February 23 – March 1, 2021

• Tuesday, February 23, 2021

We all met at the truck at about 7:45. The other truck pulled out to go load at 8.

We could have left earlier, but my driver told our 3rd car to be there at 9:30.  And he was. . .at 9:28! Then he had to pit on his flags and signs, and get set up, so we left at about 9:45 or so. He runs in back with me on highways, and up front with the HP on back roads. We guess the theory is that he can help me block the 2 lanes in back, and help direct traffic up front.  The only thing I ask of a 3rd car is that they do not drive in my blind spot, because every time I need to make a sudden move, I have to search for them. He said “Oh yes, I understand.” But then we were driving most of the day on highway, and he spent 90% of that time in my blind spot! I guess he doesn’t know what that is.

When I Pilot, I am constantly aware of where all traffic is around me at all times. I know the color of each vehicle, and know who is on either side of me and behind me, and their rate of speed, because I check each mirror multiple times a minute.  When I need to make a move, checking my mirrors is basically to make sure everyone is still where I think they are. That way, I can anticipate everyone else’s next move. That’s nothing new, as I’ve always driven that way.  Ask Annalou. . . she’s the one who had to inform me one day that she didn’t do that, and thought that most everyone else didn’t either! I was shocked! Anyway, to have a guy spend the entire day in my blind spot meant I had a lot more checking to do in order to keep track of him!

We needed him just through Kentucky, so our goal was to make it at least out of KY by the end of the day. It seemed like a long day, but we pulled into a truck stop in Frnaklin KY 2 miles from the IL line near sunset after 284 miles, and said goodbye to our 3rd car.

We were very happy to hear that our Arkansas permit already arrived, and was emailed to each of us. We will all look at the route and put that into our navigation systems tonight. It was warm enough to stay in my van, as it was in the high 30’s but I needed to get some book work done that is much easier to do when I can spread things out on a bed and desk. So I went to a hotel one more time.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

We were off to a good start, and spent most of the day making our way through IL. We all noticed that the AR permit had a very different route this time. In fact, none of  us had been that way with a load before. Instead of following 40 to 30 to Texarkana with detours around construction, we were going to stay on 40 from Little Rock, almost up to the OK Line, to Russleville, and then take back roads parallel to the OK line all the way down to Texarkana. We got into Arkansas at about 3:30,

---

but realized we did not have time to make it through Little Rock before the 4 PM curfew.

That meant we had to stop early, and then leave late enough so we don’t get to Little Rock before 9 AM curfew lifts. We stopped at a truck parking area with no facilities just before sunset.

The HP went to a hotel, the driver unhooked and went to a truck stop, and I went to a local Walmart parking lot for the night. Ahhhhh, a night in my own bed!!

Thursday, February 25, 2021

We got off to a great start, and hit the Little Rock curfew line just after 9 AM as planned.  It was all highway for over 100 miles, until we reached exit 81 in Russelville. The ramp has an S curve in it, so when we got to the end, and tried to make a left turn, my rear dolly was not far enough over to the right, and we could not clear the stop sign on the left. So I had the driver back up as much as he could.  I started the pony motor and unpinned the rear axles, but I had my doubts that I had enough room to maneuver the trailer far enough to the right. Sure enough, we still could not make the turn, so we both pulled the sign out of the ground and laid it down.  Then I steered him around that corner, but we had to make it a 3 point turn because of the pork chop on the outside with another sign in it. I’ve sped the video up to save time for you.

If we ever do that one again, I would have him let me begin steering way back before the right turn so I could get the rear dolly way over to the right.  Then I bet I could steer him by that stop sign without having to pull it out.

When we got into town, there was a RR crossing with overheads that also had a large hump in it.  Those can be really tricky. We need to raise the load up on both towers in order to clear the tracks, but we have no way to know how far up is too far, and could hit the overheads. The HP is set at just 6″ above load height, but I may need to raise the towers 24″ or more.

This one worked out fine.  The HP let me know the clearance above by watching, I had raised both front and rear towers only about 10″, and when I drove along side to be sure the top and bottom clearance would be enough, you can see that everything worked out just fine. I sped this video up as well.

The last thing we would ever want would be to get high centered on the tracks! That is a nightmare! We’d have to immediately call the RR and have them stop all trains until we could get towed off the tracks.

It was all skinny and windy roads from that point on, along with steep hills up and down. We made our way from there on down just north of Texarkana before sunset curfew caught up to us. We parked in a closed weigh station for the night,

and my driver unhooked to go to a truck stop,

while I parked my van in the Welcome Center lot just a mile down the road, and made supper there. It was a mild night of 55* with a light rain coming down by the time I went to sleep. But that all changed within a few hours! It turned to extremely heavy rain, with lots of thunder and lightning, and even turned to hail for a few minutes.

