I am in North Bend, Washington. There is a little log building tavern called the Mt Si Tavern about a half mile down the frontage road from the truck stop here, and I have been visiting it for a number of years now. Over time I have come to know some of the regulars there, as well as the employees. It is one of my favorite taverns in the U.S. I was really happy to see an old fellow called "Smoky", who has been fighting lung cancer for the past couple of years, shooting pool when I walked d...

I am currently hauling a farm tractor and military trailer to Washington state. It's a wide wide due to the tractor axles. The tractor is going to a port where it will then take a slow boat to China. I'll be delivering the trailer to Ft Lewis. I got started late Friday afternoon and made my way across Wisconsin to get close to the Minnesota line. Everything went well on Saturday until I was about 10 miles from Fargo, North Dakota when a trailer tire decided that it was tired of going ...

Wednesday afternoon I loaded five large crates in Milwaukee; oversized load. The crates contain some of the parts for a large mining shovel going to Lima, Peru. Altogether it will take over 500 crates to move the entire thing. That's a lot of loads, folks. As my oversize permits hadn't yet arrived when I reached Beloit, WI which is on the WI/IL line I spent the night there. I got a cheap room and had dinner in the bar. After dinner I was trying to relax with a pipe and a beer out o...

I am staying in a Motel 6 for the weekend. A few minutes ago I walked up to the lobby to fill my ice bucket so I could ice down my beer. Now, I must paint a mental picture of myself this day. I was wearing plaid shorts (picture very white, hairy legs...sorry about that), a black tank top, sunglasses, and a wide brim straw hat. I also had a bent Viking Classic pipe hanging from my kisser. Ok, get the picture? Not exactly well dressed. Beyond casual. A Hispanic lady also staying her...

I am hanging out in a motel in Kentucky. I had planned on delivering my load here on Thursday afternoon but just outside of Nashville the clutch went out in my truck and I had to put it in a garage. While it was there they discovered that the rear main seal was leaking, and there was also a bad u-joint. Almost $4,000 worth of repairs later I was able to get back on the road yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Glad I didn't have to pay for those repairs. I got up here around 4:00 yesterday ...

A week or so ago I picked up some equipment from an auction yard in MI. It was a couple of dozers and a pair of forks for a loader. Picking up the forks, even with a forklift, was difficult. I had to pitch in and lend some manual effort to balancing them to get them on the trailer. During the process the guy running the forklift hit a pothole and I found myself trying to hold up this 1,000 lbs set of forks. My back has been hurting like hell ever since the day after. Typical sciatica. Lowe...

Wow, I have been really busy. And really wet. It seems like everywhere I have been lately it has been raining. At least everywhere I have had to get out and secure a load. I am damn sick of getting rained upon. I picked up a load, a couple of really big crates, in the rain, in Omaha on Friday that were going to Milwaukee. I dropped them, at the yard in Wisconsin, in the rain, on Sunday. I then secured a new model of snow removal truck, in the rain, and hauled it down to Indiana. I unloaded...

As I sit here in my comfortable motel room, syncing my iPad and iPod, I can't help but think about the people in Joplin. Monday morning I delivered a couple of excavators in Joplin, MO. They will be used to help in the clean up of the aftermath of the tornado that recently hit there. My route to the delivery point took me through the middle of the area that was destroyed by the tornado. I have seen areas hit by tornadoes before, and had seen television images of the recent destruction ...

I am currently hanging out in Denver, CO. Yesterday (Monday) morning I delivered a new model of snow removal truck to the airport here for a demonstration. I will be picking up again this afternoon to haul it back to the factory. It has been nice and warm here, the locals complaining about it being too hot with temps in the upper 80s. Feels just about right to me. Lately I have been getting tired of eating in truck stops, and eating in my truck has been limited to what I could do with just...

Last weekend I hauled a military truck out to a movie studio vehicle special effects lot in California. It was an over weight load and of course I had to have permits to haul it out there. That is usually not a big deal, but due to the weight it had to be loaded on a 50 foot trailer as it would have been impossible to get the axle weights right on a 48 foot trailer. That is also usually not a big deal, but in CA they have a shorter bridge law measurement than other states. Bridge law refers t...

Well, yesterday was one of those days. I am hauling a fire truck out to Fort Sill, OK. I was making pretty good time and was on schedule to get through St Louis well before the afternoon rush hour curfew on over sized loads. Well, that was until I suddenly heard a very loud, high pitched whine coming from my engine. I had an idea of what it was and knew it couldn't be a good thing so I backed off my speed and limped down to the next truck stop which was, luckily, only a few miles away. ...

It has been a tough couple of weeks. Work has been busy and I have been running my ass off. That's a good thing for my wallet, but very tiring. I wrote in an earlier article about someone hitting my truck in a truck stop. Well, less than two weeks later it happened again. This time the scumbag took off, leaving my front bumper sticking out two feet on the passenger side. Geez! Well, yesterday I spent all day moving out of that truck and into a newer one. I really hate changing trucks, it i...

Tonight finds me in Lebanon, IN. After a trying day of last minute covering for someone who called in hungover/sick/dead/whatever and scrambling down to Indiana to pick up a load going to Florida I was finally able to stop here, get a much needed bite to eat, and relax for a bit. I stopped here to visit Johnny's next to the Flying J truck stop. I have been visiting this place for years. It has changed hands and names a couple of times, and has even been remodeled, but it is still a tr...

I am in Racine, WI, parked for the night. After checking in at the hotel across from the truck stop I went into the restaurant/bar for a grouper sandwich and a cold beer. The sandwich was excellent, and the beer was as well. I stepped outside on the patio for an after meal smoke. I was about half way through my smoke when a truck driver called out to me and said that someone had hit my truck. Ack! I rushed across the street, totally forgetting the iPad sitting on the bar. Su...

Arthritis sucks. Plain and simple. I suppose it is just a part of getting older. At this point I have it in my shoulder joints, elbows, hands, knees, hips, and ankles. Such is aging I guess. What are you going to do? It is what it is.  Take Advil and deal with it I guess. Ah well, I guess it could be worse (and probably will be).