Hey Steve,

next time your in flagstaff go to the Little america TS and go to the hotel and eat. It is usually very good and prices are reasonable.

We have never had to stop for wind....yet, but it sure does a number on fuel mileage!! :shock:

tootie

That's were I am right now and that's where I planned to go but I guess the store has a little place too and I just ordered not realizing it wasn't the restaurant in the hotel.

So, can I assume that's a signal to slow down or stop when your being pushed out of your lane?

The other post was was locked because enough was enough. People seem to have issues with understanding that the name-calling and sniping has gone way beyond old. At the point I shut it down, there were SEVERAL current posters creating alternate 1-post wonder accounts to continue the cyber-slapfest.

As a reminder, this happened a couple years ago and those that played the game, no longer are part of CAD. It is a violation of T.O.S., is easily traceable, and very unoriginal. :roll: If I had the time or the inclination to go back through almost 30 pages of posts looking for more IP matches and such, I'd end up banning a few regulars, I would wager.

So, be content to start it over here. If it gets out of hand again, it'll get shut down and IP checks will be run to see who will be kicked out of the sandbox.

So, get along! :P

Either that or when you couldn't force a needle up you know where with a hammer! :lol:

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.

wow, what an awesome place. looks like a nice drive 8)

Yup, probably the best ride I've taken to date. I've done about 100 miles already and in a small town grocery store parking lot having coffee and checking the map. There's only 1 road into where I'm going. My GPS tried to give me a better route that it said would knock off 1/2 an hour. When it told me turn it was a dirt road into the desert!!!

All the truckers that pass you at night out here say something like clear all the way, no cows or whatever spotted.

I have broadband access at them moment with 3MB download in this little hick town. I guess out here cell and Internet coverage are a very important lifeline to the outside. Pretty cool.

I've been out for maybe 5 weeks now and will be glad to get home and take a week or 2 off. I'll probably haul a few 500 mile or less loads in during that time but plan to come back home after.

I think an important thing to grasp if your going to do what I'm doing is that you MUST be prepared to head out for at least 3 weeks at a time and go wherever you can get a load to. If your planning on being home every night or weekend, forget it unless your hooked up pretty good with shippers which I only have two at the moment.

I've worked with a lot of good brokers so far but chances are I will never hear from them again. You have to be in the right place at the right time for them to have a load for you. The TMC rep sounded like he could keep me busy with flatbed loads, we'll see.

I love Arizona, cool pics!

Made it here in one piece. What a last 10 miles. The road ends here at the copper mine and it's HUGE!!! I had to take a right off the access road onto a dirt road that went around a sharp U-Turn then straight down to the bottom. I could see all the workers coming up the mine mountain over the side maybe 3,000 feet below. I was in first gear with my foot on the brake shaking. I'm sure any of the other truckers would have blown by me!!! lol There's another TMC driver here ahead of me waiting since yesterday. The lady at the guard shack said they have to harvest more copper. I guess only the real good stuff goes back East she said so they have to refine it more and it's not ready yet. Don't care. I'm on my way home with this load.