I appreciate everyone's concern, and advice. It feels good to vent a little, and after a day at home, I am reborn ready for whatever this week has to throw at me, and it started warming up it's pitching arm this morning with a little ice storm that accumulated less than a quarter inch and made my little town come to a stand still.
While the more traveled main roads got cleared by around 8 am, the streets where I live were solid ice, and our cars had no chance of making it out, so I called dispatch and told them that there was no way I could make it, and let them know why, and they understood and said don't worry. Rearranged my delivery time to tomorrow morning, and told me they would try and give me some good miles to make up for it.
Everything was cool, I thought they would freak out since there seems to be a stream of bad luck with me lately. Of course it wasn't my dispatch, it was his boss(the one in the meeting) so I am sure that had something to do with it, but we will see. It's times like this when they really help me out that I can try to forget all the negative things, it's nice to not worry about getting in trouble when you don't feel safe to travel.
So the sun finally comes out enough that by 10 am the roads are starting to clear, I call dispatch tell them I am on my way, and here we go. The pos truck pti's just fine, and fires right up, cool, that's already more than I expected. Get on 40 headed for Knoxville, and start thinking about how grateful I am that I was trained in the "gorge" without a jake brake many times since this is a frequent route for Roehl. It's not that it's a horrible place, that's hard to pass, you just have to be more alert, decent hills, with curves combined, along with heavy traffic, nothing major, just keeps you on your toes.
But shortly after getting on the interstate, I realized that the jake brake was working correctly now(it came on 2 or 3 times on the trip home) and it stayed working all the way here, who knows? But I played it safe, and just for practice, came through the gorge with jake turned off since I didn't want to depend on it working. You don't have to have a jake, but boy oh boy does it come in handy on certain occasions!
Anyway, I got down here, and there was only once truck stop listed in my book, and pilot at exit 35. I pull in, and it's obvious that there isn't going to be any parking. So I head on down 85 to exit 27, and here we go, a huge truck stop, and they have idle air, first time I have ever come across a place with it, I have only heard of it. I must admit I like it, you have to pay 10 bucks the first time to get a piece for your window, but you keep it, and you don't have to pay for it again. At this place it was 1.88 an hour, so I pulled in to check it out, only wish I had a tv since you get plenty of sat. channels. But for the money, the internet connection alone is a deal compared to what wifi costs at other places, plus you only pay for what you use, so that is cool.
While I was at home, I took a picture of the metal pieces that were found in the clutch area. They are the same piece, but one was chewed up, and it was a little ball, but the mechanic started unfolding it to see what it was, and then stopped when they found the second piece, I figure it didn't have time to get chewed up, or it didn't fall in the right place. I hope these pics show up, here goes:
Free Image Hosting - PicTiger
Anyway, I am here, and a day short on miles already, so I hope to get to run hard this week to make up for it, we will see. I should be able to run harder than the past few weeks surely, but time will tell, take it easy everyone!