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other dog

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  1. other dog
    This week didn't start out too good either. I had to take a load of steel to Arlington, Va.-not a good part of the world to be in. I went to Petersburg to load Monday evening, but I couldn't load until after midnight. I got there around 7. So I went over to the fuel stop and got a bite to eat and tried to take a nap. Time I got to sleep good it was time to go. I already knew the jobsite was tight, with nowhere to park, so I went up to the rest area at the scales on 95 and tried to take a nap. Got there about 3:30 and woke up at 6:30- I said "no way i'm getting out there on 95 this time of day".
    I waited until about 8:30 to leave, thinking maybe some of the other trucks would be unloaded and gone by the time I got to the job...but they weren't. I pulled in and had to pull up and backup periodically to let trucks in and out. Finally got empty and headed back to Petersburg to get a load going to Ambridge, Pa. It was just 40' beams, about 45,000 lbs, and when I was going through Richmond the @#%&ing engine light came on again. Thought we had that problem fixed the last 3 times, but apparently not. Had to go to Ambridge with it on, getting passed like I was tied to a stump by Swifts, Knights, Werners, and everybody else that came along. I finally made it to Ambridge, a little late, then had to go to Sugar Creek, Oh. and picked up a 48,000lb. load of bricks going to Lynchburg. I dropped them at the shop this morning and took the truck straight to Carter Cat.
    I took a picture of the jobsite in Arlington-tried to take a picture of the stop sign in one, but some girl on a bicycle rode by and ruined it.
  2. other dog

    Long Trip Ahead

    By other dog,

    I made only one trip again this week,and i'm about one paycheck from the poorhouse. Took a load of 55' piling,almost 49,000 lbs,to Sharon,Pa. Had to back in half a mile to the jobsite, but it was pretty easy except for a couple of dog-legs, tree limbs and bushes obstructing my view past the back of the trailer, and the mud.
    Took some pictures of course, and got some of a big Mack dump truck at the jobsite. I'm going to post smaller pictures from now on, better if you're on dial-up anyway, and delete old pictures after a few weeks.
    Had to lay over after I unloaded, and loaded some scrap coils in Ambridge,Pa. and Weirton,W.V. the next day going to Suffolk,Va. Unloaded early Thursday in Suffolk and went to Petersburg and sat all evening waiting for a load that we never got, so I came home.
    Today I went to Petersburg and picked up piling going to Williston, North Dakota,that delivers Tuesday so i'll be leaving tomorrow so I can stop at the "Road Kill Cafe" in Farmington,Il. Never been there, but i've heard a lot about it-excellent cuisine i've heard.
    North Dakota and Oregon are the only 2 states in the lower 48 i've never been to. I'll put new batteries in the camera.
  3. other dog

    Haircut

    By other dog,

    what did I do?! I didn't know I had such a big fat head!..guess I won't be needing my comb for a while-oh well,I had to much stuff to carry around anyway
  4. other dog

    More Youtube

    By other dog,

    it's way past my bedtime,but i'm waiting on another youtube video to download.It's really crappy,but I have to go through a long process to do it.Maybe i'll get a camcorder with my tax refund to help stimulate the economy.If I don't go to jail forever that is-I did my own taxes online,for the first time ever.Used Turbotax,and it wasn't too bad.If I don't end up in jail...I shouldn't,I followed the instructions step-by-step so I should be ok.
    Anyway,I had to put a tape in the vcr and play it,pick out the parts I wanted and tape them on another little camcorder that uses a small tape,a little bigger than a cassette,then play that back through the vcr and record it with my digital camera,then transfer that to the pc and download it to youtube. The original tapes are old,from the mid '90s when I had the mudbogger.I could get them all put on dvd's,just never have. So by the time I do all that they end up looking pretty bad by the time they get to youtube. If I get a new camcorder i'm gonna try more bigger better mixer shots,maybe a drive by even-if I can find a good used tommy gun. ( I am joking )
  5. other dog
    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.
  6. other dog

