Warm and Ice

I'm sure my postings are going to get shorter. As most everyone who has ever started a blog knows, it finally becomes a bit of a burden. Plus, my wife says I got too long winded in my postings, so I'll shorten them up anyway.

This trip started on Tuesday, March 13, in hot, sunny weather and eventually hit the ice in Philadelphia.

Picked up a rental car to Gastonia, NC, where I got a taxi to Southco in Shelby, NC. There, I picked up a very nice Ford F750 log loader destined for High Ridge, MO, which is on the southwest edge of St. Louis.

This truck provided a nice trip through the NC Great Smokey Mountains, an area I had not been through, and on in to TN. Even though my son now lives in Nashville, and I did go through there Weds. morning, we didn't hook up since he was in New Hampshire skiing. Made it to High Ridge about 3:30 PM on Weds.

From High Ridge, dispatch had me lined up for a rental car to Plainfield, IL where I was to pick up a truck for Charlotte, MI, which would bring a new state into my driveaway experience.

Made it to Bloomington, IL for the night, then on to Plainfield on Thurs. morning. I dropped the rental car and a nice, young Hertz assistance was able to take me to City Utility, where my heart sank. As we approached, I could see that it was basically a truck junk yard, but they did have several lines of truck on their lot that had been conditioned for resale.

I found the manager and he took me to the truck I was to take to Charlotte, MI. It was a Freightliner FL80 crew cab boom truck. First crew cab I've hit. It had over 50k miles on it, the most I've seen so far, but they were probably not accurate since the speedometer/odometer only registered about half the speed you were actually traveling.

I initially thought I might not take it since there was a bad spot on a rear tire, but the manager told me to check it over carefully and they'd fix whatever was needed. So I gave it the best inspection I could, even taking it on a test drive. It actually ran OK, so I finally told him I'd just head on, even though he had called to have the tire changed.

The truck made it on to Charlotte, about 250 miles, and I arrived there about 4:30 PM. This was my first time driving in to MI. Dispatch then told me to find a way to the Detroit airport, about 100 miles away, where I'd get a flight the next morning for Richmond where I would pick up a new truck from Glen Allen to Forest, VA and on home. Since I had to change flights in Philadelphia, and the ice storm was there on Friday, that's where things got interesting.

But first, I had to get to the Lansing, MI airport to pick up my rental car. The only shuttle they have in Charlotte wasn't going to pick up any more passengers that day, so I was stuck in the auction lot where I delivered this one. I asked the guy there if he knew anyone that might be willing to take me the 20 miles for $40 and another guy stepped to the plate. Don't know what I would have done if he hadn't volunteered. Just another one of those driveaway lucky saves, I guess.

We had been delayed about 30 minutes in Detroit awaiting weather clearance in Philadelphia, but we were able to land there OK after the delay. When I arrived at the gate, I was relieved to see the next plane was already at the gate and the crew was there. But there was a 30 minute delay, then another 30 minute delay. I've flown enough to know that's not a good sign and bad things are likely about to happen.

I happened to overhear a guy calling his secretary to get a rental car lined up so he could drive to Richmond if/when the flight cancelled. Kind of unusual for me, but I asked him if he wanted someone to ride along and split the cost, which he did. Turned out he and another fellow, along with me, ended up heading out to Richmond when the flight ended up getting cancelled.

If you checked the news, there were thousands stranded, some for the entire weekend, in Philadelphia and up the northeast cost. We lucked out and got out, but our bags didn't. USAir said they couldn't get our bags for us, they'd be sent on to Richmond. But for me, even if that happened, it wasn't going to help me since my tools were in my checked bag and I was leaving Richmond for Forest then home. So the bag dilemma started there.

We drove through some sleet and rain all the way to Richmond - nasty weather. The guy that was driving was an executive with Smithfield Foods and the other guy was an environmental scientist, so we had some interesting discussions. Good we had those, because we didn't stop a single time the whole 250 miles. All had good bladders, I guess.

Got through the baggage line in Richmond fairly quickly where we filed our claims. I was told my bag would be delivered to my home once it finally made it to Richmond, but since my tools were in it, I did stay over the night just to see if they came in the next morning - which they didn't.

