A bunch of useless crap
Published on February 12, 2010 By MasonM In Blogging

I hauled a military vehicle out to a demonstration show in Nevada last week. The trip went pretty well on the way out except for the fact that my truck was losing more than two gallons of coolant a day.

Another of our drivers was heading the same place as myself and called to meet up with me as he had no idea where the place was. It's a good thing he called me as he would have had a hard time finding it as the city name on the paperwork was wrong, it isn't in fact in any city at all, and getting there involves taking about 25 miles of secondary road followed by six miles of the roughest dirt road anyone has ever seen.

I meet up with him out in NV and guided him in to the place.

After unloading we went to Reno to spend the evening hanging out in a casino enjoying a good meal, a few adult libations, and some conversation. We also took turns flirting with the cute bartender.

The following day we headed up to Herlong, CA, to a prison, to pick up a couple of military MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected) vehicles. We were a bit puzzled as to why these trucks would be at a prison. When we got there we discovered they are building them there as job training for the convicts and selling them to the military to help fund the prison.

We had to haul them to a base in Indiana just a little south of Indy. On the way we ran into freezing fog, ice, and snow. It was a miserable trip made more so by the fact that the heat in my truck decided to take a vacation. But at least the coolant leak mysteriously stopped.

I made the trip driving in my insulated coveralls with a heavy blanket wrapped around my legs. It was a bit of a chilly ride.

By the time I reached Indiana I was feeling pretty ill. I had come down with some damn bug or other and it was doing a fantastic job of sapping all of my energy.

After making delivery dispatch only had a single load lined up. It was offered to me but I declined and told them to give it to the other driver as I was going to get some rest and try to feel better. I slept for 18 hours straight.

I am still a little under the weather but am a bit better than I was that day. Another couple of days and I should be over it completely. I hope.

I am now back at the yard with my truck in the shop. While waiting for them to make the needed repairs (new heater core among other things) I have been downloading ebooks from the web. I have really been getting good use out of the ebook reader.

It's great to be able to carry a library around in your pocket. I now have more than 200 books loaded into the thing. That should provide me enough reading material to last me a little while.

At this point I have no idea where I am next heading. I know we have several military trucks heading for Lexington, KY and I kind of hope to get one of those as they can't deliver until Tuesday and that would allow me some more rest time.


Comments
on Feb 12, 2010

Of course I hope you are feeling better and hope that heater gets fixed before you freeze again.  It was good you got OOT to further west.  I think you needed a break.  This winter has really sucked for truckers.  Stay safe out there.

 

j

on Feb 13, 2010

notronaj
Of course I hope you are feeling better and hope that heater gets fixed before you freeze again.  It was good you got OOT to further west.  I think you needed a break.  This winter has really sucked for truckers.  Stay safe out there.

 

j

 

Thanks. Sleep, quite a lot of it, seems to be helping. I haven't slept this much in years. Am in a hotel tonight and planning on sleeping a good deal more before heading out sometime tomorrow. I have plenty of time to reach my first stop in Alabama and plan to spend a lot of it sleeping some more.

on Feb 13, 2010

Liked your post. Hope you feel better.