Amusing factual stories - real life experiences in trucking

[Doctor Who]

Wow,

What an interesting last ride. It seems pretty spectacular that you saw that much "action" on your very last ride. Maybe thats just an average day on the road. I'm not sure if you would call it lucky with the first incident, but then again these days, 60 can pass for 20.

You should sign off,
And thats...the ..... rest .... of the story. Or that's the way the cookie crumbies. Or stay classy chassis. Thanks for the free entertainment Doc!

I doubt it would be considered spectacular from time to time it can be a common occurrence but just imagine a bus full of folks pulled along side your truck and they started doing wild "X" rated antics now that would be SPECTACULAR!!!
Now that would be the REST OF THE STORY!!!

Jackrabbit added

Being up high in a truck is nice, but at the same time, it can be.... well, not good.
Sounds like the last one, was an exciting one, Doc!
Gonna miss the adventures!

I guess it could be a bit exciting and yes riding high up off the highway does have some advantages just step carefully when you get out!!!

As far as the adventures why not add some of your driving adventures to the mix I'm quite sure you have some "tales" to tell riding around in the LONE STAR state!!!

[Doctor Who]

How 'bout that!!! The topic passed the 322,000 views mark!!!

Not bad for a topic that started 8 years ago!!!

[Jackrabbit379]

As far as the adventures why not add some of your driving adventures to the mix I'm quite sure you have some "tales" to tell riding around in the LONE STAR state!!!

There are some, yes. All the deer, and other wild animals I see in west Texas..
In northwest Texas, we have thunderstorm season in the spring/early summer, as well as the late summer. Seems like it happens anytime the weather changes. When the humidity is up, and you get a cold front, etc. One thing about storms in the late summer, they're not as severe as they are in the spring. What also helps, are the hurricanes. Everything dries up in Texas in the summer time, and our only hope is hurricane season. If the hurricanes come into the gulf, that usually gives us some rain.
Last Thursday night I ran through storms. I never had any hail, but the wind was out of the northeast, blowing about 30 mph, and it was non-stop lightning. It was like a strobe light. That lightning was giving me a headache. It was driving me nuts! The wind didn't help much, pulling a set of wiggle wagons!

[Doctor Who]

I know I stated that there were no more tales forthcoming but this one I couldn't let slide!!!

About a week ago I wandered into the shop early due to a frantic phone call from the shop manager. There was no explanation as to why I had to be in early but who was I to turn down some much needed OVERTIME!!!

I walked into the shop office and heard a discussion between a frustrated driver and the office chick about a mysterious malady with the drivers company truck I didn't pay much attention until I was asked by the office chick if I could drive the frustrated driver back to his terminal.
As we pulled out of the yard the driver told me about his problem. He started by saying that he got a phone call around 7:00 pm Thursday evening from the night dispatcher asking if he, the driver, had left his hazard lights blinking. The driver did say no he did not!! About two hours later the same dispatcher called the driver telling him that the headlights were on!! The driver did say he was a bit pissed by the phone calls and thought someone was playing a joke on him!! I did tell him I'd be pissed also if a dispatcher kept calling me about stupid ****!!!

Friday morning arrived and the driver took this vehicle on a daily run with no problems but still felt he should have it looked at. I asked this driver if his Navistar was haunted or possessed. He was not amused!!!

Later Friday evening around 7:00 pm a technician noticed the hazard lights flashing on the "haunted" Navistar and asked me to go turn them off. About two hours later the headlights were on, the technician came out to the fuel island and asked me if I was playing around and was promptly told no I was busy with 5 trucks I also reminded this tech that the driver did say the same events occurred Thursday night that's why the truck was on the yard and it was the techs duty to banish the demon possessing the Navistar or fix the bloody thing!!! The tech did spit out some expletives and walked away!!!

Yet another fun night in the "HOOD"!!!

[Jackrabbit379]

It sounds like the goblins are coming out early this year. Or perhaps a few gremblins..

[Doctor Who]

Here's something for all the road "warriors"!!!

What town with a bizarre or interesting name have you been to.. Just looking on a map will not work, actually have to been in the town or drove through it!

Here's a sample of mine:

North Carolina:
Bat Cave
Conetoe
Pumpkin Center
Why Not

Michigan:
Hell... Yes boys and girls the town does exist!!!

Texas:
Cut and Shoot... I did have a photograph of the sign but the photo vanished years ago!!!

West Virginia:
Hurricane

Next!!!

[Doctor Who]

Just one more!!!

Last night I was conversing with another Ryder "inmate" about his days on a farm picking tobacco. Now here is something a dude from Brooklyn wouldn't know about!!

As the conversation wandered along I told my fellow "inmate" that I did do some tobacco hauling here in NC back in the late 70's and what an education I got!!!

My boss, in his finite wisdom hooked up with a local hauler and contracted tobacco hauling from the auction house to the processing warehouse. First the drivers would line up along side the auction house waiting for the sale to begin. As the auctioneer rambled on, the drivers, hopefully with some help, would roll the bales of the "GOLDEN LEAF" on to a ragged curtain side single axle trailer. Once the trailer was full the drivers would haul the load to a processing warehouse. As my luck would have it I had to drive a ragged out single axle International pulling an equally ragged out single axle curtain side! The combination would be a huge VIOLATION in motion to the 21st century D.O.T. inspectors.
After this day was done a driver would go home and take two showers just to get somewhat clean!!!

This adventure lasted several weeks.. Flashing forward:

The next step in the hauling adventure drivers were dispatched to the processing warehouse where the bales of tobacco were loaded onto "covered wagon" flatbeds and taken to yet another processing warehouse where the tobacco leaves were again put through torture and shipped in huge barrels called "Hogs Heads"!!
For this adventure I was driving my all time favourite "B" model Mack with the quad box transmission. I almost forgot to mention that the weight of the load was almost always well above the national standard...

