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

Well, my pole car has been approved, but soonest it is available is Friday. We're gonna check in the morning to see if I can drop this trailer in some remote corner of the customer's lot and let me bobtail to the Love's north of here. Never pulled an escort load before. This has me a bit discouraged about OD, but I'm a big boy and will suck it up and push thru...I have to, how else will I ever get to be half as skilled at this as @kylefitzy.

 

My high pole driver called last night, (not the one @kylefitzy posted) he said MI usually requires a route survey for loads my height, so who knows. Plus, he can only get me to the OH/WV line because he has other commitments next week already prescheduled. He also said I will most likely be routed to almost Grand Rapids because of all the interstate construction going on. 69, 696, 94, 75 and 275 all have roadwork that will have lower bridge heights.

And this is one of the ugliest tarp jobs I have ever done. There is just no good way to tarp 2 12' 9" towers that are 15' apart that has a 2' high platform in between, and a 2' platform behind it with a plumbing housing sticking a foot off of it's one corner. He said a previous driver tried to just use one tarp suspended across the towers and he didn't make it out of Michigan before the wind destroyed his tarps because there was nothing to support it in between. Fortunately, the only reason tarps are needed is to protect the shrinkwrap around the unit (and like I was told on a previous tall Boeing load, all Boeing loads require tarps)

 

Things just keep getting more frustrating on this load. I hope I am using up all my bad ju-ju on this. Got my permits, and my WV routing has me jumping off the interstate in Charleston (which has a 7-9 am curfew for my load), go down a winding US route to a even more winding state route to another state route back to the turnpike. And, also, no oversized travel allowed on the turnpike on the weekend. When the permits guy was planning my route, he failed to notice the one sentence written in fine print about the restriction about weekend turnpike travel. I suggested that we change from WV to KY, TN and NC but he said overheight in KY is even more of a PITA than WV. Boeing wanted this Monday, but with not being able to run the turnpike, they pushed it out to Tuesday or Wednesday. This will be an 8 day 1000 mile load. The permit guy said he is pushing for some extra compensation above detention because of all this extra down time. Personally, it is frustrating, but I think being patient and enduring this kind if thing (which happens every once in a while) will end up benefitting me in the long run. Not blowing up and getting pissed off might not be my normal, but it makes a better impression with the folks in the office who are key when it comes to progressing up the ladder to bigger and better loads.

 

When I was talking to my dispatch yesterday, our conversation sounded a lot like some of the conversations I had when I hauled glass. Doing OD is a lot like doing glass. Both are a part of trucking not everyone can or wants to do, so doing it puts another notch in my trucking belt, and gives me options when it comes to available loads to move. When the option is haul this OD load or sit a couple days for a regular load, I will be moving when others are sitting there waiting. And improving and being successful at it gives me a personal sense of accomplishment and personal pride.