After delivering my load to the Air National Guard base in Bangor, ME I went to the truck stop for a hot meal. I wound up staying there until the following day as no load was to be found.

The following day, around 1:00PM, dispatch calls me and says I am to dead-head (run empty) down to Fleetwood, PA to pick up some industrial presses going to MI. As soon as I heard presses I knew what was next. Yep, they want them tarped. Ugh.

She also said she wanted me there “first thing” in the morning. Ummm, the day is half over and it’s 600 miles to there. Not going to happen. I told her I would be there at some point the following day, but “first thing” wasn’t going to happen. She knew better than to debate with me about it because I would just do what I wanted anyway (hey, that’s just me).

When I finally got there I found that I was picking these things up in what was basically a junkyard. They were sitting outside in the rain and had been for some time. No way in hell I was going to go through the effort of tarping these things. I made a call.

I informed dispatch that the machines had been sitting out in the weather for some time so whatever water damage could be done had been done so there was no point in tarping them. She said she would make a call and then call me back.

By the time I had them loaded on the trailer and chained down she called me back to tell me I didn’t need to tarp them, and asked me to take photographs to document their condition “just in case”. I had already done that.

Oh yeah, when I had first pulled in to the place my truck had started issuing warnings that something was wrong with the engine. Oh great. Upon investigation I found that the upper radiator hose had a nice big split in it and I had lost a lot of coolant. Wonderful. I was out in the middle of the sticks with a busted hose. That had the potential for some not-fun.

Anyway, I got the things secured to the trailer and went inside for the paperwork. This was a very strange scene. The owners of the place were Mennonites and so wore the traditional Amish style clothes, haircuts, and beards. It was really strange seeing people who look like they do using cell phones and laptop computers. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing at the sight.

Once I had my paperwork I grabbed a couple of jugs from the side box of my truck and asked one of the guys where I could fill them with water so I could get my truck running again. Believe it or not the only water supply they had there was a big barrel they used to catch rain water. No running water at all. Unreal.

I filled the jugs with rain water and then poured that into my coolant reservoir, imagining all of the contaminants in that water and the damage it could do to the cooling system of the truck. Ah well, in a pinch you do what you have to do.

I called the shop and filled them in on the problem, and asked them to find a repair shop within a reasonable distance from me. I got lucky and there was an engine shop 6.5 miles away. I was amazed by that as I was, as mentioned, in the middle of the sticks.

I made it to the shop no problem, but the truck started going into full warning shut down mode again just as I pulled in. I was done.

Naturally, Western Star couldn’t use a standard hose, but rather a custom bent job that the shop didn’t have. They had to send the parts runner 60 miles away to get one. A simple hose replacement wound up taking all afternoon.

By the time I got out of the shop it was getting late. I drove about an hour and a half to Carlisle, PA and parked for the night. The just happens to be a tavern across the street from the truck stop there and I just happened to accidentally walk in there. What the heck, I was there anyway so I may as well have a beer, right?

I enjoyed a few adult beverages along with some very enjoyable pipes of Irish Aromatic tobacco. The circulation of the place carried the smell of my tobacco all over the bar and almost everyone commented on how good it smelled.  Only one person complained about the smell, a non-smoker, and pretty much everyone around him told him to shut up or leave.  As he was a young driver he took their advice and shut up. Truckers can be pretty blunt with whiners.

I delivered the machines in MI yesterday (Thursday). They had known all along that the machines, purchased on eBay, had been stored outdoors. They weren’t at all upset about their condition. They got them for a good price and had already ordered new control circuits for them. Cool.

I then went down to Battle Creek, MI and picked up a couple of Hum Vs from a Marine Corps Reserve base and am hauling them up to Green Bay, WI. I am holed up in a motel in WI tonight and will make my way up to Green Bay tomorrow.

On my way through IN today I stopped at a roadside discount tobacco shop hoping they would have some Carter Hall pipe tobacco. It’s an inexpensive “over the counter” pipe tobacco that I really like. I was running low on it and was looking to re-stock. I got lucky and they had some so I picked up 6 ounces (4 packages).

I’ve been getting rained on almost every day for the past few weeks and am sick to death of it. Enough with the rain already!

On a bright note, I did pick up a new pipe and some new (to me) tobacco in a shop in Kenosha. I wrote about it here.