Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

I think so. 6-7000 miles per week with mostly drop and hook.

 

I'll agree with you. I've had my share of live unload and live load too, along with a few multiple drop loads. But for the most part it's been good.

 

We pulled into our San Diego drop yesterday morning at 9am and was done and out the gate in 20 minutes headed to Chino to grab a loaded trailer going to Charlotte for Saturday with an open 24/7 window to drop this trailer.It was bound to happen and it did. My day ended at the drop so George started his day as we left San Diego at 9:30am. He drove us to Chino, went in and got the paperwork for the new load, drop and hooked, then drove us to Ontario to get sone lunch. We left there and headed up 15 to Barstow. On the way up I checked the weather over Flagstaff to find out they had a winter storm warning starting at midnight. My new shift would start at 7pm so I had hoped to get over Flag before then.

I was in the sleeper just getting up when I heard the unmistakable sound of ice pellets hitting the windshield. I knew George had zero time in bad weather under his belt so all I needed was for him to get me to the pilot at the 185mm to switch out.At the 114 mm it started coming down, and in a matter of 15 miles the road was completely covered. I now was dressed and sitting in the jump seat talking him through it. In another 15 miles there was 8 inches of snow on the highway. He did great, in fact I was totally in awe how he did. It got to practically zero visability and I could tell he was getting overwhelmed. At the last Williams exit I had him pull off the exit. I still had 20 minutes before my click started, but I figured it wasn't safe parked where we were, so I took over the truck and drove to the pilot. I got fuel and a coffee, started my shift and drove up and over Flag in a blinding snowstorm. We ran out if it at the 225mm and we continued on.

I could tell George was totally spent so he went straight to bed. This morning when he woke up we talked about his first snowstorm. He asked me how I've done it all these years and I told him that it's taken me 33 years to deal with it, and the one thing I've learned is there is no room for big shots and that if for one moment I didn't feel safe I would have parked this truck in a NY minute. He did tell me something that made me feel very good about his first experience in a snowstorm, he told me towards the end before I told him I was going to take the truck over from him, that he was white knuckling it. I asked him how that made him feel and he told me he felt ok, but that he felt he had had enough at that moment. I asked him what he would have done if he was solo and he told me he would have shut the truck down. That, I told him was the perfect answer. I also told him if he wasn't white knuckling it it would have been the last time he drove in that westher with me.

Lucky me, I get the truck back in time for another ice storm in OKC, I'll deal with that after I treat George and myself to a steak dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo.

 

Not me, but a nice 16oz NY Strip will do.