Heading For Little Rock! Maverick

I'm from Ohio....don't know that part of the country....lol

 

I started off this week by driving up to Traverse City Michigan on Sunday. It was beautiful as I expected. I got to stop right by the bay to take it all on while I did a load check! The weather was perfect as it was a little bit on the cool side. Spent the night at the receiver and they were very friendly in the morning when I met them and got unloaded.
Monday: Got a load to pick up at US Steel Great Lakes at Ecouse MI heading down to Millenium Steel in Princton Indiana. That was a nice 240 mile dead head. Those really help out your mpg. I made it over to Beaver Dam where I parked for the night. I dropped the trailer and took the truck across the street and got it washed. It was due, plus I figured a nice clean truck for the DOT guys would not hurt.
Tuesday: Made my way down to Millenium Steel and was able to get right in and get unloaded. Got my next load right away picking up at SDI in Jeffersonville heading down to Marrietta Georgia. I made it down to the Pilot at Sonora and spent the night.
Wednesday: Made my delivery and got my next load picking up at Temple Inland in Rome Ga heading to Henning TN.
There were no directions to this place so I called them up and talked to them. From their description, it would be a piece of cake.
Thursday: Looked at the atlas and also the route my rand was taking me in and it was all state routes off of I40. The last part of the route going on TN 87 right through Henning up to US 51 where they were located. This cut off about 30 miles oor from going I40 all the way down to 51.
When I got on tn87, (I believe it was 87...lol) it was the most narrow state route I had ever been on. It went all through this beautiful farm country. It was very rustic and definitely out in the middle of no where.
Had to go under a low hanging branch that put a mark on top of my truck. Did not break the paint but put a rub mark.
I am only about 3 to 4 miles from the receiver and I see a sign that says 7'9" and it is directly under some low hanging wires.
So I move over and am hoping that it is for the wires. Came around the corner and make a left on the route and there is this single lane tunnel under some rr tracks that is only 7'9". So I stop and get out and am looking at where I can turn around.
There are a bunch of run down houses with lots of stuff on their porches ect. A very very poor neighborhood and very remote.
I decide to walk on down and look at this tunnel and see if there is possibly another road down there. There is a road that goes off to the right just behind me.
All of a sudden I hear a very angry Loud "HeY!. I turn around and there is this guy walking towards me. So I think....great...not a good great....lol. I walk towards him and say "How are you doing?" He says "How are you doing? I say...Not to good right now!
He says" Buy me a beer and I will tell you how to get out of here! I say, I was going to turn around....He says....You can not turn around, Buy me a beer and I will tell you the only way out of here. (I am close enough to this guy to smell that he reeks of beer...and it is only 0900/. I keep stalling and kind of talking trying to figure out what I am going to do. I notice at least two others walking towards me from the direction he came and then another coming up from behind me. So I am definitely looking at the possibility that I could get jumped or something. My spider sense was definitely tingling!
Then one of the other guys askes me where I am trying to get. The drunk one then yells at him and tells him that he was trying to get a beer from me. The guy tells me and tells me take the road behind me and take the first right, then the first left and then the left at the y and then the next right. I asked him if a big truck could go down there and he tells me that all the other ones do.
So I get in and it takes me about 3 tries to get the truck backed down the s turn that I just came through and got on my way.
It was very desolate but I was able to get out of there with no problem.
Made it over to the receiver and got unloaded.
The mistake I made was that I did not look in the Rand McNally atlas to see if there was a low clearance or not. While sitting there I looked it up and sure enough it was listed. I will never make that mistake again.
I asked the receiver if I was the first Maverick truck in there( since there were no directions from the company). He said that we deliver there all the time. So for some reason no one ever took the time to write up directions. I sent them in and made sure to mention not to come down that way unless you carry extra beer money with you....lol
Got my next load to pick up at Nucor Steel in Memphis.
Made my way over there and noticed that the directions in were different than what they used to be. You can no longer cut through the state park.
