Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

It turns out that driving an 18-wheeler through the St. Charles district of New Orleans is every bit as obnoxious as I'd anticipated. Lordy.

 

Oh what I would give for some good alligator sausage! I’ve been hoarding my last bit, but it’s been in the freezer for way too long. Must get eaten now.

 

Got load delivered two hours early in Fife WA today in spite of breaking down early this morning. Was one pallet short though. Or BH Groveport miscounted. Pulled into the Love's in Ellensburg to clean my windshield and my truck died in the fuel island. Thankfully was a quick fix, wire to truck's computer vibrated loose from the battery. Dead heading me to USX in Stockton, CA. Probably to drop my reefer and get a dry van I imagine. Got home time coming next weekend in Yakima, I imagine Im going to be running around the desert til then.

 

Heading to Oregon as soon as I get loaded... not the direction I thought I would be going but I won’t complain... I’ll do the NW for a bit...

at least it’s not NW in the Winter...

 

J.J.'s truck stop on I-30 south of Little Rock has instituted paid parking within the past month. Now costs $11 to park overnight.

 

If I stay out here too much longer, I’ll need to bone up on bridge laws... lol

 

Oh, saw something interesting today in LA... driving down I-5 and a cop turned his lights on and went from the left lane across 4 lanes of traffic and then went back... I was like WTF!!!

He basically stopped FIVE LANES of traffic... and did a couple big circles in the middle of the interstate... again, WTF??? Some airplane needing an emergency landing???

Nope, a wrecker (tow truck) was sitting on the right shoulder... driver got out walked across five lanes of stopped traffic to move a ladder from the far left lane... obviously a road hazard... but he didn’t “take it with him” but rather pushed it up against the divider and walked back to his truck... lol

Then, after the show, we all drove on... lol

I was very impressed with just how fast one officer in one car could cause five lanes of traffic to come to a complete stop...

 

Happens all the time. Just look at how fast people slow way down when they see one with a vehicle already stopped on the opposite side of the road!

 

Here now, the tale of my trip to New Orleans.

First off, I'm from Louisiana, and I lived in New Orleans for a couple of years. So when I saw I was heading to New Orleans, I was pretty excited. Right up until I checked Google Maps to scout out the area around my delivery location.



There's my delivery location there on the left. When I lived in New Orleans, my girlfriend at the time lived not far from my delivery location. It's nothing but tiny streets serving neighborhoods that were built 80 years ago or more. And suddenly I began to become less enthused.

But hey, that's why they pay me the medium-sized bucks.

I spent a good while staring at the map, trying to figure out the best angle of approach. I called the receiver and asked him how to best deliver to his location. The answer was to come in from the south on Leake Ave. Except that there didn't seem to be a way to do that which didn't involve a sharp right turn.

Eventually I just said "screw it" and left it up to Walter, my GPS. I figured he'd get me most of the way there, and if there was a problem, I'd handle it at the scene.

So Walter routed me down Carrolton Avenue, which LOOKS on the map like it would be a major artery. And it is, but it's still REALLY tight for a truck. At one point the road becomes a single-lane road, with about 6 inches of clearance on either side of the vehicle. I saw several HUGE branches dangling down from the old oak trees lining the road which had visible scuff marks from other trucks before me.

Then I got to Leake Avenue, and Walter wanted me to turn right:



Friends, I am here to tell you that making that turn in an 18-wheeler is not possible. Leake Avenue is wider than the surrounding streets, but that's relative. It's not a truck-friendly road by any stretch. Two 18-wheelers passing each other in opposite directions can JUST BARELY clear side mirrors. So there certainly isn't room for the extra-wide turn you'd need to make to clear the building on the right. Especially since the street you're coming off of is an even narrower single-lane road.

Having no other alternative, I turned left and hoped for the best. Half a mile later, I got lucky and found a small, unused parking lot that was big enough for me to turn around, and got myself heading in the right direction.

A mile later, I turned on to the street the receiver had told me to use. They've got an angled dock, so IN THEORY it would be easy to back in. However, these streets are TINY. The phrase "not rated for full-sized 18-wheelers" doesn't even begin to cover it. And there are cars all over the place. Like, I've delivered in Brooklyn, and it wasn't this bad.

But even that might've been manageable thanks to the intersection past the gate giving me a little bit of room. Except that I also had to deal with this:







It's hard to tell due to the shadow, but the dropoff from the top of that storm drain to the bottom of the pothole next to it is about a foot-and-a-half. If you back your tires up against it, you're not going to pop over it like a curb. It's just going to stop you. Note also the sharp corners sticking out, just waiting to cause significant heartache if you catch one on your tires the wrong way.

And it was right square in the way.

So in addition to having to deal with narrow streets and cars everywhere, I also had to make sure I avoided that obstacle. Particularly with my steers.

I never did make it in the dock. Got close, but couldn't seal the deal. Fortunately, there was only one thing the receiver had to unload from the trailer, so he loaded a pallet jack onto the trailer and unloaded his equipment that way.

The receiver kept telling me "Other trucks come here all the time." Those kinds of statements always make me wonder if the dude making them knows the difference between a sleeper cab with a 53' trailer and a day cab with a 45' trailer. I'm not sure I'd want to go there in a 26' box truck.

I will spare you the gory details of my departure from this place, but it was every bit as obnoxious as was getting there in the first place. I had to knock on a couple of doors to get people to move their cars so I could clear a turn. Fortunately my fellow citizens were in an expansive mood that day and were happy to help.

Finally, after a lot of cursing and acrimony, I made it back to the freeway, and there was much rejoicing.



Stopped off at a place in Opelousas called Billy's Boudin, which has THE best boudin I've ever had, in addition to other cajun foods, and also conveniently has a reasonably truck-friendly place to park out front. I looked for alligator sausage for @RebelChick but sadly they don't carry it. I did, however, load up on a bunch of other stuff. Never know when I'll be back this way again, so gotta capitalize on this opportunity. Then I hit the road and headed northwards.

I was passing through Alexandria, and there was a guy ahead of me in a pick-up truck hauling a trailer of old furniture. And just as I started to pass him, some of it started to blow off his (poorly secured) trailer. Including a large wooden rocking chair, which blew right in front of my truck.

Absolutely no time or distance to slow down. Dude was literally 12 feet ahead of me and one lane over when it happened, and we were both doing highway speeds. Throwing on the brakes wouldn't have accomplished anything other than throwing the contents of my bunk all over my cab, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

This happened on an elevated portion of the freeway where the shoulders are narrow, so I couldn't pull over right away. But about a mile later the shoulder got big enough to accomodate my truck, so I stopped to inspect the damage.

The bull bars did their job.

I was expecting there to be a huge piece of wood sticking out of the radiator or something, but the only visible damage was a few scuff marks on the bull bars. The paint wasn't scuffed at all anywhere that I could see.



That's all that was left. Found it resting on the bottom of the bull bars and the top of the fender.

And then I wrapped up the day by seeing my mom, so it was a good ending to the day.

And that's the story of my trip to Louisiana.