March 18 – 22, 2021

Thursday, March 18, 2021

I took a shower before everyone arrived for work in the office, because the shower is in the Men’s Room right beside the office. I met my driver at 8 AM, and we planned our morning. We needed to add 2 cross member rails to the trailer before we can leave to load tomorrow.

After a brief tour of the yard, we found 2 that would work. While we spread the trailer and moved two other cross rails to make room, the yard guy brought us the two cross members.

After dropping them off, he went on to other things. I ran the fork lift, and my driver guided the rails into place.

We did that at both ends, bolted them into place, shrunk the trailer back, squared it up, and got it ready for travel. We left the yard at about 12:30.

We drove the 330 miles to our load site, stopping once for fuel,

and parked on the street out in front. I had to steer him back to get fully off the road. Then we stretched the trailer out in the dark, with several truck drivers watching in amazement at how it all works. I pulled my van in behind the trailer, set out some cones to keep traffic away, made supper, and went to sleep right there at about 10:30.

Friday, March 19, 2021

I got up, made breakfast, and my driver was knocking on my door just after 7. They are ready to load us. But the pony motor would not start! We troible-shot and tried everything we could and decided it had to be the starter. Every driver carries a replacement starter for this very reason. Without that pony motor, we can not lift for RR crossings, steer tight corners, or lift to get over curbs. So we could easily get stuck in the middle of the road or on a.corner somewhere! So we replaced the starter, and it started right up!!

The plan was to drive straight in, load, and back out. Sounds simple, but they had pallets stuff everywhere ready ro load on trucks, flatbed trucks waiting to load, a short curved driveway,  and the inside was full of generators! In was going to be a tight steer. In fact, when we started into the garage door. We would still be making a turn with inches to spare! But. . . . we did it flawlessly! So rewarding!

You can see how close we were by these pictures I took after we loaded.

It was still just late morning, so we backed back out of the garage door while steering toward the passenger side, and drove out onto the street. There we made our final measurements and adjustments for height., and were on our way just after noon.

We made it 196 miles to Belmont WI by curfew, and parked in the truck lot, taking up several spaces.

You can really see how much longer we are that those other semi trucks!

There was a nice grassy spot up near the building, so I launched from there, and after I took these shots, I just flew figure 8s for a while ro get better at control.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

We were supposed to leave at 7, and have a relatively short day, but our HP guy notified my driver at 6:15 that he was tied to the bathroom, and would be running a little late. He wanted to get it all out of his system so we would not have to have emergency stops. Well, it worked. Although we didn’t  pull out until after 8 as a result, he improved as the day went by, and we were able to drive the 322 miles non stop to our destination.  We chose this truck stop in Avoca IA for several reasons.

•  It is the next to last possible place to park along our route to the site.
• We can not gain access to the site until Monday
• The only other place is a rest area ahead
• But this place has facilities for the driver like showers and a restaurant and bathroom

Our plan is to leave Monday at 8 so we don’t reach Omaha until after curfew lifts at 9. That would put us on site at about 10. If the crane crew starts at 7, they should be ready for us by then, and hopefully we can unload, shrink up, and start heading back at least to get through Omaha curfew area so we can start in again Tuesday at sunrise instead of 9.

So that leaves me off all day tomorrow, and I LOVE Sundays off!

Sunday, March 21,2021

I was up before 6, got my shower in, and got breakfast ready. I left at 7:15, and deove an hour to Grace Life Church in Omaha, where I met up with my cousin Ken and his wife Ellen. I went with them to corporate prayer at 8:30, the regular church at 9:30 (excellent teaching on the book of Joshua) and a class on the book of Jude at 11. I love church! And I greatly miss not going every single week. I have always looked forward to church as far back as I can remember! At least since High School anyway.

Ken had things he had to do, but I agreed to go with Ellen to meet their son and daughter at the movie theater and watch a movie about a woman who lives in her van. Both of their children have lived in a van before, and of course I do now.

I had never met their daughter, and she is currently designing her next van renovation, so took great interest in my setup. It was fun to give the full tour of my van to a van-living enthusiast like that!

When I got back to the truck stop, I did my laundry. You know, whenever I do laundry at a laundromat, I once again am thankful for my van. How cool it is to walk right out and put my clothes away rather than carry them all home, lug them in, and deal with all the laundy again!

I made supper and as I was eating, the HP guy stopped by to talk with me. He was bored at the hotel, so we talked for several hours. I prayed for him, and he left for the hotel.

Monday,  March 22, 2021

After a nice night in my van,

a great shower, and breakfast, we left that morning at sun rise, and made it to the delivery site in Omaha by 10 AM. They were ready for us within an hour of our arrival.

Seeing the dark clouds I threw on my rain coat. I had to steer the trailer about 1/2 a mile in and around all the vehicles, loaders, and down a narrow dirt road with a tight S curve it, before getting it straight under the crane.  As they unloaded the piece, it began to drizzle, and we were hoping to get out of the site before it began to rain and turn to mud. Well, we didn’t make it!

They had trouble getting it off, which took almost an hour. We backed out from under the crane, and shrank the trailer right there, which took another 40 minutes. So by the time I steered him backwards out of the S curve dirt road, it was raining steadily.

The dirt immediately turned to sticky mud, which stuck to the bottoms of my boots – about 2″ thick. It was like walking on hard tennis balls as I walked backwards steering the trailer. I was afraid that if I fell down I would get coated in mud! I backed him around the last corner, and very carefully climbed up onto the trailer frame to pin it in auto-steer. It was now pouring rain.

I then walked the 1/4 mile back to my van, changed from those boots to my dry shoes, and got into some dry pants. I had to lay my boots with 2″ of mud on them on a paper towel inside my rear door. Yuk!

Then my driver pulled forward, but immediately got stuck in the mud. The 13 axles with 50 tires were just too much resistance in the 3″ of mud for the tractor to pull. So they sent over a road grader, who hooked to the front of the truck with a chain, and pulled him to the gate. We were so happy to be out of there!!

After about 200 highway miles, I suddenly felt sick when I realized that I did not have the trailer steering remote control with me! As I thought it through, I remember laying the remote on the trailer frame when I pinned it in auto-steer because it did not have a lanyard attached to it, my pockets were covered by my rain coat, and in the pouring rain, while trying not to slip off the trailer in my muddy boots, I was in a bit of a hurry!

That was now a major problem! So my driver called in to the shop and yes, they had a replacement remote in stock, and yes, they could send it to our load site near Madison WI tomorrow with the truck that will meet us there to carry the enclosure for the generator we are going to load. Whew!

After 269 miles, we parked the truck in a rest area near Cedar Rapids, and I slept there in my van. I wonder what a remote costs. . . well, I will call and find out, so I can deduct it from my next invoice.

What an adventure!