    Gone Again

    By other dog,

    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.
  7. other dog
    I made it to Donora all right with that half a load of kyanite.Made up for the light load with the return load though-brought 5 coils back to Lynchburg that weighed 49,980. All 5 of them that is,not each. That's good,they pay by the weight and the load I took to Donora pays the same as a full load. Then I went to Orchard Park with kyanite,but I didn't have time to go to Fishers and do a surprise building inspection because I had to go to Brookfield,Oh. and load some coils for Metalsa in Roanoke. Dropped the trailer at Sonny Merryman's when I got unloaded so they can replace that dump valve.
    Then I came home and cut the grass-mower started on the first pull. Now i've got to go to the dentist today,try to get some parts for my old tiller so I can get to work on the garden,and probably go load somewhere to deliver Monday. So even if it seems like you get a day off,you really don't except for Saturday.
    And I learned something this week.I ran with Frankie to Orchard Park and back to Roanoke.Frankie who was complaining about his new Peterbilt.He was used to his high powered 550 Cat Western Star,the old single turbo 550. I never ran with the Western Star,but everybody said it was the pullingest truck in the fleet. I thought my truck was doing pretty good,but he outpulled me with the new truck. Same load,and he had a 53' trailer.I had a 48. Outpulled me. With a 485 hp ISX Cummins and 3.36 rears. At least now I don't feel bad about Jeff having one ordered.
  8. other dog
    Went back up the road to Orville,Oh. Thursday. Reloaded at Brookfield,Oh. to Roanoke and unloaded there tonight. Now i'm home.
    Here's a couple of pictures of one of the Freightliners I used to drive-one at home,the other is at Pharo's truckstop in Shippensburg,Pa. with a load of joists. I also ran across an old article about Jeff's beginning in the trucking business. He started out with a B-model I see. He's come a long way since then.
    Talked to Joe today about scrap metal,and what it's bringing. I have bought and driven cars for what they're getting for scrap prices now. That probably means old parts will be even harder to find because everybody will be digging their old stuff out of the woods and selling it for junk. I saw an old tractor on a trailer behind a ton truck headed to Shredded Products one day this week. I'm pretty sure the tractor was going to be scrapped too because the truck was piled up with junk and there was more junk around the tractor. The tractor was very old,but new enough to have rubber tires,completely rusty,but it appeared to have all the sheet metal and it didn't look beat up or dented at all. I don't know what kind of tractor it was but it was a tricycle type with the steering shaft going all the way down alongside the hood to the steering box right over the front wheels. Some of the old tractor restorers would probably have loved to have it just for the sheet metal if nothing else.
    ...shoulda' planted that corn last weekend...
  9. other dog

    Not So Hot...

    By other dog,

    That's in answer to the question "how's it going?"
    I'm sitting here waiting for the air conditioner guy-after calling about 4 different places,I finally found one in Altavista that said they'd be here sometime today,but I have no idea when.
    Called Jeff too. He said the parts for the truck should be in today,so I won't be going anywhere today.Not only was the head gasket blown,they're putting a camshaft in it too because that had a lobe wiped off. He sounded very disgruntled,as there's no warranty on it.
    Been trying to find a cheap car,the engine in the '94 Taurus that my son was driving gave out,but I don't think there's any such thing as a cheap car anymore.
    At least i'm not in jail and nobody's shooting at me to my knowledge-always a bright side.
  10. other dog

    Back To Work

    By other dog,

    Last day of vacation is over,so back to the old grind. I was ready to go after a couple of days off, now it'll take a while to get motivated to get back at it.
    Hope they fixed the list of problems with the truck,instead of just putting somebody in it and sending them on their way.
    By the way,water,hot sauce,and soap does NOT deter rabbits- -as a matter of fact,they must think it's pretty tasty-3 of them were in the garden last night,one was standing on his hind legs holding onto a cabbage plant with his front feet while he ate. Think i'll move the owl back to the garden and let the squirrels have the peaches-if that doesn't work i'm gonna put a white flag in the garden.
    Once again-I must be off now.
  11. other dog

    Amish Adventure

    By other dog,

    I took a van load-actually part of a load, only had 5,600 lbs. and the trailer was about a third of the way filled-to an Amish stove shop just out of Ashland, Ohio. The address said it was on rt.545 so, I could either go through Ashland on rt. 96 and go north on 545 or, stay on 250 up past Bailey Lake and come back south on 545. I opted for the latter so I wouldn't have to go all the way through town. As usual,I picked wrong. The place was easy enough to find,but it was on the right and I had to back in the driveway off the road. Since the driveway was angled in the way I was headed it would be nearly impossible to blind side in with a 53' van,so I went to look for a turnaround plce. Ended up going down to rt. 96,turned left,and had to go all the way into Ashland before I could get turned around. By the time I got back another truck was there parked in the road,waiting to back in.I didn't want to park in the highway,so I kept riding north on 545 until I got back to 250,then went back into Ashland to 96,then back to 545 and turned north again. By the time I got back this time the other truck was just pulling from the dock to close his doors.I wasn't going to make another lap around Ashland so I waited in the road for him to pull out. It was not a high traffic area.After I got unloaded with hand pallet jacks,and getting two crates reloaded to take back to Lynchburg because they weren't done right,I headed down to Vinton. Didn't really look like there was any good way to get from Ashland to Vinton,so I just took the direct route. Didn't see any low underpasses listed in the road atlas so I went down 13 to 256 to 664 to 93 to 324 to 160 to Vinton. I even had directions to this place-"look for a stable in front of a white farm house" But again,I found it with no problem and they even had a big gravel lot with plenty of room to back up to the dock.The place was called Ashland Stove Company,and the place in Ashland was Shrock Stove
    This was a really neat operation here. A man and a woman was on the dock soldering some kind of boxes together,but they put 3 of the boxes at a time in a rack,painted some acid or flux on the seam,then tilted the rack back so the seam dipped into a thing like a trough that was filled with molten solder and the solder would stick everywhere they had painted the flux on. Then they'd turn them over and do the other sides. Then a little girl who looked about 10 or 11 would put them in a large sink and rinse the flux off then set them on the dock. Then she'd put a plastic handle in between two tabs on each end of the box,stick a piece of precut threaded rod through it,put a nut on each end and tighten them with her little wrench and a box ratchet. Everybody there was working except the dog,I didn't see him doing any work,but he was there,not sleeping in the shade like some dogs do. There were 2 little girls about 4 or 5 years old riding scooters back and forth the whole time,on the dock,between the buildings,in the buildings-just room-a-zoom-zoom the whole time I was there. Even the boy loading the trailer would ride the pallet jack like a scooter down the slight incline to the next building to get another pallet,and there were several near misses with the 2 little girls' scooters,but no crashes.
    The trailer was almost full with this load,and I had 35,000 lbs. I slid the tandems up behind the landing gear legs like a Swift truck on the way up so I could go across 60 to Charleston,and left them there and came back the same way. When I went around the 15mph. curve at Chimney Corner I looked in the mirror and saw dust,smoke,rocks,gravel,asphalt,and concrete just flying! The bumper on the back of the trailer drug the pavement all the way around the curve-it's a tight hairpin to the right but drops down steeply too. Didn't hurt the bumper at all,I don't think it plowed the road up either. I backed the trailer to the dock in Lynchburg last night,dropped it and bobtailed home.
  12. other dog
    Had another interesting week,and it's not even over yet. I went to Macon,Ga. with a load of pipes Sunday. Blew a trailer tire on the way down and had to wait 3 hours for a tire. I wasn't pulling my regular trailer,the new aluminum Fontaine.They were supposed to switch the load at the shop,but for some reason they never did so I had to pull the raggedy 53 footer it was loaded on.( I know-whine,whine,whine!) When I got to the jobsite Monday morning I ran by the road I was supposed to turn on.There was A Wal-Mart just a little ways past it,but it was on the left and I was in the right lane. So I just stayed on rt. 129 into Macon,finally got turned around and went back and turned on Graham road,like the directions said. Didn't see a jobsite anywhere,so I stopped in the road to ask a man that was walking across his yard to get his newspaper. Then a cop pulled up behind me so I said "well,gotta go,see ya,bye!" I followed Graham road all the way through to the end,and it made a big circle and came out further north on 129. So I went back to the other end again and turned,then I called the phone number on the bills. Guess I should have called at first,but I had directions-the guy at the jobsite said "you need to turn on Chrissy road,it's right past Graham rd." Well-how do you get there from here? "You can't" he said."you've got to turn off of 129". Great-after my first pass I knew there was nowhere to turn around,so I went all the way through again,and down 129 to Chrissy road.Only problem was,the way the road was angled I couldn't have made that turn if I was bob-tailing.So now that I was pretty familiar with the area since i'd been riding around for what seemed like half a day,I went to the Wal-Mart and turned around and came back to Chrissy road and turned in. They had just started unloading the TMC truck that was there,so I was still there in plenty of time.
    Then I went to Atlanta and picked up an empty 40' container and delivered it to Glade Spring,Va. Tuesday morning,then went down to Bristol,Tn. and loaded a 60' concrete bridge beam and took it to Surry county,N.C. Went back to Bristol and reloaded and did it again today.That was the great adventure,not the Macon,Ga. jobsite. But i'll finish that story later,and i'll have some pictures. It's about time to turn in,and i've got a van load of kyanite to deliver in Greensboro in the morning...I must be off.
  13. other dog

    Back To Florida

    By other dog,

    I finally left Tuesday and bobtailed to Florida to pick up a trailer at the St. Lucie nuclear power plant and bring it back to Lynchburg. Got there at 3:30 Wednesday evening but couldn't leave until Thursday morning. Had to wait for the paperwork, then they wanted it back in Lynchburg at 8:00 AM Friday The most interesting thing I saw was a crab crossing the highway just before I got there. I've seen lots of things, but that was a first. Now i'm loaded with sheets from N.B.Handy going to Boca Raton, Florida.
  15. other dog

    Stewed Out

    By other dog,

    The stew went well,it was delicious and everyone seemed to have a good time. Had a little bit left over,but not a lot.There was enough where some people took some home with them though.I'm tired as a dog,and tomorrow i've got to boil the pot out again,clean it,and reseason it,but i'm gonna call it a day now and go to bed.
  16. other dog
    Made my 2 stop deliveries in Oberlin and Vermilion, Oh. then went to Brookfield again and back to Roanoke. Delivered there late Friday night and got to the south Lynchburg truckstop about 2:30 am. Saturday.
    It's snowing pretty hard here now. Calling for 4 to 6" . Nice to be home on Sunday for a change, especially with the snow coming down-cooking some wings, got beer in the fridge, the race is coming on TV...nice...UNTIL THE POWER WENT OUT!

    I didn't take any pictures this week but Big Jim sent me some. He went to Miami and went across rt. 41 through the everglades. He stopped somewhere and took all these alligator pictures. They weren't in a cage somewhere, they were in the wild. Looks like he was getting a little too close for me, but I guess he just zoomed in on them. I know he has a good camera. In fact, unlike myself, he's actually a real photographer. I sent one back to him showing what the 'gators were thinking when he was taking pictures of them. He also took these pictures at Calvert City, Ky. when he loaded there just after the ice storm.
  17. other dog

    The Title

    By other dog,

    I'm running out of titles- might have to go back to stealing Paul's
    I got out Tuesday and went to Roxana with a 60' load, then deadheaded to Knoxville and picked up 60' rebar going to King George, Va. Can't unload that until Monday, but I have a dentist's appointment Monday too.
    Even ran into some snow when I left Tuesday-it was snowing off and on most of the way across West Virginia.
    And I saw a 2-story forklift in Suffolk, Va. last week.
    And I saw the Volvo plant in Dublin,Va. yesterday.
    And I saw a dog in the yard.
    And I saw this Euclid when I was coming from the dentist's office.
  18. other dog

    Parade

    By other dog,

    Once again i've made the trip to Cumberland and back. Got a picture before the parade started ,( THE DECORATIONS LOOKED PRETTY SHABBY THIS YEAR! ) the Dabney brothers 9 second '66 Chevelle, some good friends of mine for years,and one of the bulldog headed into the sunset-going home!
  19. other dog

    Nothin' In Particular

    By other dog,

    I saw the results from the Cumberland County Christmas Parade .Ma sent me a newspaper clipping and I managed to get another first in the 1951-1975 antique car or truck category. The decorations I put on it looked really bad. It ended up looking like a cement mixer with a bunch of stuff hanging off it,but it always seems to be a popular entry down there. I saw lots of people looking at it,pointing at it,and taking lots of pictures of it. At least nobody seemed to be laughing and pointing at the driver.
    I went to Fremont,Ohio and back first of the week and was ready to call it a week. I thought Jeff was gone to Florida,but he's not going until next week,so I went back up the road to Avon,Ohio. Besides,he gave me $200 for Christmas before I left so I figured i'd put forth the extra effort-it was just Wednesday anyway. You know what they say, " when the cat's away..." Now i'm glad I did go of course and i'll be off until Wednesday anyway.
    I got my safety bonus for the year too and went to Wal-Mart yesterday and knocked out all my Christmas shopping-gift cards for everyone! I try to get a little something for the nieces,nephews,and granchildren anyway- Everyone else is on their own,but I did give some BMT calendars too.
  20. other dog

    More Jeff's Jokes

    By other dog,

    I was in the office Friday and a driver named Joe came in. He had a load going to Syracuse,N.Y. but he had no name for the customer and no delivery address on the bills. He said " how am I supposed to find this place in Syracuse,i've got no information". Jeff was sitting there and never hesitated a second and said " just pull up in Syracuse and blow the horn,somebody'll come get you-that's what I would do". I thought it was hilarious,but I don't think Joe got it. He just said "well Syracuse is a big place" and went on out the door.
  21. other dog
    pictures showing what I looked like yesterday,today,and what i'll probably look like tomorrow,Lord willing.
    actually,that's me on Saturday,then Sunday ready to go to work,and me about 1979 or '80. Now THAT'S some hair! (and about 40 less pounds!)
    Yeah,talk about changing-here's the 79 or 80 and half today... an old gray haired geezer. But i'm OK with that.
  22. other dog

    One Of Them Days

    By other dog,

    I unloaded the coils in Suffolk Tuesday,then went to Dillwyn and loaded kyanite going to Fremont,Ohio.First time I had a Fremont load for a long time and it used to be pretty much my regular run. I've delivered there 3 times in a week many times.Then I went from Fremont to Erie,Michigan to pick up a load going to Metalsa in Roanoke.First Metalsa load i've had in a long time too,and we used to deliver there all the time.
    Today I just had to go to the yard and get a load of lumber transferred onto my trailer to deliver in Punxsutawney Pa. for Monday.Jo asked me how long i'd be gone this morning and I said "not too long-depends on whether it's a simple load or a complicated load to transfer". She was thinking about riding along,but decided not to. When I saw the load I figured it would be very simple-4 lifts and we're done.But noooo,things never seem to go as easy as you think-especially on Friday. For one thing whoever picked the load up didn't put it on big wood.Just had the little sticks under it,about an inch and a half thick.And the forks on the lift are about 4'' thick.So we started by lifting one end of a bundle and sliding a 4x4 under it to get the forks under it.The forks will reach all the way across the trailer but we could only lift one side at a time with this method. It was kind of slow,but we were making good progress until we tried to pick up 2 packs off the far side of the trailer-then the bottom stack "rolled" and the top stack hit the ground.So Jeffrie and myself have been stacking lumber all afternoon.2 packs of 8' 1x6's. Then we finally found a bander we could borrow and went to get it in the pickup and when we were headed back to the shop the tray that holds the clamps,ratchet,crimper,and cutters blew off and landed in the middle of 460.So we made a flip and went back and retrieved all the parts we could find.Didn't lose any of the tools,but a lot of the clamps had already been run over,and fortunately the tray itself was undamaged even though it was laying in the road,in the left lane.Helluva way to treat borrowed equipment there,eh?(that's Canadian)
    So what should have been a simple deal turned into an all day job,but we finally got the load transferred and scrapped down,now it's at the truckstop and Sunday i'll be off to Punxsutawney.
  24. other dog
    Man,what an adventure I had today! Last week was pretty routine,went to Triadelphia with a load of piling,Galv-tech back to Lynchburg,then I took a van load of kyanite to Orchard Park,and brought a load of hay back from Edinboro,Pa. to Altavista for Stacy Compton,the race car driver. (ok,that part wasn't so routine) He drives in the Craftsman truck series this year. I had 580 bales in the 53' van.Hay is scarce around here because of the drought.
    So I left Sunday going back to Point Marion,Pa. with another load of piling.I told Todd Friday I didn't want to go back up there because the job site was such a mess.He said this was going to the other side of the bridge,across the river from where we unloaded before,so I said "OK,maybe it'll be better"...WRONG! When I got there this morning,after running rt.119 out of Morgantown which is crooked as a dog's leg,I saw the crane sitting there and said "that doesn't look bad at all". Then they told me they parked the crane there over the weekend in case it flooded.When they walked the crane back down over the bank right to the edge of the river-actually on a platform of crossties on a pile of rip-rap in the river-it didn't look so easy anymore. No wonder they moved it in case the river got up. I had to back down straight to where the crane was at first,then cut the trailer over to the left...or right,depending on how you look at it. The problem was a great big hole they had dug on my left and the chain link fence on my right,so I had very little room to turn the cab. I had to pull up and back up several times,working the trailer over a little at a time. I finally got backed into position and unloaded,and of course the bank was so steep they had to pull me back up it with a bulldozer. I took a couple of pictures,but they're not developed yet.
    When I left there I had to go to Galv-tech in Pittsburgh.I was going to take 88 up to 21,but I didn't think I could make the turn onto the bridge when I came out of the job site,so I figured i'd just go up 119 to Uniontown and then 51 north. And I thought the first part of 119 was crooked! I kept hearing the dump truck drivers that are all over the area saying "southbound at the wall" or "northbound at the wall" and had no idea what they were talking about. I found out pretty quick though-a little ways out of town I got to this curve to the right with a big concrete wall on my right,and it took every bit of the road for me to get around it-if i'd have met anybody in it somebody was going to have to back-up.
    Got to Galv-tech and was the only truck there,got loaded pretty quick and was going down rt. 40 somewhere between Uniontown and Keysers Ridge when the engine light came on and I lost most of my power and my engine brake was doing little or nothing. I struggled onward to Keysers Ridge truck stop and pulled in and checked the fault code-intake valve actuator malfunction. Jeff said to try to make it in and take it to Cat in Lynchburg,so I did. Only took about an hour longer than normal,got passed by everybody on the highway. When I dropped the load of coils in Lynchburg I tried to phone home so Jobyna could pick me up at Carter Cat.The phone rang,and rang,and rang-no answer,not even the answering machine. Billy-Bob was at Handy tarping his load when I dropped the trailer and offered to give me a ride,so I got him to pick me up at the Cat place and he brought me over to the store two miles from here,over on 699.He could turn around there easily and go back to 29 and continue on to Duluth,Ga. I walked the two miles home. In the dark. By myself. Only one dog came after me and he turned out to be friendly,even walked with me for a couple hundred yards. When I was about a quarter of a mile from home my phone rang-it was Jobyna. She said the phone hadn't rang all day and didn't have a dial tone.I told her I walked all the way from Lynchburg.
    My investigation found that the phone line was pulled part of the way out of the wall plug.The line goes behind other dog's (that would be the beagle,not me) bed and aparently he had gotten tangled up in it and pulled it loose. That's all right,I needed the excercise anyway.
  25. other dog
    After my long, grueling, all uphill 20 mile hike home-I meant to say 2 mile flat as a board walk,hit the wrong key-I went to Carter Cat the next morning and picked the truck up.Ran great. Went on to Petersburg and loaded a load of steel going to Nazareth,Pa. After I unloaded Wednesday morning I had to go to Sparrows Point to load coils back to Lynchburg.I was outside tarping when I heard the phone ringing-it was Jeff. He just wanted to let me know they had a load of kyanite going to Fremont,Oh. and he was going to save it for me. Perhaps to make up for going to Nazareth. Nazareth is a good load,but since I had to go to Baltimore,and everybody knows how I hate running northeast,and I do like going to Fremont...except I listen to WLW in Cincinnati on XM a lot and I already knew they were calling for the biggest snowfall this winter,starting Friday morning. And all day Friday...and Friday night...and Saturday. They said they were expecting a foot or more,and I figured it might be worse up around Fremont,which is a little bit east of Toledo. So when I got to the shop Thursday morning I asked my usual question-"is this for Friday delivery,or Monday delivery?" The usual answer is "it's for whenever you get there delivery",but Todd said "we never put off 'til Monday what we can do on Friday". Yeah,right...but since they had already held the load for me for a day we thought they might be getting low in material,so I was off like a herd of turtles (Old Bill).
    When I unloaded and left there about 8:30 yesterday morning it wasn't snowing and I had to go all the way to Pittsburgh to reload,so I thought I might get lucky and miss it altogether-the Pittsburgh weather channel called for snow and rain with a high of 38 degrees. It was 26 in Fremont. I took 20 east to Monroeville,got some fuel,then to Norwalk and back down 250 to 224,turned to the east and still no sn-what's that up ahead? Oh...snow. And more snow. Couple of miles and the road was covered. It was covered all the way to Lodi,where I got on the interstate. Which was covered except for two tracks in the right lane. I was going to go down 14 to 51 into Pa. then take 60 down to Pittsburgh but I stayed on I-76 to Youngstown and went rt. 11 to 14,thinking the big road would be better. 14 probably wasn't much worse because all this way I only saw 2 salt trucks and one of them was parked on a ramp on 76. The trailer was completely covered in snow and ice,I couldn't even see the marker lights,but traffic was proceding fairly well,just slowly. The only accidents I saw were on the westbound side. A little bit after I crossed into Pa. there was some rain in the snow and about halfway down rt. 60 the snow just quit like you turned a switch off and the road was just wet the rest of the way-all rain and 38 degrees when I got to Galv-tech,most of the snow gone off the truck and trailer and what wasn't melted and fell off in the floor when I was loading.I chained and tarped inside,but there were no more trucks there anyway. Left there around 3 o'clock and got to Lynchburg about 11 last night,and the temperature never got below freezing again all the way home.
    Now i'm glad I went of course because I'll have Sunday off. You shouldn't have to work on Sunday anyway,but it's a truckdriver's life to have to do it I guess. Always was one of the worst parts of the job. Especially in summer when you're going up the road on Sunday afternoon and at every house you pass everybody's in the back yard cooking on the grill and drinking a cold beer and listening to the race and enjoying their weekend. And you're going to Cleveland or somewhere....

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