As I mentioned in my previous blog entry I had some delays in getting my load ready to roll Sunday. That was all finally straightened out and I started to pull out of the yard to start for Oh. That's when the red emergency air line between the tractor and trailer snapped. That sometimes happens when it's really cold.
The really shitty thing about that is that when that line goes the brakes on the trailer lock up and you're stuck. Such was the case and, after all the previous delays, I was suitably pissed. I dropped the trailer and bobtailed the 15 minutes to the truckstop to shell out forty bucks for a new air line. I went ahead and had some breakfast while I was there. I then bobtailed back to the yard to replace the line.
As everything was pretty frozen it was a real bitch trying to break the fittings loose. The gladhand came off the old fittings after a good bit of grunting, straining, and swearing, but the fitting into the headache rack simply refused to budge. I then tried taking the blue service line loose from the headache rack and it came off no problem. I took that fitting apart and fitted it to the one for the red line. I then placed the new red line in place of the blue one. That put them in the wrong positions color code-wise but I really didn't care as long as things worked and I could get rolling at last.
After some hard running I made my OH stop on time (barely) and pulled in as the crane was pulling in so I just followed him in. The street and drive were far too narrow for me to back my rig up to the place where they needed the generator. We discussed our options. There was simply no way for me to do it without running over and tearing up some landscaping. He agreed to be responsible for the damages, I made him sign to that affect on the freight bills, and I then proceeded to tear up some landscaping with my rig.
My second stop, in DE, was a similar situation with narrow streets. This one was easier to solve by simply driving the wrong way on a one way street. Not the best thing to do in a city like Wilmington, DE, and the local cop who came roaring in with lights going seemed a little miffed about it, but it was really the only way to get the rig where it needed to be. Once I got the cop calmed down enough to listen to me he seemed to understand the situation and even agreed to stay there so he could watch traffic while I went back out again going the wrong way on the other one way street. What the hell, if you're going to break the law once, twice is even better right?
I knew the third stop was going to be a bitch as it was in Philly. I would rather take a beating as to go into Philly. The streets are at all sorts of really odd angles and all of them had been built for horse and buggy not big rigs. It was indeed a bitch but I managed to get in there without running over anything. To get back out though, I had to drive several miles the wrong direction as the angle of the street was too sharp and narrow for me to turn the right way to get out. Such is Philly.
The final stop, in VA was the only one where it wasn't snowing like mad the whole time. Once I got down out of Philly I finally got out of the damn snow and was glad of it. That stop was in a large chemical plant and went pretty smoothly. I then had to drive to the other side of VA to pick up a piece of military equipment heading for MI.
This piece is a rather smallish military trailer. It's a portable kitchen unit. Pretty cool actually. It opens up and serves as a full kitchen for the troops. Great idea. I am now sitting in Northern OH near the MI line and will deliver this unit as early tomorrow as possible as I then have to drive to the opposite side of MI (Seems to always work out that way) to pick up a couple of large snow blowers heading for WI.
And of course it's snowing here too. I've been driving in snow pretty much for a week, with just a slight break in VA. I hate snow as it just serves to make my job miserable and more tiring. Where the hell is global warming when you need it?
I really should go on up into MI to be closer to my delivery in Grand Rapids, but MI is one state I simply don't run often enough to know where the best likely parking spots will be when I get up there. I'll sleep here tonight and just get up extra early to run on up there. While I really hate getting up at four in the morning I hate driving around half the night looking for a parking spot even more. Once it gets dark the odds on finding parking start dropping very fast and I do like my sleep.
With any luck I'll have a little down time over the weekend to get some extra rest before going at this madness once again.