Repeat After Me ...

Driver, you are screwed ...

It was decided at Freightliner, that the night shift didn't have the expertise to decide to fix the truck ...

The load will NOT be deliverd this morning ... the next load will not be picked up this morning ... it is unlikely that I'll be in Florida on Wednesday ...

AND ... that critical medical appointment you've waited 9 months for ...

The Culprit

To the left is the splined shaft coming out of the top rear of the front differential ... on the right end is a threaded section ... there is supposed to be a nut on there to keep the "U"-joint on ... OOPS! It came off ... resulting in a strange vibration ... and as I came to a halt ... it slid off the driveshaft and thrashed about.

To the right is a foto of where an airline was torn off ... a taillight electrical line ripped off ... airbag base has a chunk knocked out ... and who knows what else ... Cost $475 to tow to the Freightliner shop ... waiting to see the final cost ... and when I'll get out of here (Gary, IN).

Driveshaft Disconnect

When your drive shaft is hanging down like this ... and the piece on the right is laying on the ground ... the truck won't go anywhere.

I'm sitting on the shoulder of I-94 just north of I-80, just past exit 71B (Sibley Blvd) ... in the Chicago, IL area.

And when that part on the right came off, it whacked a couple of things ... like an air release valve ... and broke out a piece ... so I can't release the brakes ... all the air just hisses out and I'm stuck right here ...

The A/C has decided to just growl ... instead of work ... fortunately, the outside air temp isn't very hot ... rather pleasant. We just had a brief rain shower, as well.

I called the Cook County Sheriff's office ... who connected me to the State Police ... who are going to send out a wrecker to tow me someplace to get this fixed ...

Licorice

Youngest daughter gave me a bag of really soft "Australian" licorice. Mmmmh! Wow! Oh! Yum! Aaaahh! It is SO good ... the whole bag can disappear in no time flat!

She said she liked salty things and licorice, so I got her a bag of German salt licorice (Saltzige Heringe - salty herrings) from World Market ... I haven't heard anything back ... so she probably doesn't like it ... they're kind of strange.

Not Working

It is kind of hard to work and attend medical appointments ... PLUS, there was only one load last week ... so most of us drivers (4 out of 5) sat at the house ... Fortunately, I have a load that will get me back here in time for my appointment with V.A. in Montgomery next Thursday.

We went to the movies with Karen's kids the other day ... watched Kungfu Panda ... cute.

I've been riding my EZ Speedster recumbent in the mornings ... especially yesterday when I had to go (fasting) to the V.A. clinic at Rucker for them to stick a needle in and take out blood ... golden-flow too ... thought maybe some exercise would help with the blood-sugar levels ... the BP was ok ... 127/80 ... which is pretty good for a pudgy older guy.
Of course, they were talking of doing things like an invasion of privacy ... checking out my garbage dump ... a colonoscopy ...
Well, I've gotta load my personal stuff into the truck ... and head north with this load of p'nuts today. Daniel put 8 new drive tires on the truck - WOW! (the expense for 24.5 low-pro tires ... a thousand $ or more for four?)

Fried Neck

I took a short ride bicycle with Daniel around the flatter parts of town ... he couldn't go more than 1-1/2 blocks without stopping to recover his breathe. After 3/4 of a mile ... he had to stop even longer because, "my heart is beating so hard, it hurts my chest." After getting him home and settled, I took a quick 8 mile ride ... nonstop.

Then in early afternoon, I took a plastic pail and went out in the cow pastures to pick blackberries ... they were really small, and it took quite a while to get about 4 cups ... down in the briar patch, I thought there was going to be more blood than berry juice on my hands ... little bitty thorns that just snag your clothes and arms ... I'm still picking them out of my clothes.
Meanwhile, I fried the back of my neck pretty good. So tonight I am hosing it down with aloe vera. My wife made a lovely berry cobbler ... but she is only letting me eat just ONE piece ... I don't know what's the matter with her ... I took a bike ride today ... so I should be good to eat TWO pieces ... right?!

Motivation

Someone near + dear to me ... likes to motivate me by saying, "Get out there and apply for 10 jobs every day!"
I have applied for a goodly number ... I can't just apply for any and all ... because there are minimum income requirements ... and other such factors.

However, it does motivate me to get up and out of the house ... take out the trash ... to the storage shed ... to the shop ... to the truck ...

More Fotos ... just because

I really like using my eMac ... all these fotos were in my iFoto folder ...

The really nutty ones are where you strap a gas tank and propeller to your back ... run like crazy ... and hope to get airborne ... before you collapse of exhaustion or a heart attack ...

Lakes & Ponds

I sure saw a lot of lakes & ponds in Iowa ... I don't remember there being very many along I-80. But then the rivers were very high to the bottoms of the bridges that I was driving over. It didn't rain on Monday, and it wasn't raining on Tuesday morning when I picked up my load in Omaha, NE.

