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

Despite my grousing, this loaner has a switch to dump the airbags. A feature my own truck does not have for some inexplicable reason.

I'm a big fan of having a switch to dump the airbags.

 

Bout fell out the truck door yesterday,got a preplan,and than a reload after.

Been seeing a big difference here lately.

 

So naturally, since I am not in my own truck, they have given me a cross-country trip to Fife, WA. I ain't gonna turn it down. Especially since it will allow me to cross off one of the only remaining two states I've never been to at all.

I have, in one form or another, been to 48 of the 50 states. Obviously I didn't go to Hawaii in a truck, but I have been to Hawaii. I've never been to North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, or Alaska in a truck, and I've never been to South Dakota or Alaska at all.

The last time they gave me a load that would've allowed me to drive through South Dakota was over three years ago. They'd given me a load to Seattle and I had planned out my trip to take me through South Dakota on I-90. The next morning I woke up in a truck stop in Illinois, discovered a whole bunch of coolant underneath my truck, reported it as a mechanical problem that needed fixin', and then found out later that it was just coolant overflow and there was nothing whatsoever wrong with the reservoir or radiator.

But by the time I'd figured out that there was nothing wrong with my truck and I could deliver the load no problem, they'd already given JohnBoy instructions to come rescue the load. So he got my load to Seattle, and I got his load to (IIRC) some Amazon facility in Pennsylvania. And I ain't had a load to Washington since.

So, loaner or not, I'm taking it.

This time, though, I brought my coat.

 

Don't be bragging about nailing a sheep!

 

Loaner I'm driving is missing mudflaps on both sets of rear tires. Called Knight breakdown to set up a fix while I'm waiting for my BH trailer to be ready. Dude on the other end of the phone told me "We just tell our drivers not to worry about it if they're hauling a trailer."

 

I love the I-90 drive through South Dakota! I've done it many a times. Very beautiful and peaceful place. I always enjoyed my trips through there.

What I always found interesting was that I always thought of the Missouri River, which runs through Chamberlain in South Dakota, as kind of the dividing marker between "East Coast" and "West Coast". On the eastern half of SD like Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls always felt like the east coast to me. while once you pass Chamberlain on the Missouri River and enter into The Badlands Region, that scenery is much more of a western landscape than it is an eastern one.

So, every time that I would come back from the West Coast to the East Coast and go through I 90 in SD, about once I passed Chamberlain (but definitely once I hit Mitchell SD) I always felt like I was back "home", even though home for me is in NC.

It's kind of crazy how the differing natural landscapes of the east and west coast can make the US feel like a completely different country.

Enjoy the drive!

 

Yet another Knight thing. None of the Knight trucks I drove had an air dump. Stupid.