Weirdest place to deliver?

I worked all of 2 weeks for a concrete company in North Ga. This was in the 80's when everyone in Atlanta thought it was so 'chic' to buy mountain property and build on the side of a freaking mountain!

It was a nice cushy job until some moron contractor decided to cut a road up the side of one of those mountains and build several homes.

Of course they needed cement and of course they used my company and I got stuck with the deliveries as the other guys with the seniority left me with the deliveries up these fun, newly cut, still settling, Georgia Red clay "driveways!"

Things went well for the first house as it was towards the bottom having t back up this "driveway" and getting into prosition was a bit of a pain. The second was a lot worse being higher up and I had to back out of the place going down the hill.

The third house was almost 1.5 miles up this twisty freaking "driveway and things were going just fine till the spot where the "driveway went around a jutting out granite boulder. I stopped looked walked up the drive to the house and got the GC to come look at the spot I was in. The truck was wider that the driveway at this point and there was no way the mixer was going to make it to the house and to top it off the GC couldn't get around me to go make a phone call as the lines had not been put in yet.

While we were standing there talking the problem out, the mixer is sitting there doing it's thing going round and round and I noticed that it was starting to sit a little funny and I started around the back of the truck and just as I got behind t it started to lean a little bit further down hill.

Oh yeah i thought this isn't good and just as I stepped back from the thing the "driveway" settled and let go, and mixer, 7 yards of cement and half of the driveway went down the hill!

Needless to say, the boss, the general contractor and the DNR, were not happy campers! The only people happy about the deal was the wrecker drivers!

Me, I told the owner of the company that cement mixer driving up mountains wasn't my type of a fun job and caught the next OTR job heading out of town!

 

I've been to caves 3 times (Independence, MO twice, and Carthage, MO once). The second place in Independence, MO right off Independence Blvd was TIGHT, and very poorly lit. Had so much trouble hitting that dock. No pull-up room, and the columns were curved so that your trailer could hit the top corner while stil four or five feet away from the edge about halfway up.

One thing about the caves, always slide your tandems up before entering.

I've delivered to churches before. I've picked up a VFD fire hall (really messed up).

 

About 10 years ago I was driving for a friend that had a few trucks signed on with M.S. Carriers. Got a message from dispatch when I was in Richmond asking if I would take a load of Hon office equipment to NAS Oceana in VA Beach - company driver had taken out a telephone pole and load needed to get there. Took the load in, and followed security's directions to a cluster of barracks, where a short little Master Chief motioned me over to park the truck in the assembly area between two of the barracks. He jumped on a fork truck while I was opening the doors, and gave one hell of a whistle. All of the sudden about 100 recruits came bursting out of the buildings, and as he lifted a desk off the truck with the fork, a group of 4 would grab it and run it into the buildings (3rd floor, of course ). After he cleared the tail, a group jumped into the trailer and started pushing the desks up to the fork truck. Took them about 25 minutes to unload a 53' trailer loaded to the roof and doors from the tail. Mighty impressive, and all you ex-military types can understand how an E8's word is Law . I asked the Master Chief if I could take his guys with me, and he laughed his ### off .

 

I remember those days! We had a truck load of new communications equipment come in to Ft. Gordon in '74. Took us about 30 minutes to pull all 300 boxes of a floor load off at the old army barracks they were going in! We had the driver back up as close to the front steps as he could and we literally tossed them to the start of the line out of the truck! Sure wish the lumpers of today had that much conviction in their jobs! ROFLMAO!

 

Yes i did the caves too, i really like it in there , got plenty sleep, no engine running, next weird one for me was when i had too deliver too a field house i call em , these were posh resdiantal house's in all those snakey , turn around drives subdivision , just barley wide enuff for a big car van,i had load of kicthen cabnits, i walked the quater mile , cause i thought i might deliver in town when i did find the owner house that were building yet, i ask is there a place in town you want these delivered, look at me said nope , deliver on site, i told him i had 53 foot trl full with long nose freightliner, he just said so too me, back up too the garage, i think they were laughing as i walked back too my truck so i lined it up , back it down that serpitine drive going and then turn into his driveway , i just put that left tadem on the curb en kept it there , i never seen a steering wheel turn so fast this and that,never did a pull up , i pissed cause they laughed at me, after i got up too door , he said that was mighty fine backup driving, that was the longest back up i ever did en so slow took like forever cause i was just barley crawling, Everett

 

The oddest place I ever unloaded was nw of Abby Sask Canada, at a Hutterite community, I had enough steel siding on the trailer to re-side all of the buildings on their settlement. They farmed many acres and even had their own 70 foot 100,000lb truck scale. 32 families lived there and they all had a specific job, one maintained the cars and trucks, one maintaned the farm equipment, one made furniture etc. We had dinner at noon in a common building in the center of the settlement. Men on one side, women on the other. They rang the bell and we started like at a buffet, when the bell rang again in about 10 minutes, you were done eating. Not any talking during the meal. It was in about 1982, and I remember it quite well.

 

There is a bakery in Elizabeth, NJ that is a real pain in the tush. You have to enter from a left turn, it is impossible from a right turn. Even from the left turn you have to be at least 3 lanes away before you start the turn because you have to be exactly straight when you go thru the arch into the building. As soon as you get thru the gate, get all the way to the right because there is a 90 deg left next. Then you are in the building. All the docks are on your right down ramps. There are dock supers who will help you blindside in, fortunately because you would be there forever doing it on your own. Getting out is almost as bad.

The place is designed for 48 ft trailers but most I saw in there were 53's. I was lucky the first time I was there and had a 48 and I thought it was ridiculously tight. The next time I had a 53. Very tight.

Lots of scrape marks on the walls and pillars. None are mine.

 

That's Interbake in Elizabeth on Frelinghuysen. And getting out is almost as much fun as getting in. You can see where the arch has been hit by a few people who weren't quite straight on approach. Last time I was there to pick up they had a guy who would help you back in but he was a real bunghole.

 

My husband and I delivered at the caves in Independence,MO. Our dispatcher asked us first if we were claustrophobic-if we were she wouldn't send us there. Didn't think it was TOO bad, but backing in around all those pillars wasn't much fun. I personally didn't like the re-circulated air; it was very stale and after awhile I felt I was having a harder time taking a deep breath. The fork life operator said it was not my imagination. He's used to it because he worked there every day. Luckily we were out of there in less than 2 hours!

 

That's the place. I didn't even want to talk about getting out of the place. More not fun.