Trip 16 - Beckley, WV to Indianapolis

December 8 - Thursday

The school bus trip scheduled for this past Tuesday was cancelled due to snow, so that took away a few days that could have gone to driveaway this week. Dispatch did call Weds to see if I could be available to take a truck from Beckley, WV to Indianapolis. It would involve a bus trip (not my favorite) from Roanoke to Beckley, cab to Appalachian Power, where the truck is supposed to be staged, then on to Altec in Indianapolis. Of course, no idea what happens at that point.

I initially said yes and would be able to head out this morning (Thursday). However, while dispatch was lining up the details, I made the mistake of checking the weather forecasts for the area and they looked really bleak. Snow and ice projected across the entire trip from Beckley to Indianapolis at the same time I should be picking the truck up in Beckley. So I called dispatch and told them I had second thoughts. They sort of stuck with me and I agreed I'd take it beginning on Friday, after the storm cleared, if that was OK. I don't like to be gone over the weekend if I can help it, but I'd already gotten committed with dispatch and didn't want to let them down either, so I'm currently lined up to leave tomorrow (Friday). I really want to concentrate on not letting myself get caught in dangerous driving conditions, which I'm sure will be hard once I'm on the road. You tend to want to push on, but I want to avoid that. I also don't yet have any experience in what to expect from these trucks in driving in slick conditions. Don't know whether they handle fairly well due to their weight or whether that might cause them to be even tougher to drive.

I had gone to bed last night thinking I'd probably go ahead and take the bus to Beckley even if it snowed so, at least, I'd be in the area and as soon as it cleared I'd be ready to pick up the truck and head out. But the forecast this morning didn't look any better and I decided that by going on to Beckley it would only encourage me to get out on the road too early in very bad conditions and I'd be better off just waiting, getting to Beckley late Friday afternoon, pick up the truck, then head out on the 400 mile trip. That should help give time for I-64, and I-65 to be cleared. So, I wait.

December 9 - Friday

The storm blew through on Thursday and I was glad I waited. My son dropped me off at the bus station on his way to work. Found out that the bus to Beckley was 2 hours late. They didn't tell me, and I'm glad I asked, but by leaving 2 hours late I would miss my connection in Wythville and be stuck there until 10:00 pm before heading to Beckley. A 10 hour wait in the Wythville bus station and Beckley in the middle of the night was much too much for me to consider, so I called dispatch, told them the situation, and suggested they assign this truck to another driver. They really didn't want to do that, and after a little delay, they called back and said they had reserved a rental car at the Roanoke airport for me to drive to the Beckley airport, then taxi to the pickup location. I didn't know Beckley had an airport, much less a rental car location.

So, the next challenge became getting to the Roanoke Airport from downtown. Should have been simple since Yellow Cab is practically within walking distance from the bus station, but an hour later, after several phone calls with the dispatcher promising the cab was pulling in right now, I moved over to the Smartway bus that came through and was on the way to the airport. So, I lost about an hour and a half, time that will become important later in this day.

Got the rental car at about noon and headed straight to Beckley, which is about a 130 mile drive through the mountains. Arrived about 2:30 pm and decided that with all the ice and snow it might be a good idea to go check out the truck, make sure I could find it and the location, before proceeding to the airport to drop off the car and hail a taxi. I lucked out, and found the Appalachian Power location. Lucked out, because the address I was given didn't have any exact location, only Robert Seabird Dr. off I-77. For those of you non-politicals, it's Robert C. Byrd, who is the most distinquished (perhaps crooked) Senator from WV. Given that I found the location, I thought the directions were kind of funny.

Got my first look at the ice-covered behemeth that I was to drive to Indianapolis - a 10-sp Sterling Altec crane truck with 2100 miles on it. Dispatch is never able to describe what type of truck you're picking up other than the make. It didn't register with me at the time that the one breakdown I've had so far was with the only other Sterling I've driven, and that was a blown head gasket. That will come later in this story.....

I had to flag down some of the crew there to get a scraper to try to get the ice off of it and do some pre-tripping before I headed to the airport. Thought it would be a good idea to make sure it would start and everything looked OK. It was very cold that day and I almost busted my a__ three times while working around the truck, but it did start. It was missing the triangles, which again one of the crew was willing to provide, and the boom was not tied down. I don't really think this truck is designed to have the boom tied down, but my company insists that it is. After calling dispatch, who insisted I stop and buy a strap, climb high atop that thing and tie it down, I did find a strap I could throw over it and act like it was tied down. I really don't think this crane is designed with a tie-down strap to be placed over it.

