Lost and found

Duck once said to me . . .

"Blair - so long as there is diesel in the tanks, you'll never be lost"

He was right.

 

I'm never lost, "Folks are always telling me where to go!"

 

I,m never lost but sometimes I,m in places I had,nt meant to go

 

Never lost, just exploring an alternate route.

 

It doesn't matter how u get lost, all that counts is how u get UNLOST. It takes more patience than Gandhi and a cooler head than a fighter pilot. You have to constantly assess where you are, restricted routes, weight limits, height limits. I've been lost numerous times, wrong direction off a ramp, wrong directions, or flat out stupidity. Often times people can see an on ramp or the highway ahead and they charge right underneath that 12'6 bridge, or charge across the 25t weight limit bridge. Thankfully I have never done any of that, I have come up to low bridges, 13'3, and crept ever so slow, stopped and got out a half dozen times, etc... I have a buddy who rolled across a weight reduced bridge in Pittsburgh and is currently paying a $13,000.00 fine. Reduced FROM $25,000! Don't try to U Turn at the 7*11 or a doctors office parking lot (a friend of mine had to "retrain" a student from a different trainer, who got out on his own and tore down a canopy in Niagara Falls and the SAME guy tore out a fire hydrant in Knoxville at a Dr.s office!) When u see the No Smoking sign with a truck in the middle, stay away. (Except on the East Coast where there is a local delivery exception, good luck figuring out if that means its truck friendly or not!). Eyeball the area, look for low hanging phone lines, branches, etc... If u start smacking branches u r probably the first truck thru there, not a good sign. Use common sense, although sometimes its not that common...

 

O by the way, the low hanging phone lines was a personal experience after being hopelessly lost in Newark, Nj. I took it as a blessing that I got away with that little bit of damage!

 

My second load with Millis was nerve wracking. I had a load to Philly out of Eden. All was good until I got north of Roanoke on 81 and hit a traffic jam near mm 164. Apparently there was a bad accident up at the 168. Exit 164 is for US-11 which parallels I-81. I thought I would be clever and follow the trucks that we're getting off on US-11 and get back on north of the wreck. So I got off at mm 164 and started following a line of trucks north. Everything was good until I got stuck at a red light and lost sight of the other trucks. I started going again and thought I saw a truck turn left on a side road and so I made the decision to follow. I turned left and started down said road and after a mile my heart sunk when I saw I-81 about 100 feet above me. There was no where to turn around so I kept on. That's when the road started to narrow and the trees got lower and lower. I was starting to sweat at that point. After a couple miles of twisting turns I saw a spot where I could pull off. I panic dialed my trainer and told him where I was and if there was any way out of this mess. Much to my disappointment he had no idea where I was and told me I really had no choice but to keep on going down the road until I could find a place to turn around. So I started driving again and a couple miles down the road I saw a sign for the Blue Ridge Parkway. I knew from my atlas that I was in no-no land at this point and had to find a place to turn around soon. I rounded a bend not too far from where I saw the sign for the BRP and saw a high school on the left. Without thinking I turned in and popped the brakes and let out a sigh of relief. After about 15 minutes of maneuvering due to a bunch of concrete islands in the parking lot, I was able to get turned around and headed back the way I came. I turned north on US-11 and had to laugh because the entrance to 81 was only a quarter mile north of where I made my wrong turn.

 

I got lost once going the Old Miller plant in fulton ny. Had never been up there and the directions in the Qcom are from where they were still around and Drivers where in and out of there on a daily basis. So I popped open my map, saw my route from weedsport and off I went. Took a right turn one road before I should have and went across a single lane bridge with guys fishing off it, looking at me like I was dumb. Got to the old miller plant fine, but that bridge was not fun.

Unmarked detours due to wrecks are the worst, if you don't have a pack of trucks you are following can def. get white knuckle depending on the state. Had one on US35 in WV due to a flipped over truck, put me and 2 other Millis trucks on a road trucks should never have been down, after about an hour of blind curves, hills, and oncoming traffic, got back onto 35 and was rolling.