I am off in Fulton, Missouri for the week. The Barnes, who I stay with most the time I am “home” in Missouri, said that I could place my camper next to their home in the county. I did and I now have a permanent place. I also took out the three spark plugs that cause my pickup engine to run rough. I cleaned them and put them back in. I get 75 miles to a quart of oil but there is no smoke coming out my tail pipes and none leaking on the ground.
SECOND 5 YEARS:(Semi-truck turkey hunting-Part 1 of 2)
I was dispatched to Perry, Iowa around January 12th to get a load of pork for a company in Altus, Oklahoma. I had been to this meat processing company before and knew I could get there the night before....so I did. I got pretty of sleep before I was told to back up to the deck and drop my trailer. They take a good six to eight hours to load so I had time to spare. I found out that this community apparently(around 1989) would not let Wal-Mart build within the county, so I went shopping at some unfamiliar stores. Lunch time came and I went to the buffet at The Hut and filled my tank. After shopping I returned to the plant and waited about two more hours for my load of pork. Finally got the load and weighed it at a truck scale in town. I kept the weight ticket as my total weight meat and truck was around 70,000 lbs with my drive tires at 33, 780 lbs(legal limit was 34,000 lbs). Just before leaving Perry, Iowa, I remember having to make a sudden stop as I had someone turn in front of me. This would prove to be what put me into the time slot to have a turkey hit me later...I had had my load of pork slide forward and increase the weight on my drive tires almost 1,500 lbs. I went down Hwy 141 to I-35 south where I continued into Missouri. Not far into Missouri there is a chicken coupe that was open so I got weighed. The coupe officer asked me to bring in all my paperwork, including logbook, for him to look at after I parked my truck. I did and found that my drive tires were 1,500 lbs over weight. I told him what had happened and showed him my scale ticket which showed me legal when I started. We talked about mid Missouri for a few minutes and then he told me to get the weigh legal by sliding my trailer wheels forward(takes weight off of drive wheels) . I got the unit legal and was on my way. It was a beautiful evening. The skies were gray with a snow flurry coming down as I was moving at 70 mph toward Kansas City. I was thinking how really nice the evening was when I saw a huge turkey fly across the interstate far in front of me. It was really beautiful until I saw a second one take off to follow the first. I knew I was going to have company in my cab!!! Part 2 tomorrow....
