An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Inland it was....it is still orange and red from N. Bend to Cle Elum

 

Got a surprise this morning. 7:15 I get a message from breakdown, truck is done and ready for pickup. I figured, based on my previous experience with a KW shop, I was here until the weekend, so I didn't rush to get up and get rolling.

 

I was misinformed. They found the inactive code for my previous mystery issue, not a new code. They checked all the sensors, plugs and the wiring harness and found nothing amiss. The code didn't identify anything specific...so it is still a mystery.

 

Well, I get to go play in the snow. They put me on a load that someone is picking up in Kent that needs to be in Missoula by 10 am tomorrow. Been up since 6, started my day when I picked up my truck, and it's gonna get cold tonight. Told him 10 a.m. might not be possible with the weather and the roads. Some machine that is going to a forestry company. Right now, there isn't any chain requirements all the way across, but ID says 4th of July and Lookout have icy spots, and Montana is doing their usually lousy job of snow removal.

 

My day went to #### in a hurry. Coming up to N.Bend WA and this happened





Left front steer tire might have caught a broken link of a tire chain...the steer tires on my truck were in good shape and inflated right(just came out of the company shop after a service and inspection). The down side, the piles of snow on the shoulder make it tough to get completely off the road. All 3 triangles and my 2 red oversized strobes out and waiting for a service truck. Only real damage might be the left ABS sensor, and it knocked the cover off the back side of where you replace the headlights, and drug the black aero plastic under the front bumper on the ground before I could coax it to the right shoulder...and f'd up the rim bad too.

 

This was my 1st. And it really didn't blow...I just heard what sounded like a pickup with agressive off road tires, but nobody was around me, then it pulled to the left worse than normal on these tire chain- groved roads...and I am 3 miles from the N. Bend T/A exit and can't limp it that far.

 

Going on 4 hours sitting here on the white line. After 2 they finally found someone out of Seattle to come fix me up, but gave me a 2 hour eta. Most vehicles are doing the right thing and moving over one lane...however I did have a Walmart company truck buzz me with nobody next to him. Plus, I haven't had the first cop stop to see if I am ok...(or pass me that I can see)...I hope this service truck has a bunch of signs and cones like the T/A service trucks use.(the T/A 3 miles away wouldn't answer their phone when the breakdown service tried to call them, and this was early evening, there should have been someone working there at that time of day). This load #### sure won't make it on time...in fact, I couldn't care any less if I had to wait until Monday to deliver the way I feel right now...