Ran South to Kansas City, MO then East thru St. Louis ... cut across the bottom of Illinois ... and 711 miles from Omaha, stopped for the night near Ft. Campbell, KY. Wednesday was a 651 miles day to Jacksonville. I fueled in Valdosta, GA ... then just as I was leaving, water drops started falling ... by the time I hit the Florida border, there were high winds, the rain was flying sideways, and trucks were streaming into the rest stop. I slowed down to turbulence penetration speed (so things weren't quite as scary) and kept going out of the area. On the radio they were talking of predicted 60 mph winds in Valdosta. No rain in Jacksonville.

Back home ... fighting with the Windows XP computer to get it to load the Real Estate study program ... it was having problems with Microsoft SQL Server Express ... turn this off, turn that off, delete this & that, 3rd time was a charm. Worked my way thru 209 pages of the 3312 pages ... more to go ...

Went to the Art Society opening for a one-man show ... lots of snacks! Pretty colors, thick paint, several that I would buy ... IF I could afford them.

Goin' North

I left on Saturday afternoon ... it was about 2:45 p.m. after fueling. I put in just about 2 hours of driving when I heard/felt a "Bang!" ... maybe a tire. I was just above the 212mm on I-65 in Alabama ... so I pulled into the rest stop there in Clanton. I went around and checked all the tires ... (the location of tires may get a bit confusing ... starting at the front, there are the steer tires ... then the 2 drive axles, with 2 tires on each axles per side ... 4 tires per axle ... and finally the 2 trailer axles ... with the same amount of tires as the drive axles ... 18 wheels in all that can go flat). As I walked around the truck, heading back from the driver door, the inside tire on the front drive axle on the driverside was flat ... the outside tire on the rear trailer axle on the driverside was flat ... the inside tire on the front drive axle on the passenger side was low on air ... when I pumped it up, it started hissing out along the edge of the retread seam. Can you believe I needed to replace 3 tires!?
So, I called Daniel ... he had some spares laying around the shop ... and said he'd be on his way ... 8:00 a.m. the next morning he shows up ... then his air wrench wouldn't connect to the truck air hose ... so he had to go out and buy an adapter ... 120 psi just wasn't enough to get the air wrench to take the lug nuts off (not enough reserve pressure). At 10:00 a.m. he finally gave in and called a professional tire guy ... who showed up at 11:00 ... changed out the 3 tires ... and I was on my way again at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday.
Other than running late, and not being able to attend church, things seemed to be going okay ... until Sunday evening about the 70-72mm in Kentucky when I heard another "Bang!" ... looked back and saw a little rubber fly ... and then saw an entire retread sitting in the lane behind me. I pulled over and went back to check ... the inside tire on the front trailer axle on the passenger side had thrown off the entire retread and was flat as can be. Flying down the road with a flat tire having steel bands in it is not good ... they have been known to destroy suspension air bags and the tire next to them. I limped the truck slowly down the road to exit 81 in Sonora, KY ... there's a Pilot truckstop there ... which just happens to have a repair shop (unususal for a Pilot truckstop). I pulled in, fueled, and had my 4th flat of this trip replaced. No repeats ... all different tires. The foto above-left is the 4th tire ... notice no tread section, which is why it is so flat.
Guess what? I wasn't in the Chicago area Sunday afternoon when the tornadoes went through ...

I called up my friend, Grampa Dan, whom I haven't seen in awhile ... we visited for an hour ... then I headed on to Elgin, IL. It was 4:30 a.m. when I pulled into there ... more asleep than awake. Had to get up at 5:45 a.m. to deliver.
After delivering, I headed west to Rochelle, IL ... parked the truck at the Petro truckstop ... and slept for 5 hours ... before heading to Omaha, NE.

Garden Plot #2

I told my wife that in the 24 hours that I would be home, I'd do 2 things ... make a loaf of bread (with the A/C on it didn't rise ...) ... and dig a 2nd garden plot for her to plant. I was almost done digging the plot out next to the previous one ... when I struck water with the mattock!!!

Look at that ... a real geyser!

It's the city side of the line ... not flowing thru any of our meters ... so we can't turn it off. We tried phoning the city ... nothing ... so we drove around to find a policeman. He called the police chief who came and looked. The police chief called the Mayor. Between the two of them they got a fellow to come over to deal with it.

In the meantime I convinced my wife to use 2 metal clothes hangers to go dowse where this line was flowing underground ... We traced it up to a meter by some trailers (it was shut-off) ... then traced it down to a larger pipe (my wife says, according to the hanger reactions) ... that turned left ... headed thru the trees and fenceline ... and out to the other street.

