Whats the most tired you have ever been?

You guys won’t have that trouble if you chew on a toothpick.

 

My trainer in 1988 would joke on the CB about propping eyelids up with Toothpicks...i didn't figure out what he was really talking about till years later..

 

Worked for a company that said they run legal. Run all day run all night. Did it a number of times. No desire to go back to that. See things that aren't there, stop and do laps around the truck. Helped for awhile. Found myself in a rest area once, don't even remember driving in. All this, as i think back, for what? Just younger and needed the $$ i guess. Started trucking at 18yrs and thought i was indestructible. 63 now, like to think i know better now.

 

Last year during my 2nd month of driving I was driving towards MD through PA on I-476. Was running hard the last 2 weeks and was completely bust. It was like 3am and pretty dark, I was probably the only truck out there at that time. I saw what appeared to be a friggin deer in the middle of the road, I hit my brakes and went right through it kind of like a ghost. Got off at the next service plaza and the second I hit the bed I was out, didn't even set my alarm. Woke up 8 hours later, I was late for my pickup and delivery.

Now I nap for 30-45 minutes and keep driving, if I still feel tired I'll have the load rescheduled. Better to get there alive than not arrive at all.

 

No beer?

 

Whats the most tired you have ever been?

my work hours were from about 8 PM till 4:30 - 5AM each day.

come saturday when i got home, i never went to bed,(like during the week) i stayed up cuz i have work to do around the house.

usually bed time on a saturday would be about 9 PM, (meaning i would be up about 24 hours, after that long week.....so here i was this one saturday working in the garden, i was weeding the garden, while down on one knee......

wife came out and scared the crap outta me.....

apparently, i was snoring like no tomorrow, in that position..........

 

I have been tired many times over the years, but the two that comes to mind as the tiredest, was not in a truck.
For several years I ran a shop, with road service for trucks and a wrecker for passenger vehicles. When we would get a winter storm, I would be busy from start to end.
I had to come back to town for parts for a truck and the driver was riding in my service truck to stay warm, I took the exit to the west bound scales instead of passing it and taking the next exit, rolling across the scales at a higher than normal rate of speed. Luckily I knew all the scale masters and dot's, so they probably thought I was just messing with them. lol
I didn't say a word and just acted like I did this all the time, but the driver riding with me looked at me and ask how long I had been up. lol

The other time I was working out of town and only coming home on the weekends, there was two low water crossings in the last couple of miles before my house, that would flash flood. The first one had a pickup washed into some trees 75 to a 100 feet off the road, I walked out and made sure no one was hung up in it, But was able to drive my pickup through it, the second was just a couple of hundred yards from my place, and the water was too high to drive through, so determined to get home, I decided to cross on foot, big mistake.
I was washed into a fence, no big deal I figured I would climb over it. The fence was field fience doubled with wooden picket fence on the bottom 3 feet, then barbed wire above that. Well I could not get over it with the water pushing me against it, no matter how hard I tried. My neighbors had driven down and shined his lights on me, but there was nothing he or his son could do to help. I finally gave out and had to rest, by hanging my arms over the barbed wire, which is kind of rough on the old arm pits. lol
While I was resting, all I could think about was eventually a log would come and pin me down, and the water was still rising. I rested until it started getting over my head, then went under and try to slide under. I could not pull any slack in it to get under, but straining with everything I had, finally managed to get enough room to slide under.
I went down stream quite a ways before I managed to get out, so my neighbor never saw me come out, and finally went back to his house..
When I finally got on dry land, I could barely crawl, and did not have enough energy to walk at all, so just laid there for a while, before walking on home.
Early the next morning my neighbor came down to tell my wife I had drowned, and looked like he was looking at a ghost when I answered the door. lol
I went back to see why I could not pull any slack in thet fence, there was 2 in pipes driven in the ground with the fence tied off to it. lol

 

Long,long, long time ago.
5 stop mega garbage load.
17 hour day already getting the first 3 stops off.
( yea they were all outlaw back then).

Final 2 stops Detroit, then Toledo.
Got empty in Detroit about 1am.
Dead tired.
Last stop in Toledo was a 24 hour receiver.
1 hour away. Could have delivered anytime I wanted too.