Did get to visit with one of my daughters on Saturday morning, and she brought a screw driver (so I could mount my plate) and took me to Glen Allen. There, I picked up the usual GMC 7500 boom truck and headed out to Glen Allen. My wife picked me up there about 2:00 PM and I was almost home.

I continued to call the two USAir numbers provided over the weekend, but with no success. Finally, on Monday morning, a baggage delivery guy did call me from Richmond and said he'd be delivering bags all over this end of the state and would probably get mine to me that night - which he did.

Was relieved to get my tools, camera, a few clothes, toothbrush, etc. back. I'm planning to tow my car the next trip, so we'll see if that offers as much excitement as bumping around via whatever means you can in driveaway.

Two Big Ones and a Tweety Bird

This latest set of trips found me tugging around two of the largest trucks I've driven followed by one of the smallest.

Monday, February 26, 2007

This trip started with a rental pickup at the Roanoke airport for a drive to Charlotte, NC. There, another Spirit Miller driver picked me up to take me to his home where he had staged a boom truck he brought from Birmingham, AL. Got to hear all the normal griping these drivers seem to love to do, how dispatch screws them over, what a piece of junk the truck is, etc., etc. I was very enthralled by the time I got to his house and saw the mamouth boom truck I was to take to Plains, PA. It was a Kenworth T800, the first of those I'd driven, with a 125' boom on it, also I believe the largest I've hauled.

After getting used to the normal scraping I do on those Eaton Fuller hi-lo trannys, I was heading north. The path took me by home, so since it was close to quiting time, I staged the truck at the nearby truck stop and had my wife pick me up for home. It was good to get at least one night this week at home.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Headed on up I-81 to Plains, PA, a trip of about 300 miles. I arrived at the Altec plant there at about 2:30 PM. Dispatch had me lined up for a rental car from the local airport to Millford, CT, where I was to pick up a truck destined for Columbus, OH. It took about an hour for the cab to come to take me to the airport. And just as I had signed for my car, dispatch called to say the plans had changed. I was to go to Millbury, MA (that seems like a lot of Mills), and pick up a truck for Frederick, MD. So, I re-routed and headed out. I spent the night just outside of Waterbury, CT which left me about 1.5 hours drive (not counting traffic accidents in Hartford, CT).


Wednesday, February 28, 2007


I got to the Altec plant in Millford about noon, and they brought out the biggest crane truck I've driven - an IHC Paystar 5000 with a super-duper hi/lo-lo transmission. It had considerably more buttons than I've seen before, but it turned out if I just stuck with the buttons I knew, it did OK. The last three IHC's I've driven have been mostly new and all have had various problems. This one was losing some air, had a noisy power steering, thumping in the steering, and was occasionally thinking about overheating. Plenty to think about in addition to its 13'6" height.

Speaking of height, as I was buzzing around with all the traffic, overpasses, and mess through Hartford, I looked up and there was a bridge with a sign saying 13'7" (gee! a whole inch to spare), which I was about to either immediately head under or hit. So I did what most good professional drivers do - I ducked - hoping I wouldn't hear crane grinding on bridge or me going through the windshield. Neither happened, but I took extra notice of all future bridges - and there are a lot of them in PA.

Made it to the Jonestown, PA area, just above Harrisburg for the night.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

It's March already? Where did the winter go?

Up early and on to Frederick, MD. I was anxious to get this big behemoth off my shoulders and hopeful that dispatch would be heading me further south towards home. Weather was approaching the northern states.

Got to Frederick about 9:30 AM, where I deposited this truck, gladly, and was put in a nice tweety-bird yellow Ford F550 small boom truck destined for Bowling Green, VA (getting closer to home). Plus, dispatch already had a rental car from Fredericksburg, VA lined up for me to get home. So I was a happy camper. It was a real relief to be out of the giant trucks and driving something this small even if I did have to drive around Washington, DC.

I made it to Bowling Green about 12:30, then Hertz agreed to pick me up. Got my rental car after waiting about an hour for the driver to come and I was on my way home. The Hertz driver expressed a lot of interest in becoming a driveaway driver, so I gave him the sale pitch.


Happy to be through another trip. They always seem to keep me tense, but big trucks especially so. I'm planning to outfit my 1994 Saturn as a tow car for my next trip. That should bring some new excitement into the driveaway deal.