Purple People Eater and Darth Vader

It's rare that I get to drive a truck that isn't plain, boring, white. But this trip gave me Minnesota Vikings purple and Darth Vader black, all in one trip.

Trip 50
Monday June 5, 2006

Dispatch had layed out a trip beginning in Forest, VA, as usual, going to Shelby, NC, then from Shelby to Ringwood, NJ. But these turned out not to be the usual white boom trucks, but trucks with color character. I noticed on my paperwork that the first truck in Forest was listed as a "log loader", a first of this type for me. I wasn't sure what it was, but I had noticed an unusual purple truck on their display lot for several months and sort of hoped that was the one.

I arrived at Forestry Equipment about 7:45 AM and immediately went over to the truck on display, but the numbers didn't match up. After checking with the office, I found they had a duplicate of that truck parked around back. Turned out that it was a purple log loader like the one on display. So I got sort of excited knowing I'd be driving something different this time. It was the largest IHC I'd driven so far. It was a 7500 tandum with automatic, radio, air seat, and A/C - pretty classy for one of the FEVA trucks (you can click on the picture to see an enlarged version). The story on this truck and its twins is that a Minnesota Viking fan ordered four of them, then cancelled after they were built. Now they are trying to sell them. Great looking truck, but I'm not sure the typical logging outfit would want this paint job.

The truck drove great, and I got to Shelby in record time, arriving about 1:30 PM. From there, I got a ride about a mile over to Southco, where I was to pick up another truck destined for Ringwood, NJ, a new location for me. This one was a 6-spd Sterling, so it worried me a bit given the luck I've had with Sterlings. But this one was a cherry, drove great, even had an air seat, which was needed greatly on I-78 in PA, a highway I now rate as the bumpiest I've traveled doing driveaway work.

Since the route to Ringwood would take me up I-81, I decided to make home the stop for the night, which naturally made my wife very very happy. I scrunched the truck up my wooded driveway, scraping the nice shiny new black paint on the overhanging limbs, hoping the resulting scratches would buff out later, or maybe I'd hit rain on the way and dirt them over.

Trip 51
Tuesday, June 6, 2006

This was the fateful 6/6/6 sign of the devil day, so I headed out early, fueled up at the local Pilot station, and was heading up I-81 by 7:15 AM. Even though, in addition to being devil day, this was supposed to be highway roadcheck across the country where truckers and trucks were to be under unusually high scrutiny, the trip into PA was uneventful. Weigh stations were not overly active, but PA still had plenty of bumps in the road.

I arrived Ringwood at 4:00 PM, exactly the time I (and my Tom Tom guidance system) had predicted. The owner of Green Mountain Tree Experts soon showed up at the drop-off. He admired his brand new black Sterling, and was kind enough to offer to take me to the Avis rental place, about 10 miles down 17 towards New York City.

I was in the car and heading south by 5:30 PM. Since the map is loaded with road possibilities, I decided to just let my Tom Tom take over and guide me home. It took me to I-95, where I expected to hit unbelievable New York City traffic, but I had no problems. Not that much traffic and all was moving along well. Was surprised to look over and see the Empire State Building almost adjacent to I-95 and still be moving. I drove about 100 miles and stayed at a Super8 in Bellmawr, NJ.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Gloating because I'd successfully made it through devil day, I headed on south down I-95 past Wilmington, went thru the Harbor Tunnel at Baltimore, and sped on towards Washington, where I hit the typical DC parking lot on I-495. I can't figure how NYC has traffic moving at 5:45 PM, but DC can't move it at 10:00 AM. Finally made it around that mess, hit I-66, then route 29 to the Lynchburg airport. Took a taxi to Forestry Equipment to pick up my personal car, and was headed home about 3:00 PM.

Once I got in my personal car, I sort of felt like I was on vacation. School bus driving is over for the season, and that's the last driveaway trip until towards the end of summer. Looking forward to 3 weeks out west and taking the long break from retirement.