Situational Awareness

Last year I was picking up close to downtown Dallas. Thought I was following the directions to get to customer, but guess I got off the wrong exit. Turn at a light that had truck route signs, about 100yards down was a bridge marked 12'6". Wtf. Luckily dirt/gravel lot(that was dry, thank god) before it I was able to pull in and get my bearings and turn around.

 

Dang. Even if he kept going straight all the way to show low , could've picked up az77 North to Holbrook and i40.. Made the worst possible decision a guy could make

 

Oh gosh—I can think of few places I hate more than that one. Just getting TO the dang plant is enough of a headache on its own, let alone that turn across the tracks...and you better hope a train ain't coming when you get to it.

or all that, the turn back out of there is even worse. If you have tandems, you can make the hairpin turn back onto Columbia Blvd headed back eastbound. I was too heavy with my spreads so I didn't even chance it—I went straight across, down the road directly in front of that turnout (its called Chautauqua), through the neighborhood (that I probably shouldn't have done but bump that—at the time I saw no truck restriction signs), then made the left on Lombard (30 business bypass) and took it east back to the 5.

Thank the Good Lord I'll NEVER have to deal with that place ever again...

 

Crappy place to get in and out of for sure but why didn't you just turn left onto Columbia instead of going down Chautauqua. It's been awhile but I thought for that there is enough room to make that turn with no issues.

 

The first time I went in there I did make that turn. The second time, I was too heavy on my spreads (84K) and the company I drove for had the 53-foot spead axle flatbeds with the rear axle set almost all the way to the rear (as opposed to being set where they normally would on a 48-footer with four extra feet of deck behind the rears), and because I was too paranoid about tearing up tires or pavement, I just went straight ahead to save myself the headache. (And plus, I wanted to see some more of the neighborhood being that it was only my second time in Portland. Tell you what, though; I'd NEVER live up there. Bump that.)