EVO I: Ten days without a reportable accident!

Graduated EVO II and now I'm in EVO III, out on my own.

Got a few pics from the last few weeks, will put 'em up shortly. Including the under-construction stretch of US2 in Maine where it's a dirt road, hauling 20 tons of paper across a one-lane bridge that looks like a Boy Scout troop put it together.

EVO III put me into Chicago proper, not just bypassing it. Gotta say I like the bypass better, even with the everlasting construction. But for now I'm home, and off to sunny Florida in a few days.

 

I think a lot of the negatives come from folks who want more predictability on the road. Stuff happens, you can cry about it or deal with it. Like driving to within 20 miles of the consignee through Chicago traffic, then being told the appointment was pushed back, head back to Wisconsin. Twice through that miserable hellhole to drop the trailer in WI when the Gary terminal is closer. Wah. Then coming back to Chicago with another load, finding a place to park so I could pick up in the morning and head off to Akron and then home. That's a lot of Chicago for 2 days, and I won't miss it while I'm off.



Got stuck here after dropping the trailer. Both front duals and the right rear are hanging in the water. The PDL didn't help, but I got a pull from a forklift. I wish the International had a tow hook. I had to hold the chain in my teeth.



US2 in Maine, heading up to the clouds.



The sign says PAVEMENT ENDS. And it does.



This bridge looks like a Boy Scouts project. We'll see if they get a merit badge here in a couple seconds.

Spending a few days home, doing laundry, paying bills and mowing the lawn. Then it's off to sunny Florida, and yes I'm gonna idle that sucker down there.

 

Oh goody, I've always wanted to ride out a hurricane in the sleeper. Not.

 

The PDL didn't help. Since the second axle was off the ground completely, and the third had only one set of duals on the ground, it wasn't going anywhere. That yard looks like the surface of the moon, but with ankle-deep water.

Looks like the worst of the hurricane is going to miss me, but it'll be a fun drive anyway, with all the rain and refugees.

 

Well, dispatch decided the best place for me to be after a hurricane is right in the middle of the aftermath. Half-mile gas lines, scale houses closed, and lots of wind damage:


Photographed outside Gulfport, MS

I had a box full of portable generators, and I knew they'd be wanted. Nobody at Lowe's argued when I showed up five hours early but that screwed up the planners, and I had to wait for a new load in a very small TS in Crowley, LA, afraid to open the windows for the cloud of love bugs (whom I envy for their ability to, er, couple, in flight). I had to scrub my windshield 3 times to get most of them off.

So now I feel kinda good, having done a good deed for the hurricane survivors. Now I'm up in Olive Branch, MS with a load going to Texas.

This time out I'm getting 350-550 miles a day, so life is good.