June 21-25, 2021

I’m sorry it has been so long since I published this next blog. Especially since I left you hanging with the last one!

But these summer days provide a lot of daylight, so we maximize our time, and as they say we “make hey while the sun is shining!” As a result, it has been a struggle to finish the day, have supper, and get 6-7 hours of sleep, so I have been reluctant to spend an hour each day adding to my blog.

So where I left you was that our trailer well was too short for the load because the saddles were at the very ends of the vessel.

When hauling Oversize SuperLoads, it is imperative that you have resources. Lots of them. Big ones!

It just so happens that the trucking company just custom made a 6 foot extension section for these trailers in their fabrication shop. And, it just so happens that one of their standard flatbed semis was about to leave the yard empty to go to Kansas City and load some pipe. So they loaded the 6 foot section onto his truck, along with wire extensions, and pins, and he was on his way within an hour to get it to us. He is a legal load, so needs no permits or special route. But still, it will take him 10 hours to get here.

We backed the truck out of their building so they could carry on their regular day. While we waited, we planned the process out, and put the route into our GPS systems. After lunch, we were able to drive the truck back in, and use their overhead crane to take the trailer apart into two halves, and disconnect the wires and cables.

Once we got to that point, their crew left, and we took a 2 hour nap. Our driver arrived at 7 PM, and we were ready! Several of their employees came back, and went right to work unloading the truck. Look at those cute little (but very heavy) rail sections!! LOL

Construction began

After the sections were installed to the back half, as you see here, we could back the truck up and attach it to the front half. We then attached the wire extensions, and found that the electrical cord they sent had a male end on both sides, so would not connect up. We set that aside for later.

Everyone pitched in to help us load the piece,

and their crew all left at about 10 PM. That left my driver and I to finish up all the details. You can see in this next picture below that the white saddle which carries all the weight of the tank on the rear end is now sitting on a nonslip rubber pad across three beams, and also catching that beam on the left. A vast improvement!

One of the last things we did was to work together to pull apart the electrical plugs and connect the wires one by one. I was thankful that I spent all that time as a teenager wiring our different boat trailers and utility trailers to our cars, and for friends.

We finished just after 1AM, and my driver decided to sleep right there inside in his truck, so I decided to drive my van to the local truck stop to sleep. That way, I could bring him back some coffee and a breakfast sandwich in a few hours before we leave.

I was in my own bed by 1:30 and set my alarm for 4, so we could be ready to leave at daybreak and meet our MO troopers at the new schedule of 10 AM at the Missouri line.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Everything went well. We met our HP car just after 5 at the site, and I steered the trailer out of the building, around the objects in their yard, and out onto the street. I also needed to steer us around the first left turn, and we were on our way!

It is amazing that with our major problem of a trailer being too short, we solved that, and still met our troopers on time! (But that is how I have lived most of my life. Skip sleep to catch up!)

Once the troopers did their inspection, we were ready to head out. EXCEPT that the day before we left the yard, our dispatcher had showed me a couple of turns just 5 miles ahead on Google Earth that looked very tight, so my driver and I left together in my van to go check that area out.

Wooeee! Not only are the two turns going to be tight, but there is a steep drop-off on both sides. We need to grab every inch we can. If we don’t grab enough, we won’t make the turn. If we grab too much, we could slide into the ditch, and that would be a disaster of major proportions! In addition, between those turns there is RR crossing with a huge hump, followed by a very tight S curve. I will need to steer all that, and raise the towers on both ends for the RR crossing. But will it be enough? If I can not raise high enough, we risk getting stuck on the tracks, and I will be walking behind steering as we cross. I agreed to try it, but asked the dispatcher to call the RR and find out when trains are due, so we can cross at least 30 minutes before the next train.

We went back to the truck, and started off on our adventure! I love this stuff!

Our HP guy and our driver were able to pull out the stop sign on the first corner, making that much easier. When we got to the RR tracks, we had to wait there an hour to let 2 trains pass, so we would have a 30 minute window to cross. While we waited, I raised both towers to their max, and we put blocks in the towers to increase stability.  I steered us across the tracks with just over 1″ of clearance, (Whew!) and directly into the S curve. It was extremely tight, but I made it through without any issues!

The hump may not look very high to you – and it isn’t for a car. But with 4″ clearance on the bottom rail, which is 63′ long, it is absolutely huge! Notice the tire marks that were made after I steered us on the hot tar road. This one is in real time after I walked back and brought my van up to the truck so we could proceed on.

Then a mile down the road we made that final right turn of this obstacle course. My driver put his front tires right on the edge of the ditch, and I put my rear trailer tires on the edge of my ditch, and . . . . . we made it in one shot! Woohoo! It’s the same feeling for me as beating my best time in a 5 mile college cross country race! Fist pump in the air!!

