'fess up time for "old hands"!

Dade County Sheriff sits mid way in that curve a lot. Great hiding spot to catch interstate speeders.... And he can get the people going over 30 mph on the exit ramp at the same time!

The real sad thing about living there.... There is no back roads into the Choo Choo when your in a big truck (low clearances). If 24 east is screwed & I gotta go that way, I'm sitting in it. If my destination is Nashville or Birmingham directions, then I got back roads to get around the interstate mess. Same thing going home.... Coming from Chatt, I'm stuck in traffic.

 

Coming into Almagordo eons ago, middle of the afternoon and raining! I was thinking this asphalt looks kinda shiny, I bet it's slippery. Look in the mirror to see the trailer out in the left lane, and it was back when I only had a 45 footer. It took until I was down to 35mph for it to stop dancing back and forth.

 

Years ago I was headed to Boston just like every other week. Nothing really special on the NY Thruway. Pretty clear. Got near the MA state line and starting to hit fog. Not bad. Few miles farther windshield looks funny like there's a film on it. What the H. Get to the Toll Booth. How's the Pike I ask. Clear to Boston with patchy fog came the reply. Cool deal. Got on about 43000k of Exotic Furs(cow hides to you rookies). Headed east lookin good. Windshield gets fuzzier,lights look real dull,not much traffic westbound. Start to climb the hill near the middle of the Trunpike, get about 1/4 of the way up it and my trailer is in the left lane. What the H. Slow down, drop 2 gears, touch the accelerator pedal, WHEEEEEEE! Spinning, UH OH. Can't get any traction. The shoulder is gravel,get over dummy,get on the shoulder. WHEW! Rest Area up ahead. Flashing lights all over the place.Lights look fuzzy and funny. Two snow plows in middle of Turnpike. State Police officier waving me into the rest area. What's going on I ask. Freezing Fog he replies. Pike is closed. How did you get up the hill he asked. Drove the sucker on the shoulder I reply. Good for you he says. My first encounter with freezing fog. That s### is sneaky!! Things just happen when you drive a truck. I was a wreck trying to get up that hill. Today it's kinda funny. Oh yeah I got out of the truck to go get some coffee and fell flat on my butt. Man it was slick out there.

 

Lord have mercy...... this forum ain't big enough. Everybody has a store of whoopsie storys. Especiaslly those concerning winter. Us old guys had more 2 lane roads to contend with but not near so much traffic. I gotta say not as many morons who think you can drive 65mph on ice either.

How about the time I was delivering diesel fuel to a coal mine in Minto NB. It was the dead of winter, blackest night, ice and snow and waaaay below zero. The road in and out was a narrow, unpaved cowpath that wandered in between huge piles of tailings. Several inches of packed down snow that had long turned to ice for a driving surface. Not a spoonful of sand even tho there were tons upon tons of coaldust and gravel about. Slicker than Sh.....!!!

Anyhow, I'd been hauling tank for about 3 months and was on this ####e run because I was still the "new guy". In the middle of this mess was a blind "S" bend with a narrow barely 2 lane "bridge" (no guardrails, nothing). I had made it in, unloaded and on my way back out. Hit that S bend a little sooner than I expected and a tad too fast. I quit breathing when I saw a VW bug parked right at the other end of the bridge.

Then there was the time I was hauling bales of Kraft Paper on a aluminum triaxle flatbed. KW cabover with 400 cummins and 13od . Hit something on the road surface and both right side tires blew on the lift axle. Ict road again, so the trailer took off for the ditch. Alls I could do was pour on the coal to that ol cummins and pray. Plowed snow in that ditch, she came out and went across to do the same on the other side. Back out and into the right ditch again. My toes are tickling the fan I've got that go pedal so far down. Finally, she gave a lurch and came back up on the road and I got it stopped. In the snowplowing, the back duals had pulled off the rims and gone flat too...... leaving me one set of tires on that side with air in em. Never lost one scrap of the paper but did kink the frame on that aluminum trailer. Two other trucks behind me saw the whole deal and couldn't believe I didn't roll it. Limped her 5 miles to where I could get the tires fixed and then delivered the load. When I got back to our terminal I had a whole bunch of people waiting in the yard. Seems the two other truckers had phoned in and told them "Don't you dare fire him on this.... that kid's a DRIVER!!!".

Oh, the VW? well, it was a local running a trapline and he'd gone into the brush to check some rabbit snares. I got the tractor by ok, but the back end of the trailer snapped around and swatted that bug into the tulies like a tennis ball.

Thankfully, since I was empty, it didn't do much damage to either. We pushed the bug back to the road and he drove it off. I sure as heck knew where that S bend was for the rest of that winter.

Moral: Be one good speaking terms with the Lord Above. He sure loves his fools and truck drivers.

 

My fourth day as a truck driver I was cruising down the highway having a nice talk with my trainer. Next thing we know a goose comes crashing into the windshield. I screamed like a girl when it happened, but my trainer screamed louder. The #### goose hit the windsheid so hard it's beak broke through the glass and stuck to the windshield. It stayed there until we got pulled over and removed it. My trainer called the saftey dept to report what happened. Those idiots made us load up the goose and take it to the shop to prove that was what hit the windshield.

 

Anything more than an inch is wasted space!

 

Years ago,going through the S curve in Pawtucket RI on Rt95, I had an old guy of about 90 enter the highway and drive immediately into the middle lane.The only problem was that I happened to be there at the time.The only thing that I could do was to lock up the brakes and smoke the tires, or demolish him.Looked in the mirror and saw the trailer coming around the right side.I got enough distance between us to get off the brakes and straighten it out.
I don't think that he ever knew how close he came that day to ending his life.
Another time in Hartford Ct on Rt 91, I was behind a truck in the middle lane passing 2 trucks in the right lane, suddenly something huge flew past my right mirror.A dead deer landed behind me.We yelled to the first driver in the right lane,and he said that he neither saw the deer or knew that he hit said deer.I almost had a passenger that night.
One time in a truck stop,This really cute girl in a mini shirt,kept banging on my door,I finally got sick of it and let her out.

 

Ran a trip, got home and did not sleep. Headed back out from Smoke City to Jville, FL. Going south on US 27 (back when it was a two lane) ten miles south of Bainbridge, GA I woke up when my left steer tire hit the shoulder of the north-bound lane. That did wake me up! Pulled over in Havanna, FL and slept until noon.

 

Was in Buffalo Ny turning into a shippers driveway covered with snow. Turned a little to wide and the right side steer slammed down into a little drainage ditch covered by snow. I don't know how I did it but before the truck even came to a rest I slammed it in reverse and floored it for about 15 seconds and backed out.

 

I believe the statute of limitations still as not run out for my story, not to mention her old man might still be alive and still have that 12ga. laying around