Jump to content

other dog

BMT Benefactor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13,549

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    445

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by other dog

  1. other dog
    Got another week in the bag-went back to Neville Island, Pa. with a load of beams in the Conestoga, just 30 footers, after I got the truck out of the shop. Then I loaded at Butler of course and went to Chesapeake. Stayed at home Wednesday night, then went to Orlando Thursday. They had loads going to Pittsburgh and Butler loads back to Chesapeake, but I opted for the Orlando on my flatbed, even though it's a long ways on Thursday, rather than a Conestoga and another load out of Butler. Everybody hates AK Steel at Butler. Everybody hates AK Steel everywhere really. Middletown Ohio is the worst, Ashland Ky. is the best, and Butler falls somewhere in between. Everything about AK Steel sucks, to the very highest level of suctivity. You go there and wait all evening and half the night to get loaded, then drive all night to Chesapeake to wait there all the next day to get unloaded.
    I unloaded in Orlando about 9:30 Friday morning and had to be in Statesboro, Ga. by 3:00 to get reloaded with lumber- 318 miles. I pulled in at a quarter to 3. Then the engine light came on -yes, again- a little South of Rock Hill, S.C. Back to Cat...that's OK-i'm on vacation this week anyway.
    random thoughts-
    been watching "Ice Road Truckers"-is that Lisa smokin' hot, or what?..geez!
    Hugh's still "the man"
    That haul road is just scary looking-I wouldn't want to drive it in the summer! 25 years ago maybe, but as I might have mentioned before i'm not nearly as brave as I used to be!
    Watched 2 good movies on TV this weekend- I missed the first hour of both of them, but "Blackhawk Down" is one of the best movies i've ever seen. Very intense, and very moving. Today I watched the last of "Into the Wild". Kind of hard to follow if you didn't see the beginning, but I knew the story from Jon Krakauer's book. He also climbed Mt. Everest, and wrote "Into Thin Air", an excellent book.
    Got a few pictures here from my latest adventures.
    "junk corner" at the yard-looks like a cement mixer in the background,behind the bushes
    a whirlwind at Triad Metals in Neville Island, Pa.
    Ultraliner at Neville Island
    closer view of the big hill in Butler, Pa. No babes around this time.
    A fine looking fleet of Macks
    saw Joe again, still dragging that Moffett around-he was on rt. 422 in Pa.
    a big boat in Newport News- maybe a ship even.
    R-model with twice pipes in Chesapeake.
    saw Joe again, still dragging that Moffett around-he was on rt. 460 in Lynchburg this time.
    a fine looking Freightliner in Statesboro, Ga. I thought it was their yard dog until the driver strapped that lumber down and hit the road with it.
    A Mack in Statesboro, Ga.
    R-model at an old garage on rt. 301
    B-model wrecker at the same garage.
    tomatoes from the garden-couldn't stop at 13, in case you're superstitious.
  2. other dog

    North Dakota

    By other dog,

    Now I can mark North Dakota off the list. Oregon is the only state I haven't been to, in the lower 48 that is. Can't go to Hawawii because I might run out of fuel on the bottom of the ocean before I got there. Wasn't much scenery along the way to North Dakota-or at least not the spectacular scenery like there was going to Washington. Never seen so many sunflowers before though.Huge fields of them.
    I left Saturday and drove to Pittsboro, In, home of NASCAR great Jeff Gordon. That's what the sign said. Sunday morning I left the Loves truckstop and drove on to the Pipeline truckstop at the 100 mile marker in Minnesota. We were scheduled to unload Tuesday morning but we got unloaded Monday evening. I got to Williston about 4 or 4:30 mtn. time. I made such good time I figured i'd be the first truck there but the other 2 were already at the jobsite.
    The load paid good going out, but we ended up having to deadhead all the way to Chicago and Indiana to load back. I had to pick up 4 coils in Kingsbury, In. and 1 more in Greenfield, just east of Indianapolis. Couldn't find anything in North Dakota. There was lumber coming out of South Dakota, from Rapid City and Spearfish but the broker said it was 48,000 lbs (which really means 52,000) ,which I can't scale, and you needed lumber tarps, which I didn't have, plus it didn't pay anything. So we deadheaded about 1200 miles.
    I got home Thursday night about 9:30. Could have unloaded in Suffolk yesterday, but I only had an hour and a half left to work so i'll unload Tuesday. Ran 3,840 miles in 6 days.
    I can't upload pictures on my blog for some reason, so i'm posting no pictures.
  3. other dog

