July 5-7, 2021

Monday, July 5, 2021

We were up early, so we could get rolling before 5 AM. Our goal was to get out of KY before dawn, since night travel is allowed here. Then, we wanted to get through the Illinois weigh station after curfew lifted, but before they opened for the day. We are permitted for an empty trailer, which we are, but we are carrying the empty saddles we used to hold the round distillery in place.  It is at the discretion of the officers on duty as to weather that means we are no longer an empty trailer. Best case: no issue. Worst case: fines, penalties, voided permit, and whatever else they can come up with. Basically, if the officer in charge today had a bad weekend, we will have a bad week!

Annalou and I parted, and don’t know when we will see each other again, as usual. This picture was taken yesterday.

Eddie and I drove back to the KY weigh station where the truck was parked, and got there at about 4:15. We had everything ready to roll by 4:35 when our first Pilot Car arrived. We need a front car, but also a 3rd car to finish KY, and also for all of IL. She called the person her broker scheduled as 3rd car for today to get an ETA, but got no answer. She called her broker, and also got no answer. She had an app on her phone that shows where all the cars are in her group, and said our other car was parked and not moving, and was over 4 hours away. That is a disaster! We can not go anywhere, and where do you find a Pilot Car to arrive in 10 minutes at 4:30 AM? Our next two loads are at stake now, because our next two weeks are already scheduled.

So we did what we had to do. We drove with just the two cars the 30 miles or so out of KY, while phone lines burned up calling for a Pilot Car.  Annalou came out of the hotel room and shot this picture as we drove by on the highway.

She got ready right away, and left early for Arkansas.

Just over the KY the line, and before IL the weigh station, we pulled into a truck stop and parked.  There is no way we would ever risk running all day without the 3rd car, especially through the weigh station! That is a sure way to get the book thrown at you!! Eddie and I went next door to the Waffle House and had breakfast while things got sorted out. I went mainly to calm him down. He was distraught, and was in a bad nightmare for sure! He actually chuckled and said I had accomplished my mission, so bought my breakfast. LOL

A local Pilot Car met us there at the truck stop at 8, and we were on our way. The broker for the no show car had a friend who knew a guy in Metropolis, where we were. (Yes, that is the home town of Clark Kent/Superman!) This guy got rear ended last week, but was good enough to postpone his appointment to drop his car off at the body shop today, so he could help us out with plastic taped on his rear door glass!

However, we were extremely concerned about what would happen at the weigh station. Guess What?! It was extremely odd, but that busy weigh station was closed. Closed! That local guy, our 3rd car, said he can not remember when this station was ever closed on a week day like that! We were extremely relieved!

I had forgotten how pretty IL can be. I think of it as huge towns like Chicago, but there are some really pretty farm lands, and some nice countryside, too!

Annalou was at her brother Harold’s house mid afternoon, and we stopped in Payette IL for the night after 582 miles.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Once again, we were up early and left as the sunrise curfew lifted. We drove a pretty easy day, since we were empty.

And, we arrived at the yard in Becker MN just after lunch. We pulled right into the wash bay and washed my van and the truck and trailer.

Again, we got that done in less than three hours with both of us working at it. Oh, look, Eddie saw that nasty black stripe down the side of my van again that was made by that truck’s mirror on my very first run with this new van. Remember that? I needed to grab the left lane, so pulled left, and he refused to move over, and hammered down instead, so I pushed him into the grass median, which allowed my truck to take the left lane and miss the guy changing his tire on the white fog line. But his mirror made that stripe all the way down my van, and broke my mirror. If you zoom in, you can see it under the window in the slider door.

He had some rubbing compound that took it right out! Bingo, just a little rubbing, and it was completely gone!

It only took 56,000 miles to get that done!! LOL

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

My next job doesn’t load until tomorrow, so rather than have a day off, I agreed to be steerman for this one day fit-in wind job. Here is the collapsed trailer that we took for a one hour drive to St Cloud MN to load a wind tower section to take just 150 miles away to Summit SD. We should unload this afternoon, and then it will be a 200 mile deadhead for me back to the yard where I will sleep and be ready in the morning to load. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

We left at about 5:30 so he could get fuel and a breakfast sandwich along the way. We were on site just before 7. Typical crane schedule. “Be there at 7 to load” really means “we will arrive near 7, set up, and be ready to load by 8:30 or 9. But you never know when they might actually be there, ready when they say they will. I think it has happened to me a couple of times in the last 6 years I’ve been doing this, so it DOES happen!

This is a brand new trailer, although it has been sitting in the yard for months since it was purchased. Today is it’s first job, and this very familiar driver has only used one of these trailers a couple of times. I never have. By 7:30 they had fired up the cranes, and went to load another truck before ours, so they showed us where to park, disconnect, and get ready to load. Should take us about 20-30 minutes. Well, we could not get the trailer to come apart. After 20 minutes, and several calls to other drivers for suggestions, I had one.

It’s all about physics and logic. The key pins are stuck, and we can see how. I told my driver, “We need to put blocks here, and raise this end with the tower, and it will free the pins.” “No,” my driver said. “We can not put blocks there.” So I spent the next 2 hours with him trying to figure out another way to do the same thing. The cranes went on to move some other things they planned to do after loading us, but had no more work to do, so said that if we were not ready by then, they were going to leave for the day.

Then the front escort showed up, expecting us too be loaded and ready to pull out.  He is a company guy, though I had not met him. He also looked it over, and we tried a few more things. Then he said “Hey, “We need to put blocks here, and raise this end with the tower, and it will free the pins.” “No,” my driver said. “We can not put blocks there.” But having more experience than me, he shot right back, “Just to free the pins, then we can remove them for that next step.” “Oh,” he said, “Sure, we can do that.” Bingo, the pins came out like ice cream! LOL Timing is everything!

So we separated the trailer, strung the wires and hoses, and were ready just when they finished their other tasks. They set the rear end on the dolly, and the front end on a temporary cradle.

Then he backed up his truck with the front part of the trailer attached to his tractor, and we attached it to that. Once that was done, we removed the temporary cradle, and the cranes pulled away, parked, and the crew left. Meanwhile, we spent the next few hours putting on the chains, padding all 6 straps, and attaching them, running electrical wires, and air hoses back to the dolly, putting the required flags all around the unit, and testing all the systems out. The rear three axles would not go into self steer mode, so we spent another 30 minutes getting that system working, which required the driver to crawl under the dolly and free up some hydraulic levers near the brake drums. And off we went! 

But by then it was 3 PM, so we knew we’d never make it to the site today. We had to stop after just over 100 miles because of curfew, so he parked in a tiny truck stop, which was the only one along our short route.

He was disappointed that I couldn’t finish the trip with him, because we have worked together many times before, and make a good team. But, I have another job to load and leave with tomorrow morning, so the office told him they will find someone to replace me. That is always scary for a driver. As I have said before, everyone says they can steer, but few turn out to be any good, or show signs of having ever done it before. He’d much rather have someone he is comfortable with!

So I had an easy and early trip back to the yard, got there by 9PM, made supper, took a shower, and went to bed just after 10. My alarm is set for 5, so I can be ready to walk across the yard at 6, and get our truck ready to load by 7.