When the fellow showed up, we told him where it ran (and that we had turned all our meters off and it wasn't stopping it) ... so he headed over to the other street and eventually found a hand-valve over there that shut it off. Of course, it also killed water to our house and the one next door (our landlord). Time to break out the sawdust toilet until Monday ... I'll be in the truck ... wife will have to make-do. :-)

Off and Running ...

This foto is not from a race course ... while driving west on Hwy 84 yesterday, I saw in my rearview mirror what I thought was a Growler car ... but when it got close to me, I realized it looked more like a race car. I grabbed my camera and while stabilizing the steering wheel with my elbows ... managed to take this foto as it whipped around me. The driver ... just to the left of the yellow thing ... is wearing a full-face helmet.

When I delivered the load in Quincy ... they didn't ask for a lumper fee ... so after picking up a peanut load ... I put that money into the fuel tanks (a whole 26 gallons) ... and made it back to the yard with barely a 1/4 tank of fuel.

That's when I found out that Daniel can't drive this run. Something to do with a citation 6 yrs ago in NY. New York had suspended his CDL ... but Alabama never knew about it. However, Illinois managed to discover it. Daniel cleared it up with NY. But now Illinois has suspended his CDL, because they say he was illegally driving a commercial vehicle in their state without a license.

So, I just got home yesterday afternoon ... and I'm off and running again this morning. :-(

Today's Question

Well, after many faxes back and forth ... they finally said they would unload me at 10:00 a.m. today EST. Then I waited all yesterday afternoon and all night ... I am currently backed into a door, and they have actually started to take some pallets off.

After this is done, I need to get across Atlanta ... pick up another load ... and deliver it in Quincy, FL tomorrow morning.


The Question: will I run out of money and fuel before I run out of miles to get back home??

Concerns: 1) I have half a tank of fuel (maybe 75-85 gallons) 2) I get 6 miles to a gallon (+ or less) 3) Over 350 miles to Quincy 4) Have to pay lumpers at Publix in Dacula, GA ($85-100) 5) Have to pay lumpers at SuperValue in Quincy, FL ($85-100) 6) An additional 100+ miles from Quincy to the yard 7) Only $300 to do it all with ...

Expectations

There I was on Monday morning ... delivering in Elgin. Then parking in their lot while waiting on a load. At noon, I was called to pick up a load in Paw Paw, MI at 3:30 p.m. (they are Eastern time) ... I'm 40 miles NW of downtown Chicago ... in a 55 mph state ... 167 miles from Paw Paw ... not counting road construction on I-80 and I-94 ... it would take a minimum of 3 hours to get there ... the 90 mph broker was only allowing 2.5 hours to get there. So, 3.5 hrs later, when I legally arrived, I was "late" for the pickup. This put me at the end of the list, behind every truck that continued to show up on time for their pick up.

At 11:15 p.m. they finally loaded me. I drove to the nearest commercial truck scale ... my trailer axles scaled at 38,220 lbs. TOO HEAVY. I slid the wheels all the way to the rear ... scaled this time at 36,000 ... still 2,000 lbs TOO HEAVY ... with no way to change that.

Back at CCNA in Paw Paw, I showed them the scale tickets ... they unhappily removed the entire load and re-loaded my trailer with more of the heavier things further forward. It was now 1:00 a.m. and I was at the end of my DOT legal day. I had to go out the gate, find a place to park, and go to sleep.

I couldn't start work until 11:00 a.m. I pre-tripped the truck, drove to a scale, and this time was able to get all axles legal ... with no room for error (this is a heavy load). I then proceeded to drive 677 miles in just under a DOT legal 11 hours. I stopped just before the "open" GA DOT scale at exit 345 on I-75 at Ringgold, GA. There is supposed to be a 72-hr DOT inspection blitz going on ... and I wouldn't want to be caught doing anything illegal.

So at 8:00 a.m. I could inspect my truck and head down the road to Atlanta ... and then over to Dacula, GA to deliver.

It seems someone forgot to tell me that the delivery appointment was at 5:30 a.m. EST (4:30 my time) ... SO, when I arrived, Publix refused to unload me ... saying I was 6 hours late ... call your dispatch and have them make another appointment ... if you are lucky, you might get one today after 1600 hrs (4 p.m.) ... maybe 7 p.m.

Which "shoots down the tube" the load load I was supposed to pick up at 12:30 p.m. and deliver tomorrow in Tallahassee area.

If I'm not told your expectations (delivery time), I can't meet them. (gripe ... ) Of course we are not admitting to any illegality or possible sleep deprivation to meet expectations.

Just a Weed

On the way to church I saw these lovely flowers ... it is actually one of those nasty goat-head thorns ... things you hate if going barefoot ...

To get the foto, I lay down on the sidewalk ... while wearing a suit and white shirt ... good thing my wife wasn't around ... I don't think she would have approved. Click on the foto to see the larger image ... they really are quite lovely.