Learning to back-up
I have two:
First, as any flatbed driver can tell you, we are known for taking some hokey routes to get back to some shippers. These, often, involve single-lane dirt roads going 15 miles into the nether-woods to pick up some odd freight. So, after calling the shipper the night before and getting directions, I set off from a truckstop in VA at oh-dark-thirty thinking I'll be first in line and loaded before 10 a.m.
The final turn takes me on to the inevitable dirt road, and after two miles I'm thinking, "We're off the road a good long ways, so according to my directions, this place ought to be another mile down, but I don't see anything ahead of me except farms and hills." Then, things get interesting. By the time the odometer tells me I've gone 3.5 miles down this road, I realize that I've probably screwed up. The problem? There is NO place that a truck can pull a u-turn.
I had to back up around curves that I had a hard time navigating in a forward gear! I'm just glad that, at that time, I was empty. I ended up backing the flat 2 miles(!) before a nice gent in a F-150 pulls up in front of my truck. "I don't think you're supposed to be out here," he says. Before I can think of a real nice way of saying "No ****, Sherlock," this guy says, "I own a place about another 1/2 mile behind you where you can back in and turn around."
Suffice to say, I got out with his help. I backed into a field-access drive and got turned in the right direction. Luck was with me when he told me that he knew right where I was headed and set me straight. By the time I got to the shipper, I was not surprised to find out that the person I got directions from was the receptionist who just happened to be covering the shipping/receiving line when I called. Never get directions from someone who drives a Toyota Celica in to work every day.
I got more time in reverse that day than I had in the previous year of trucking. It's a good thing I didn't have the wifey along. She'd have left finger imprints on the dash that wouldn't have come out for a few months.
Second story:
Near Mountain Home, AR, there's a place that ships stone to various garden supply shops across the country. It's another of those dirt road access places, but the company picked up there regularly, so, no issue. The good part is, this guy hires a LOT of Mexicans. Now, I'm not prejudice, I have a nagging feeling that most were not born in America, and did NOT have green cards. There were about 15 run-down mobile homes out in the woods surrounding this place. Each of them had 5 or 6 kids hanging out in front and an equal number of adults on the porches; all hispanic and I believe that if you put a speaker on the front of your truck and hooked it in to your CB then yelled "Immigracion!" thru the speaker as you drove up, the place would be a ghost town in less than a minute. It was a great place to get loaded, though, and it was always a good place for freight headed north.
Hope you enjoyed my stories. Its my first post here, and I'll be back!
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