Hauling the Capitol Christmas tree with driver Duane Brusseau

Now retired after a career that spanned the better part of five decades, San Jose, Calif.-based Duane Brusseau is in his third year with some involvement in the cross-country haul of the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. He was the lead driver on the 2011 haul that originated in California, and last year he was codriver of the second rig — pulling a standard 53-ft. van — that accompanied lead driver and Senator Ben Campbell of Colorado, where that tree originated.

This year, with the 2014 Mack Pinnacle and expandable long-load trailer at a total 103 feet in length, he’s had his work cut out for him on the long trek with numerous stops across the United States from Northeast Washington State, where the haul originated with the cutting of the tree in Newport. I caught up with him yesterday at the stop here in Nashville, Tenn., in the Macy’s parking lot at Cool Springs Galleria south of town. 

The journey started the 22nd of October, he says, when he and likewise California-based codriver Galon Baker (a current driver for Wal-Mart) flew to Allentown, Pa., to pick up the two specially-wrapped 2014 Mack Pinnacles they’d drive on the haul. “We took them to Washington State to the town of Newport up in the Northeast corner” of the state, he says. “We spent about four or five days there with the cutting of the tree” and the involved process of placing it on the trailer. You’ll remember this picture we posted here a couple weeks back, showing what it looked like before “packaging,” as it were: 

And here’s how it’s actually being hauled: 

“The tree weighs 10,000 lbs,” says Brusseau, and is 30 ft. wide at the bottom, approximately, and 80 feet tall.” Imagine the work that went into securing the tree in the binding sleeve to fit the standard-width trailer.