other dog

Crap, now I gotta find a new spot to camp.

...and the obviously photo-chopped picture of large doesn't fool anybody- here's the real picture.

...and the obviously photo-chopped picture of large doesn't fool anybody- here's the real picture.

...and the obviously photo-chopped picture of large doesn't fool anybody- here's the real picture.

...and the obviously photo-chopped picture of large doesn't fool anybody- here's the real picture.

No, but it might have been down around Washington Crossing.

I crossed a bridge in Bucks County one time. Cost H.H.Moore over 4,000 bucks because I crossed it- almost cost me a week end in jail. Those crooked bastards! ....and it was very hot that day, i'd been inside a side kit trailer for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Jevic's been gone a good while now. I never loaded at Portsmouth, but we used to load at Empire Detroit in Dover, Oh. a lot in the '80's. One of the worst thing about U.S. Steel was how slow they were, and being union of course, they couldn't care less how many hours-or days- a truck sat there waiting to get loaded. But when you pulled in the building at Empire Detroit the coil would be swinging in the air, the crane operator just waiting for you to stop so he could set it on the trailer. I loaded at Homestead Works before and it wasn't too bad, but Gary, In. and Fairless Hills, Pa. were horrible places to have to load.

I just asked our safety man, and he said he thinks he did work for Jevic. I tried to call Jeff, but I got no answer. Jeff knows everything.

I loaded at Lackawanna a couple of times, neither was a pleasant experience...come to think of it, I never had a pleasant experience at any U.S. Steel plant.

Here's one that slipped through the cracks- a big Mack truck sitting in a field somewhere.

You're right about that.

Yes indeed. I always thought I was careful around that pipe, but i'll be even more careful now. I still would like to know exactly what happened there. Each layer of pipe is banded together and there's a wooden chock nailed to the 4x4 at each end of the row of pipe. If the loader was unloading the front stack, no bands should have been cut at the rear.

Thanks Mike.

I haven't been taking many pictures lately, not as many as usual anyway. I did see a land beaver in the road last weekend when we were pulling in the driveway. Some people call them groundhogs, but my son always called them land beavers. I saw a trailer at the shop with no axles under it. They're inside the shop, right in front of the forklift. They're refurbishing the tandems, and they said it's easier to just take them out where they can get to everything easily rather than do it under the trailer. Harvest time in Indiana. I took a 60' load of beams to Columbia City, then had to go to Marseilles, Il. ...to get this 60' load of tubing. It had to be fully tarped- meaning everything. The beams going out had to be tarped, but only what's on the trailer. I had to tarp what was hanging off on this load. I had to use three tarps, I even woke my co-driver up to help tarp it. And, sadly, we had a driver get killed at a job site this week. He had a load of the pipe that we haul all the time and from what I understand he was winding his straps up on the opposite side of the trailer from where the loader was , which is very dangerous, but they said- and again, i'm not sure who "they" are in this case- he was at the back of the trailer and the loader was at the front. I don't know if the loader man bumped the rear stack, if the bands were already cut, if it was one piece of pipe or the whole stack, I just don't know. But his son drives for F.L.M. too, and he said his Dad was always very careful around that pipe, and always made him stand in front of the truck when they were unloading together. http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/local/2016/11/11/coroner-trucker-dead-falling-pipe-dover/93636360/

I did too Mike.

Yes, to roll those beams out. I'd like to take a mill tour one time and see exactly how they work, but they won't let you do that now. They used to give tours, but not any more.

I think almost- but not quite- everybody here is on the same page!

Terradackles in the field- we haven't seen any of them for a while! A dead rabbit in the parking lot at N.B.Handy in Lynchburg. I made stew this weekend too, it was really good. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. Sunset over a mill roll, Milton, W.V. A blue car in Petersburg. I saw two Jules Savard trucks on I 85 in S.C. Seen lots of their flatbeds before, with solid green T800's, but I don't remember seeing any van trailers or this paint scheme before.

"everybody likes boobage"- other dog, 2016

Here's the old bridge after they started tearing it down, with the new bridge in the background.

'Tis better to have more chains than you need than to have too few! I put all the straps I could get on two mill rolls the other day, then I went about a mile or so over to a big parking lot across from the store to put chains on them too, because they won't let you get on the trailer in the mill. I put three chains on each roll, along with the straps- I loop a chain through that hole in the big end, put another in that groove and pull the chain to both sides under the groove, and loop another one around that groove on the small end. I wouldn't feel safe at all going up the road with just the straps on them. And then this guy pulled in- 4 straps, total, and the beams were longer than the trailer, he had 3 or 4 feets hanging off the back. And the straps were outside of the rubrail too. I would not even get on the highway with this, it's not much different than being not secured at all- yeah, he's got corner protectors under the straps, but those plastic corner protectors have little or no friction against the beams. If he had to get on the brakes hard like you did with that coil he might as well have duct tape and rubber bands on it as those straps.

I've hauled some big singles, not quite that big though. I know i've hauled singles over 48,000lbs, and they are definitely not my favorite thing to haul. Most, or maybe all, of our trailers have the "coil package", where the cross members are closer together and they're designed just for hauling big singles. The worst trailers to haul them on were those flimsy steel trailers H.H.Moore had, you'd go around a curve and the whole trailer would bend in the middle, looked like a boomerang in the mirror.

The old bridge-

I even saw a girl in a car yesterday- I really like Fox News, because it's fair and balanced. Abby's face isn't so blurry in this one- After I watched Fox News because it's so fair and balanced I ran the tiller through the garden and cooked a few wings on the grill. New Boston, Oh. Looks like a storm's coming. I delivered a load of beams in New Boston this morning, then I went to Milton, W.V. and picked up a mill roll going to Petersburg. I saw a horse and 2 birds in Milton. The mill roll secured, i'm ready to ride. Meanwhile, at the Hellertown Truckstop... later, at the Hellertown Truckstop... The customer service there leaves a lot to be desired. ...before he ever opened a truck stop, way back before Roger Penske bought Detroit Diesel from GM, the owner was a big shot Detroit Diesel executive. ...but Penske dumped him like a hot potater when he took over, so now he has a bad altitude.