Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

Brake lines, a picture could show a problem. A brake chamber, not so easy to show what was wrong. It really needed a video w/sound so they could hear the sound of broken parts rattling inside when he shook it.

 

Another day, another breakdown. This time the reefer just shut down. Something went amiss with the charging system, but there were no warnings or alarms that the system was failing. But an hour before my delivery and the thing just shut off dead. And I was preplanned on 2 loads after this one...I am starting to twitch doing everything I can to keep from going back to my old ways and letting loose some hatred...

 

After that reefer failure Monday, I voiced my concern about Creaffer's equipment reliability to my asset manager, saying ''things haven't changed in the 7 yrs since I left". See replied that things have changed for the better and that 'occasional' mechanic failures are part of trucking. Apparently our interpretation of the meaning of 'occasional' differ widely. I have an 'occasional' flair up of hemorrhoids...if I had them 'occasionally' flair up as often as my equipment breaks down...my PITAs would be in the hospital getting removed!!

 

This weeks miles didn't work out so good because of all the time it took to get the reefer repaired. That led to rescheduling, which made me lose 2 preplans. Will still end up with 1800ish miles, but nothing near my 1st 2 weeks. Ahhhh, that's trucking, sometimes you're the bug(that gets bruised by the slow arse Crete windshield)...sometimes you're the slow arse windshield...

I did stop at a fairly new truckstop here in KS, between Ottawa and Gardner. It's called Bert's, I-35 x-198. It's a midsize independent with chicken deli, a togo pizza place (Hunt Bros I think) and a decent selection of coffee and a fairly large C-store. It even has a big drivers lounge, showers, and laundry somewhere in there.

 

NASA calls Voyager 2, and the spacecraft answers from interstellar space

They are talking to a spacecraft almost as old as I am, billions of miles away...and I can't stay connected on my modern smartphone if I venture too far off the beaten path...that ain't right!!!