[TennesseeAngel]

To go storm chasing has got to keep the adrenalin going I would imagine. Well, glad to know no one was hurt with the one tornado on the ground. I would imagine that the little girl will tell that story about chasing a tornado for years to come. No doubt it made her day, even if it was scary. You all have more nerve than me. I want to go the opposite way of a bad storm.

[Doctor Who]

You all have more nerve than me.

Nerve??? Nerve has nothing to do with it.... Lack of sense would be more apt. Plus, a very abnormal upbringing does help!!!

[Doctor Who]

Here's another tale that is not too amusing, but factual just the same..

Way back in the day my Dad drove a truck on the weekends.
On one particular Friday night he had a run that left Linden NJ went through Philadelphia, PA, Wilmington DE and back to Linden..

He left Linden at about 2100 and headed out to US 1 and went south
He was not fond of running the Turnpike towards Philadelphia..

Down around North Brunswick he noticed a bright blue car coming along side of him and like all truckers he looked down to see what was inside.
He couldn't see much until the car got ahead of him. that's when he noticed a woman driving and someone laying down behind the front seats.
He sped up to catch the woman and blew the horn to get her attention. The woman just sped up. He figured the woman thought he was trying to flirt with her.. I should mention that he was driving an International Loadstar 1800, which had a gas engine. A real powerhouse...

Now this section of US 1 is stoplight to stoplight for 20 miles and as luck would have it all the lights stayed green. Dad did all he could to catch up to the car, but the woman just kept the pedal to the floor.
She stayed a good distance from his truck and Dad figured it was a lost cause as the truck hit a big hill, until he saw the brake lights come on and the car swerve to the right. Dad knew the woman turned into a diner parking lot..

The truck finally made it to the top of the hill and he turned into the Sand Hills Diner parking lot and found the woman talking to a couple of police officers. Dad stopped the truck jumped out and ran over to the car opened the rear door and pulled a big guy out from behind the seat.
His first instinct was to beat the guy senseless, but since the law was there he let them have the privilege.
The woman was in shock and told Dad she had no idea the guy was there.
Dad told her he tried to get her attention. The officers were very happy to take the guy to jail...

Dad did make the local newspaper. I asked him if he felt like a Hero. He said no, he just did what he had to do and that he would expect me to do the same..

In memory of my Dad!!!

[Silver Bullet]

Great Story Dr.

Sounds like your father was a good man who lived by his principals. No tellin what the guy in the back seat would've done to her.

[TennesseeAngel]

Yes that is a wonderful story Doc and your dad sounds like a wonderful man. I know you are proud.

[Doctor Who]

Sounds like your father was a good man who lived by his principals. No tellin what the guy in the back seat would've done to her.

Consider this, the year was 1969 and for the most part car jackings were not really news worthy... The details after the arrest were sketchy at best, but from what I do remember the guy said he was trying get a ride from New Brunswick to somewhere near Trenton.. I doubt the police believed him...

As for Dad, he was 5'7" tall and 97% full blood Sicilian with a temper to match. I had no problem believing he would have pounded that dude into a coma. He did say the guy was over 6' tall. Of course me being the smartassed teen told him anyone over 5'8" would be tall... We did have our differences over the years, but I do miss him..... Alot!!!

[Silver Bullet]

I'm sure you do miss him alot. I live in Alabama, and my father is in Pennsylvania. I get to see him for about 1 week of the year, and I miss him immensely. Like you said, we have had our differences too, but I would sure like to see him alot more than I do.

[bluebeetle]

I lost my dad in 1983 and miss him incredibly.

I know that he is watching and laughing his tail off everytime my son does something.

Hey Doc, my dad was 5'8, 215 lbs and 18'' biceps. Watched him press my mom standing in his hands lying flat on his back straight up in the air. At the time she weighed close to 175 pounds. I didn't smartoff, just discussed things very carefully!

