other dog

Just don't get one of those ropes with a lot of stretch-I don't want to be like "Tater" in the old Jerry Clower joke "Tater and the Moped",when Tater gets his suspenders hung on the mirror of the Cadillac.

All good points. It's hard to find 2 drivers who agree on anything,much less 10.I hear drivers blaming George Bush for the high price of fuel all the time,but he has nothing to do with it. Things might have started going downhill when the Democrats took control of congress 2 years ago.OPEC controls the price of oil and if the U.S. bought no oil from them China,India,or somebody else would get that much more from them,so i'm pretty sure they couldn't care less if we buy oil from them or not. I don't think most people realize that the trucking industry is the backbone of our economy,and farmers need a lot of fuel to raise crops too,and we need some kind of help with fuel prices because if the trucks stop-everything stops. And if farmers don't have fuel for their tractors and equipment to plow,till,fertilize,harvest-what then? That's my opinion,but I don't have any answers...and like James and Mackdog said I don't think a strike will do any good now. I just don't know...don't know.

well said

Sorry to hear about your accident ,and your truck getting totaled,but thank God you weren't seriously hurt. You'll probably be sore for a while though. I could go on and on about the crazy drivers I see every day and the stupid chances they take,especially the young ones-don't they learn anything in drivers-ed anymore? And all for a pizza?!!...but i'm not gonna say anything because I don't want to sound like an old fogey. On second thought-I am an old fogey,people drive like complete idiots everywhere I go. Like a car waiting to pull out,let 200 cars go by and pull out in front of the truck,even if there's nobody behind you you for a mile,they'll pull out in front of the truck,every time.

excellent Joe!..sounds like something I would've said!

Thanks Paul

It's about time to leave for Avon,Ohio. Could've left yesterday,but I got up at 4am to go to Chesapeake to unload,went by Kyanite Mining on the way back to load,and got back to the shop to get fuel at 4:45. I'd already ran about 450 miles or so and put in a pretty long day,so I just parked at the truckstop and came home since I only had a couple more hours available to work. I don't usually do that,but I was tired all day yesterday for some reason,probably because I went to bed about 8 o'clock Sunday night so I could get up early. I woke up figuring it was time to go but it was only 12:01am so I went back to sleep,only to wake up at 1am,2am,3am then 4 when I got up,as tired as if I'd never been to bed at all.I should have left Sunday evening and went on to Chesapeake but I didn't want to leave on Easter Sunday. Maybe I can make it all the way to Avon today.

Yeah he's hauled everything from raw mulch to logs with this truck. Bad part is it has no jake brake, but will only run about 64 wide open, down hill, loaded. A good looking Jimmy though.

Nice pictures-I used to haul pulpwood myself,from Buckingham,Va. to Covington for Westvaco. H.H.Moore was a contract hauler for Westvaco and we hauled chips and later on long wood to Covington for them.

That is good news Paul,and happy Easter to you and yours also. If you miscalculated and get your doors blown off on the New York thruway by a B-53 cement mixer screaming by at about 53 mph,don't be complaining later-be sure to double check those figures. I don't think you have to worry about that though.I got some good news too-I got a tax refund so I asked Todd about getting some used tires so cheap I thought i'd stolen them. He said "or so cheap somebody will pay you to haul them off". I said "that'd be nice",so he said he'd get Jimmy to pull some out. I asked how much it would cost me and he said "I ain't worried about that,if you need 8 tires,get 'em". So I took that to mean I could have 8 used tires. Jeff has 8 wheels I can run tubeless tires on for $100,so I came out pretty good. They'll be 11-22.5 s,shorter than the 14.00-20s I got now so it'll cut my top end down to about 50 probably,but it should drive much better than those tube type recaps I got now that feel like footballs. well....dang it!!!my computer said there was a satellite outage when I went to post reply,so I tried it again and now once again i've got two of the same thing,don't know how to delete the second one...par for the course in other words..I might have halfheimers or something.

That is good news Paul,and happy Easter to you and yours also. If you miscalculated and get your doors blown off on the New York thruway by a B-53 cement mixer screaming by at about 53 mph,don't be complaining later-be sure to double check those figures. I don't think you have to worry about that though.I got some good news too-I got a tax refund so I asked Todd about getting some used tires so cheap I thought i'd stolen them. He said "or so cheap somebody will pay you to haul them off". I said "that'd be nice",so he said he'd get Jimmy to pull some out. I asked how much it would cost me and he said "I ain't worried about that,if you need 8 tires,get 'em". So I took that to mean I could have 8 used tires. Jeff has 8 wheels I can run tubeless tires on for $100,so I came out pretty good. They'll be 11-22.5 s,shorter than the 14.00-20s I got now so it'll cut my top end down to about 50 probably,but it should drive much better than those tube type recaps I got now that feel like footballs.

I always stop when I take pictures, ,but I won't talk or take pictures in New York anymore,just to be on the safe side.

