Extremes
February 10, 2010
Greetings,
Extremes is the theme of the past 10 days since we left home. It has been a comedy of errors. First, we had trouble getting out of Marion because of the end of month work to be done at Marion Antique Mall. We had to organize all the data for paying vendors and then write the checks. So we left around midnight on Sunday, Jan. 31. We picked up in Brazil, IN & dropped in Cedar Rapids, IA on Mon; picked up in David City, NE & dropped in Effingham, IL on Tues; picked up in Gary, IN & dropped in Richmond, IL on Wed; picked up in Bettendorf, IA on Thu and delivered in Houston on Fri. The problem is that after every drop we had to wait overnight for the next pickup. As a team, we want to keep rolling, but our timing was off from the beginning to be able to make the pickups before closing. Then, in Bettendorf we picked up 3 old, very heavy low-boys, stacked. Just before Lincoln, IL one of our drive tires blew out (a retread,) so we stopped in Lincoln, IL for 3 hours at a small tire shop to replace that tire, slowing us down. Later that night we stopped in Matthews, MO on I-55 to fuel and switch drivers. Peggy’s turn to drive; I slept. I was rudely awaken about midnight. Peggy had pulled through a rest area in Arkansas because she wanted to stop and let me take over, but there was no space to pull in. On the exit ramp, which has a sharp curve and rather steep shoulders, she didn’t pull out quite enough and dragged the back of the trailers into the cab of a truck parked just at the curve. The Peterbilt’s mirror was broken, and the fender and bumper were damaged - very upsetting especially to Peggy. In a moment like this, we are thinking of the possibility that our career as a driving team could be cut short. But there was no ticket issued. The other driver and the policeman were nice about it. It was a low-level accident, but now it is on Peggy’s driving record, and someone has to pay for the damage, which our company won’t be happy about. RexDon has been wonderful to us, so they most likely won’t penalize or fire Peggy for that. We made it to Houston on Fri afternoon. Here’s where an extremely lousy week turned into lemonade from lemons.
Our next load was 700 miles away to pick up in Elba, AL, and could not be picked up till Mon. So we decided to call friends in Houston. We haven’t seen them for about 3 years. We first met Doug maybe 5 years ago when we had our truck in for repairs over a weekend. I fiddle when the truck is idle. That Sat afternoon I was playing on a bench outside the big bay doors, and I saw a guy walk out with a violin case over his shoulder. I ramped up my playing to attract his attention. He turned and came back to me. It was Doug, computer whiz, workaholic and very good violinist. He has a masters degree in violin as do I. At that first meeting we ended up staying the night at his house, and I played with him in the church orchestra on Sunday. Back to present, we called Doug and Martha and were invited to the house last Friday. He was teaching violin students till about 10:00, which I enjoyed immensely, and I had a little interaction with a couple of the students. Peggy had a bath and was out like a light. I rode with Doug to his office to fix something. We got back to the house at midnight, watched a couple old cartoons, and I went to bed. Doug left at 6 a.m. because his students were in a contest. Peggy & I slept in a little late, came downstairs, packed up and left about 8:00. We had a couple errands to do, then headed east. We stopped in Beaumont for a movie – Avatar, then resumed eastward. We decided to call friends in Mobile to see if we could visit them. Wayne & Elaine Wood were with Peggy in YWAM 25 years ago. They are retired and have a remarkably lovely home near Mobile. We arrived at midnight and parked the tractor in front of their house. They are wonderful folks. Peggy and they talked non-stop about YWAM. I was mostly an observer, but it was fascinating. Sunday I showered and dressed for church, but then learned we weren’t going to their Anglican church but would have church at home. That was pretty cool because just as we were about to start, Carl George called from Ft. Worth, TX. He’s one of their group from YWAM. He was calling after he and his wife had gotten home from church. He stayed on the phone for about a couple hours and joined into church with us. I was the outsider, but it wasn’t so bad. I just excused myself once in awhile to walk our dogs or play my violin. At the end of the day we all watched the Super Bowl, then Peggy and I packed up and left for Elba. So it was a serendipitous weekend, but then back to the other extreme.
