Weirdest place to deliver?

I deliver sand & gravel....while it may sound mundane, it takes me to some crazy places. The bay area in California as mentioned above has provided some of my best & worst experiences. Residential San Francisco or downtown SF, Blackhawk, Hillsborough, Los Altos Hills, etc. Some very elite & custom homes out that way and the hills and hairpin turns are always an adventure. Some of my locations are not all that "strange" but sometimes it seems strange for a transfer-dump truck to be wondering around those areas.

 

Area 51 in Nevada, can not describe it due to security agreements, but weird. Also had a UCLA Med Center in LA, That's was pretty weird. Backing down a Rocket exhaust port in the side of a mountain at Edwards AFB was creepy.

 

I delivered a load inside of an old Oreo plant in Elizabeth, NJ. You had to blindside in, blindside to a dock, and blindside back out.

 

I think Laredo on Sunday afternoon is a spooky place to be. Dead quiet, looking right at the border *right there*

 

This doesn't really count as weird, but it was a very cool stop. Tight county road just off a state highway that I travel almost every day. I've literally driven right by this place hundreds of times and had no idea it was there. It was a small, one man operation that restores old steam powered machinery. This guy had at least ten whole tractors sitting outside waiting their turn, along with bits and pieces like boilers, fireboxes, and chassis. I could have spent the entire day just exploring his lot, as every patch of tall grass held something cool. Inside, he had an entire locomotive that is his current project. I was amazed, and it was a great experience to get to see something like that up close and personal. The owner was a super nice guy, one of those interesting old timers that have seen and done more things than most people would in three lifetimes.

There was a mixup with the delivery. My paperwork had him listed as a C.O.D. stop, but he had already paid in person, so while my dispatcher tried to get in touch with the salesman and get confirmation (I'd already seen his receipt, stamped PAID with the salesman's signature, but I'm just a dumb truck driver), I got to talk with this guy while he showed me around. The delay blew up my schedule for the rest of the day, but I didn't care. This was why I enjoy my job, despite all the hassles and occasional really bad days. It allows me to meet people and see some really neat things that I never would otherwise, and since I'm short haul most of them are in my own back yard. It was an experience I won't forget, and it all worked out in the end. It took a little bit of creative persuasion, but I got all my stops off despite the delay.

 

Was this in West Tn? I know of a place there that sounds like what you describe. It even made an episode of America Pickers.

 

Nah, this place is in central Indiana. I'm thinking about going back on my own time just to hang out. I have a few old hit and miss engines that I inherited from my grandfather, and I'm really starting to get interested in rusty old iron. He picked up on that and invited me back any time.

 

Nothing like old iron, here is a picture of my toy on my farm in Tn.