October 30 – November 2, 2021

Saturday, October 30, 2021

We had all stayed in the same hotel, so Eddie and I left to get his truck hooked up and ready. We both had fueled up the night before, which always makes it quicker. You never know how many trucks will be trying to fuel at the fuel island. When they do, it takes each truck a while to load on several hundred gallons of fuel, and 30-40 gallons of DEF, but the worst part is the attitude of many of the drivers. Once they fuel, they are all asked to pull ahead so the next truck in line can pull up and get started fueling while they go inside and pay. Most do that, but there are a few that not only don’t pull ahead, they stop and have a meal inside. And/or, some come out, and go walk their dog, or sit in their truck and take their 30 minute break. All while the line of trucks sit behind and wait for them! So to already have that behind you is a nice way to start the day on time!

Our HP is always on time, so we pulled out as the sun was rising. It was a pretty uneventful day, driving 544 miles to Texarkana with an empty trailer. There were no corners to steer, because we are only 12′ wide, and nothing to tower up for, because the rails are so high off the ground. And, we get to drive mostly highway, and don’t slow down a lot on the hills because we weigh only about 100,000 lbs.

But I did take this shot just before we got to Texarkana, because the sign was for the road leading up to Fort Smith, Arkansas where Annalou grew up.

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Because we were not sure of how the schedule was going to work out for loading, we set our sights on a long day, so we could be in close shot of the loading site. I think I mentioned before that this site lost their lease on a large parking lot less than 2 miles from their plant, where we could park our empty trucks and expand them, and sit until they were ready to load us. Then we’d just drive over, load, and drive back to park and tarp the loads, and wait for troopers, and/or leave the next day with both trucks. Without that lot, we really have no legal place to do all that, and their load facility is far too small to park even one of our trucks. So now we have to arrive, stretch the trailer on the side of a road near a dead end (which is actually illegal), drive in to load, and then leave on our trip. AND, we can only do that one truck at a time. So when we load two trucks, it is a scheduling issue.

We are coming in from Kentucky, and the second truck is coming in from Minnesota. But we need to load the same day, and leave together, so we can be in Arizona at the same time, and unload the same day.

We made it! We drove 612 miles and parked in the rest area in Horse Cave, KY at sunset.

Monday and Tuesday, November 1 & 2, 2021

So here is the plan. . . .They will not be ready for either truck to load until Thursday. One at 7 AM, and one at 11 AM.  We will plan to arrive Wednesday, park at the dead end to stretch the trailer out to 15’6″, then wait until the plant closes at 5:30, when we will drive over and park in their yard (which blocks everything) until Thursday morning. Once we pull out of that dead end road, the second truck will have timed their arrival from MN so that they pull in just after we pull out, and stretch their trailer out, and leave it there for the night.

Thursday morning we will drive our truck across the street and sit in the driveway of the neighbor’s plant while they lift the generator in the back lot where it has been stored, and have the crane carry it around to the front of the plant. Once they do, we will back across the street, and under the load, so they can lower it down onto our trailer. Our trooper will meet us there as we load, so that once we are loaded, we can leave, and the second truck can come over and load. Clockwork! What could possibly go wrong???

So we had to take Monday and Tuesday off as a result, right here in Horse Cave. There are lots of cool caves around, and sometime I’d love to go visit some, but not this time! I had receipts to record, deposits to record, calls to make, invoices to produce, laundry to do, routes to put in my GPS systems, groceries to buy, my van to wash, and permits to print. I found a laundromat right next to a car wash with a tall bay, so washed my van while Eddie and I had our clothes in the washers!

We all three stayed in a hotel for those 3 nights.

Here is some Dash Cam video of another close call. Almost another head on collision! But this was a slower road, so there was time for the poor oncoming guy to hit the grass and avoid being hit. This road had long dips in it, so you will see that the white car did not take enough time to look ahead and see that the dips were clear. She takes a quick look, and hits the gas. I said “Four wheeler up.” and Eddie shot back ” He’s gonna get a big surprise in about 15 seconds!!” And right then you will see her hit the brakes when she sees the oncoming car pop out from the dip. Fortunately she just hugs our trailer, and the oncoming guy hits the shoulder/grass in order to pass clearly. Had that been a semi truck, things would have been a lot different!

Eddie sat on his truck horn as she finished passing and pulled in front of him. Please don’t be in too big of a hurry to evaluate your situation! Be safe out there on the roads, and please use common sense!