WOW!.. nice layout indeed,I never knew you were into trains. I don't know what scale this is,but it's a CSX train holding me up-I gotta git to Pittsburgh!

Yeah,but i'm gonna use a rubber strap for a chin-strap so I don't lose it like I did my cap with the bulldog pin.

Florida pictures-here's that palm tree I promised, and from snowy Ohio to all the green trees and grass in Florida,one week later. Oh,and one bikini...on a billboard. And a new straw hat-bought it on e-bay. And A train loaded down with containers full of American products in the heartland of America,just south of Norwalk,Ohio-oh...China?..never mind then. Sometimes I have a tendency to post the same picture more than once-I should either write them down as I go,or quit drinking.Guess i'll start writing them down.

...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...

Well that's a new one on me-never heard of a Romertopf,but i've heard of Roma tomatoes.Grew some myself once.

They checked it at the shop and Jimmy (almost like a real mechanic Jimmy) said the valve was bad. I backed the trailer in the shop so he could put one on it,and Jeff said not to because it was still under warranty,and go ahead and run another trip and take it by Sonny Merryman's (the dealer) when I got back. So I went to Fremont,back to Pittsburgh,took it to Sonny Merryman's when I got back,their shop was full so they couldn't get to it,so they said to run another trip....It'll probably have the same dump valve on it when the year's warranty is up in October,then Jimmy can put one on at the shop.

Got the pipe unloaded in Cranberry Township without too much problem. Biggest problem was that somewhere between Cranberry and Pittsburgh my trailer dump valve quit working. Pittsburgh is one of the least truck-friendly places I know of anyway and I ran over every curb in town...well,most of 'em it seemed like. That can be very hard on tires. I checked the fuses and the wires going to the dump valve where they have a tendency to break off and didn't find any obvious problem,so i'll have them check it at the shop today. They're almost like real mechanics,and I ain't much of a truck driver so I need my dump valve. Gotta run up to Handy in Lynchburg now and unload the load I dropped there last night.

Cetainly-according to one of my favorite history books "Mack-Driven for a Century" the F-model was introduced in 1962 and made until ...well,it just doesnt say.The last one I drove was a '79 model.It does say the Ultra-Liner came out in 1983 and the Cruiseliner came out in 1981. The Ultra-Liner replaced the Cruiseliner,so I would guess the Cruiseliner replaced the F-model in '81. The last R-model rolled off the line in August of '89,but it doesn't say when the last F-model did. ah-hah!!! I found it in another book-they were made until 1982.

Got to looking around on e-bay last night and saw a Mack bulldog belt buckle.I liked it,and the top bid was like $8.99 or something so I bid on it too. The top bid kept climbing and I kept bidding 'til I was up to $29.99 I think,then I went to bed.I was hoping I got outbid because that was more than I wanted to pay,but you know how easy it is to get carried away at an auction. Anyway I checked this morning and was glad to see that I had been outbid,but I was astonished to see that the winning bid was $89.99! I must be off to Cranberry Township,Pa. now with a load of pipe.

could well happen,since that's what i'm usually doing.

That's gonna be my next cooking project,deep fried porpoise.Spotted owls are getting harder and harder to find in the grocery store.It takes a lot of oil to deep fry a porpoise,but that's not a problem,I know just where to get enough on 3 pieces of chicken.

Went to Best Buy yesterday and bought a camcorder-since I got a tax refund, I figured i'd try to do my part to help stimulate the economy. If everybody keeps hearing on the news how bad the economy is,after a while they believe it,and then it is. Anyway,the salesman recomended that I get an extended life battery for it because the battery that came with it was only good for about 45 minutes. So after I fully charged it this morning,just like the instructions said,I tried to put it in and it was the wrong battery.Pretty much par for the course for me-nothing ever seems to work right,I don't understand why i'm basically pretty happy,maybe there's something wrong with me,I don't know. So I called Best Buy,they said they didn't have the right battery in stock,and it cost $100. $100?!!-I told them i'd bring the other one back and take my refund and take my chances with the 45 minute one that came with the camera! And I stopped at the wide spot where I lost my cap-no sign of it.Looked up and down the ditch,in the median,in the woods-it's like it just disappeared! On the lighter side-I called no clue joe when I was on the way back from Florida the other day-told him I stopped in Candor,N.C. at a little fuel stop and got a piece of chicken to eat and it had enough grease on it to deep fry a porpoise...or several spotted owls...true story.

WOW!!! I finally found these parts y'all were talking about. Man,this is too good to let get away,so I was just thinking...Speed has the right idea- but what if every member payed some for Barry to purchase the whole lot and move it? How many members are there? It couldn't be but so much,right? Then if a BMT member needed a part you could get it at a greatly reduced priced,and hopefully we won't even need any of it,but?.. How about that Barry,if you could come up with a figure-there's strength in numbers you know!..As my hero Paul says,just a thought! I'd be willing to help,and hope I never need none of it...what do y'all think? If say,oh...700 members wanted to donate about $20 that's almost $14,000 right there.