Friday, February 26, 2021

The strangest thing happened to me last night. At 3 AM with lightning flashing, thunder pounding, and rain pouring down in buckets, I woke up to someone knocking on my driver door. I immediately peeked around the curtains in the back and other side windows, and saw that I was the only vehicle in the entire Welcome Center parking lot, and no other person or vehicle could be seen. So I pulled my curtain back to look out my driver door window, and a large guy was standing there, in a red shirt and bib overalls, completely soaked to the bone. I wasn’t about to put my window down, so he hollered “Hello, I need help”, he said. “I’m stuck and don’t have my phone with me.  Can you call a tow truck?” “Yes, I can do that,” I yelled back across the seat and through the closed window. I started calling, and he kept asking “Did you get them? Are they on the way?” but all I was getting was answering machines, and people telling me they were too busy, or didn’t tow anything but a semi. So I told him to go inside where it is warm and dry, and I will let him know what I come up with.  I called at least 15 places, got dressed, and went inside to tell him. I did happen to notice that no vehicle could be seen anywhere.  “I left a few messages, and got a bunch of no’s, but I will come back in here and tell you if some one calls me back and will come out.  You said you had a pickup truck.  Where is it?” “Several miles down the road near the lake” he said. He didn’t want me to call anyone else, so I went back to bed.

I got no calls, and my alarm went off at 5:15 so I went in to brush my teeth. He was still standing there, but told me another man came in a while ago, and let him use his phone, and someone is on their way to help him.  I prayed with him, and we wished each other well, and I was off to work.

We left right on time at 7, and were on our way into Texas!

It was a mix of back roads and highway, but we were determined to get to the site and park there today! It was a full day, and we arrived at 5 PM. Our HP had brought the only truck from this company to this site just after Christmas, and had told us the gate is far too narrow for us to fit through because of the angle we have to use. That steerman could not get the job done, leaving the back dolly all jack-knifed. So the site guy (who has a CDL) got in and drove the truck, while the driver went back to correct it all, and steered him in the gate. The site guy said they were going to make it wider before the next load – and we are that next load, so no one was worried, or even told me anything about all that. But the gate hadn’t been touched!

I tried not to jump the curb with my tires and disturb the landscape across the street, but then we couldn’t clear the gate, so I had him back up, and this second time, I steered the back set of 3 axles up onto the curb, across the landscape, missing the fire hydrant by 3″, and back onto the road, and we were through in one shot! Whew! I don’t have good video of that because there was so much traffic, that it blocked my camera’s view. We parked him beside the cranes and equipment inside the gate.

After he unhooked, we all drove to a hotel down the street.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

The truck that loaded the day we left was due in today at about 3, and all three of us offered to help control traffic and make it easier for them. So I had plenty of time to make an awesome breakfast of bacon, eggs, onions, green peppers, and cheese.

Then I worked all day on a response to the latest offer the insurance company made to me. That has been quire a challenge for me these past 5 months, and they continually make math errors and misjudgements, and misunderstand me. I continually respond with the correction, and then they come back with new ones. It’s interesting, though, that every single mistake is in their favor. Hmmm.

We all went over to the site, and the other truck pulled in. I told their steerman (who is a contractor like me, and who I just met on the last trip) how I managed the turn so he could do it on the first try. Then I went to direct traffic. Well, he didn’t follow my suggestion, and wound up with the dolly off the road into the grass

and at such an angle that the truck could not back up to make a correction.  So their HP guy had to chain his truck to the dolly and pull it as the truck pushed back to get it unstuck.

But then the front dolly was too close to get back out the gate. So they could only go about 10′ forward and back, and were stuck.

With them totally across the road, there was no traffic to direct, so I joined the meeting with the two drivers and steerman. “We can’t go forward, and we can’t go backwards. There is a crane here, but we don’t think he can lift that loaded rear dolly without breaking something. We are stuck.” So I said “What if we unhooked the tractor, and hooked it back at a different angle. . . ” BINGO! We had to do that several times, with me coaching the steerman, but we got him out the gate, and back to where they started. I told the steerman once again how I did it, and this time, though the driver had to adjust for his turn radius, they slipped it right through the gate and inside! This video is in 3x speed.

It took a total of about 90 minutes, but we all left for the hotel, and went out for supper together.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

I thought about going to church, but didn’t find one close enough that sounded interesting, so just got up and went right to work on getting my business taxes ready for the CPA. Because of where we are, a church had to me within 5 miles, or it would take over 30 minutes to get there, and I didn’t want to fight the traffic. Any church I go to has to have a good web site that tells me about the pastor, what their basic beliefs are, and where they stand on certain doctrinal issues. And I just could not find that.

I spent the day doing finances, editing video for this blog, and catching up on the script. Tomorrow we meet at the site at 8 to remove the tarps and do all the prep we can while the crane sets up. Once we unload, plans have changed again, and we are headed back to the shop in Minnesota instead of loading in LA and going to VA.