8)

[TennesseeAngel]

I lost my dad in 2001 and I still can't believe he is gone. He was a trucker himself and I think back on some of the stories he told me when he was out there, it does help put a smile on my face. I try to remember him as he was instead of what he looked like when he passed away and it does help. He survived the Vietnam war, worked hard at being a aircraft mechanic most his life, and also became a truck driver so he was pretty tough. For the most part, we had our differnces but when he spoke, we listened..CAREFULLY..We sure didn't know the meaning of argument when we was growing up...

[Doctor Who]

Time to shift gears, oh wait, for the shift lever challenged, it would be when the automatic decides to shift...

Just about everyone who works for a living has had a time when they wished they had never gotten up in the morning, or for the entire week..

Drivers seem to have more than their share of days, weeks, months like that.

During the early days of the Chemical Brothers we were late for every load. No matter how hard we ran we were late. The team dispatcher voiced an angry opinion about our skills as a team. It wasn't so much getting used to each other as a team, we were brothers no problem there. It just seemed that the entire Chemical hauling world was out to get us. Flat tyres, wrong trailers and so on.
Finally, at the end of the second week we decided to take a break and we told the dispatcher we were going home for a few days to regroup and we would call him when we were ready..
At the end of our 4 day leave we met up in Wilmington, received our dispatch and from that day forward everything clicked in to place, almost. We ended up being early which was a good thing...

I'll go home until you figure out what happened:

Way back in the last century I was dispatched on a load of Ethyl Acrylate to deliver in Baltimore.
I arrived at the yard dark and early, dispatch handed me the papers and I headed out to the yard to find the trailer.
Now as I had explained in another story EA had a nasty smell to it and it would be rather difficult not to miss the loaded trailer. I drove up and down the three rows of loaded trailers, found the trailer and started to back under it. Something kept nagging at me to get out and check the trailer. I stepped out and noticed I didn't smell the EA. I climbed up on the trailer and checked the seal, seal number was correct, still I had a bad feeling. I opened a small cap and waited for the overwhelming smell to knock me off the trailer. The smell was not what I expected. Judging by the residue on the cap the trailer had Napthalene, which smells like mothballs. Down the ladder I went and drove back to dispatch. The dispatcher kept yelling that I was crazy and he went out and checked. 10 minutes later he comes back and agreed something was wrong.
His problem was he had 10 trailers preloaded and he now had to find the mistake...
He had me check 6 more trailers and all 6 had Napthalene, but not what was on the bills. The plot thickend, but by that time I was getting angry and told the dispatcher I was going home and to call me when he figured it out...
The mystery was solved that afternoon, the driver, who preloaded the trailers, was quitting and had a deep dislike for the dispatcher, so sabotage was a way to settle a score... Should have never gotten up that morning...

Here's the trailer number to pick up:

Read the message on the Qual-comm. I sent the reply and headed over to the warehouse to get it. It was a cold, miserable, rainy day in the Heartland and I was really anxious to get home.
I pulled into the warehouse driveway and started hunting for the trailer. I drove around the building twice, couldn't find the trailer number I was given. I walked inside the building and talked to the shipping boss and he told me there was no such trailer there.
Back to the Qual-comm to send the message. The reply?? Stand by.
10 minutes or so went by when a new message popped up with a new trailer number. No that wasn't there either.
This went on for one whole hour. At the end of the hour the dispatcher was accusing me of lying to him and that I was sitting at a truckstop. I told him to check the GPS and that would tell him exactly where I was at.
Plus, he was getting a phone call.
I went back inside the building and asked the shipping boss to call the company.
After a much heated debate the shipper handed me the phone and to my surprise a very much humbled dispatcher was telling me that he was in error. I asked him if I should be surprised. He went on to explain he had me confused with another driver, who was in Illinois. I told him I've heard that before also and added that there was only one driver with a last name like mine.
Then I reminded him that I was in Iowa, not Illinois. I knew that he was trying to cover his ass, but wasn't succeeding..
I told him I was going to a motel and not to bother me until he got his mess straight... Another day I should have never gotten up....