Since things now looked pretty good, I headed to the airport to try to quickly return the rental car, get a taxi and get on the road while still some daylight. This Sterling had a 10 speed Eaton Fuller transmission that was going to be a first for me. My previous experience with the well drilling rig had an 8 speed and it and I fought all the way to New York. I wanted to get out on winding, hilly, I-64 and start west before dark. Got the car gassed on the way to the airport, found the rental return, the only one, in the Beckley airport, then proceeded to wait on the town's only cab. About 30 minutes later, I was on the way back to the truck. By the time I headed out, it was about 4:45 pm, so that gave me dim light and 5:00 pm traffic to learn my way around this triple-axle challenge.

I found that it drove a little easier than the well drilling rig, but still had a lot of gear changing (should I say scraping) as I took the WV mountains. But made it to KY, and was well inland, when the trip's big problem hit (I'm finding most of these trips have to have at least one significant problem). The air valve that you usually hear on trucks with air brakes started going off about every 30 seconds. I realized that didn't seem right, but the air pressure was holding, it was 8:30 pm, and I was heading west. After about 20 minutes of that, the valve quit sounding and the air pressure pegged to the top - about 150 PSI. Now that got my attention. I was just entering a construction zone and had little space to pull off I-64, but I did. Naturally, for the first time I'd noticed on any of these trips, my cell phone was out of range, so I was stuck. I got under the truck and tried to see if I could come up with anything, but a few 18 wheelers later I decided this million dollar body needed to be somewhere safer, so I scampered back into the cab, cranked it up and headed out just to see what would happen.

The air pressure stayed almost at the top, I'd pump the brakes as much as I could to get it down, and luckily I came upon a Welcome Center where I could pull in and use the public phones to call my emergency number. The tech guy told me to bleed the brakes and if that didn't fix it just keep on driving because it wouldn't hurt anything. So I did - and it didn't fix it.

I had decided that I was going to try to make it to I-64 exit 110 at Mt. Sterling (an ironic name) and stay the night at a Days Inn there. Just as I approached the exit, I heard a bit of a bang and a lot of air escaping. Luckily, the air pressure was holding, so I had brakes, but there was a lot of commotion as I steered into the Days Inn. I tend to have good luck that equates out the bad luck, so I got to the motel, which had a nice big parking area to place the truck and checked in for the night.

I called my emergency number to let them know I was down and they said to call back the next morning around 8:00 am and we'd work on the problem. I was assuming they'd call road service to come fix it, but that wasn't necessarily a good guess on my part.

December 10 - Saturday

The next morning, with the benefit of daylight, I was able to see the problem. I didn't know it was the air compressor governor at the time, but it is attached to the air compressor with two bolts. One had fallen completely out and the other was barely still attached, and the air was escaping around that. So, at least, I felt I knew what the problem was. The emergency contact looked up a few numbers for me. I called, lucked out, and got a mechanic there within about 15 minutes. He replaced the two bolts, got things working again, charged a reasonable $50, and I was back on the road to Indianapolis by about 10:00 am.

I made it to the delivery point at Altec around 2:30 pm. No weigh stations open the entire trip. All were still snow covered. Dispatch had a rental car lined up at the airport, so a taxi ride there and I was on my way back toward home by about 4:30 pm. I didn't see much of Indianapolis but the skyline. The cabbie was very high on it, saying he had lived all over the country and chosen Indianapolis as his abode.

PCMiler had recommended a route to deliver the truck that I had concerns about that would have taken me off I-64 using rt. 52, 73, and 32 to Cincinnatti, then I-74 to Indianapolis. Instead, I had taken the I-64 to Louisville, then I-65 to Indianapolis route. I think it might have been 25 miles longer, but it was well worth it. I decided to use the PCMiler recommended trip on my return, which turned out to be a mistake. It might have been an interesting trip through southern Ohio if I had been in the daylight, but I couldn't imagine having taken the triple axle Sterling through the towns, over the Ohio river, along the refineries, and up through the two-lane rt 73 to Cincinnatti.

It took me longer to get back to WV than I expected, so about 9:00 pm I called it a day and checked in at the Days Inn just east of Huntington WV in Teays Valley. Up fairly early this morning (Sunday) and home by 11:30 am. My wife met me at the airport where I returned the rental and we did lunch at Olive Garden. Nothing like being dressed like a truck driver coming off the road and having a nice meal with a glass of wine.

Looking back, I guess this trip was sort of fun, given that everything worked out OK, but I think I may take a break now until after the first of the new year. Will enjoy the Christm...ah, holiday, season, and start driving again in 2006. There's a school bus trip or two in the meantime to keep the driving skills sharp.