First trip wins and losses

I finally parted ways with my employer and booked my first loads. Two bundles of pipe and a tractor coming from TX to MN and WI.

 

On my way up, I was in BFE of Oklahoma, missed an exit so I attempted a turn around in a church parking lot. Entering the lot I made the mistake of not checking where my trailer was on the turn in, the inside tires sunk in soft mud and the truck and trailer were stuck as can be. The trailer was still in the road about a foot, I put my reflective triangles out and signaled for help. Remember when I said BFE? Yeah, no one passed for a good 20 minutes. When a truck finally came by I flagged them down. They happily helped me as much as they could, but with the tractor over the tires, it wasn’t budging. They had an old gen 1 ram 3500 and were just spinning tires trying to pull the truck and trailer backwards back into the road. So by now a few cars have passed and have called in that I was stuck. An off duty fireman stopped by the scene on his way to a grassfire, again this guy was just happy as can be to help me get out. He had a gen 2 Ram 2500 and still nothing was moving. Some time passes and a police officer arrives at the scene along with other locals to marvel at my blunder. So we unhook my truck from the trailer and the county commissioner (didn’t know it at this point) hooks up with his Chevy 3500 flatbed while I and the fireman pull from the rear. Reason being is I was up against a fence and his flatbed could go in at a better angle to get the trailer out. We got it out with relative ease at this point.

Per procedure the officer gets my license, insurance, etc. and says they have to work the scene as an accident because the rear of trailer scraped a small divot in the road and the truck made ruts in some grass, property damage. I understand, i was at fault I’m not gonna argue. Well, the gentleman in the Chevy (county commissioner) is on his way out but I yelled for him to wait I wanted to pay him for his time and help. He politely refused any form of payment from me and asked if I had gotten a ticket. I said “well not yet but I also haven’t got my papers back from the officer so we’ll find out here in a minute” His reply “ok you just sit tight let me go have a word with him”

Couple minutes pass as they’re discussing and I overhear the county commissioner say “no don’t you worry about any damage, if I need to I’ll get some asphalt on the road and we’ll take care of those ruts, let the young man be on his way without any trouble”

This experience was embarrassing but also amazing. Here I am some shmuck truck driver that messed up their road and grass and within an hour I had a group of good folks that went out of their way to take care of me. Then no one would take my money when I wanted to thank them for the help. They saved me hundreds if not a couple thousand and a lot of headache. Thank you, humble folks of Clayton, OK

 

Sorry no pics of that disaster :/

 

Slept that off and got an early start the next day.

Passing through a weigh station in Missouri I got pulled aside for an inspection. A level 1 inspection. Hot diggity.

Come to find my ELD hasn’t been tracking my miles or engine hours, only time, duty status and location...greeeaattt

The inspection itself went ok, besides two items. First, my front window tint (came from the factory this way) was too dark. Greeeaattt. Second, truck and trailer measured 65’ 5” from tip to tip. Now I can’t argue because that’s not going to help my case but ####ing a man, the officer didn’t even get the tape up against the truck he was standing ####ing 8 feet away from it just eyeballing the measurement...

He brings me back to his cube office and informs me he’s only going to write a citation for the tint, the cheaper of the citations, thanks man I appreciate that for what it’s worth.

On my merry way, it was smooth sailing after that.


I just love the sights some of our highways offer. Much better than my old office!

 

This is on Lake Superior, the bridge between MN and WI is awesome!

 

Pic didn’t come thru in last post

 

Then I found out I also own an equipment rental business in Superior, WI.

 

The pipe delivery was less than eventful. I showed up at 0610, they opened at 0600 however the shop foreman wasn’t there on time so no one could make any drops (it was me, one other hot shot and about 7 18 wheelers waiting in line to drop). When the foreman arrived (0650) it became blatant that he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I politely asked where he wanted me to pull in and make the drop, his reply “hey look man I’m busy right now I don’t have time for two little bundles of pipe you’re gonna have to wait”. The old me would’ve fired back with some smart ### remark that would get me on his bad side, I knew better, so I just went outside and started untarping the pipe while he got settled in, he comes out smoking a cigarillo and I casually start a conversation and within a couple minutes he’s giving me his life story and background, good deal, we’re buddies, now where the #### do you want this pipe????

Got it done and left a smile on his face on my way out. Sweet

 

The tractor made its way up to Hurley, WI where I met a very friendly three generations of WI farmers. Grandfather, father and son. They invited me up to their house to check out their snowmobiles (I’ve never ridden one and told them). Couldn’t pass that up so we go shoot the #### for awhile and ride snowmobiles around their ranch. Cool!