    Rat Patrol

    By other dog,

    I didn't have another load to pick up after I unloaded that empty 40' container at Sonny Merryman's today, so I could have came back home, but I went to the shop to hang around in case something came in. And I needed a headlight anyway, and some cab marker lights were out on the mixer that I needed to fix. When I got in it to start it I saw a big brown rat-about the size of a wallaby-scurry across the passenger side floorboard. I remember Rob said you could smoke 'em out, or smoked wallaby was good-something like that anyway. So I got a metal can out of the shop, soaked an old grease rag in diesel fuel, then lit the rag and dropped it in the can. Then I dropped a hand full of green pine needles in. It smothered the fire, and smoked like a chimney. Then I put it in the truck and shut the doors. It sat in there and smoked and smoldered for about an hour. Then I felt so guilty about doing the mouse like that I left a box of D-Con in there for it to eat, and some anti-freeze to drink.
  4. other dog

    Weekly Report

    By other dog,

    I don't know if there's any dead rats in the mixer cab, but they had definately been into the d-con I left for them. I didn't have time to check yesterday because I got back from Florida around 5:30 and had to get to the bank before they closed at 6:00. Wonder if a rubber snake would keep them out?
    I went to Neville Island with a load of beams Monday, then reloaded in Sharon, Pa. back to Lynchburg. Turns out the coils were the wrong size , so I dropped them at the shop and took a load of beams to Fernandina Beach, Fl. on another trailer. I had a load to pick up at Nucor in Huger, S.C. and the earliest loading time I could get was 11:30 Thursday night. Got there around 7:00, but didn't even get across the scales until 1:00 AM. Finally backed in to load at 4:00, and left a little after 5AM. I called Todd and told him i'd been at the #@$!ing place all night trying to get loaded. He wanted to know if i'd seen anybody else. The other 2 trucks had gotten 7:30 appointments, and at least one of them was already back in Lynchburg. So I just took 26 over to 95 and went north to the first rest area and pulled in and took a nap.
    Now I have 2 loads of coils sitting at the shop-they still haven't figured out what to do with the first one. They were too big for Handy to cut, so I don't know if they'll send them back to Sharon Coatings, or get them recut somewhere else.
    I see the truck show pictures from Lincolnton, N.C. that I sent to the ATHS are posted on their site now.
    http://forums.aths.org/InstantForum414/Topic64199-34-1.aspx
    Pretty boring report there,eh?..zzzzz
  5. other dog

