Longest time on the road without sleep

File this in the "Old Days" category, cause' I don't think you'd likely get away with this now.

Year - 1987.
Starting point: El Paso, Texas.
Assignment: Drive to Houston, TX, pick up a load of canned soup, bring it back before Christmas.

Objections/obstacles: I had an airline ticket to fly home to be with my family on Christmas.

Reality: Easily doable.

So, I took off. In those days, I was driving a GMC Astro - no, not a mini-van, a semi-tractor, that had no governor on it. I could drive 100 mph between El Paso and San Antonio without any problems from State Troopers, who always seemed much more interested in catching 4-wheelers doing anything/everything that is illegal.

I remember the run so vividly, because it turned out to be TWO consecutive trips, not just one. I arrived at the designated shipper on time - it was by appointment only - and got loaded. Drove back. Piece of cake, I was done.

Management comes out and tells me that there is yet another load at the same place with the same product. This was 5 minutes after I pulled into the yard, looking forward to my visit with my family in Phoenix. I was tired, I hadn't slept, I just drove the entire trip, sans the time to load the truck and stop for fuel/eat. I thought about it - I was young and dumb, all of these stories of stupidity are always my young and dumb days.

Figured I could make it considering the trip I just made. However, what I failed to calculate was my lack of sleep and the extreme fatigue I would experience by the time I got back, if I actually made it in time to get to the airport and take off.

So, I went to "bed" while they unloaded the truck. I couldn't sleep, my mind was too full of "gee, I have to drive clear to Houston, pick up another load and try to get back in time to get to the airport and take off". So I took off yet again. There was an appointment at 11:00pm the next morning to get loaded. I made it there 2 hours late - everyone had clocked out and was leaving. I BEGGED them to load the truck, told them my plight.

One guy said they wouldn't do it, another guy just said fine, let's get it over with. Oh God, thank you!

I've never experienced such a trying trip in all my trucking life. I was so tired, I was slapping my face, sticking my head out the driver's door window, dumping ice cold water on my face, doing whatever I could to keep myself going. In 3 and a half days, I drove from El Paso to Houston to El Paso to Houston to El Paso. Check that out in a mileage calculator.

By the time I was 50 or so miles outside of El Paso, I had to keep pulling over onto the emergency lane to shut my eyes long enough - and no, I wasn't sleeping, my head was - frying is the way I describe it, you can hear this "sound" in your head, sounds like the sound of something frying on the frying pan (my brains, lol) or maybe you would call it extreme buzzing. I dun't know, but a hitchhiker came up to the truck on one of those stints and asked for a ride. I told him I was beyond exhausted, couold he please talk to me and keep me awake?

He couldn't do it, either. I still had to pull over, shut my eyes, and go, stop and go, stop and go. What would happen today if I had been caught? Jail? I FINALLY made it back to El Paso, back to the yard, JUST in time to get to the airport and catch the plane.

I've always looked back on those two trips with both spite and - joy. Spite because I caved into the demands of people that didn't know anything about driving that much, joy because all that food was going to the needy for Christmas.
No, I don't claim to be a supertrucker, I don't EVEN want to be labelled as THAT. I don't DO crap like that anymore - age can create wisdom through experience. When I finally arrived at my mother's house in Phoenix, I went to bed that afternoon and did not get out of bed until the NEXT afternoon.

 

Mr. or Mrs. Logs:
You couldn't pay me enough money to live the trucking life I did in my 20's and 30's. Mostly my 20's. I doubt people would believe much of my stories - insanity on wheels - so I will refrain from much of it. I remember one time filling up my tanks - 150 gallon each side - and running them dry before realizing that I had driving them from full to empty. See? You think that is unbelieable, here's the rest of the story: I was somewhere in Mississippi, and realized that I had driven a LOT of hours without stopping, going pee, eating, refueling, ANYTHING. I was a driving madman, the load had to get there, and I didn't care what it took.

I pulled off at the next exit after realizing that, and pulling up to the red light and stopping, the truck died. I had run the tanks out of fuel. I had to turn the valves off to the crosslines (don't think they have THOSE anymore, not like that anyway), find a suitable container, drain out the tank that wasn't the feeder, dump all that fuel in the other tank, pull off the fuel filter and fill that up - a couple of times actually before it would start - and get it to the truckstop that was 2 blocks away.

Is that the end of this story? I was dehydrated and hungry, I decided to park the truck and go into the restaurant to get something to eat. I sat down, the waitress came, I tried to ask for water - the only thing that came out of my mouth was a croaking sound - I had not talked all day long, actually since the day before, I hadn't eaten or drank anything - since the day before, my throat was so dry I couldn't speak.

The waitress "gathered" that I was thirsty and brought a large glass of ice water. I drank it dry in - something like a huge gulp. She brought another one, same thing. Next thing she brought was an entire pitcher of water...........

To be honest, I loved those days. It was a different time in trucking, and I can't say that I have much of anything but fond memories. Maybe just because it was SO insane - things I wouldn't DREAM of doing now. These weren't flukes, I was living this kind of life on a daily basis. As I said, the stories are probably unbelievable to most people. Regardless, I lived them and that's the only thing I can say about it.

But - to encourage some new guy/gal to do those same things now? I mean, you could easily end up dead, maimed, or worse, you could kill or maim someone else. My worst nightmare is to have to live with having killed someone else in traffic, even if it was their fault. Who cares whose fault it is, you have to live with it. Yes, you care if it is your fault, makes it a thousand times worse. Moreso, if that isn't enough, you can end up in jail, or, lose your CDL permanently. Your life will be altered forever.

A story? Sure, but not me this time. Another driver was on a regular city street (surface street) in the slow lane, going below the speed limit. A kid on an ATV comes flying out of a side street - doesn't stop at the stop sign, just goes right through it and plows into the side of this guy's truck. The ATV hits the truck, the kid goes flying off of it.

The driver sees what's happening, no matter that he slams on his brakes immediately. The kid's head is laying right where the heavily loaded trailer's tandems are rolling - his brains squish out of his head, the skull is flattened.

I try to learn from my past and from other people's mistakes and other people's experiences. There's a lot of death and mayhem out there, I don't want to be a part of it. That driver could never come to grips with driving again, even though there is no part of what he was doing that was his fault that that kid died that day. His entire life was haunted with the site of that kid and the aftermath.

How much worse would it be that it was YOUR fault, something you did that caused that person to die? It happens every day. I was done with living dangerously a long time ago, a LONG time ago.

No, Mr Logs, I don't endorse or even condone this stuff. It's just a part of my past - that's it. I still like the challenge of - things that you might still not like, but that's not my problem. Not long ago, I was at a construction site. Actually, I was at the bottom of a mountain, talking to a consruction supervisor who was receiving the delivery off my truck. "Umm, do you think you could take the load up there?"

I look in the direction he's pointing and see nothing but the side of a mountain. "Don't you see the equipment?" WHAT freakin' equipment? I start squinting and looking, more than half way up the side of this freaking huge mountain, I can make out a very large trackhoe (excavator) moving back and forth as it's digging up the earth to make a giant trench.

Ummm, well, Mr. Foreman, take me up there in your pickup first so I can decide whether this is something I want to get myself into.

Long story short, it was quite the challenge - 12% grade at least - dirt road, nothing was paved yet, one lane road with "pullouts" along the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge! Especially at the top - umm, where there was only JUST enough room to do a series of things to get the truck turned around to go back down that "road".

Okay, I"m full of stories, oh well. I've mostly loved my career as a truck-driver and all of it's different aspects.