Where are you

Truck is down for a EGR failure, Rolling into Toledo for a reload to take to the yard, it breaks down on the scale causing a 4 hour log jam. They told drivers to go find a place to park it, I caused 12 drivers to miss the P/U time that was set.

Got a crappy Prostar, not bad. The shaker wouldn't be ready for 2 days and CSX wanted the steel from this morning, got in the Prostar, made the P/U and dropped it at CSX, bobtailed to a nearby truckstop to rescue a load from a broken down truck, dropped that off and went to reload. Then the EGR... truck won't be out till later today.

 

well we will at least pass each other somewhere in route flip flop

 

home...CB is making homemade burritos for dinner...

 

Rawlins WY at the TA...

 

Would have posted from Freeport, TX today but there wasn't time. Might have posted from NW Houston but there wasn't time. Rolled in a little after 19:30.

 

FREEPORT??? ha....freeport sucks..used to load at turbana....they are RUDE....

 

I think the "other" picture, the second one, was more natural... But I understand what most of you males look for when "checking out" the "attributes" on a beautiful woman... It just varies a little from country to country, culture to culture...

In the last 4 days, I drove through Atlanta 10 times... 3 times today.... But now I am at company terminal... will try to check in a hotel tomorrow. Hopefully will find a room so that I don't have to keep all my things in my vehicle... I am homeless when I am not in the truck... My company will have some events and potluck here this coming week...

I hope the shop doesn't come knocking on my door tomorrow morning... It's going to take me at least one hr to move all my things to my vehicle... and I will not do it tonight. I am very tired. Need a shower and go to bed.

 

Bliss ID Rest area

 

Back home for the weekend. Wow what an adventure the last couple of days were!! Delivered CKD (Concrete Kiln Dust) to a small lot in downtown Amarillo, Tx. It rained the evening and night before, and was raining in the morning when we dumped. What a mess. Kiln dust turns to a paste once it gets wet, so you can't simply brush it off the trailer. It starts smearing. Now the next transition for this lovely dust, is when it dries and sets up. It sets up like concrete, I mean it will act like J.B. Weld.

Lot in Amarillo
View attachment 36235

We had to back in, far side, blocking 2 streets. Lost air-pressure in the secondary, with the bed all the way up. That's a big, big deal with end-dumps, it will not come down until you get the air back up, and that can take about 5-10 mins. The secondary also supplies air to the suspension, which is constantly wanting to level things.

Now if that's not enough of a problem, I have power-lines about 8-10' in front of my bed, and my left-front drive tires are off the ground. They are on the edge of the concrete entrance, which is wet, and has mud on it. So when I try to drive, the ones that are on the ground just spin. Finally got it out, and to get the bed down, we (there were 2 of us with the same problem), had to dump the trailer suspension and then fill it (pull the valve and push it back in). The valve is located on the left-rear side of the trailer, next to the gate valve. We don't know why this worked, but it did.

Then I had to go to Turpin, OK and mud-buggy across a pasture to load oversize clean rock. I'll put together a short video from my dashcam going across that. It had hills and curves. It is sort-of graveled, but the top was slimy, slick as ice, and was about 2 miles long. I did get stuck, slid against a "berm" while on my way out. There were 2 trucks stopped to let me by. Loaded trucks had the right-of-way. Of course they stopped on the drier portion, so I had to drive in the slime. This was also sloped to the right, and on a slight grade, enough so, that I could not get through it. I had to let them by, then back up until I could get enough traction to walk to the drier side. Boy that was fun.... NOT!!! However I did get plenty of jack-knife control. I got to experience driving while the trailer is sliding sideways behind you, while the trailer is straight and the tractor is going sideways, and about every way in-between. They need to make an 18 wheel drive for roads like this. Hey I did pretty good though. The other trucks that were coming in, were the gravel pits' company trucks. I heard them squealing and squalling on the radio (another language, Spanish). They must have been having major problems getting out..

Finally after dumping the rock in Great Bend, I was dispatched to Otis, Ks to load wheat Friday morning. So I went to Otis, and was told by the elevator employee, they're out of wheat, don't have any for me to haul. He said he told my dispatcher this the other day. He told me to go to Bison, Ks to load. Both town elevators are owned by the same corporation. I called dispatch to confirm this, and he then told me that was correct. The towns are only 10 miles apart. Well when I arrived I found a line of trucks, mostly from our company sitting there waiting for them to open. Now all of our other company trucks there, were told to come here, not by dispatch, but by the Otis employee. The same one that called our dispatcher and told him not to send trucks to Otis. Yep, quality dispatching..

 

Eaton, you have some very interesting tales to share with your experiences each week. I'm always glad to see they have a general happy ending. You must constantly be on the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next...LOL