We drove from Elba to Ft. Wayne, IN. We had been having a light problem for a couple weeks which was getting worse. We had to get it fixed. We had no trailer taillights and were running on flashers after dark, as we had done all the way to Houston. We stopped at a Petro in Glendale, KY. They found the problem but didn’t have the part (pigtail harness.) Someone knew though that the place across the street had it. Also the weather was getting very bad and the roads were terrible, so we had to stay put anyway. Next morning we drove across the street and had Quality Diesel do the repair. This delay put us into Ft. Wayne near closing time, but we got dropped and made it to our pickup – 30 miles away in Monroe, IN in time to hook up to the next load, a set of doubles – 2 trailers joined together by a dolly in between. That’s what we now have. It has been an awful trip from Monroe, IN. We arrived to pick up at closing, so no one was around when we left. We could not get out of the yard because of the snow pack. I kept throwing load chains under the tires for traction, which helped us inch toward the gate, but 1-1/2 hour later, we were almost out on the road when a handsome young man in a nice heavy duty pickup truck with a blade on the front, stopped to ask if we wanted some help. This is what he does! He pulled us out in no time and wouldn’t accept money but asked if we were married and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Praise the Lord! Peggy wanted to pull the doubles because I had never pulled them before, and the weather was bad. Fine! We got to a Petro right at the Indiana/Ohio border where she pulled in to sleep. About 3:30 a.m. she got up to continue on the road. She got stuck on the Petro exit lane which slopes upward. We spent 4 hours throwing load chains under the tires and made little progress. Finally a policeman came to put some pressure on us to get out of the road before it got busy. Then we resorted to tire chains, which I didn’t remember we had, but Peggy knows about them very well (and hates them.) We chained up, and that’s what got us off Petro property. We resumed on across I-70 past Pittsburg, but when we got to the turnpike, we were turned away because of weather – no doubles allowed temporarily. Peggy turned around and took the first exit, took a right (mistake) and we got stuck going up a long hill. So we chained up again, and a young man offered to pull with his ToyotaTitan, of which he was obviously proud and wanted to see how it would do pulling a semi. And another guy stopped with a heavy duty Chevy pickup and hooked onto the front of the Titan, and both helped us to the crest of the hill. Praise the Lord! On the down side, we turned north on route 66 from New Stanton, PA. mistake. We got off 3 miles later to turn around. We were still chained up, so going up the entrance ramp was going well until we were near the top; then we bogged down and came to a stop. We had lost one chain; I think that’s what stopped us. Right behind us was a fleet of state plows clearing the ramp. If we’d been a few minutes later, the ramp would’ve been cleared – poor timing. But we got going to the top of the slope and removed our chains. We were heading down to I-70 and back west to Flying J – no need for chains. We fueled at the ‘J,’ were in search of a parking place and…guess what – we got stuck again and had to chain at Flying J. Then we moved across the street to a bigger truck stop and found a place to park, which is harder with doubles – no backing up. That’s where we are now. Tomorrow hopefully the tollway will be open, so we can deliver these pups – 160 miles to go to Hagerstown, MD. Then our next load is from Pennsylvania to Grand Prairie, TX. YEAH!
Greetings,
Extremes is the theme of the past 10 days since we left home. It has been a comedy of errors. First, we had trouble getting out of Marion because of the end of month work to be done at Marion Antique Mall. We had to organize all the data for paying vendors and then write the checks. So we left around midnight on Sunday, Jan. 31. We picked up in Brazil, IN & dropped in Cedar Rapids, IA on Mon; picked up in David City, NE & dropped in Effingham, IL on Tues; picked up in Gary, IN & dropped in Richmond, IL on Wed; picked up in Bettendorf, IA on Thu and delivered in Houston on Fri. The problem is that after every drop we had to wait overnight for the next pickup. As a team, we want to keep rolling, but our timing was off from the beginning to be able to make the pickups before closing. Then, in Bettendorf we picked up 3 old, very heavy low-boys, stacked. Just before Lincoln, IL one of our drive tires blew out (a retread,) so we stopped in Lincoln, IL for 3 hours at a small tire shop to replace that tire, slowing us down. Later that night we stopped in Matthews, MO on I-55 to fuel and switch drivers. Peggy’s turn to drive; I slept. I was rudely awaken about midnight. Peggy had pulled through a rest area in Arkansas because she wanted to stop and let me take over, but there was no space to pull in. On the exit ramp, which has a sharp curve and rather steep shoulders, she didn’t pull out quite enough and dragged the back of the trailers into the cab of a truck parked just at the curve. The Peterbilt’s mirror was broken, and the fender and bumper were damaged - very upsetting especially to Peggy. In a moment like this, we are thinking of the possibility that our career as a driving team could be cut short. But there was no ticket issued. The other driver and the policeman were nice about it. It was a low-level accident, but now it is on Peggy’s driving record, and someone has to pay for the damage, which our company won’t be happy about. RexDon has been wonderful to us, so they most likely won’t penalize or fire Peggy for that. We made it to Houston on Fri afternoon. Here’s where an extremely lousy week turned into lemonade from lemons.
