Sunny Florida and the Races

Last week, I completed a series of moves that were in stark contrast to the previous set of moves I made. The temperature difference was something like 80 degrees.

Dispatch called to see if I was available to take a truck from Forest, VA to Jacksonville, FL, a move that certainly seemed attractive at this time of year. I had planned to not go out until Monday, but this one had to go on Friday, so I headed out then.

Friday, February 15, 2008

I left Forestry Equipment in Forest about 8:30 AM. The truck was an IHC 4300 6-spd. bucket/chipper unit. I had originally planned to stop somewhere in SC or GA since this was 600+ mile trip, but a friend who lives in Jacksonville called when I reached SC and made an offer I couldn't refuse. He suggested I stay at his place Friday night and we'd go to Daytona to the ARCA race and Bud Shootout on Saturday. Sounded too good to pass up. Plus, dispatch called to see if I was interested in staying in FL until Monday and making a few moves around Orlando, so I stayed. I delivered in Jacksonville about 8:00 PM. Had some trouble finding the drop-off location in a dark, empty lot. I missed it the first pass and ended up at the Coast Guard station with no way to turn the truck around with my toad attached. Luckily, some other drivers had seen me go by the lot and came to my rescue. I unhooked my toad while one of them took the truck back to the lot.

Had a wonderful weekend going to the races and visiting friends. Drove from Jacksonville to Orlando on Sunday and located the truck I was to pick up first thing Monday morning and take to West Palm Beach. This was an IHC 4200 bucket truck. It didn't have a bucket cover, a requirement, so I put straps over the bucket to make sure the liner didn't jump out during delivery. I delivered it to Altec on Monday around 11:30 AM and I was lined up to pick another one up from that same location destined for Sarasota. Always nice to not have a deadhead between trucks. This one was an IHC Workstar 7400 automatic bucket/material handling unit. I got it to Sarasota about 4:00 PM. From there, I was to deadhead back to West Palm Beach, about 195 miles, and pick one up again at Altec to go to Ormond Beach. All of these are nice places to be in February.

I stopped in Belle Glade, right next to Lake Okeechobee for the night in a pretty big, and expensive, dump. Got to West Palm Beach about 8:30 the next morning (Tuesday) and picked up the same type unit, an IHC 7400. Made it through the rain and reached Ormond Beach about 1:00 PM. I did have a problem keeping the bucket cover on during the trip, but again the rubber tie-downs I carry did the trick.

Since I was on my last pair of underware, I was interested in heading home, but since it was 670 miles deadhead I was hoping for a truck on the way. The only thing dispatch had was one leaving from somewhere in FL to Alabama, so I passed up on it and started the long deadhead. I made it straight home about midnight, after driving something like 900 miles for the day, perhaps a record.

There had been a lot of cold, wind, and fires since I left on Friday morning. Entering the Roanoke Valley, near where I live, it was very smokey and foggy and many people still remained without power from the winds over the weekend.