Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Discussion in 'Road Stories' started by Victor_V, Jun 2, 2013.

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  1. DenaliDad

    DenaliDad Retired Wheel Dog

    Today's food is more about salt and sugar for taste than nutritional content. When the foodies get on the band wagon, they make it a fight for the extremes, not about improving the overall quality for most of us.

    And the prices they charge and pay are anything but reasonable.
     
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  3. tsavory

    tsavory Road Train Member

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    Well got back at it yeaterday evening ran very little from Bloomington to Remington shut down as i hate parking much closer to Chicago.
    Got up and took off about 5am central made my drop in Chicago got a reload went to Sulfur Springs In got it off just in time and made it back to Bloomington going to take the ten run Back to Chicago reload and deliver over in Miamitown OH (out skirts of Cincy).
    Saw one of your O\Os I would guess a redish colored sleeper running down 65 ran with him for a bit but i hate going though indy if i can avoid it so skooted across 47and 38 instead.
    Trannys seems to run ok just seems a little sluggish on take off and runs a bit higher RPM and yet MPG seems about the same Hmmm. Oh and a new steer tire had to go on before i took off yesterday.
    So it came down to 2 weeks off 1 for tranny one for getting sick. No income and just shy of $4,000 paid out. Got to love trucking :)
     
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  4. Blu_Ogre

    Blu_Ogre Road Train Member

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    POV = Personal vehicle? You can use a tractor to haul around a large RV trailer no problem. IIRC you not need DOT numbers because you are not for Hire. Unsure how Cali deals with non CARB compliant RV use tractors if Cali is travel loc for you.

    There are truck lease programs that are not totally evil. Main thing is to keep the purchase contract and operating contract separate.

    Finding the "Right for you" carrier to lease you and your truck to will also be a significant challenge.
     
  5. double yellow

    double yellow Road Train Member

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    Lunch counter story time:

    When 17, I passed a radar chp officer while going over 100. I pulled over before he even turned his lights on and, when he asked why I was going so fast, I responded honestly that I was trying to settle a dispute with my passengers regarding the governor on my mother's new camry. I had told them there was a 112mph governor corresponding to the factory S-rated tires. 1 passenger claimed it didn't have enough power to hit 112 while the other stating he thought it would do 130. The officer looked dumbfounded for a few seconds before asking "well, what was the top speed?" to which the 3 of us responded in unison "112." The officer shook his head & wrote me a ticket for 79 in a 70.

    Fast forward 14 months and I'm in court, fighting this gift horse. I had lost my trial by written declaration, exhausted all continuances, and was pretty much left praying the officer wouldn't show up. In the process, I'd kept the conviction off my record for an extra 14 months keeping my already exorbitant insurance premiums from rising any further. But the officer showed up...

    My tactic switched to being an all-around #######, making petty (but technically correct) objections at every opportunity. E.G. When the officer stated he observed me driving, I objected because those facts were not yet in the record (he had seen the car, but hadn't determined I was the driver until he pulled me over). Sustained. The officer then looked down at his notes and began to recite, to which I objected (you can read from notes, but only if you admit you don't have an independent recollection) -- sustained, along with at least 5 other similar petty objections. I then objected to the introduction of radar testimony because the officer had not testified that he'd been trained in radar nor had he testified that he had calibrated the unit at the beginning of the shift. All the officer had to do was say "I had radar training and the unit was calibrated" but he was flustered and instead moved on to my confession.

    Before he could tell the court that I'd admitted to driving 112mph, I objected and cited Miranda v Arizona -- stating (not quite correctly) that since I was not free to go about my ordinary way, I was technically under arrest and therefore any statements I made prior to being Mirandized were inadmissible. In fact, I had never been Mirandized. The judge laughed and probably would have ruled against me (the original miranda ruling said that, but later court rulings upped the "under arrest" threshold), but the red-faced officer (who probably was not long out of the academy) threw up his arms in exasperation and walked out of the courtroom.

    The judge told me to slow down before ruling in my favor citing insufficient evidence.

    CARB retrofit rules do not apply to personal vehicles -- including class 8 tractors used to haul RVs...
     
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  6. DenaliDad

    DenaliDad Retired Wheel Dog

    It's good that he wrote you for under 100. As a former California traffic officer, one trained and certified to use a radar gun at a time when they could not be used as prima facia evidence of speeding (meaning I had to estimate an approaching vehicle's speed visually within +/-1 mph 95 out of 100 times in front of a certifying CHP officer), seeing '100' on the radar gun changed everything. You would have been arrested, not 'detained,' as you were, and carted off to jail with the more serious charge of reckless vehicular endangerment that would have been much harder to get out of.
     
  7. DenaliDad

    DenaliDad Retired Wheel Dog

    Yes. POV = personally owned vehicle
     
  8. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    tsavory, I'm glad and impressed that you're back in business. A printing press operator once said to me that owners learned fastest as new pressmen.

    Bright One, thx for sharing. Got a ticket for 96 mph with my grandmother in car (my deceased dad's mom) in Texas, brought back to small town, stood in front of judge, charged $60 and released. Had met Rhea for the first time a few days before and before I had sat down she said I had relatives in Texas. "Any you want to go see?" I asked. "Oh, sure, Victor," she says in her mix of Boston/Texas accent. "It'll take me a minute to get a few things together..."

    We were on the road in 15 minutes flat. The little Dodge Omni rental wouldn't run 35 mph without sputtering, smoothed out at 60 mph and stayed smooth up over 100. We ran a lot of back roads where I'd slow down to 60 at intersections and then wind it up again. "Grandma, how you doing. Does the speed bother you at all?" I'd ask. She was a cool traveler. "No, Victor, I'm fine. Keep right on..." and she really meant it.

    When we walked out of the courthouse, she marveled that I wasn't upset. "Grandma, in California that would have been reckless driving, loss of license and possible jail time. I'll frame that ticket," and I did. Lost it along with a lot of other possessions some years ago.
     
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  9. tsavory

    tsavory Road Train Member

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    My 103 in a 70 was 550 dollar fine but no reckless driving and it never showed up on my license.
     
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  10. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Oh, Chekhov!!

    Met another driver today, Chekhoff, who'd probably prefer porcupine quills to his own skin. But he's a real marshmallow if you have feathers or fur. Get him talking about his critters and he softens right up. If you're a brand new foal and Mom rejected you, he and a neighbor will hand feed you 4 times a day, a gallon each time, for 4 months. No questions asked. None of his 12 chickens are going to get eaten or butchered, not by him at least.

    When he harvests a calf, takes it to butcher and leaves. Does not stay. Only comes back for the result. No stomach for it.

    If you're 'a people', well, forget the marshmallow, his outer's toasted as far as you go. His 'milk of human kindness' isn't for us humans, I think...

    Had the Penske rental again, the one I had a problem starting. And first time a tractor had been smoked in and ashes left inside on the floor, cup holder and steering column. Not one of our guys, though, someone from Indy who brought it down.

    Had an inch-long wood screw in LRO (Left-Rear-Outer) drive. Buried down to head and head had started to wear down. Good it had been bobtailing. The weight of a load would have embedded the head and maybe ruined the tire.

    Dug it out with a screwdriver and the tire passed the old spit test. No problem on the run either. The screw was within an inch of the outside edge of the tire so if had failed the spit test, could not legally have been patched with a plug.

    Tire would have been toast.
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2015
  11. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    We are a bunch of hooligans, aren't we!!
     
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