The Week that was...

It's been a week since I last posted. I guess I better catch up.

Last Saturday I left the yard south of Atlanta and drove up to Calhoun Georgia which is North of Atlanta a little bit. The ride went fairly well, for Atlanta. I only got into about three traffic jams and one or two "backups". .. of course traffic was "light" seeing as how it was a weekend.




When I got to the truckstop I was planning on spending the weekend at I was greeted by this:



If they didn't have a drive way they wouldn't have any place to park.

and this:
Couldn't seem to get his big ole 53 footer inside the lines.



You gotta love em don't you? There musta been two hundred empty spaces to park in and look what they do? If I couldn't park better than that I'd start riding a motorcycle. Bunch of inconsiderate ,incompetent, nitwits if you ask me. (mumble, mumble, grumble.)

Oh. Well.

I spent the rest of the day and all of Sunday butchering wood.

While I was at the yard I'd scrounged just about every piece of loose lumber and stray timber I could find. I'd even snatched pieces of plywood. I was on a mission. Next load was a "superload" and I need dunnage to support it.

Not just any dunnage either. It had to be "just right"....right size, right shape.

This trailer is what's called a "dropside".....meaning that the center two main beams are much stouter, and bigger, than the two outer beams. The height of the two outer beams off the ground is about 9inches lower than the center beams.

9 inches is a LOT when it comes to squeezing an excavator or loader under a bridge.A dropside is intended to transported heavy equipment. Stuff with wheels or tracks. The loaded machine sits astraddle the main beam. Real convenient that way.

NOT so convenient when the piece to be loaded is flat bottomed. Like a Crate. Like the crate I'm gonna pick up in Savannah Wednsday. So. Steps must be takend. Steps like. Butchering wood.

Which is what I did. I took eight by eights...eight by twelves....Rail Road ties essentially.....and cut-em-up.

With an 18 in hand saw.


********************

Monday morning I'm at the plant loading.


I felt kind of embarassed. That's a MUCH too little of an escavator to go on my rig. Overkill....like three axles too many?

But it's a load. So I grab it and toodle on toward Jacksonville.....stopping at the Yard on the way.

I needed some more lumber....and some "things" done to the trailer. I had a list. I got some lumber and some of the "things" done and toodled on.


I arrived at the Port in Jacksonville first thing Tuesday morning.

Now I've got a "thing" about Ports. For one thing they're intrinsicly kindaneat. There's all kinds of neat "stuff" at ports. The ships are awesome and theyre usually pretty interesting cargo. Seagulls even.

Ever feed seagulls? Bad idea.

The dark-side is that most of em are in the heart of cities....BIG cities. And they're usually busy.

Stirred up ant-bed busy...bee-hive busy.....frentic and frantic come to mind.....and for reasons I'll never fathom they don't seem to be set up for "big stuff".

The port I went to in Jacksonville was no exception. It was SO poorly set up for over-sized that I had to go "in" the "out" . Truth. That's the way they do it. I had to cross over about six oncoming lanes of traffic to the fartherest most left side...then do the paperwork..here's-youre-badge-do-you-know-where-youre-going thing and then...also "security-check " (ha) then cross BACK over to the right lane.

Which I did.


Port's can be dangerous places. Especially if it's raining, which it was.

double clic to enlarge

That's gonna leave a mark.


Go thru THERE?
Yup....and there she be. One itty-bitty excavator on the dock ready to go to South America.



This guy had some problems. They loaded a truck on a stepdeck. Bad idea.

double click to enlarge


It was too tall. So he let the air out of the tires.....and broke the bead.

Now it won't drive off. So they got's to lift it off.


Shoulda put it on a dropside. Heh.