So into the yard on Sunday, greased the 5th wheel and picked up the pre-loaded flatdeck. Kim, the CEO of Spirit appeared at 8am.,,, Bloody hell what she doing up so early on a Sunday?????
Ken, (Spirit driver) and Florian (Bartels driver) where running down to Rome Georgia,,,, 'Woo Hoo' we've got a convoy, well 3 of us anyway,,, Cleared customs in 5 mins and of we go, down to Fargo then east to Minneapolis. My truck started giving me problems; she wouldn't go faster than 100km????????? All the gauges were good,???WTF Stopped turned her of, switched off the batteries counted to 10 and restarted, problem solved??????
We blasted down past Iowa city,,, watch ya heads on the bridges,,, and spent the night at Wayland. Up early Monday and sped round St Louis, crossing the mighty Mississippi which was brown and gungey
Onwards we sped; there were now 4 of us in the convoy,,,,would be a great name for a film me thinks ,,, aiming for Nashville, we drove past the Oprey and onto Chattanooga,is that the Chattanooga choo-choo yep, where I parted company with the others Spent the night at the J in Dalton. I still had a 7hr drive to Orlando and Atlanta to navigate through... so of at 4am and whizzed through Atlanta with no problems I left Manitoba in -27c and was now enjoying +20c! ,,,I like it here,,,. 20km north of Orlando was my drop, a tiny village off the beaten track in the middle of some wondrous orange groves. The guys were really friendly and had me empty in a jiffy . . . . . filled with good coffee and reload instructions I headed towards Jacksonville, passing Daytona Beach and some of the worst drivers I’d seen in my whole life
One guy in a pick-up sped across my bow's from the 3rd lane onto the off ramp I was passing. Realising this was not his exit he turned sharp left, bounced over the grass median, rejoined the highway right in front of me, still doing more than 100km and carried on , swerved passed umpteen cars and took the next exit!!!!!! Loaded the next morning, the first of 3 pick ups and ran across to Douglas for the 2nd, a new snowmobile trailer for the boss' son. Stopped in a tiny village for breakfast, of GRITS???? CORNEDHASH and other southern delights. Just wish they spoke English down here, my god what a dialect they have! I'm lucky if I understood 10% of what they said.
Loaded the trailer and sped off towards Savannah for the final pick,,,, oh what a cock up. The frigging thing was 10foot 5inches high, that made me 14 foot 2 inches overall! Shit, I need permits; one for every State and a route home, the max in the US is 13ft 6 inches, a fiasco because of 6 inches. The permits took a day to organise, mainly because we'd never needed them and had to register with every State.
One day later, permits in hand off I set, drove 5km, the first set of scales and inspection They measured me at 14'6'' WHAT???? On top of the pay loaders cab were 2 cables that stuck up 4inches, OH BUGGER!!! He let me go,,,phew. Onwards towards Atlanta and the next scales which were manned by a spotty faced youth who had eaten the rule book for breakfast. Rule 1) too high...closing you down.. 2) No oversize banners... closing you down 3) you haven’t signed the permit.... closing you down 4) no driving 30 mins before sunset and 30 mins after sunrise....you've got 43 mins to correct these mistakes!! Dropped the trailer double quick, sped up the interstate 10miles to the J, bought 2 banners, sped back to the scales, attached banners, climbed on to the roof of the pay loader disconnected the cables, re-coupled to the trailer, re-measured load with now 8 minutes to drive and park up, oh and signed the frigging thing.... I was poooped. Re-read all the permits carefully and more than once.. OH SHIT... All stipulated, in the small print, driving only sunrise to sunset, some had bans from midday Saturday noon till Sunday; some had bans on weekends before a public holiday i.e. Christmas. How do they expect me to get home? It's impossible!! I've got 3000km and half a day to do them in OH BUGGER went to bed pissed off,,,, but hatching a plan ,,,,
Set of early in Georgia crossed into Tennessee, ripped of the banners, let as much air as I dared out of the pay loaders tyres, re-chained the load and put pedal to metal. As it was holiday weekend the scales were closed WOO HOO! Followed my route and headed home. Tennessee sped by, so did Kentucky, onwards and upwards into Illinois, rounding Champaign to spend the night in the small town of Farmers City, where I enjoyed a well earnt steak & went to bed well fed and feeling quite proud of myself! I was warm as it was still 14c. 3am I awoke..!!!!!!!!!!! frozen stiff..????? The Blizzard had set in..WTF -8c and winds that almost tipped the truck over. Started the engine and dived under the covers! Jesus wept.!!! Breakfast at 6am and off I sped,,, sped' - what a joke,,.
Nothing in my 28 years of being a trucker could have prepared me for this. Full throttle, downhill against these head winds and only 90km max!! OK winds I can handle, but roads of sheet ice as well? This ain't playing cricket chaps. I swear I had never seen any thing like this in my life; over 250 cars being just blown of the roads, fridges and vans driving at 25mph being swept sideways and into the ditches, even a snow plough.
The conditions were out of this world and it was like a scene from a dissaster movie. Cars and trucks on their roofs, in the ditches, up the banks and that for the whole day; every 200 metres another accident! I just plodded along and waited for my turn to bite the dust. Well I didn't and I got home safe and sound. Parked the truck at the farm, got a pressy from the boss and came home..
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