Drowning in Budweiser!

Last week after getting my truck fixed after the break in while I was home I was called into dispatch with another driver and they told us we needed to take our trucks down to Cleveland, TX to recover a tractor and trailer that had been involved in a rollover accident and bring them back to Denver.
We would do this by hooking my truck to the back of his truck and driving team down to TX and he would bring the tractor back and I would bring the trailer back. So we hooked up and headed for TX. He drove the first 8 hours, and I drove the last 8 hours.


When we arrived at the towing company yard we found the truck and trailer locked behind the gate so we called and they said they would send someone down.


He arrived but only in a small truck, so we waited for the big KW rig to show up to help us unhook the truck from the trailer, but shortly after he arrived he had to go out on a call because a trash truck was about to flip over somewhere. So we waited a few hours, in the meantime we had to climb in the trailer and even out the load because all the beer was shifted to one side and it would have just rolled over again if we tried to pull the trailer out of there.



We finally got the truck unhooked and hooked up to Scott's truck and I hooked up to the trailer and we went to the Love's truck stop to park his truck, from there we headed for the local landfill because by federal law when a beer load is wrecked the product must be destroyed since it hasn't been taxed yet. We got to the landfill about 4 pm and they closed at 5, so we went back to the truck stop and called the company to have them send us 2 helpers from labor ready the next day. We were at the gate at 6am when they opened and our helpers were right behind us, it took us 8.5 hours to unload all the beer by hand into the landfill.






We finally got it all done and back to the Love's then the company decided they wanted to load the trailer back to Denver, so I had to go to a truck wash in Houston to have all the broken glass cleaned out, which costs 250.00 , Scott already took off and headed back to Denver pulling the twisted remains of the T600 and I loaded up the next morning down in Pasadena. Luckily the trailer is still in pretty good shape besides most of the passenger side panels will have to be replaced, I only had to replace one busted marker light on the back corner.

Apparently the driver was going north on hwy 59 when he got off the wrong exit and decided instead of going down the ramp and back onto the highway he would jerk the wheel and try to get back on, and the load shifted and down it went! That driver was terminated at the scene and sent to the bus station.

By the time we got done with this adventure we all smelled like a brewery! There was broken bottles and beer flowing everywhere. I left a 10 mile trail of Beer from the tow yard to the landfill, it was pouring out the back like a 53' keg! LOL

Back on the Road

After 3 1/2 days at home I'll be heading out tomorrow, loading in Columbus bound for Denver.
I will try to do more updating on my blog here. LOL

I had an interesting experience last week when I was parked for the night in one of my usual favorite places off of I70 at exit 175, I woke up and checked my phone and I seen a text message from my cousin Todd, who is a fire captain here in Ohio, asking me if I happened to be in MO, they had just crossed into MO on 70 headed to CO to visit my other cousin who moved his family out there last year. So I told him where I was and they stopped by to see me. Him and his wife and son and 2 daughters and my aunt and uncle were all traveling together in his minivan. They are on the way back home right now, so I'll probably run into them somewhere tomorrow also.

New Truck

Well after two years and 300,000 miles on my 0ld T660, I asked for a new one, and I got one.
The interior is much nicer on these ones, I like the design a lot. Without any cabinet doors it gives the sleepers a more spacious feel, and easier access to the closets. However the down side is you don't get any kind of a table like the foldout ones in the older trucks, but it's okay because I got my own.

Robbed

Well when I was home last month I parked my truck in its usual safe haven and went home, normally I check in on it every day, but this time I went two days without checking and when I went back to check on it I found the driver side window rolled down, the CB ant. missing and the passenger door daylite window shattered, that's the little square window by the feet.

I already knew without looking that obviously my CB and GPS and anything of value would be gone. The person cut off the seal on the outside window and then used the CB ant. to bash in the inside window, since it's double paned. They stole my CB and GPS and all the DVDs and CDs and computer games I had in my shelf. The police came and took the report, but of course there isn't much they can do, the stuff is gone and the thieves would obviously have worn gloves.

They left the CB ant in the cab of the truck, and also they didn't steal my XM radio thank goodness.
I went out and bought a new Cobra29 chrome radio at a cost of $90.00 and I took it to a CB shop in Ohio and had it peaked and tuned, connex board and a LED color changing meter light installed for $70.00, which I thought was a good deal, until the CB blew up and started smoking!
Hell I couldn't even hook it up it would blow a fuse every time, and the CB shop man said he didn't know what was wrong with it, it must be the wiring in my truck he said.

So later that night I took it to another CB shop along my route in WV and it turns out the first guy had no idea what he was doing, he had everything shorted out, even the meter light! It costs me another 80.00 to have him repair the CB, which was a mess, wires melted and burnt together. He finally got it all working though, and now I've learned a valuable lesson, don't ever leave anything valuable behind when you're away from your truck! Even though I've been fine there all these years, it only takes that ONE time to lose everything.