    From Rats To Wine

    By other dog,

    Thought this was worth sharing-
    I've never really been much of a wine conner-sewer, but I came across a recipe for homemade wine that's really easy. My Momma made the best wine i've ever tasted, better than anything that came from the store. She made it in the big stone crocks from grapes, cherries, dandelions...I don't know what else, if anything, I always liked the grape best.
    But anyway, she sent me a recipe this week for homemade wine and all you need is an empty plastic milk jug. I used my one gallon water jug that I take with me in the truck-it's just like Dozer's-instead of a milk jug. I've got grapes growing in the back yard and around the edge of the woods here. I thought they were wild grapes, but after doing some research, and making Jo eat some first to make sure they weren't poisonous, I found they were called Muscadine grapes. They are the sweetest and "grapiest" tasting grapes I ever tasted, but they were kind of "chewy" and had lots of seeds in them. They were delicious, but not too good to eat. So that's where the wine comes in-
    you just put the grapes in a milk jug, or a water jug-mine's about 2/3 full.
    mash the grapes with a wooden spoon or something-my "wild" ones were hard to mash, so I mashed them in a bowl with a soup ladle first, then put them in the jug.
    Add just enough water to cover them.
    Place a cover (loosely!) over the jug and allow to ferment for around 4 days. Then strain the juice in small amounts, discarding the pulp.
    Add 3 pounds of sugar for each gallon of juice-(time to start tasting, this sounds like a lot of sugar to me!)
    Cover (loosely!) and let ferment for 10 days, or until fermentation stops.
    Bottle with a loose top and put in a cool place.
    This was my great-grandfather's recipe. He said "churn" instead of milk jug, but it still works. Ma added this-
    "After the first straining I put the juice in another milk jug, add the sugar and put a balloon on the jug. It'll work for about a week. Then strain again, but leave all the thick mess in the jug-don't strain it. Taste to see if it's sweet enough-if not, add sugar. Let sit in balloon covered jug about another week.
    Strain through about 4 layers of cheesecloth, then bottle. Top with balloon again until it's not working anymore, then cork."
    I've got mine in the water jug now! I never knew making wine was so simple-probably a good thing, or I might be face down in a back alley in the bad part of Gladys now!
  6. other dog

    Changed Plans

    By other dog,

    I got home from the Colorado trip Tuesday night. I unloaded coiled wire that I loaded in Pueblo, Co. last Thursday in Rome, Ga. Monday morning, then had to layover and pick up a load of 60' beams in Greenville, S.C. Tuesday morning. Got them off in Petersburg that evening and finally got home. Had to take the truck to Carter Cat because the engine light had been on for a week. I was supposed to leave today going to Homestead, Florida. I was gonna run double with Billy Bob in his truck, but he had to leave yesterday for Nebraska, so Otis was gonna go with me in my truck, which is fixed now...for a while anyway. Had to have 2 drivers because the load was supposed to go at 4pm today, and needed to be in Homestead at 8am tomorrow. But, those plans changed too-maybe because the trailer we're pulling hasn't even made it back to Lynchburg from California yet. So now we're supposed to leave at 1 o'clock Sunday and deliver Monday morning. I think we'll just drop the trailer and bobtail back but i'm not sure about that yet.
  7. other dog
    Been having all sorts of PC problems ever since I burned the last truck show pictures to a disc. Still think the HP photo program that was installed on the computer clashes with the Kodak program I installed when I got my camera. I couldn't even get online without going to a shortcut to youtube on the desktop and the screen resolution just went haywire and I couldn't get it to adjust back. The desktop icons were half as big as the screen. Ive been everywhere in the control panel trying to fix it but nothing seemed to work. Probably would have helped if I knew what I was looking at. I was just about to take it to a computer shop in Appomattox yesterday when my son Morgan suggested trying the system restore, so I did, going back to the day before the truck show. Seems to be OK so far.
    Thought things were picking up a little but it's still pretty slow. The week before last I was home until Wednesday evening before I got a load out, and had to be in Florida the next morning with it. Last week I didn't get out until Tuesday. Unloaded in Neville Island Tuesday night but then sat all day Wednesday and most of Thursday before finally getting a load in Sharon, Pa. going to Sanford, Florida.
    Been running Florida a lot lately. When it gets cold and the snow is up to the bumper Florida loads will probably be hard to come by,eh? (that's Canadian)
  8. other dog

