Parked Here for the Night

Parked at the Love's in Santa Rosa, NM. Pretty full and it's not even 7pm.

 

Parked at the J in Corfu, NY just as a light snow started to fall. Delivered outside Syracuse and backtracking to p/u in Buffalo. I don't have to pick up till Monday but load may be available tomorrow. I'll check at noon if it's not ready than I'll just complete a reset and grab it Monday morning. Booked myself out till Friday. Go to the Kansas side of Kansas City then a turn and burn back to PA.

 

Ready to hit the sack in Lodi, OH. I wanted to get well into PA tonight but it wasn't meant to be.

 

Well... after ALL that planning and consulting... I thought I had made up my mind... BUT I decided to call someone who lives in that NJ area... and he offered a different choice... Instead of taking I-80E to US- 206 south and I-287 to Edison, NJ, take I-80 to US-33 south and then I-78 E and park at the TA in Bloomsbury, NJ or Pilot at Clinton and he would come pick me up and we would spend a "nice" weekend...

That seemed to be a very valid choice... worthy of checking... It would take only about 13 extra miles and after the reset I would be much closer to receiver than if I parked at TA in Columbia, NJ... and considering the snow on Monday and traffic, this and that... I started thinking... hmmmm....
So, although I didn't "feel good" about going to Pilot or TA in that area, I called TA to find out about parking.... they said that if I could find an unreserved spot, there would be no charge for parking... hmmm... How easy would it be to find an unreserved parking...? I would have to check Google satelitte to help me make up my mind... and time was running..... getting late... the later it gets the more difficult it is to find parking... so I was thinking...


WELL.... Was trying to figure out a bunch of possibilities while trying to fuel... AND THEN I ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY SCREW UP!

Did something I thought would NEVER do in my life of truck driver...

I am deeply embarrassed, psed, distressed...

Should have stuck with my former plan...



































I put 2 gallons of diesel in the DEF tank...







What was I thinking....??????

Many thoughts in my mind.... but not about fueling... that's for sure...

I had no problem inserting the diesel nozzle in the DEF tank because last year the little "tube" inside the opening of the tank fell inside it and although I pointed that out to co., it wasn't fixed...




So... After noticing what I had done, I didn't started the truck... stayed right at the fuel bay where I was... turned my flashers on, asked Pilot to put a couple of cones behind my truck and called co.

Had to be towed to a wreck yard where I sit till Monday morning to be towed to Freightliner...

Company would pay for hotel but I decided to stay in the truck instead because THIS IS MY HOME... Here I live, here I cook and do everything that I need... Besides, it's such a pain to carry a bunch of stuff + cooler + this and that to hotel just for a couple nights... and then back to truck...

I am sooo tired... and still "wired" from all the black tea... I guess this is a "WAKE UP CALL".... It could have been worse... I do need to make some changes before things get worse...

 

I fixed it.

 

Ouch! Sympathetic murmurings from 3k miles away. I am just glad you kept it together and realized your error before serious damage was done.

Mostly hurt pride at this point. You're a tough (in a good way) gal and will come out better for it on the other side of this minor setback.

 

Oh crap. I hate that this happened. Just a reminder we are all human out here and prone mistakes when we aren't on top of our game. You didn't make it worse so always take the positive out of it.

On the flip side the only reason I didn't suggest that route before is because those truckstops on 78 are zoos.

 

Thank you Blu.... A LOT of hurt "pride" right now... but mostly trying to understand the "lesson" behind it... I guess tomorrow, once I am more rested, will be able to think more clearly about it all and see what needs to be changed and most importantly, make those changes every time it's necessary...

 

Thank you FatDaddy... Yes... it could have been worse... I hope all Freightliner has to do will be flush this thing out and/or replace the tank... Wreck truck driver said they may need to replace the DEF pump and some lines, this and that... even though I didn't turn engine on, the diesel is already mixed with DEF in the system... Well.... shall see on Monday... And I wonder how much this will cost to the co.... Truck is not under warranty any more...
Wreck place sent 2 trucks to tow me... one for the tractor and another for the trailer cause here in PA it's against the law to tow truck and trailer together... I didn't know...

 

And you know FatDaddy... I also had a "bad feeling" about going to that Pilot and/or that TA...