
A Trucker Buddy for 18 years, Steen worked with a 4th grade teacher named Angie Banning at a school in Longmont Estates, Colorado. “I loved hearing from the kids and writing back and forth with them,” said Steen. “Every year I’d bring my truck to the school. I’d buy lunch for the class, and I’d have a photographer there to take photos, along with every student receiving a photo of themselves with my truck.”
While Steen’s trucking career has been his life and he’s proud of his awards and accomplishments, if you ask him what the greatest moment in his life has been, Steen will tell you it was in 2006 when he was naturalized, becoming a United States Citizen. “It was one of the most emotional moments of my life, to stand there, taking the oath of allegiance with 70 other people and a judge that day, it’s something I’ll never forget,” said Steen with pride, continuing with, “My Trucker Buddy class sent me letters of congratulations, and each one of those letters were written in Red, White and Blue! It was amazing!!”
Blessed with so many great people in his life, Steen wants to thank his wife Linda of 28 years, Linda’s daughter Jessie, Steen’s sister Ulla, his dispatcher David Purcell at Mile Hi, Jerry Sheehan (retired vice president of transportation at Leprino Foods), Tony Taddonio, the owner of Mile Hi, and his daughter Kristy Taddonio-Mullins, as well, for all their support over the years. “I don’t really have many hobbies, but traveling has always been what I loved and I love trucking,” said Steen, adding, “My wife Linda surprised me in 2019 after I received the TA/Petro Citizen Driver Award with a Golden Retriever puppy named Daisy. Daisy is now seven years old, and I love spending time with Linda and Daisy when I’m home.”
With over 56 years behind the wheel and over six million safe miles to his credit, the boy who left Denmark in 1954 embarked on an amazing journey at a very young age and, little did he know at that time, it would become the journey of a lifetime. Congratulations Steen and keep on truckin’ – because guys like you (unfortunately) are few and far between, these days!
EDITOR’S NOTE: All the vintage images are courtesy of Steen Gronlund.