    Catchin' Up

    By other dog,

    Gee...where to begin? Haven't posted a blog since Dec. 22nd. Lot's been going on since then, good and bad and in between, but i've forgotten most of it.
    The bad news is that my nephew Bo Scruggs was one of the victims of the sorry bastard who shot and killed 8 people in Appomattox recently.
    8 good people, for no apparent reason, or reasons known only to him. Then Bo's dad Ronnie had a heart attack and is now recovering at home from 5-way heart bypass surgery, so he'll be out of work for a while. Fortunately the community has rallied behind them and the other victims families with benefits for them like stews, dances, and the skating rink in Appomattox- where Bo was a regular- donated money also. The Pamplin volunteer fire department made 40 gallons of chicken stew and 40 gallons of beef stew- it was all sold in 15 minutes, along with all the cakes,pies,and desserts people donated to sell.
    Been running pretty good lately. Went to Mobile, Al. one week. Reloaded in Shreveport for Lynchburg and it was snowing. In Shreveport. Louisiana. Then the following week I went to Mobile and back twice. Then last week I went to Eagle Pass Texas. That's about a desolate ass place, right on the Mexican border. Nothing but brush and cactus for about 50 miles or so before you get there, for as far as you can see. Had to come all the way back to Jackson, Tn. to get a load though...going to New #@*+ing Jersey.
    Had to go to Wilmington, De. Monday to unload a load I picked up in Blytheville, Ar. last week. I left here Sunday and while I was driving up rt. 29 I noticed the alternator wasn't charging. Figured it was probably the belt, and I had a spare, so I pulled into the truckstop at Opal to put it on...but it wasn't the belt. So I called Jeff and he told me to call road service, so I did, and left there 6 hours later with a new alternator.
    I left Wilmington when I got unloaded Monday morning, headed to Petersburg to load the Eagle Pass load. Went by Peterbilt in Richmond to get the engine brake fixed-it only worked 2/3's- and I had an air bag leaking on the cab. Left there with 2 new air bags and a fully operational engine brake...6 hours later.
    12 hours downtime...don't tell Rob.
  9. other dog

    Catchin' Up

    By other dog,

    Gee...where to begin? Haven't posted a blog since Dec. 22nd. Lot's been going on since then, good and bad and in between, but i've forgotten most of it.
    The bad news is that my nephew Bo Scruggs was one of the victims of the sorry bastard who shot and killed 8 people in Appomattox recently.
    8 good people, for no apparent reason, or reasons known only to him. Then Bo's dad Ronnie had a heart attack and is now recovering at home from 5-way heart bypass surgery, so he'll be out of work for a while. Fortunately the community has rallied behind them and the other victims families with benefits for them like stews, dances, and the skating rink in Appomattox- where Bo was a regular- donated money also. The Pamplin volunteer fire department made 40 gallons of chicken stew and 40 gallons of beef stew- it was all sold in 15 minutes, along with all the cakes,pies,and desserts people donated to sell.
    Been running pretty good lately. Went to Mobile, Al. one week. Reloaded in Shreveport for Lynchburg and it was snowing. In Shreveport. Louisiana. Then the following week I went to Mobile and back twice. Then last week I went to Eagle Pass Texas. That's about a desolate ass place, right on the Mexican border. Nothing but brush and cactus for about 50 miles or so before you get there, for as far as you can see. Had to come all the way back to Jackson, Tn. to get a load though...going to New #@*+ing Jersey.
    Had to go to Wilmington, De. Monday to unload a load I picked up in Blytheville, Ar. last week. I left here Sunday and while I was driving up rt. 29 I noticed the alternator wasn't charging. Figured it was probably the belt, and I had a spare, so I pulled into the truckstop at Opal to put it on...but it wasn't the belt. So I called Jeff and he told me to call road service, so I did, and left there 6 hours later with a new alternator.
    I left Wilmington when I got unloaded Monday morning, headed to Petersburg to load the Eagle Pass load. Went by Peterbilt in Richmond to get the engine brake fixed-it only worked 2/3's- and I had an air bag leaking on the cab. Left there with 2 new air bags and a fully operational engine brake...6 hours later.
    12 hours downtime...don't tell Rob.
  10. other dog

