I'm outa there.

The bridge is done. This phase of it anyway.

It was on a Thursday that we made the last run. Being it was toward the end of the week....tempers flared. The escorts were whiney and picking at each other like a bunch of Jr. High gurrrrls. When the job was done (fortunately) they scattered like a covey of quail...

They didn't dare pick at Us Truckers. Would YOU pick at someone driving along behind you weighing seventy tons? And he's also in a foul mood?

Nope...the escorts were always very polite to the truckers. That doesn't mean the truckers were polite to THEM.... or to each other.

As stated before. You could almost tell what day it was by how irritable everyone was...working nite shift...and not getting sufficient sleep...makes one irritable...Well this was Thursday.

We done.

Me and George picked up the last two empty trailers and hauled them back to the lay down yard in New Jersey. It turns out there was a new Mandate while I was gone.



It seems that not all the truckers viewed this new mandate with the respect that it thought it deserved.It seems that the people who lived in the houses along about a four block stretch of road we were driving past........? They didn't want us driving past them any more.

Sooooooooo...now we gotta drive past a four MILE stretch of houses instead. Instead of a straight shot on a wide street (with house on each side) we now have a twisty, narrow, hilly stretch of residential street which is frequented by school busses.

One stretch is sooooo narrow that the lamp post loads extend BEYOND the posts and signs on BOTH sides of the street. To negotiate this stretch one must use the "snake" technique of driving. (weaving from side to side) ...forget meeting oncoming...no place to pull over (no shoulders).....

OH.....WELL.

I don't care. I'm outa there. The "powers that be" wouldn't appreciate me telling them anyway....they'll learn....next year.




"Stuff" had to be done to our trailers. The highly sagacious dispatchers in Pa told us so. I verified on Wednesday...then again just prior to "launch".

Yup....it's true...(they said) .get such and such empty trailer and take it to the lay down yard in Jersey. Things have to be done to it then take it on to Houston. There will be folks there to take care of it.

Except no one showed to do said "stuff"

"Stuff" included torching the welds loose that held the rocker arms to the trailer deck...as well as the dunnage on the rear deck.

Note: one who shall not be name...yet who was told repeatedly (a trucker) to "secure" his dunnage while running empty....never did.

"oh...it'll be ok" he said (he must have been listening to dispatch too much)

Well...he dropped an eight by eight....on the freeway....during rush hour.

Dunno what happened...but angle iron was thenseforth welded to the rear "bolsters" of the trailers...and the eight by's were lag bolted to them.

Those needed to be torched also.

"Stuff" also included lifting the trailer (with a crane) such that the "shims" could be removed. And removing the rearmost axle and placeing it on the trailer deck.

All this is necessary for hauling one of these trailers empty. For one it's too long (58 foot "closed up")...and a ticket magnet . For another the "arc" of the deck would cause excessive tire wear other wise....excessive like in....completely worn out in a thousand miles...

No one showed until four thirty....pm.

And then he did a poor job....(burnt thru an airline on my trailer) Didn't get the shims removed and the rear axel decked till this morning.....late.

And they would let me sleep last night....got woke up eleventy seven different times for NOTHING.

To make a looooong and disgusting story short....I got outa there at noon today....a day and a half after we brought the empties in.

I don't care. I'm outa there....for sure for, sure this time.....

If I never see the north east again.....


Well.....never say never...but if and and when It better pay well....VEEEEEERY well..

Much much better than I got paid this time...and I got paid pretttttty good this time....pretty good indeed.

I'm in Virginny now. Heading to Texas.