An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Put the last couple weeks in to the "be careful what you wish for" column. When I 1st came here I told my original dispatcher that I was staying out longer than I usually do so I could get a feel for a wide variety of loads so I was more comfortable once winter gets here. Well, the last couple weeks I have had more challenging loads, just like I asked for. This load is a full tarp, 2 pu 3 drop load...which means I tarp 3 times (the 1st pu didn't need tarped because I was driving 10 miles to the 2nd pu, and it was a bright sunny day). Got to my 1st stop today, which was 80% of my load...but the remainder is 2 tarps long, but only a foot off the deck. When I was coming down from Jackson, MS, I started getting some wind. Coming out of Pensacola across the bay bridge, it was a major pucker event. Got to my delivery and the wind was howling, and they are at a regional airport with lots of open ground around a bunch of 2 and 3 story buildings(hangers, repair facilities and a parts manufacturer). These buildings created a nice wind tunnel where I unloaded. Now, for the record, I suck at tarping...I am almost as fast as a crippled 3 toed sloth when it comes to tarping...then add 20-30 mph wind, and it gets slower. It took so long today that the receiver came out to make sure I hadn't been blown into the next county with a tarp shaped kite...and that didn't include having to roll up my 3rd tarp. In fact, this pretty much is how I felt today....







But...I got thru it and made it to the Love's in Lee, FL. 1st thing this morning, I called my 2nd stop in Jacksonville to see if they were closing due to the hurricane, and for how long. They said they were having a staff meeting a little while later to discuss that, and I should call back. But, my re-tarping took longer than I expected and I missed them before they went home for the day. So, I will wait for morning and try again. If by 9 or so, they don't answer, I told my dispatcher that I would run out of route and go home, then deliver when they open again. He said absolutely, not a problem...so that's the plan.

 

It's amazing how a day or two can change weather wise here in FL. A couple days ago the forecast was calling for 5-7” of rain in my area for Thursday and Friday. The latest, is a max of a 40% chance of rain... The city cancelled my wife's farmers market on Friday because of Ian, and flooding rain...now it's gonna be bright and sunny and breezy. We dodged a bullet up here...but....if I hadn't gotten my son-in-law to come over and make sure the generator would start...it would have hit us like it's hitting down in central FL.

 

The worst part about having to untarp for the 1st stop was, stops 2 and 3 are long crates that are only a foot off the deck, but stop 1 was pallets of sheet metal that was loaded beside stop 3, in front of stop 2, so that required me to remove all 3 tarps. (Stop 2 wouldn't have fit between the 2 other stops). So after they got the sheet metal unloaded, I pulled stop 2 up beside stop 3 so I could eliminate 1 tarp(they're 15’ long, but only weigh 90 lbs each). And the way the wind was swirling, I couldn't hide behind the truck to fold the extra tarp... basically I used a couple gallons of washer fluid to keep the one side from lifting while I stood on the tarp folding the other side. The fun part was, when I untarped, I tied the front and back corners of my front tarp to the rub rail to keep it from blowing away...then I had to pull it back over the load once they got empty...at one point I was on the verge of just letting it fly rather than letting it lift me off the trailer. The wind was so strong, when strapping the load down, it would actually pull the strap out of your hand while you were folding the excess to tuck back under the rub rail to tighten it down. I can only imagine how much fun it would have been if it were winter time and a sub-zero wind chill.

 

Checked out my truck this morning. I knew the LFO tire had some tread flaking off when I was in KS, but this morning I noticed this





And this is my spare







Not delivering in Jacksonville today, so I stopped by the Love's 10 min from the house and breakdown is having 2 new tires put on before I hit the house for the day.