To say it wasn't educational as well as interesting would be a falsehood.
Oh, I didn't get to pull the huge barrels to the manufacturing facilities, that was left to the "older" drivers!!! I was really heart broken!!!

[Jackrabbit379]

I've got one for ya Doc..
Last night, I am on top of the Caprock, which is flat as a table top and very high elevation in west Texas. (It's about 40 or so miles east of Lubbock)
Anyway.. I'm running along, and I don't remember exactly what I was doing (besides driving), I must have looked at the radio or something. All of a sudden.. "kathump!" It felt like I ran over a dag gum tire. I'm not talking about a gator, I mean, the whole tire. I thought, 'What in the world was that?!?' I pulled over, grabbed my flashlight.. didn't see anything unusual. Didn't knock anything loose. (air lines, what not)
Sure makes me wonder what that was..

[Doctor Who]

Every once in a while a lady trucker would stop by for fuel. When I would approach her truck she would roll the window down and a brown ball of fur would jump out.. The driver brought her Pomeranian with her on her road trips. The first time it happened I was a bit apprehensive as I thought the dog was going to attack but the lady told me the dog would only greet folks she liked in that manner. I took her at her word as the rambunctious pooch started licking my face. This greeting would go on every time the lady trucker would fuel up.

I did notice one thing about the dog it did not like my fellow fuel person. Every time he would approach the truck the little brown ball of fur would go ballistic... I can't explain why!!!

Just recently the lady driver came in for fuel and as I wandered up to the cab fully expecting the usual greeting, nothing happened!!! I looked up at the lady trucker and noticed her sad look. I asked her what was wrong and she told me the Pomeranian had got out of the truck and was hit by another truck about a week before her arrival at Ryder...

It did bother me some so after she left I told the other Ryder folks about it and we all contributed to get the lady trucker a new Pomeranian... Only this ball of fur was black and white, looks kind of like a skunk!!!

The lady trucker was very happy with the new "co-driver!!"

[Doctor Who]

I was sent on a mission to pick up a Freightliner straight truck with a mysterious malady! I drove a substitute to the customers yard, did a pretrip on the sick "Liner" and proceeded back to the shop. I meandered back on to I 95 south and soon discovered the truck would not go over 62 MPH. I just sat back in the seat and watched the world whiz by as the light faded into dark. I did come upon a vehicle rolling slower than me, I signaled the lane change, passed the vehicle, then signaled the return lane change absolutely amazed I was able to pass anything!!

As I settled back into the slow lane blue flashing lights in the mirror caught my attention. Yes a NC DMV LEO was pulling me over. I wheeled off onto a convenient exit ramp rolled across to the entrance ramp for our safety. The LEO walked up to cab and I asked if I was speeding or was I impeding traffic. He asked me to turn the left signal on and step to the back of the truck. I did what he asked and noticed the clearance and marker lights were also flashing. I then turned the right signal on and the same thing happened.. The LEO then asked me to turn the hazard lights on, what a surprise was in store when all the lights started flashing! The LEO and I looked at each other shook our heads and I told him it was a Freightliner and I was guessing that was why I was sent on the rescue mission!!!

He didn't give me a ticket I just told him I would not make any more lane changes and ease on back to the shop but couldn't explain why the electrics were going nuts but didn't show any sign of trouble during the pretrip!

I did find out later after the tech looked the "Liner" over that the heat from the engine caused the electric panel to go nuts!!

As I said, it's a FREIGHTLINER!!!

And that boys and girls and trucking wannabes is the final chapter of "Chasing The Horizon" or "Tales from the Asphalt Side" or the "Road Show" No matter what title the Doctors Memoirs has come to an end...

A Merry Christmas to all and to all a good________!!!!!

[Sharlie]

It was so sweet that you bought that lady a new pomeranian. I am sure she was grateful.
Reading your last story along with the date made me think it was a Freightliner tree. Thank you for all your wonderfully entertaining stories Dr.

[Southron]

Back in Jan 07, I was a brand-new driver just 3 months out of Scheisser (oops... I meant Schneider) National's driving school. My team partner & I were headed thru Baton Rouge about to cross over Ole' Miss. There were 2 kids on rice rockets hot-doggin it thru midday traffic, like Han Solo thru the asteroid field... zipping between cars, passin on the left shoulder- just plain showin off! Suddenly, out of nowhere, Baton Rouge PD gets on their asses and busts them! Best laugh I had all day!

[Musicman]

Here's something for all the road "warriors"!!!

What town with a bizarre or interesting name have you been to.. Just looking on a map will not work, actually have to been in the town or drove through it!

Here's a sample of mine:

North Carolina:
Bat Cave
Conetoe
Pumpkin Center
Why Not

Michigan:
Hell... Yes boys and girls the town does exist!!!

Texas:
Cut and Shoot... I did have a photograph of the sign but the photo vanished years ago!!!

West Virginia:
Hurricane

Next!!!

You overlooked:
Climax, AL,
Truth or Consequences, NM
Intercourse, PA

and though it's not a town, Big Bone Lick State Park, in Kentucky.

[chasj58]

I'm not a road warrior but lets not forget Blue Ball Pa.

[Musicman]

I'm not a road warrior but lets not forget Blue Ball Pa.

I've found it's best to avoid those whenever possible.

[beaner]

not sure if this the right place to post this but i justed started a new job on the 29th of last month was out 19 days nothing unusual there was out 10 days and got a call from the BOSS was thinking ok wants me to stay out a few more days what he had to say i almost dropped my phone he asked if i was ready to get home. not what you expect to hear