But I wanted to get that #### off and I had the whole rest of the day to do whatever I wanted.

Last thing I remember was merging onto I-75 south.
The next time my mind registered anything, I heard
A female on the CB screaming at everybody to watch
Out. There was a driver swerving all over the road
Falling asleep.

I opened my eyes and I was almost in the grass.
Realizing I couldn't take anymore, I looked at the
Next exit sign to see how close I was to Toledo.

Next exit was whitmore lake, MI. (WTF).
Thats 70 miles north of Toledo on highway 23.

I rode the loop all the way around Toledo,
And kept going north on 23.
Don't remember any of it.
I hit the next off ramp and called it a day.
I could have killed somebody and never
Remembered what happened.

Better lucky than good sometimes.

 

When I used to work overnights at the chemical factory I'd pull the same routine... wake at 2pm friday, work from 4pm until 6am Saturday and not go to sleep until about midnight. Sunday saw me at the (then) in-laws and her dad would start a conversation. She said there were many times I'd be looking right at him with eyes open but snoring too quietly for him to hear.

 

2 times. 1 in a truck, 1 on my Harley.

Harley one was before I got my CDL. I was going through a divorce, so I was basically newly single. Started the day at 7am riding 50some miles to my buddies house so we could go riding for the day. Did about 120mi, stopped a few times for a couple beers. Got back to his house, showered and then we headed out with his wife and other buddy to a local bar. I met a cute girl who was with the band. We left for another bar, which was dead so back to the 1st one. Friends ended up leaving and I stayed with the girl. Leave the bar with the band about 2am for a house party. Her and I end up in the bathroom for some fun time, then about 5am she takes me back to my buddies where my motorcycle is and my buddys house is locked up like ft knox. I decide screw it, Im headed home. About 15mi from home Im runnin an FM road that has a few long straights and some 90 deg turns. I realize its almost 7am and he sun is comin up. I kept telling myself to just break it up in 5mi increments. Well one of the long straights, I had come around the corner and almost 2mi later I jerk myself awake when my hand slips off the throttle and I was going 30mph, heading right at the ditch at the next corner. I quickly grabbed the throttle and rolled through the curve trying to calm myself from the surge if adrenaline, which was enough to keep me awake for the rest of the ride. Got home, parked and hit my bed still fully clothed. Woke up that afternoon fuzzy about how I got there until I thought about it for a few.

In a truck I was running part of a boom and maybe a counterweight for a crane from San Antonio to Denver area. Another driver had my stepdeck and I had the flatbed. He had picked up the crane parts and dropped it at our yard. I hooked up and rolled out of SA about 10am iirc. My boss said "run upto Amarillo, take your 10 and then run into Denver from there, but take such and such route north, them run west into Denver. I get to Amarillo later in the afternoon, park grab some food and make some calls. About an hour after I park, boss calls and says "if I pay you an extra $250 can you run that load straight through and have it there 1st thing?" yea screw it. I grab a quick nap and head out. The route he told me to take took me for friggin ever. Basically north through Dumas to Lamar, over to La Junta then N at Rocky Ford to Limon then W into Denver. I ran until I realized I couldn't remember the last 15 or 20mi when I pulled into a Walmart parking lot. I called it quits and was like "f this, Im not killing myself running illegal for this Fwad". Left out about 7am the next morning with a broker blowing up my phone screaming at me how I was 3 days late and the crane was supposed to be gone 4 days ago, blah blah blah. Rolled in there and found out I was a day early. Broker called as I was unloading and it was the only time Ive ever threatend a broker with violence, and being a female at that. She had even had another broker call me when I was like 15min away so I told him I was broke down on I70 in the middle of traffic at such and such exit. He just went silent and finally said "oh man this is bad, this is so bad" with a shakey voice lol. I finally told him "actually Im less than 15min away, but if you f'ers dont stop calling me, I'm going to find somewhere to park until you do. He said sorry, hung up and then as I was unloading the other ###### calls me again. Thats when I layed into her about lying to me.

That was one of my learning experiences that brokers will lie about the dumbest stuff to get their freight moved.


Sorry about the long winded X1esque post.