When I got there right on my appointment time there was another driver calling in to them but getting no response. I waited a minute and he never got an answer. I called them and they responded and told me to come on up.
Now looking back, I wish I would have helped this driver out and relayed his info before I drove up there. I instead relayed his info while I was sitting in line, so he is now behind me.
They changed how they load since I was there last. You make a turn sooner and make a circle around to the right.
So I am the first truck in line just across the inlet for the fork lifts in front of the little trailer. It is a turn going to my right.
So the orientation of my truck and trailer is that the truck is pointing to the right with a bend in the trailer as I am turning to the right following the contour of the staging area.
The guy behind me in a Red W900 pulls up behind me and I notice that he is not directly behind me but slightly up on my right side.
What I did not notice is that he pulled right up on my tandems very close.
The truck in front of me pulls up and I start to pull up and roll about 5 feet and I feel a tug on my truck. I look back in my mirror and in horror I see that my trailer has hit the front of his truck!
I could not believe it. I did not turn ...only pulled forward and I hit his truck.
So my day went down real quick at that point. My front right tire pulled his chrome bumper straight out and it put a hole in my tire.
So I had to have my tire repaired before I could load after we got all of the information exchanged.
When I went back in after my tire was fixed, I was in the exact same spot that I had been in. I was the only truck in there at this point and spent some time trying to figure out what in the world happened.
Why he pulled up next to me the way he did I have no Idea. He was supposed to just fall in line behind me. We were the only two trucks.
He put the nose of his truck right in the pinch point of the trailer. If I had seen where he was, he would have had to back up in order for me not to hit him. I was as far left as I could go, so I could not pull any more to the left to miss him.
Now I am responsible, because I moved my truck and hit him, but he made a very poor choice in where he parked and it set me up to hit him.
By this time I am out of hours so I am going to spend the night out in their lot. There is a frayling and schilling (sp) truck sitting there with three levels of bars. He was not new to trucking but new to flatbedding. So I spent the next 45 minutes helping him secure his load and then spent the night. This load that I have delivers on Saturday in Strongsville OH.
THE LESSON I LEARNED IS THAT YOU CAN NOT ASSUME THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU PARKED IN AN EMPTY LOT OR STAGING AREA, AND THERE IS NOTHING IN FRONT OF YOU, DOES NOT MEAN THAT SOMEONE DID NOT COME IN FROM BEHIND YOU AND PARK IN SUCH A WAY THAT YOU WILL HIT THEM WHEN YOU PULL FORWARD.
Friday: Got up at 0130 and headed for Ohio. My goal was to make it to the house and head up to strongsville from there.
I made it to the Marengo Pilot with about 12 minutes left on my clock. Had a nice dinner at home and headed out about 0600 in the morning.
Saturday: The wo says that I can deliver between 0800 and 1600. I have a nice 1.5 hr drive up there and find it with no problem.
I walk in the door and this guy comes over and asks me what I am doing there. I tell him half laughing, because I was told I had to deliver today. He tells me that they do not take deliveries on Saturday.. I said , well I will just take it back home and bring it in on Monday. I already had a preplan to pick up at Charter Steel so It was not big deal.
He said, I could drop the trailer and then come back and get it on Monday, but wanted to check with the other guy there.
He tells me the same thing and then tells me that they are only there until 11:00 not 1600.
He tells me that he did not want to see me have to leave and come back, so they would unload me but I had to wait about 30 to 45 minutes. I said great and that I appreciated it. About 2 hrs later he came over and says "I bet you are thinking that it was the longest 30 minutes in your life...lol. I told him it was not a problem and again that I appreciated him unloading me.
I sent a message into Maverick and let them know that someone messed up and that I almost did not get to deliver.
So I made it back home by 1300 in time for my Brother In Law to arrive from North Carolina.
So Most of the week was excellent with one almost bad situation which I got out of and one really bad situation that I did not get out of.
So I have a pick up at 1000 on Monday in Cuyahoga Heights heading down to Dickson TN...back the way I just came up on Friday.
Hope you all enjoy your time off....I am licking my wounds and repaying the event a million times in my mind!