Getting Turned Around

Sometimes you have to get out and slide your tandems up as well. When I was a newb, I would usually slide my tandems up once I got past all the scales before hitting a big city.

 

O-yes i rember my first turns too, but the weirdeist one for me was at Roseville minn , just came outa truckstop headed east, bam wall to wall cars stopped on express, i said this just great earlery am rushers, but not the case a tanker truck hit headone int the bridge embankment, just the whole thing was down the hyway ,troppers was was routing cars thru the middel with a nice dip ta boot, he comes up too me mr nice nice state tropper sir you have too go thru the middel , you what , you want me too do what, i said there no way this truck going down that dicth en get turn around , he just said yup it will work, i just said okay, didnt wanna, i was happy just sitting here, but they too make room for the wirlybird, went forward as much as could gave a hard left got sideways headed back west keeping close as could too that middel wire thing then when i got close i swing wide went in at 45 tore the he***ck out there grass en payment and gave it wholly what for but i came out the other side suprized me , i said i never do that again had to go back too truck stop and wait it out and while i did i figure it was good time too clean out my drawers and take a long hot showers , all i gotta say good thing i had load of feathers ,becuse i had load of brake drums i woulda been over,

 

I ended up in a small sub- burb one time ,, i turned in the local basketball court , with a cop right behind me .

 

Lat time I followed directions given me by my company. Followed them to the letter getting more and more uneasy the further I got from the freeway. Just did not look right.
I finally found myself on a dead end street, in a residential neighborhood, facing a public swimming pool!
Everyone in the neighborhood got a big kick out of it. Glad they were all nice folks. Had to get some cars moved and several volunteers to block traffic and whatnot for me as I backed up and got turned around. Worked out ok, thankfully but I learned right there to never, EVER completely trust any directions I was given.
Trust your instincts, if the route you are on doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Stop! Pull over, put on the hazards and call someone. Customer, fire department, police, SOMEONE. But don't just blindly keep following a route that makes you uncomfortable.
I once pulled over at a fire station in some little town in Arkansas. Guys were friendly and very helpful. Knew the best way to get out of there in a big truck. Fire trucks are big trucks too.

 

Missed a turn in Chicago one time and started to panic, going what the heck do I do now!!! Was really worrying about low bridges. Finally just pulled to the side, took a deep breath, and started thinking. If I see a trk come out of a side street, betcha ther's a place to turn around. Started moving again and bingo, with in 4 blocks, saw a trk coming out and turned in right there. Thank you JB Hunt for letting me turn around in your yard and not laughing at me to hard.

 

I was going to the beer plant at coors in golden, Co. turned right instead of left and woops right into a neighborhood. middle of a snowstorm early sunday though. found a parking lot pulled in backed out went the other way. big thing just stay calm

 

This the quail com msg i got from jb, take this load okay, now its been raining for weeks, so everything , including people yards was soaked en soft, ext, anyway this directions says this, i didnt even leave the yard yet, take this load from the yard ,drop your trl empty here, i said okay no problem, and as i stared too read the directions most were pretty straight foward cause i got on someboby ch**********t list and gave me all chicago city work, for a month, so i was getting too know chicago pretty good , all the low clearance were i could go, but there's no way en h******ll i was gonna take this load, load of steel coils in a box , just small coils about 2 feet high about 4 feet around big wide flat ones, extra heavy,becuse heres the directions, take over too this street , go anthor 5 blocks, now im thinking this be easy just back in to dock be done , till i got to this part, go too end of dead end, turn left , brush trl against the tree on corner, yes it said that ,most directions are from drivers who send it in too em , go past 5 houses on there backyard keep close too chainlink fence go anthor 500 feet, turn right and between two tight buildings wide enuff for a box truck go too end of building hang a left again very narrow, no room for erro, no way too back up ether,with a 53, after that i shut quil com down and walked into terminal and told em a thing a or too and told em i m not driving on nobody yard and second thing i told em with that kinda load weight i be buired up too my axle the first 100 feet and would need o-hare towing at my expense yes jb does not pay for tows and said what are you guys idiots, outload to all em ,send a driver thru people backyard's , they tryed too calm me down but i was too postal too settle down, so they gave me a week off too cool off , then aft that they keep me out in ark,doing local down there

 

One of my buddy's gets lost a lot ,and ends up getting all pissed off.
If he could just keep his cool,he could concentrate and not make sometimes stupid mistakes.

So my feelings is to try to keep your head on straight.

 

Missing a turn and getting lost or into a place I can't back out of or turn around in makes me nervous, I can tell you. Some good advice and reassurance (that I'm not the only one!) here.

 

Sounds like the time I got lost ( thanks to bad directions form the shipper ) in Patterson,NJ ended up lost for 3 hours trying to get back off of the one way streets i was on the wrong way!