Black Dog?

Don't stop now friend.. What do you see??

 

Many, I mean many years ago when I was young and dumb.. Others did it so I would try it. , I drove quite abit in a days time.. Sometimes when you were very tired out on traffic less roads like hwy 5 was back in the 70s you could start to see weird things, like dragons, trains etc. but never saw a black dog. But ones mind can do strange things and when it can't figure thing out it makes something to fill it. The whole thing is to pull over and rest.. Before you start imagining things. Nope myth busted.

 

it is more of a fuzzy shadow. could be an animal (coon squirrel possum) however it is real. Its when you are pushing or pressure is pushing you. Fleet drivers running elogs will never see this. Its older regs long hand forms, stuff newbees will never have to worry about. Thank goodness. Everyone deals with sleep loss differently. sleep dep is compounding. Monday fine, Wednesday sleepy, Saturday done. Enjoy your 34! No m ore 3000 plus mile weeks for elogs???

old coal hauler. ask any of them (if you can find any....)

 

When I've been up too long I usually start seeing mountains in the distance or overpasses that I never get too. I know its time to stop when I start following the straight solid line on the shoulder even though the road isn't straight. I haven't run that hard in a long time and I don't miss it.

 

Hey pepperjack,

The ‘Black Dog’ is part folklore and metaphoric as well. Once you were on the road for far too many hours, pushing yourself to your limits, your faculties would begin to fail. It’s almost intermittent. This is when the mind begins playing games as a way to cope.
But these phantoms can really be anything. The Black Dog, an alligator in a part of the country where they do not inhabit, a hitchhiker that isn’t there, etc.
The message is simple. When you begin to see anything like this it is time to pull over and get some sleep. Otherwise, the monster becomes the one you are driving and it will have a mind all its own when you drop off of the controls!

 

Back in the 80's when I was pulling flatbed running steel/coils on back to back runs I nearly wrecked after running over a boy on his bicycle, after getting out and walking up and down the road to insure I was only dreaming/falling a sleep I found a place to shut my eyes.....the right way. A lot of us have pushed hard at times for one reason or another.


Jim

 

Alright, trucker myth and legend time. Much like the lot Lizard ,this exists in legend more than reality. However, with late night driving , darkness and fatigue certain "tricks on your eyes" do come into play. Everybody is different . With me , it's Christmas lights. Now and then driving late at night I will see green and red lights off in my perifiry for no good reason.

 

For me it is 90% of the time a HUGE white horse have no idea that's when I find anywhere I can to go to bed I don't care if it 2 in the afternoon time for bed lol

 

I have never heard of the term black dog other than in that movie. however I believe what they are reffering to is known as fatigue. it is possible to hallucinate when fatigued. they just slapped a name on it for Hollywood. same thing as with smokey and the bandit. most of todays new drivers talk that way on the cb because they watched smokey and the bandit and they think that's how "truckers" talk. most 20+ year veterans will tell you that's a crock of ####. we don't all talk with a southern drawl, we don't all live on coffee and cigarettes.

 

Black dog is as real to the older truckers as is white line fever !