Our next load was 700 miles away to pick up in Elba, AL, and could not be picked up till Mon. So we decided to call friends in Houston. We haven’t seen them for about 3 years. We first met Doug maybe 5 years ago when we had our truck in for repairs over a weekend. I fiddle when the truck is idle. That Sat afternoon I was playing on a bench outside the big bay doors, and I saw a guy walk out with a violin case over his shoulder. I ramped up my playing to attract his attention. He turned and came back to me. It was Doug, computer whiz, workaholic and very good violinist. He has a masters degree in violin as do I. At that first meeting we ended up staying the night at his house, and I played with him in the church orchestra on Sunday. Back to present, we called Doug and Martha and were invited to the house last Friday. He was teaching violin students till about 10:00, which I enjoyed immensely, and I had a little interaction with a couple of the students. Peggy had a bath and was out like a light. I rode with Doug to his office to fix something. We got back to the house at midnight, watched a couple old cartoons, and I went to bed. Doug left at 6 a.m. because his students were in a contest. Peggy & I slept in a little late, came downstairs, packed up and left about 8:00. We had a couple errands to do, then headed east. We stopped in Beaumont for a movie – Avatar, then resumed eastward. We decided to call friends in Mobile to see if we could visit them. Wayne & Elaine Wood were with Peggy in YWAM 25 years ago. They are retired and have a remarkably lovely home near Mobile. We arrived at midnight and parked the tractor in front of their house. They are wonderful folks. Peggy and they talked non-stop about YWAM. I was mostly an observer, but it was fascinating. Sunday I showered and dressed for church, but then learned we weren’t going to their Anglican church but would have church at home. That was pretty cool because just as we were about to start, Carl George called from Ft. Worth, TX. He’s one of their group from YWAM. He was calling after he and his wife had gotten home from church. He stayed on the phone for about a couple hours and joined into church with us. I was the outsider, but it wasn’t so bad. I just excused myself once in awhile to walk our dogs or play my violin. At the end of the day we all watched the Super Bowl, then Peggy and I packed up and left for Elba. So it was a serendipitous weekend, but then back to the other extreme.
We drove from Elba to Ft. Wayne, IN. We had been having a light problem for a couple weeks which was getting worse. We had to get it fixed. We had no trailer taillights and were running on flashers after dark, as we had done all the way to Houston. We stopped at a Petro in Glendale, KY. They found the problem but didn’t have the part (pigtail harness.) Someone knew though that the place across the street had it. Also the weather was getting very bad and the roads were terrible, so we had to stay put anyway. Next morning we drove across the street and had Quality Diesel do the repair. This delay put us into Ft. Wayne near closing time, but we got dropped and made it to our pickup – 30 miles away in Monroe, IN in time to hook up to the next load, a set of doubles – 2 trailers joined together by a dolly in between. That’s what we now have. It has been an awful trip from Monroe, IN. We arrived to pick up at closing, so no one was around when we left. We could not get out of the yard because of the snow pack. I kept throwing load chains under the tires for traction, which helped us inch toward the gate, but 1-1/2 hour later, we were almost out on the road when a handsome young man in a nice heavy duty pickup truck with a blade on the front, stopped to ask if we wanted some help. This is what he does! He pulled us out in no time and wouldn’t accept money but asked if we were married and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Praise the Lord! Peggy wanted to pull the doubles because I had never pulled them before, and the weather was bad. Fine! We got to a Petro right at the Indiana/Ohio border where she pulled in to sleep. About 3:30 a.m. she got up to continue on the road. She got stuck on the Petro exit lane which slopes upward. We spent 4 hours throwing load chains under the tires and made little progress. Finally a policeman came to put some pressure on us to get out of the road before it got busy. Then we resorted to tire chains, which I didn’t remember we had, but Peggy knows about them very well (and hates them.) We chained up, and that’s what got us off Petro property. We resumed on across I-70 past Pittsburg, but when we got to the turnpike, we were turned away because of weather – no doubles allowed temporarily. Peggy turned around and took the first exit, took a right (mistake) and we got stuck going up a long hill. So we chained up again, and a young man offered to pull with his ToyotaTitan, of which he was obviously proud and wanted to see how it would do pulling a semi. And another guy stopped with a heavy duty Chevy pickup and hooked onto the front of the Titan, and both helped us to the crest of the hill. Praise the Lord! On the down side, we turned north on route 66 from New Stanton, PA. mistake. We got off 3 miles later to turn around. We were still chained up, so going up the entrance ramp was going well until we were near the top; then we bogged down and came to a stop. We had lost one chain; I think that’s what stopped us. Right behind us was a fleet of state plows clearing the ramp. If we’d been a few minutes later, the ramp would’ve been cleared – poor timing. But we got going to the top of the slope and removed our chains. We were heading down to I-70 and back west to Flying J – no need for chains. We fueled at the ‘J,’ were in search of a parking place and…guess what – we got stuck again and had to chain at Flying J. Then we moved across the street to a bigger truck stop and found a place to park, which is harder with doubles – no backing up. That’s where we are now. Tomorrow hopefully the tollway will be open, so we can deliver these pups – 160 miles to go to Hagerstown, MD. Then our next load is from Pennsylvania to Grand Prairie, TX. YEAH!
posted by Trucking Fiddler at 9:23 PM
1 Comments:
Ken Wollberg watched the Super Bowl? Stop the presses! What did you think of the halftime show featuring the Who? Of course, the two surviving original members (Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend) are ancient now, but they still sounded pretty good to me.
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