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

MACK E-6 · Jun 16, 2019

MidWest_MacDaddy said: ↑

Why on earth do some drivers park with their bumper AT the curb when everyone else bumps the curb with their tires... or close anyway... in this lot there are two trucks on opposing sides of a row... with their nose stuck out some 5-6 feet past the other trucks in the line... leaving their whole front exposed to possible impacts and taking up space in the lot for other trucks to maneuver.
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They might have their trailer axles slid all the way back, probably due to being loaded with styrofoam and they don’t want the trailer axles overloaded.

MACK E-6 · Jun 16, 2019

ExtremeUnction said: ↑

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.

View attachment 284858

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:

View attachment 284860

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:

View attachment 284861

View attachment 284862

View attachment 284863

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.

View attachment 284866

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.
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Would it have been easier to hit that from St. Charles Ave? That way it’s only a 45 degree turn onto Leake St.

ExtremeUnction · Jun 16, 2019

MACK E-6 said: ↑

Would it have been easier to hit that from St. Charles Ave? That way it’s only a 45 degree turn onto Leake St.
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If there had been enough room to make a wide right turn onto St. Charles, I might've ignored the sign and done it anyways. But making a right-turn from a single-lane road to another single-lane road didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

MidWest_MacDaddy · Jun 16, 2019

Silverdriver said: ↑

Thanks! To you also!
I'm in Indianapolis, Indiana. Going to go get my diner at the truck stop.
Where are you?
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Loves on I-80 western Nebraska...
6 hours from my drop tomorrow...

For some reason, ever since Cheyenne, my gps has been wanting to take me south and then east using highways instead of I80 east until I can drop south... at first I thought it was just “shorter distance” so it was opting for those routes even though when I force a via it’s the same time... at this point, it’s both shorter and faster to take I80 as far East as possible and then South... but the GPS still wants to take me through the country... even though it’s longer in both time and distance.... I’m starting to wonder if they closed 80 and no one here knows about it... lol

The Kraut · Jun 17, 2019

MidWest_MacDaddy said: ↑

Loves on I-80 western Nebraska...
6 hours from my drop tomorrow...

For some reason, ever since Cheyenne, my gps has been wanting to take me south and then east using highways instead of I80 east until I can drop south... at first I thought it was just “shorter distance” so it was opting for those routes even though when I force a via it’s the same time... at this point, it’s both shorter and faster to take I80 as far East as possible and then South... but the GPS still wants to take me through the country... even though it’s longer in both time and distance.... I’m starting to wonder if they closed 80 and no one here knows about it... lol
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I-29 South from Omaha is closed due to flooding, your GPS doesn't want to route you there

Silverdriver · Jun 17, 2019

MidWest_MacDaddy said: ↑

Loves on I-80 western Nebraska...
6 hours from my drop tomorrow...

For some reason, ever since Cheyenne, my gps has been wanting to take me south and then east using highways instead of I80 east until I can drop south... at first I thought it was just “shorter distance” so it was opting for those routes even though when I force a via it’s the same time... at this point, it’s both shorter and faster to take I80 as far East as possible and then South... but the GPS still wants to take me through the country... even though it’s longer in both time and distance.... I’m starting to wonder if they closed 80 and no one here knows about it... lol
Click to expand...

What GPS is that Rand McNally or Garmin?

Silverdriver · Jun 17, 2019

Today I'm in Vincennes, IN at a chicken plant. O! The smell of wet chicken is horrible! Also I can see many chicken's in cages looking at me and saying save me please! Open the cage!
Ok! Enough I'm turning into Doctor Dolittle!

MidWest_MacDaddy · Jun 17, 2019

@JohnBoy ... the death toll of American Tourists in the DR is now up to nine... plus some 47 parrotheads in a Jimmy Buffet tour/concert got very very sick...

Avoid the alcohol and the swim up bars... they believe it might be related to cheap unofficial liquor they use to cut corners on those “all inclusive” packages...

{ya, I know you don’t drink but keep an eye out on that lovely lady of yours... we want you both to come back and healthy too}

MidWest_MacDaddy · Jun 18, 2019

Well, I got to Osborne, KS without incident and saved some 30 minutes too... so not sure what RM was worried about... quick LUL and off to Goddard, KS to LLD and then heading back to VA with it... so, this Western Trip (mini vacation) comes to an end... I should have stopped to take more photos... oh well, those big beautiful mountains and streams will be there next year when I get back out this way.

Drive today and tomorrow to VA and then they should be heading me back to FL for my rather unplanned home time.

RebelChick · Jun 18, 2019

LUL at a very secure place in Norfolk. It is already like 85 degrees and you are not allowed to idle. Been here for 1 1/2 hours and counting with no one even touching the freight yet. Whew! It’s not fun at all. I sure could use JBs pool right now!

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