Name: Chris Gunter
Age: 52
Location: Reidsville, Georgia USA

Chris has been a truck driver for the past 22 years; the last 15 have been with Walmart. Chris has driven close to 3 million miles throughout his career.

You’ve been driving trucks for over 20 years, could you tell us about the most beautiful place you’ve come across during that time?

The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen is the “Welcome to Georgia” sign welcoming me back to Georgia after 6 long weeks on the road … just kidding.  It has to be going down Donner Pass from Reno, Nevada, down to Sacramento, California. Regardless of what season it is, driving through here is like traveling back in time. The mountains and rivers and tree lines are the same as they were 100 years ago.

We bet you have some crazy stories from your 20 plus years as a driver, care to share any?

My two favorite stories of the road involve the same guy. He was a student driver in his 50s, a super nice guy named Paul, who had been a missionary in the jungles in Paraguay for the last 35 years. Paul knew how to find a grub worm or catch a piranha, but no clue on the ways the modern world had changed. We got matched up when he was with another Driver-Trainer. Paul was driving while the trainer was in the sleeper in bed. At one point, Paul pulled over at a rest area around 3 a.m. and, unbeknownst to him, his trainer got out of the truck and went to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, Paul hopped back in the truck and took off down the road. No one had cell phones back then, so there was no way for him to be contacted by the company. When he got to the next truck stop to get fuel, the company left word to call and he found out his trainer was about 5 hours behind him after he’d caught a ride with another trucker. All he had on was a pair of shorts and a t-shirt! After that, they put Paul with me and I instituted a rule that no one moves the truck till you see the other driver’s shoes in the passenger side floorboard. Worked perfectly.

When you’re not trucking, what do you do for fun?

I’ve really gotten into the quadcopter drone thing lately and love to bug the heck out of our dog, Winnie, flying it over her pen taking videos of her. My favorite sport is NASCAR, and I go to the race in Atlanta every year. My other hobby is anything Android. That’s actually how I became such a big Opera fanboy, especially Opera Max, since I’m on the road a lot as a truck driver.

What is your favorite Opera product and why?

I have two favorite Opera products. The first is Opera Max, which helps me save data when I’m on the road. I bug all my friends to install it on their smartphones, and they love it, too!

My second favorite is Opera Mini. Back in the day, you were lucky to get a decent data speed; it would take the default browser at least five long, painful minutes to load some simple text from a website. Opera Mini could do it in a few seconds – pretty awesome.  Opera Mini is also compatible with my Samsung Gear S smartwatch. So, now, I can check Facebook and Twitter right on my watch.

In three words, what does Opera mean to you?

“Innovative”, “fun”, and “reliable”.

Is there a specific time when Opera has helped you out?

Opera Max has really helped me out a lot, since I’m on a shared data plan. Especially when I’m out on the road, far between Wi-Fi hotspots, I’m continually saving 2 GBs a month or more.

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