Keep On Truckin’…….
“Well, I pulled outta Pittsburgh, Rollin’ down the Eastern seaboard, I got my diesel wound-up and she’s rollin’ like never before”….. (a little quote from “Six Days on the Road”)….. J.J. claimed he had some truck drivin’ stories, and I’m sure all of us have a story or two concerning encounters of the eighteen wheel kind on the road, so here’s your chance…… I bring this up because I was looking for a job in Sunday’s classifieds and there was like page after page of truck driving opportunities – big full color ads…… Are they really that short-handed on drivers?…… With as many trucks as I see on the road I can’t image if there would be room for my car if there were fully staffed…… I’ve had more than one close call with a Big Mack or a “Pedro”built, but, all-in-all, most truckers I been associated with are safe and courteous drivers, although, speed limits and riding your back bumper doesn’t seem to be on their list….. I thought a little about becoming a truck driver, but, I think there are enough yo-yo’s on the road now….. Maybe J.J. would let me take a test run with him one of these days……
May 29th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
I had a blow out doing 70 in the hot Calif. sun. When I pulled over and got out, my tire was on fire. A truck driver pulled up behind me, jumped out with a fire extinguisher. On another day some loobie in a truck tried to run me off the road.
My ex-brother-in-law was a truck driver, independent. He said they all got screwed with deregulation.
May 31st, 2006 at 6:55 am
This is weird….. I made this post day before yesterday and on the news today they are running a story called “Semi-Safety” taken from the trucker’s view on trying not to squash us in our little bitty cars….. They state that truck traffic is up 84%, but, truck related accidents are down 77%, and they are being trained to spot terrorist activities….. Also this week-end they are holding the Oklahoma Truck Driving Championships here in OKC….. I wonder if our “Truck Driving Man” – Blogger J.J. is entered?
June 1st, 2006 at 12:13 am
My brother used to be a long-haul trucker back in the ’70s and ’80s. His handle was “Laid-back Lynny”.
I think his most interesting gig was hauling loads of “yellow-cake” uranium ore from Grants, New
Mexico to Kerr-McGee’s nuclear fuels production plant in Crescent, OK—the one made famous by Karen
Silkwood. One day in the early ’70s, Laid-back was truckin’ through the Texas panhandle on I-40 when
he looked in his mirror and saw yellow cake flying off his rig. He followed the protocols and parked
it diagonally across the east-bound lanes, effectively shutting down that side of the Interstate, then
waited for the hazmat team to show up. In the mean time, he was cussed and honked at by a hoard of
impatient motorists, and had a short argument with a county sheriff which he won by playing the nuke
card. Eventually, the boys in the nuke suits showed up and vacuumed up everything yellow, and a few
hours later, everyone was on their way, “no harm done”.
June 1st, 2006 at 7:04 am
Are you sure, the last time I passed through that area of I-40 at night everything glowed…. Didn’t even need headlights!……
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:01 am
You bring up some good points. MR. as for going with me someday, I am trying to set up just that next Fri. Nite 6/9-10, If your interested I will be in touch this weekend. as for the truck driving as a profession look for a new post/thread coming soon. No I am not entered into the Truck Rodeo this weekend, a friend of mine is though. The accident ratio, this is true Mainly because the trucks have become safer and enforcement of safety rules, and equipment has been stepped up considerably. The terrorist spotting is in thanks to a new group called Highway Watch that is teaching companies and Independents alike how to spot possible terrorist activities.
RTG, I had a very similar experience in 1998 in the Fla Panhandle one afternoon. I was traveling east on I-10 about 20 Mi east of Pensacola, I had stopped at the rest area just East of the Escambia bay Bridge for a nap. I woke up at 1600 pm and got out and walked around before continuing on. I discovered that a barrel of Methylene Chloride was leaking, I went 3 mi up the road to a little truck stop. I parked as far away from the building as I could and went in and had the clerk call the local Fire dept and the Fla Hwy Patrol. I don’t think the town of Santa Rosa, Fl will ever forget me, This was the most excitement they ever had. 10 hours and $2,000.00 Later I was on my way.