The Daimee officially became an entity on October 8th, 2022. That’s when Aimee James and
David Smith were married and became Daimee, a name lovingly given us by our neighbors in California during the months leading up to our wedding. I think they just got tired of saying
Dave and Aimee and decided to call us both Daimee. We come from very different
backgrounds and got where we are by different paths, but our faith, circumstances and truck
driving brought us together.

Dave grew up in Victorville, California and has lived there his entire life. He learned the trade of upholstery as a teenager and worked as an upholsterer over the years, even having his own shop at times. He got into trucking in 2000 as a driver and held various jobs including dispatching and training. In 2012 he went to work for Prime Inc as an owner-operator where he met Eric James.

I grew up in Overland Park, KS and lived in the Kansas City area my entire life. I worked in childcare for many years and went to college to be a teacher, eventually getting a
masters degree in special education and working as a special education teacher for 8 years. I really enjoyed teaching and loved my students and families, but the pay was not working out for me.

In 2012 my husband, Eric, went to Prime to learn to drive. When he and Dave met at the
Prime terminal in Springfield, MO, they instantly connected, talking about the Bible and having fun debates. The following year I quit teaching and joined him on the truck and he taught me to drive a semi-truck and we started team driving. 

Eric and Dave remained friends and we met up with Dave a few times while out on the road. One time we had him over to our truck and I cooked dinner for us all on the truck.

After working at Prime for 3 years Eric and I bought a truck and eventually got our own trucking authority so that we could be completely independent. We started Day Star Trucking in June 2018. We had many great adventures during those years of driving together, and you can read
about them on my old blog Aimeeandericadventure.blogspot.com.

In November of 2016 Dave’s wife Erika passed away. Eric and I went to visit Dave in California shortly after. Over the next few years Dave did upholstery and trucking and he was considering buying a truck and working for our company, Day Star Trucking.

Dave and I had been talking about what we needed to do for him to lease a truck on under our authority when Eric became sick and went to the hospital in December of 2020. He passed away less than a month later in January 2021. Dave was the only friend I had who had lost a spouse, so I felt comfortable talking to him about it. He started calling and checking up on me and soon we were talking every day.

After a couple of months of talking we decided to meet up again. I really didn’t even remember what he looked like until he sent me pictures. He encouraged me to keep going and get the business running in my name and get back to work.

He also told me that my diet of wine and cheese might not be the healthiest. I’m not sure I could have done it all without his support and encouragement. Soon after I started driving alone I
found a load to California and went to visit Dave.

Dating someone who lives 1500 miles apart has many challenges. We talked and video chatted every day and tried to visit each other every chance we got, but when I was in California I was staying at his house and when he was in Kansas City he was staying in my house, which is not appropriate for unmarried Christians. He was driving for 10 Roads, a great driving job that had him home every night, and doing upholstery at his house in Victorville.

I was driving alone in my truck all over the country. We would talk on the phone all day while we were both driving and I couldn’t help thinking how crazy it was that we weren’t driving together.

He had tried team driving once and hated it, so he wasn’t interested in trying it again. At least that’s what he thought. Eventually he realized that he didn’t want me out there alone and he would rather drive with me than be in separate trucks. We wouldn’t team drive together if we were not married.

We wanted to be together and it didn’t take long for us to realize that we wanted to get married.

I totally stressed out every time I started thinking about trying to plan a wedding. How could we pick a place to have the wedding when our family and friends lived 1500 miles apart?

If we had the wedding in Kansas City his mom and most of his kids would not be able to be there, but if we had it in California most of my family and friends wouldn’t be there.

We considered having a reception in both cities and we even considered a Vegas wedding. Money was also a concern, as it is expensive to get married and have a big reception, but we didn’t want to leave anyone out.

I stressed about it for months. I mean, I was really crazy over it all, crying and getting mad and feeling like it was impossible. I almost just gave up on the whole thing.

Well, we kind of did just finally let it all go. Forget what we “should do” or are “supposed to do”, forget about pleasing everyone, forget about the cost, the location and the party.

We needed to get married and be together and that was all that mattered. We had talked about October 8th as date, but I kept stressing and couldn’t plan it. My mom had a stroke in August and I flew home to be with her.

She was in the hospital for over a month and then moved to a rehab facility, so we tried to
be in Kansas City frequently to see her. This made the wedding planning even more stressful
because I wanted my mom to be there.

Finally I realized that she was not going to be able to be there no matter where I had it and she wasn’t doing well. As October 8th was approaching we got a crazy idea one evening to just do it.

Just have a tiny ceremony in our neighbors backyard and don’t worry about inviting anyone. Our neighbor agreed to officiate the ceremony
and we had one week to put it together!

One of Daves daughters was in town from Salt Lake City and with her help and a few of my friends in California we found a dress, got some flowers and a cake and put together a beautiful little ceremony in their backyard. We broadcasted it on
Zoom so that anyone who wanted to watch could, but we didn’t think to record it.

We had about 8 people there, including one daughter, one son who lives close to us, and Dave’s brother and sister-in-law who happened to be in town for another reason that weekend. I know some people were disappointed or maybe upset that we didn’t invite them, but honestly we didn’t invite anyone!

The son who lives with us in California wasn’t even there because he had to work and
we didn’t give him enough notice! The ones that came just happened to be there that weekend!

The ceremony was at 9am because the neighbors had their grandkids visiting at noon. We fully intended to throw a party in both cities soon to celebrate our union with all our friends and family, but that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe we’ll do it for our 5 year anniversary or something.

We went to San Diego for a short honeymoon and began our adventures together!
We still have a home in Victorville, CA and one in Kansas City, MO and we go back and forth in the truck.

Dave has 6 kids and I have 2 stepsons, and together we have 12 grandkids so far. Our family is spread across the country with kids and grandkids in Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Kentucky, California, Tennessee and maybe soon Washington.

We started team driving soon after getting married and have already had many adventures together on the road. Stick around and join us on our adventures as I write about them here!