Running With Watkins & Shepard

Actually, that would be a pregnant roller skate...lol.

The funny thing is, I knew it was skateboard. Guess I was just tierd and rushing and had a brain fart.

 

LOL...I know what you mean as I'm a blond too. (Well, I was born that way. Ummmm... not so much anymore ) I've never used that as an excuse but perhaps I should start. It sounds better than the age and memory thing!

 

OK, so Brandon and I took Betsy out (although a bit later than 8:00). We hooked up a 44k load, hooked up the computer and off we went. So of course she ran like a top and pulled like an elephant and EVERY reading was spot on perfect!! (Those #### gremlins are TOO smart). DARN I hate that! She makes a lier of me....LOL Brandon said no way buddy, we believe you but unless I get codes on the computer, I can't start throwing parts at it. We both know it's in the Turbo actuator (power issue) and the injector controllers (MPG) but the best he could do was tell me we'll have to wait for it get to worse and start throwing codes.... I understand his position but.......... FRUSTRATING!!

So I QC'd dispatch (before going out for the test run) and told them I could probably still make that Seattle run. They write back and tell me it's already gone. I told them I was glad it got out and not hung up on me.

As soon as I was done with the shop, I get a load out of Great Falls going to Newberg OR. COOL!! Even a few more miles than the Seattle run. I'm to take an empty up to Pacific Recycling. I have no idea what I'm getting but it's going to a place called SP Newsprint so I figure it's "some kind" of paper. So Brandon tells me to take one of the new Tri-Axle trailers there. This is the first time I've pulled a 3 axle. It has super singles on it too which is alos a first for me. So I find it, hook it up and pretrip the rig. This is the NICEST trailer I've ever had! LOL It's pretty new, clean, everything works "well" and gets a clean pretrip with me. (first out of the last 4 trailers I've had...LOL). It even has air slide tandems!

I'm thinking...COOL!! this is going to be a fun trip full of "firsts" for me. First 3 axle, first time with super singles, first time to both the shipper and receiver and first time on all the routes between them. So I'm hooked up and off I go with Betsy (magically??), running like a champ.

I get about a 1/4 mile from Pacific Recycling and I can already see this is gonna be an adventure. This place is basically a dump where folks bring everything from scrap (of all kinds) to sell, to junk from their homes to dump. it's a tiny place with piles of anything and everything you can imagine scattered all over the place. I park on the street in front and go in to ask how they operate there. The guy says "just pull around the building to the back, get on the scale so I can get your weight and then pull around the other side and put it at the dock. Yep, "the" dock. they have only one and like many places, this place was NOT built for 53 foot trailers...LOL

So I pull around the direction he tells me and after weaving around several separate piles of scrape steel, aluminum, junk cars and trucks, bucket loaders and excavators with claws running around, folks in pickups with trailers, cars and vans all driving around to the piles they need to dump at...etc. etc... I see the scale. But it has a huge pile of steel roughly 30 feet in front of the entrance and protruding about halfway across the width of it. The scale has steel upright columns at the mouth. I'm thinking, OK, this isn't gonna be easy. So after getting all these folks in cars to NOTICE me there (I understand how hard that can be as I'm only the BIGGEST vehicle there), and then actually yield long enough to let me have a shot at the scale, I pull in as tight to that pile of steel as I could, yank a hard left to get my tractor around it, swing as wide as I can (the middle of my trailer is now over the edge of the pile, yank a hard right to enter the scale, STOP! get out, move a bunch of steel I-Beams, angle iron, rims...etc...etc..so my tandems don't run over it all, I actually got the truck "and trailer" on the scale. Not perfectly straight but all on it...LOL The guy flashes the green light to let me know he has the weight and I pull around the other side to dock it. The path there is one vehicle wide and all those folks dumping stuff are coming IN that way?? Thought this was a "one way" path around the building. Apparently not and there's no way they're gonna let this little red truck stop them from dumping their crap. They just drive right up to my nose and sit there like I'm gonna back up...LOL So now there's like 6 cars behind them out on the street. After politely, but in no uncertain terms, making it clear that I'm not about to back up through the path I just came through, they all back up.

So I have to pull out on the street and then back and forth it to move over enough to the left to hit the dock. Just no way to set it up the first time there. (Oh, a side note...keep in mind this is all done on solid ice covered with hard pack snow). OK, I'm at the dock and manged to get there and keep my truck jacked to the left so all those folks could get in. That includes garbage trucks as well...LOL (At this point I'm starting to think perhaps this guy told me to drive through this place the wrong way because EVERYONE is coming in the way I'm going out!) ...Anyway, they get me loaded with 28 bails of scrap paper. Now I have to hit the scales again. I ask the guy if I should go the "other" way through but nope, he insists I go the same way?? OK, repeat above paragraph. I get on the scale and I'm 81,640 lbs with the 37,860 on the tandems!

