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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