The troopers were amazed that the state sent us on that route, and even more amazed when they watched us complete the obstacle course successfully! They parked us at a weigh station, where we will meet replacement troopers in the morning.

These are the toughest days! Extreme heat (90’s plus!) and long enough so that once we park, finish post trip checks, unhook, take flags and signs down, find supper, find a room, and move in, we set our alarm and notice it will be ringing in less than 7 hours so we can do it all again tomorrow! That means we spend $11-12/hour to sleep!!! LOL

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

We met our troopers at 6, and were on our way once again, thinking today should be easy compared to yesterday!

Our troopers dropped off at the Tennessee line, and soon we were driving the 840 bypass around Nashville. There is a lot of bridge construction there. We are 15′ wide, and the signs say that is the maximum width to get though. Well, just barely. We actually stopped and had our HP guy get out and measure the width between the concrete barriers. It’s 16′ feet, so we have 6″ on each side. That sounds like a lot, but would you like to drive your car at 55 mph through barriers with 6″ on each side? Even at 20, you better stay steady!

We drove through the first two at 10 mph as I called out to him the clearances on each side every 10 seconds. Bit the third one had a corner in it! Now, THAT’S a horse of a different color! So we pulled off between the cones and stopped.. Do you see the curve ahead in it?

My driver and I walked down to the site, which gives you a better view.

We measured the space between passing traffic, and it was 16 feet. If we raise the front and back 6″ we will gain a few inches in width because of the taper in the barrier. And, I will have to steer the back end as I walk behind. Once again, we don’t know if we can do it until we try, and I get only one try, because if I get us stuck, backing out will be extremely difficult!

So we called for a Trooper to help us. Once he arrived, we explained our situation, and I asked him to hold traffic far enough back so that if we can not make it, I have room to back us out and off out of the travel lane. I also asked the HP guy to walk with me. I will be on the driver side, steering the rear tires around the corner about 3″ from the barrier. I can not take my eyes off that for a second, so I need him to walk the passenger side and call out my clearance to that right barrier every 10 seconds. I want to stop BEFORE we get wedged in!!

Well, we made it while our trooper held the traffic back until we pulled off the road on the other side. Woohoo! And a fist pump with the HP guy!

We parked on the side of the road at about 6 PM.

I brought my driver to a restaurant for supper, and checked into my room at about 8. I set my alarm for 3:30 so we can leave the hotel at 4:30 and be at the truck before 5 AM. This will be one of my longer nights with this driver.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Compared to those last two days, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We left our parking spot at 5;30, and were on our way as the sun came up.

We arrived near Tallahassee Florida on Friday at about 2 PM. Exhausted, but ready to unload. Right on schedule. We parked on the road out front until we knew where they wanted us.

What we have is a wood chip dryer tube that tumbles wood chips just like a clothes dryer, before they are pressed together to make OSB boards for construction. Georgia-Pacific did not want to unload ours until the current one of four tubes was removed. Our hope was to have that done in an hour or so, and get unload this afternoon in time to leave and get to our first possible parking spot, which is the weigh station just over the Georgia border.

We are scheduled to load Monday morning up in Illinois, so if we can’t leave until morning, that will be pushing it because we have several hours of work we need to do on the trailer Sunday afternoon that requires a crane, in order to be ready to load Monday morning.

We met with the contractor, and he said that knowing we were just a few miles away, they already started the removal process, so things were looking good!

Once they slide that old tube out, they will set up the cranes outside, lift it and set it in the grass, pull us under, and unload us. Then we can shrink and hit the road!

So we parked beside a huge crane that lifts the logs and stuffs them in the shredder.

It was hot. HOT! After all, this is Florida! I had no choice but to keep my van running in order to survive. My generator still has that oil leak, so I don’t want to use it right now, and besides, they are going to call us any minute to have us drive over to get unloaded. The hours dragged by, and we went to look several times, and couldn’t see much progress at all. Then at almost 5 PM we drove over in my van. The old tube had moved about 10″.

TEN INCHES! The foreman said, “This the hard part. The engineers designed this building so that these dryer tubes can be replaced. We just can’t seem to figure out how they planned for us to do that. But don’t worry, once we get it out the door, it will move quickly!  We will work all through the night on it if we have to, and will be ready to unload you first thing in the morning.”

Hotels with reasonable rates were 35 miles away, so off we went in my van, stopped for supper, and checked in just after 8 PM. I set my alarm for 3:30 so we can leave at 4:30, be on site by 5:15, and ready to pull under the crane before 6. We need to unload as early as possible so we can hustle to Illinois because we need to take those 6 foot sections out Sunday afternoon so we can still load on schedule Monday morning.

To be continued. . . . . . .