Trip 12 and Unlucky 13

Trip 12 and Unlucky 13 – Shelby, NC and Almost Buras, LA

Thursday, 11/17/05

I had gotten a call from dispatch on Tuesday asking if I could take a short trip from Forest, VA to Shelby, NC. Unfortunately, I'd messed my back up doing some work around the house (I need to stop that) on Monday and just didn't feel like I could handle the bumpy ride. By Thursday, I really wasn't feeling any better, but thought getting out and doing something might actually help my back and the adrenaline might really do the trick. So, on Wednesday I called dispatch and they put me in a truck from Forest, VA to Shelby, NC. For the first time, I had to pick up a company chase car at the Altec plant in Daleville, VA to take with me.

Since I hadn't hooked up a chase car before, dispatch told me to call the company rep at 8:00 am after I got to the truck and he would talk me through it. The truck was staged and ready to go, a new GMC 7500 6-speed with 74 miles on it. I was able to get the chase car hooked up for tow with little difficulty, even though the ole back was complaining, and was on the road about 9:00 am. Since I had not driven with a tow before, I was very conscious of getting in a spot where I might need to back up, but was able to make the approximately 250 mile trip to Shelby OK and arrived at the delivery point about 3:00 pm.

All these trips end up with some type of curve ball, and this is when the catcher called for the big slider. I had anticipated getting in the tow car and heading back home. My only question was whether I was going to drive all the way home or get a motel for the night since my back had about had it and I was already pooped. Unfortunately, and as usual, dispatch had other ideas.


Unlucky Trip 13

Rather than heading home, she asked if I'd drive to Aberdeen, NC, and pick up a truck for Buras, LA. Buras, where the heck is Buras? Turns out it is way out on the tip of Louisiana, an area the voyer in me has been wanting to visit since the hurricanes, but only in the right circumstances.

I wanted to head home, and I had no idea where Buras was and I wasn't mentally ready to head out on a long trip (I'd only packed for max 3 days - another dumb idea on my part). I told her I'd think about it and eventually relented. Called dispatch and told her I would, but wanted to rest before I picked up the truck. She was insistent that it get picked up that night. Wonder why they always want them picked up right away? She wanted to know if I could be there by 5:00 pm. Since it was a 140 mile drive to Aberdeen across route 74, which is filled with traffic and stop lights and had to go around Charlotte, I told her that wouldn't happened. However, she insisted that the truck be picked up that evening.

So I drove as hard as I could to Aberdeen and arrived at the pick-up point about 7:30 pm. That's when things began to get dicey. I had been told this was a new International 7400. Right on all counts except the new part. It was a 2000 with 40k miles, which on a boom truck must equate to 500k miles and was questionably road worthy.

This was the first time I'd had the pleasure of pre-tripping a truck in the dark. The truck was staged at a remote location at an electric company. There was a light, but not enough to see things clearly. I positioned the tow car next to it and shined lights on it as best I could.

Immediately found that it was low on water, no water in the holding tank, low on oil, and when started, blue smoke flew even in the dark. So I was starting to get a bit antsy about the whole idea, especially tripping to LA. The company was totally shut down, but about that time a fellow showed up returning with a boom truck from his work. I flagged him down, and he was kind enough to help me get some water and he had two quarts of oil to add.

I had decided that I wasn't going to drive any further than I had to find a motel, so I headed toward Laurenburg. I’m supposed to fill up immediately, so found diesel on the edge of Laurenburg and filled up. When I started the truck back up the panel went dead with no lights and no working gauges except air pressure and fuel, and I could only see those with the outside light. Hmmmmm......Louisiana in a truck losing water, using oil, and no gauges. The guy that had helped me had been kind enough to give me his phone number in case I needed help. Since I needed help, I gave him a call to see if he had any ideas. He really didn't, but after restarting the truck the gauges came on, but with still no panel lights.

I pulled on out to find the nearest motel, which was a Comfort Inn with a price above what the company is willing to pay, but I didn't care. I was cooked.

Slept fitfully during the night with my back giving me a shot every time I rolled over and the questionable truck on a trip to LA. So I decided by morning that I was going to report to dispatch that I didn't think the truck was road worthy and that, in any case, I had to head home.

Friday, 11/18/05

At about 7:30 am, I went out and inspected the truck in the daylight. There was a small amount of antifreeze puddled under the truck and, in addition to its other problems, I noticed that the right front tire had a questionable amount of tread and a 2 inch notch knocked out of the inside tread. So I was more convinced than before that I wasn't heading out in this thing.

Called dispatch at 8:00 am and caught a fair amount of grief for not calling it in on the emergency number last night, etc., etc. Told them I didn't know all these problems until I had already picked up the truck, and in any case I was heading home - what did they want done with the truck. After several return calls, it was decided to take it to the International truck center in Lumberton, NC, about 25 miles east. That was good news to me, so I headed out.

After arriving at the repair center, the shop foreman said he might be able to get to the truck late today (Friday) or Monday. I told him to tell me it would be Monday because I was heading home. Called dispatch, and after some grief and sweating on their part, they told me to leave it and head home - one of the real advantages of having a tow car. They asked me initially to leave the car back at the Altec plant in Daleville. On the way, they called and asked me to leave it at Forest for another driver to pick up. So my plan was to come on home and have my wife accompany me to Forest with the car.

As soon as I stepped in home, totally bushed with a big time aching back, the phone rang and it was dispatch asking why the chase car wasn't in Forest. I explained that I would need for my wife to return from work so I could take it. She said a driver was already waiting there, so I began the 32 mile trip to Forest to pick him up and let him return me home.

So, I got to meet my next company driver. This one hadn't shot anyone, or beaten up any cabbies that he wanted to talk about. Had a pleasant 35 minute conversation. He owns a cab company in Tallahassee, and since his wife has suddenly had her midlife affair, decided he needed to be on the road. So he literally stays at it except for one week a month when he returns to check on business.

I was glad to be home. Dispatch had already called asking when I could go back out, but I said I'm in past Thanksgiving this time. It would have been nice to have visited Louisiana again, but this wasn’t the right time.



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Trip 10 (cont) and Trip 11 - Albany to Buffalo

11/8/05 - Tuesday

I was able to get the big, and I mean BIG, well drilling rig on to Deposit, NY the next day. Went past several more scales in PA and I think NY, but all were closed. I noticed an odd combination of scales and welcome centers in PA. Still not quite sure how that works, but luckily the scales were closed. Once in Deposit, my home office, and the first time I'd been there, I got to meet the dispatchers and sort of see how they run things. Was an interesting experience.

My dispatcher then put me in a company chase car to Albany, NY, where I picked up the best cherry of a truck I've yet driven. I don't really know what it was, but will explain by simply saying it was one of those electric utility trucks that is used to carry and lay cable. I say it was a cherry because, after driving the well drilling rig, which was all I could handle, this thing was a new Freightliner with tandem axles, automatic, radio, the works, and felt and drove like a Cadillac. Took it to Buffalo, where I delivered thru the rain this morning. Then got a flight to Baltimore and rental car home.

11/9/05 - Wednesday

Really lucked out with the weather. It started raining heavily shortly after leaving Weedsport, NY (now that's a name), where I had stayed for the night, and rained heavily all the way to Buffalo. As soon as I reached Buffalo, there was a break in the clouds long enough to get the truck delivered along with the post-trip stuff, then it started heavy downpours with lightning. The guy at the delivery point was nice enough to take me to the airport quickly so I could catch an earlier Southwest flight than dispatch had booked. I really like Southwest, but they were a half hour late this time because they had to fly a holding pattern over the airport until the lightning cleared.

I seem to be meeting interesting people on my Southwest flights. Usually, on airplanes, I don't attempt to talk to anyone and they usually don't attempt to talk to me - too big of a chance of getting stuck with a doozy. Anyway, on this flight I was seated between a fairly young yoga instructor and an elderly retired psychiatrist. All the stuff they covered over me will be a good story for a later post if I get the inclination.

Upon arriving at Baltimore, got a rental car about 2:00 pm and started the 300 mile trip back to Roanoke. Unfortunately, this included the trip around Washington, DC, which is full of the rudest drivers and mega traffic as anywhere you can ever go. Don't know how people put up with it.

One of the better benefits of this trip is it provided me a great excuse to miss the miserable elections in Virginia this year. I guess the Gubernatorial and Attorney General races were close enough that my vote might have made the difference, but I was glad I didn't have to go in, hold my nose, and pull the lever (or, with the new technology, punch the button). Was too late to get an absentee ballot, so being in NY was all I needed.

All in all, was a good trip except for all the hassles in the VA weight stations. Was glad to find out I could drive the well drilling rig if I had to, but would rather not. The electric truck was fun to drive and I enjoyed seeing NY State, which I had not seen before. Much more beautiful than I expected.

I think 3-day trips are a bit more to my liking.


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Trip 10 - Roanoke to Deposit, NY

11/7/05 - Monday

Called dispatch on Friday to see if I could get a ride for today (Monday). At the time, they didn't have anything, so they asked me to call back today. Called back and they had a truck leaving Roanoke for the company office at Deposit, NY. Hadn't been there, yet, so thought it would be a good trip. Didn't ask what the truck was and dispatch tends not to have too much info anyway on the specifics of the truck. Turned out it was my first used truck, a 97 Ford 700 (I think) well digger. Very dirty, with a tranny I haven't tried before, 8 speed hi-lo, Jake brake, but runs pretty well. There was some question whether it was over weight, but the sender and my company agreed it was OK. So I headed toward NY a bit nervous.

I had just pulled up on I-581 leaving Roanoke, when my cell phone rang. It was my dispatcher asking if everything was OK. I said I was in traffic and couldn't talk, but was doing OK. Asked her why she called. Her response was the man at the company where I picked up the truck had called them and said they weren't sure about me driving this thing - a real confidence boost for me as I headed out. There had been a nice mechanic working on the truck when I arrived for the pickup, and he had been very friendly offering information about the truck, etc. Since I had not driven a truck with this particular transmission, I had some questions and he took plenty of time to show me the ropes. I guess that left the boss uneasy, and for all I know, he may have been right with me behind the wheel.

The first weight station is only about 10 miles from my pickup on I-81 at Cloverdale, VA. Sure enough, after sitting on the scale for what seemed an eternity sweating, they told me to pull around back for inspection - my first time being called in the scale house. Glad I inspected the truck pretty thoroughly in pre-trip and got them to fix the burned out brake/signal light. Got the good going over by Roanoke County's finest. They went down in the pit below the truck and checked it all. Turned out they only found one brake out of adjustment and a broken marker lens. The two inspectors had never heard of driveaway and were a bit confused the whole time about the fact I was delivering the truck. Also, the fire extinguisher was missing, but I found that on pre-trip and that had already been explained in a previous trip - driveaway transporters have to have the triangles, but not a fire extinguisher. The inspector didn't really believe that, went to his manual, and sure enough, section 393.95 para A has a disclaimer for driveaway. The inspectors actually were quite nice and let me head on after about 30 minutes.

Thought that would be it, but the next weight station up I-81, about 100 miles, pulled me in to "see my permit". Pulled in, went in and explained it had been inspected and approved at the previous weight station, and for whatever reason, they let me go on - sweating again. One odd thing about this station was you didn't actually see anyone. You went into a room with a camera to view documents and an intercom. I guess they figure a guy driving a well digger might be up to no good.

Made it about 40 miles past Harrisburg, PA and found a Days Inn for the night (really racking up those TripReward points). So I'm about 190 miles from my drop tomorrow and don't know how many more weight stations I have to pass thru. Dispatch says I'm definitely legal, but I don't feel like spending however long it takes when one of them decides I'm not. This rig is big enough that I feel like I may be reaching my driving ability limit. In the meantime, continuing to jam those gears (literally) and head on down the road.