Good bye my trucking dream!

My day today “seeing America”
Jump out of bed 3am then drive up to the fuel island. Run in for my first coffee and it was full of coffee grounds..after waiting for fresh coffee go out and fire up the fuel pump.
Walk around truck to put the satellite nozzle in and it’s broken.
Back out of island and into another. Go through the whole routine firing up another pump just to fill the right side tank. (Thankfully no one else was in the island this morning)

Finish up fueling and pretrip and I’m gone!

Bang a left onto I-90W and I’m a rolling! Get one mile heading out of Laurel, MT and there it is.. UPS? Hauling doubles on the right shoulder with 4ways flashing. On the left shoulder was a Camry type car with a guardrail speared through the windshield. I didn’t want to look but I did..fortunately for me there was a blanket blocking my view into the car.
I’m guessing it was fatal by the way the first responders were just standing around..perhaps waiting for the coroner.

Well that’s 3 bad luck things out of the way by 4 am..rest of the day is going to be great!

Checked the weather for my route and I was running way ahead of the snow forecasted for the areas I would be running through…so I thought.

Put a good 20 miles behind me and there it was..snow coming. Probably nothing major I was thinking and kept rolling. Get over the first mountain pass and things gradually improve.

Get to second Mountain range and there it was road covered with a couple inches of snow and snowing heavily. Chain up sign wasn’t flashing so I just figured it wouldn’t be bad. Do the big climb at 25mph and I briefly lose traction. Adjust my position on the road so I’m not running in others tracks and then have my long “come to Jesus moment”.
Praying now that I can get into the truck rest area a few miles up the road and throw some chains on. Get to the rest area but the entrance was blocked by a jackknifed truck! I’m running very light in my trailer and absolutely needed chains to make the next climb.
Rest area on ramp ahead! Pulled to the shoulder, Backed all the way down the on ramp and got into a parking spot. Luckily everything was quiet and I was able to do it safely.
By now I’m becoming mentally exhausted and decided to take a two hour nap to recharge..Lol, even that didn’t go well, woke up from a nightmare that I crashed.

Put my big boy pants on and said “You’re not going to see America today if you don’t go out and throw some chains on your tires” All while ignoring the fact that these chains weigh more than me
Got down the pass safely and unchained..Figured I’d just get down the road another 100 and shutdown in Missoula, MT before something else happened..What can happen?
Well evidently someone thought that I should have stopped so they can merge onto the interstate. Yes, they raced up ahead got in front of me and break checked me.. I knew it was coming, most 4wheelers are predictable.

That was my day of “seeing America”

Point is if you can’t handle stress very well then this occupation isn’t for you. Although these types of days don’t happen often, when they do you need to be able to make sound decisions and power through.

My opinion on seeing America through the windshield of a truck. It’s mostly crap, overcrowded and getting worse every year. You’ll dream about retirement every day and pray that you won’t be taken out by some moron truck driver.

 

Walking is a great way to strengthen the spine, be sure to ‘walk correctly’. Swing your arms, look up and forward.

 

I’ve had plenty of concussions. Twisting your neck cleaning a truck is small potato’s .…… you gotta chill out. This was my last concussion, and transverse process fracture of the lumbar spine and broken finger. I was plenty dizzy Took a week off and right back at it…….get some help for the depression and get going

 

hit my butt and head……screwing up your lumbar spine doesn’t give you a concussion.

 

sounds like a simple case of vertigo.

inner ear infection maybe, or just the inner ear is out of whack.

I have bouts of it once in a while.

Dizziness - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic