Thanks For The Memories
Where do I even start...
So, did I mention that I went WEST this week. GA, AL, MS, TN, AR, OK, KS, MO......Not my usual run, but I have travelled these roads so many times in the past that it was like returning home.
The memories actually start only 17 miles from the plant, but the flashbacks did not begin until I reached Memphis. You see, in Carrollton, Georgia there is this certain barn where I impacted my arches while jumping down from a gate after a crazy cow charged me! And that is where it all begins, if you look at it according to geography.
Starting in the East. There was .....Hauling carpet out of Dalton to San Diego....Running with Rattlesnake and Little Witch....My first HOOD (which is another term for having a truck with a big long hood, rather than the more streamlined aerodynamic versions seen running down the roads.) Later came my chip-hauling days, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...Papermill...Sawmill.....well you get the idea. But these are not the memories I relished in this week.
So many, just a s vivid as the moment in which they were created.
Running with the heavy haulers into Tunica. Borrowing $20.00 to play a few slots. Repaying the money, and then listening to a grown man whine for the next three states how the money I won was rightfully HIS, because it was his $20 to begin with!! Thankfully, we all went separate ways after reaching Oklahoma. I could not take it anymore, and I gave him half to get him to shut up! I heard about it for the next 2 years!
The West Memphis scales that pulled me around back 6 weeks in a row to check out my (er) logbook!! While I was bobtailing from office to drop yard!! A 12 mile distance ... I finally took an extremely out of date book in and tossed in on the desk. After six weeks of checking, I gave them an excuse......Told them I was hurt that they did not have lunch ready for me (they were all eating)....That was the last time they pulled me around back.
Loveless Farms and WW Livestock....NB, B, HW, SS, EP......Man oh man. Did we have fun. Load up Thursday in Georgia, deliver in OK on Friday and come slinking back into town sometime on Sunday. There was Brinkley( eating frog legs with Squirrel), Wheatley, the Truck O Mat, watching ED's burn down twice! The wash-out!! Getting profiled by the Troopers just for pulling a certain type of trailer. The best part was playing in the barn! Chasing the girls, or convincing the last one to get out of the trailer.... There was Sallisaw, Tahlequah, Checotah......The Trooper who made me get out of the Truck , while he was laughin at me, because I was too little...He let me go with a warning... (speeding) There was glass out of Sapulpa and Henrietta..Fort Collins, CO and Lakeland FL.... which leads me to.....
The one weekend I decided to leave late. That weekend!!! Had I left on- time, I would have been one of the vehicles sinking in the river, after the barge hit the bridge in Oklahoma....Had I left on time.....
There was that time on 75 heading into Tulsa, while sparing someone else's life, I almost lost my own!!
I know none of this means anything to you, a random bunch of jumbled words and hidden meanings. May be one day, I will share some of these stories with you. But for now, this is I all needed to relive the good ol days, lest I forget!
There is a time and place for everything, and that time has past. It all becomes a part of you, how you tick, what makes you who you are! I would not go back to any of those moments and relive them, but they served their purpose well, They made me who I am. I would also not trade a single one of them! Good, Bad or Ugly!! I have lived so many experiences East of the Mississippi, far too many to post in a blog, and I am feeling extremely nostalgic, but New England is my home away from home now, and I relish in that too!
Although I spent the majority of the week reminiscing while a huge smile on my face, I did notice on several occasions the complete lack of traffic. Something I am definitely not accustomed too as of late.The trip was uneventful. I made it in and out of Tulsa the day before the tornadoes came through. I guess, other than my own personal delight, the only item of interest might be those extreme crosswinds I endured on my way home through Missouri. So extreme that some of us did not make the entire journey without incident.
Yep, you guessed it..Blown over by the wind!! Yikes!!
4 comments:
well, darn, i just wrote a long comment about almost getting blown over by the wind, but lost my internet connection and now i don't have the energy to rewrite it. too bad, it was pretty good...
well, if you insist...
was sitting on top of South Pass in north central wyoming in a 75' truck and trailer combination (dry vans). was running aluminium pop cans from Worland, Wy. to SLC, Ut. had been running with 2 pepsi trucks who were loaded with dunnage (pretty heavy, 85,000# or so). i was mt. we were sitting there because of a truck that had been blown over in the wind below us down the hill. we were standing outside our trucks talking to a state trooper when one of the loaded pepsi trucks caught a gust of wind and just rolled over. my truck was right behind it with all the wheels on one side about 3 feet off the ground, but it never went over. needless to say, i didn't know what do. i felt i needed to get in it and move it somewhere out of the wind, but there was nowhere to go and the trooper wouldn't let me get in it anyway. fianlly after a couple of hours of sitting in his car and waiting for a tow truck to come to pick up the pepsi truck, the wind died down enuff for me to get down the hill and into the canyon where i proceeded to go to Worland without further incident. the strongest winds i've ever been in were in wyoming and montana.
Dear Terry,
If I am gonna keep reading your blog, I think I am gonna needs some translations! ** Grin **
" Getting profiled by the Troopers just for pulling a certain type of trailer. " --- What the hell is "getting profiled"?????? Is that where they do a warrant check or have your licence details checked or what? THAT happens to us every bloody time they wheel us in!
Did you use to be a turd herder? --- "Loveless Farms and WW Livestock....NB, B, HW, SS, EP......Man oh man. Did we have fun. Load up Thursday in Georgia, deliver in OK on Friday and come slinking back into town sometime on Sunday."
More, later! I don't want it to be sucked up by the timeout timer!!!!!!!!
Indy......Getting profiled.....
It just seems to be fairly common in the states that Certain Types of Truckers are watched and inspected more closely. For example, in a local setting, log haulers would be weighed more often because they have a reputation for loading heavier to get a bigger payday! Whereas the out of towners might not even draw any attention from the local DOT. Cow Haulers do tend to be watched more closely (profiled) for speeding.....But with LIVE freight, you dont have time to sit around....LOL....On a few occasions, I have been pulled over for speeding just after a faster truck had passed me. WHY...because I was hauling a livestock trailer, and that company truck COULD NOT HAVE BEEN going faster....
Post a Comment