I rolled into Show Low Arizona yesterday pretty early to drop my load of plastic pipe off and was 3 hours early.As I was about to turn into the side street there was a nice 24 hour Walmart Superstore there, what luck, I was out of just about everything. $280 dollars later I was at the customer site unpacking everything and putting it away. I put in Gladiator DVD for the millionth time and lay on the bed watching it till they open. They unload me and are a bunch of real characters. Retired Army and Navy guys arguing the best way for me to turn around and pull out. I let them tell me what to do as this is making there day. I think I did need the help anyways. I get turned around and headed out and flip my arm up and hell, Damn Navy know it alls. I leave them both laughing.
So, back on the road headed about 100 miles to the nearest major highway. It's daylight now and had no idea what I missed coming in. I mean the desert was flat and went on for as far as the eye could see. One drawback to driving some at night. I get about 80 miles and pull over to take a snooze and think about what I'm going to do. I need to get home soon so I figure I will drive from like 3 in the morning till noon time. I'll figure out where I'll be by noon and post my truck as available and keep doing that and dead head all the way home if I have to.
I wake up from my nap and the phone rings from TMC the flatbed company. They see I was in Show Low and have a load going from the copper mine in Morenci AZ which is in the opposite direction than I'm going. In fact, it's 100 miles the other side of Show Low that I just left. The load is going to Norwich CT which is pretty close to NH so this makes my day.
I turn around after having coffee of course and head back through Show Low. The guy at TMC was pretty adamant about giving me instructions on how to get there. I go on to Google and they don't even list the roads I'm going to take once I get close. I have to take a non direct route because some of the roads are so rural they can't handle trucks. I don't know why though.
I go through Show Low and start heading into no-mans land. I mean, I'm OUT THERE!!! I look down and have a 1/4 tank and that makes me nervous. I come across a small station and this is the last I'm going to see for some time. It's run by Apache Indians and I pull up to the pump with my door open making sure I'm going to clear the little roof with my pipes and I do. I'm there for like 45 minutes just filling up one tank because it's meant for a car and not a truck. I have to do it $100 at a time because that's the stations limit.
On my way and the scenery is great. I'm going through heavy forest on a nice 2 lane road. I can see ahead it looks like the woods are on fire and they are. It's the forest service cutting down all the little stuff on each side of the road for maybe 100 feet and putting it into a pile and burning it. I'm assuming that's to stop a fire from really getting going from someone throwing a butt out the window or some hing.
This is way cool now. Real log homes and little ranches. Not a tourist attraction. These are the real things people live in and work. Something Hollywood would rent to do a movie.
I'm starting to go up now and the trees are disappearing and the range is opening up. HOLY MACKEREL, it's like the Grand Canyon. I can't say enough, it was breath taking. It didn't matter which direction I pointed my camera the views were unbelievable. The road is getting real curvy with hair pin corners, switchbacks and one 7% grade after another, up and down, left and right. If they made a commercial about being a truck driver, this is the road they would film it on. I kept pulling over onto many of the places on the sides and was just awestruck. A few drivers going by asked on the CB if I was OK. I said I couldn't help it, it's just amazing. I mean, I'm standing 1 foot away from a 4,000 foot drop to the bottom. No railing, no signs, this is the way it is out here.
Once again, I remembered what Rocky what's his name said and had both feet on the floor with my Jakes on full and in 5th gear going 35mph down the grades. I'm sure this will be a treat on the way out loaded but I don't think I have to come back the same way. There are no runaway ramps, they don't need them. You pretty much drive off the cliff so your not obstructing the road, problem solved. I tell ya though, driving through those windy roads was great. I was doing maybe 35 and turning the steering wheel 3/4 turns back and forth. I felt like Speed Racer without the monkey on my back.
Oh yea, almost forgot. Arizona state prison is out here in the middle of the desert and it's HUGE. Great place for it. There's no way your going to walk out.
So it finally starts to level out after 100 miles of this and I'm coming into good size little town nestled in the middle of nowhere. I'm starving and what do I see in front of me to the right but a KFC which I love. I'm at a light and in front of me is a gas station and I see 2 big trucks parked to the right so I shoot forward across the lights only thinking of KFC and realize I can't make the turn into the station. Those trucks entered down the road. Now I'm on a dead end and I'm lucky there was a great place to pull off to the side and that's where I spent the night after my KFC of course. It worked out because I'm going to have to back up into the street and I could not have done that yesterday because of the traffic. Not a lot but I would have caused a problem.
It's 1am here and plenty of time to have coffee, make out an invoice for my last job, download porn and read the forum. lol Here are some pics.