    Oil Leak

    By other dog,

    I'm still running good, busy as the proverbial one legged man in an ass kicking contest. I took treated lumber to Shinnston,W.V. and loaded 2 coils in Yorkville,Oh. going to Clinton,N.C. Then to Dillwyn and onward to Fremont,Ohio. Loaded some Mack truck frame coils in Erie,Mi. going to Roanoke, then I had to leave Friday going to the nucular (George Bush) power plant in Oak Harbor,Ohio to deliver yesterday morning.They serviced the truck and finally put a new fan hub on it before I left. The oil plug stripped the threads out of the oil pan when they took it out, so they put it back in and welded it. It was still dripping oil though, so they put some silicone on it. It was still dripping oil though, so I took an extra gallon with me (already had 2 gallons) and stopped and bought a gallon of Lucas Oil Stabilizer at $32. Didn't need any of it though, it looked worse than it actually was because by the time I got back to Lynchburg it still wasn't halfway down to the "add" line. I left it at the Cat place with a cut out grape juice bottle under it for a drip pan so they can take the pan off tomorrow and put an insert in it and fix it right.
  11. other dog
    Back in the mid '80s we hauled structural steel from Montague-Betts in Lynchburg,Va. to Boston and the surrounding areas like mad. Sometimes we would load lumber in Palmer,Ma. to bring back but if we were real busy we'd unload and come straight back to Lynchburg as quick as we could to get another load of steel to go straight back to Boston. As you could imagine, the jobsites were a real pain in the ass to get into,the traffic was horrible,and all the ironworkers were assholes when you got there.
    We had a dropsite for a couple of jobs,and that wasn't quite as bad. It was in Everette or Chelsea I believe-I know you had to go by the big produce market to get there. I was driving a 1984 Kenworth K100 with a 400 Cummins in it-big horse at the time. I left one Sunday right after church going up and got to the drop yard a little after midnight. I stopped in the street and went to open the gate but it was locked.Sunday night...hmmmm...I sure didn't want to wait until morning when all the traffic was out trying to run over me,still felt good-I was young then-so I got my tools out and took the gate off the hinges.
    The truck was in the street with the flashers on and I was taking the gate off the hinges after midnight at a trucking company's yard. But apparently I didn't look suspicious. Got the gate off and out of the way,pulled in the yard and dropped the trailer,took my chains off,hooked to an empty and pulled it out into the street,put the gate back on,and hauled ass out of there.
    I stopped at the 7-11 store in Gainesville,Va. Monday morning to call headquarters,and was back at the shop in Appomattox,Va. by lunchtime. Didn't even have to go back out until Tuesday.
    We also used a different drop yard just down the street before we started dropping trailers at the trucking co.-or maybe it was a construction company where I took the gate off,I don't remember.
    Anyway,I got to this yard late one evening,around 4:30 or something to 5 o'clock. I dropped the trailer as fast as I could, found an empty, then pulled around to the load i'd just dropped to take my chains off and throw them on the empty trailer. About then some hateful bitch- I mean, a woman- came out of the office and pretty much told me to pack sand. I told her all I needed to do was snatch the chains off real quick,and I was done...out of there...gone.Oh, hell no you're not-"you're leaving this yard right effin' now,if not sooner" she said. "But all I gotta do is get these chains off-" "You're not doing anything but leaving,it's 5 o'clock and my guys get off at 5,and i'm not paying them overtime to wait on you,now beat it!".
    So I had to lay over and wait until the next morning just to pull 5 or 6 chains off the load i'd busted my ass to get there before 5 the day before.
    So I went over to King Arthur's Bar and motel and got a room,reserved enough money to pay the tolls to get home,and invested the rest in beer.
    And then there was the time I picked up a load of steel in Lynchburg,and when I chained it down I got up on top of the load to make sure my chains were in the right place-sometimes there might be a short piece you couldn't see from the ground that a chain wasn't over,so you always climbed up on top to check everything before you tightened the chains.
    All my chains were fine, but I did notice a dead possum laying in one of the beams. Obviously been dead for several days, because it had already swollen up and had a swarm of flies around it.
    I tightened the chains and went up 29 to the Tye River Truckstop,backed up to the edge of the lot,and looked around until I found a long stick in the edge of the woods. Figured i'd climb up there and push that dead possum off the end of the beam and into the woods-but it was gone. I looked at the beam it was on and there was a big rectangular hole cut into the web of the beam,and the possum had fell down onto the next beam down.
    Hmmmm....nothing I can do for it now without having to touch it.
    So I let it ride on to Boston and dropped the load,dead possum and all,at the drop yard.
    To this day I wonder what those a-hole ironworkers reaction was when they were unloading that load and got down to the possum-already well "ripe" when it left Lynchburg!
  12. other dog
    ...so,after I went to Cranberry,Pa. and back to Lynchburg I went to Fremont,Oh. Last time I was there was during the great blizzard,this time it was water everywhere,rain,rain,and more rain. Lot of the fields looked like small lakes.Too bad we couldn't get some of that rain around here,we need it.
    Brought another load of steel from Pittsburgh to Lynchburg,and was hoping i'd be done for the week,but I had to go back to that jobsite in the mud by the river in Point Marion,Pa. I should have some more pictures later today,after I go to the film developing place.Had to go to Butler,Pa.and loaded at AK Steel going to Chesapeake,Va.to unload Monday. Not much time off at all for the Easter weekend,which really made me...well,let's just say somewhat grouchy.Probably a good thing though,today I paid the electricity bill,phone bill,Visa card,Directv,and pickup payments. Plus an eye drop prescription,the film developing,gas,Wal-Mart,..who knows what else.
    Never did get the dump valve on the trailer and would have had a tough time at Point Marion,with the hole,and the fence,and the dog-leg,but there's a button on top of the valve that you can push to dump the air. It's spring loaded and pops right back out when you let go,but I solved that by finding a stick and cutting it the right length with my pocket knife to wedge up under the trailer floor and hold the button down. Backed in easier than last time,and they didn't even have to get the dozer to pull me out this time.
    These are more bigger better pictures from the Point Marion jobsite,showing how you had to back-up straight towards the tree,then cut the trailer over towards the crane,(to the right in the picture) with the fence and the hole to deal with.When I left I crossed the bridge,which was built in 1927. Had my eyes closed all the way across... must've made it...
  13. other dog

