Owner-operator Robert Budzik and his mother bought this 2003 Kenworth T2000 a few years after his father passed away, he says. He’d urged her to go that route after she’d been driving for a company for a time, not how she and Budzik’s father operated from the time they took him out trucking for a first haul at the wee age of 3 or so — “that’d be around 1996-’97,” he adds.
![Robert Budzik](https://img.overdriveonline.com/files/base/randallreilly/all/image/2019/01/ovd.Robert-Budzik-2019-01-10-11-08.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&q=70&w=400)
Eight months or so after the “T-2-ugly,” as Budzik jokingly refers to the aerodynamic model series, was purchased, cancer took his mom’s life. He’ll never let this truck go, the owner-operator says, in part for that reason. Otherwise, he’s sure mom would be proud of what her son’s done to transform the “T-2-ugliness,” as he notes in the video up top, where you can hear Budzik tell more of his story.
![As you can see by the mudflaps behind the drives Budzik is a member of the Polska Jazda group — Polish Ride, according to founding owner-op Jerry Stetz, who calls the group an enthusiasts’ club for Polish-Americans among truckers in the U.S., among others. Budzik’s parents were Polish and raised him in the United States in Chicago and then north of the city.](https://img.overdriveonline.com/files/base/randallreilly/all/image/2019/01/ovd.polska-jazda-mudflaps-robert-budzik-2019-01-10-11-07.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&q=70&w=400)
![Budzik’s dog, Maja (that’s pronounced My-Yuh but “spelled the Polish way,” he says), was no doubt something of a hit for passersby at “That’s a Big 10-4 on D.C.” in October, where I met Budzik.](https://img.overdriveonline.com/files/base/randallreilly/all/image/2019/01/ovd.Robert-Budzik-2003-KW-T2000-Maja-dog-2019-01-10-11-08.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&q=70&w=400)