October 28, 1989, 2009

FIRST 5 YEARS: (Saturday)
The sun was coming up as I arose here in Detroit, Michigan. I got up to my engine running as yesterday I found I had a number of batteries that had gone bad and the maintenance department told me to kept it running until I get it to Joplin(Missouri). I checked in with the Detroit dispatch and they had a comment on my computer screen to give me a load that would take me through Joplin for repairs. Dispatch told me to go to a warehouse in Romulus (Michigan) to pick up a load to Laredo, Texas(the load will end up in Mexico). I headed over to the pickup point only to find that the warehouse personnel hadn't unloaded the "stuff" from the trailer(not our companies) it came in on. It was backed up to their dock and I was told to back up to the dock next to it. They would unload it and reload it right into my trailer. Well, they couldn't get the piece on machinery out of that older trailer. They tried but couldn't. They told me that I could just take the whole trailer to Laredo. I called Detroit dispatch and after dispatch called Joplin, I got the OK to pull that trailer to Joplin where I would have them switch the load to one of our trailers. I was to drop our trailer in their yard and take their older trailer. I hooked up and did a very complete vehicle inspection as that different trailer just might be wired or "aired" different than our companies trailers. Everything was fine so I called into dispatch and told them I was heading to Joplin. The route I chose was I-94 west to I-80 west to I-55 south to I-44 west and ended up in Joplin. Stopped in Lake Station, Indiana at "Just A Truckstop" for lunch. This truckstop had a huge "stuffed" grizzly bear standing on it's hind legs. I looked at it and said to the gal polishing shoes next to it that it looked like my ex-wife(it did not) and she said,"You truckers are so stupid. You all married the same woman!" . Ate my lunch and headed on. My next stop, just for a break, was "Funk's Grove" rest area off of I-55 in Illinois. I would, through my trunking years, always try and stop there as I just liked writing the words "Funk's Grove" in my logbook. Took a short break and headed toward St. Louis and the I-44 roller coaster type highway. I love riding over that highway. Found the I-44 state coupe(state truck weigh station) open and had to weigh. No problem for me as this piece of machinery only weighed 7,500 lbs. I was on to Joplin. I ran out of legal driving time around Rolla(Missouri) so I pulled into the rest area just past it. Was parked there-with engine running-for about 9 hours, thus going into tomorrow's blog. All through this days travels, I had other drivers asking me why I was pulling a NON-company trailer. No one would be madder(yes, madder) about me pulling this trailer than the Laredo terminal manager!

A Trucker Tale: The tale was probably the most outrageous and unbelievable I think I heard over the years. As the driver-an older white headed guy-told his tale, I and the other drivers had to be sitting there thinking, "this guy is really full of it!". He claimed to have a friend in New Mexico that was a highway patrolman. The driver said that he would call his friend up before he would travel I-10 along southern New Mexico. They would meet up and run next to each other up to speeds of 80 mph and if he, the driver, caught up with a car driver not going their speed(up to 80 mph), the friend would just tell the truck driver to bump the car so it would get out of the way. I sat there thinking this guy had to be really "off of it" to think we all sitting there would believe it....Well, like I said, most trucker tales are unbelievable, though amusing.