    Checking In

    By other dog,

    just checking in for a moment,i'll catch everything up this weekend hopefully.It's back to work now,they're trying to run me to death.I've been to Waddy,Ky,Chantilly,Va,Latrobe,Pa,and back to Lynchburg already.Now I 've got to go unload in Lynchburg and probably be off again.Got in late last night,took a shower and got to bed around midnight and didn't get up until 8am. And i'm still tired.
  14. other dog

    Misery,ohio

    By other dog,

    Once again after a very,very short weekend it's time to get back to work. As soon as I shave and take a shower i'll be leaving.
    I got some corn and pole beans yesterday and started to plant it but there's a chance of rain through Wednesday so i'm gonna wait-if the ground's too wet the seeds might rot before they come up. Still plenty of time to plant them yet. I'll plant the beans between the corn and let the runners climb the corn stalks. I also bought a container of crushed red pepper and sprinkled it on the onions and cabbage that the dogs keep digging up.
    I'm going to Masury,Oh.-or misery,Oh. as a lot of drivers call it-and have a load of coils in Brookfield to bring back to Roanoke. I don't feel like going,i'm already tired thinking about it,but I checked the maibox yesterday and got an electricity bill,credit card bill,telephone,insurance,and directv bill all at once so that kind've motivates you to get going. I paid all that last month,but they keep sending more bills so I got to keep on trucking...hate having to leave on Sunday

BigMackTrucks.com

BigMackTrucks.com is a support forum for antique, classic and modern Mack Trucks! The forum is owned and maintained by Watt's Truck Center, Inc. an independent, full service Mack dealer. The forums are not affiliated with Mack Trucks, Inc.

Our Vendors and Advertisers

Thank you for your support!

Mack Related Links

Popular links

BMT Forum Logo

HTML tutorial
×
×
  • Create New...