He's like, "WTF? We always load them like this and never had a problem". I'm like, well we have one now...LOL. They had one bail on the very back so I told him if we take that one off and I slide my tandems, maybe we can make this work out. So yep, back to the dock. Repeat above paragraph. So after finding a place to slide them wheels on all that ice, I'm at the dock again. He pulls that bail off and yep, back to the scale. Repete...awww you know......So now his scale is telling him that one bail weighed 3500 lbs (they average 1600). He's like WTF?? and determines his scale must be frozen with ice. Now I'm looking at my air bag gages and I tell him, I'm good to go dude...(3 hours after got there that is). So I know I'm OK but just in case I hit a cat 5 miles away and scale it. Yep, good to go but I'd like to get a little more on the drives for the traction. Just one or two holes would do but there wasn't anyplace at the TS clear enough to move them. I was just dragging em around on ice. So I'm at 12,420...31,400...33,780 and really behind at this point so off I go.

Now I've never been on any of the roads the routing takes me so I have NO idea what lies ahead. It's about 18:30 and getting dark. So out of Great Falls I'm taking the 89 to the 90. OK, I get rolling and I can see I'm driving right at that storm coming in from the Northwest. Not 50 miles down 89 and I see the first flake. Lewis and Clark? Oh I know who they are and what they did, just not WHERE they did it...LOL. I do now! ..An already long story short, Snowing like hell, 4 inches on the ground and growing fast and winds blowing to make visibility a tad less than the nose of my truck. Two lanes, no shoulder and no place to pull off so push on is the only choice. SLOWLY I CREPT...LOL So slow in fact that when I hit Missoula and the snow, sleet and freezing rain falling on top of everything, I decided to stop for the night.

I got rolling in the morning and I guess didn't get the memo. Lookout Pass?? Who knew?? Still a freezing rain and turning back into snow. There's already 6 to 8 on the ground and the chain law is in effect. I get to the scale at the base and there's trucks EVERYWHERE chaining up. A DOT officer was out side and asks me how I'm doing. I tell him OK and that I just came from Missoula. He says "OH, if you made it through that freezing rain you'll make it. You can see we have no room for you to chain up here so head up to mile marker 4 and chain there". I'm like OK sir and thanks. So with "just" enough room to squeeze by all them big trucks, I head out. I'm doing good and Betsy is pulling fine and not spinning a wheel. I come up on a Schneider truck pretty quick and I have an Old Dominion double behind me. He gets on the radio and says, "we gotta get around him". I agree because don't want to slow down either. Now the hammer lane was untouched virgin snow. I pull out and start passing Schneider with OD right behind me. we get by and I pull back over. OD keeps on going past me. Then we hit the steep part and I'm gaining on OD pretty quick. I'm wondering....is he behind someone, (visibility wouldn't let me see ahead of him), just slowing due to weight or starting to spin? I called out but got no response. So I pulled out to pass and on my way by I see his wheels spinning hard. I'm praying..."Oh lord, PLEASE don't let him slide into me"...LOL I get by and by the time I hit the 4, I figure I'm good to go so I just kept going. Not a problem and never spun a tire. I get down the other side slow and easy and breath a sigh of relief.

The 4th of July?? Who Knew?? Pretty much the same thing except I was alone out there. Got up and down it fine through all that crap. I'm really amazed how well this truck does when it has some lbs. on it. So now I'm on the Idaho side and things are turning to mostly rain. The roads are clearing a bit and pretty much just wet. Everyone is cruising along at about 55 - 60. On the last grade down I'm pretty convinced the roads are just wet. The temps are coming up and everyone's moving along. There's that sigh of relief again...... I'm about a 1/4 mile behind a line of 4 cars and all of sudden I see them all slipping and slowing down fast. I just barely touch the breaks and the trailer goes left, the drives right and I'm gaining on them cars quicker than I'd like..... Off the brakes, grab a lower gear and just a little touch on the Johnson bar and I'm straight again and slowing down good. It was only about a 1-1/2 mile section of road but it was wet ice you simply couldn't see.

I felt I did a good bit of driving but I'll credit God with covering my butt!

Quit the adventure. The load was delivered and I'm sitting at the Jubitz travel center in Portland and just now got same beeps. Gotta run (hopefully)....LOL

The delivery is another story.........

 

Well, I got a load but I can't pick it up until the 16th in Longview WA and it delivers the 18th in Pomona CA. Guess I have some time to kill.

Dispatch tells me I have to drop this 3 axle in Vancouver and get a 2 axle because a 3 isn't allowed in CA?? Is it that it's three axles? Because these slide and I think I can make bridge with it? Just curious.

 

Thanks buddy. I'm not ashammed to admit my heart was in my throat several times on this one. But hey, now I know how they teach winter driving at least....

Yea, it IS an adventure and I'm loving every minute. Even the not so great ones...LOL

Step by step...slowly I learn....

 

That would explain a LOT! ....