My Truck Driving Stories

My friend Bubba and I came in late on a Friday evening and threw a load. He had all big stuff on his load and I had all small stuff. We sat down together and tried to figure out where to put his units on his truck. It took about thirty minutes to figure it out, and then when we came down Sunday to load it, his truck wound up 14 feet, 10 inches tall. 13 feet, 6 inches is the legal height for the highway, so he had to work on it another 45 minutes to bring it down. It was a good thing he did too. There was a 14-foot, 1-inch bridge when you left the dealer. He was going to be still partially loaded when he drove under it. He called me that night and thanked me for helping him spot his load. He said he was down at Arlington the week before, and drew a load that wound up seven-foot over in the rear. Legal length is only four-foot. He ended up working on it for another hour, and he could only bring it back to five feet -- still a foot over legal length. So, he went back in and told dispatch that he couldn’t take it, so they took one off. That would be better than going around all the scales for 700 miles. When he got to his first dealer in Nebraska, he found a mirror that the wind had blown back, but it wasn’t hurt. He pulled it out, went ten miles down the road, and the wind blew it back again. I told him it sounded about like my luck. Two weeks, later I got a load going to Arlington. I pulled into the motel lot, drove to the back of the building, and couldn’t make the turn. So, I had to get the lady behind the desk to help me back out onto the busy street. I went around this other way and got the truck parked in a safe spot. The next morning, the GPS got me to my first dealer but made a wrong turn into the dealership. I had to dodge a few tree limbs, but I made it okay. I went to my second dealer, and when I got out of the truck, I discovered one of my tires was flat. I was only ten miles away from the Arlington shop, so I unloaded and went on down there. I waited for two hours for them to fix my tire. By that afternoon, it was 105 degrees. I drew a load and had to go twenty miles to load it, plus I had to fuel up. I took five breaks that afternoon. I got back to Kansas City with the load, and the first car I took off had a long scratch on it. I told dispatch it was 105 degrees down there, and I couldn’t inspect properly, but it didn’t matter. I still got a warning letter over it. The next week, I called Super 8 to see if they had truck parking, and they said, “Yes we have good truck parking.” This was a small town in Oklahoma. When I got there, it wasn’t semi parking, and I had to get out and walk around to see where I could park. When I came back, the police were there, walking around my truck. I told them I was looking for a spot to park my truck. I also told them the motel guy said he had truck parking there, but it turned out they didn’t have parking space for a big rig like mine. They told me I could park across the street, which was better anyhow. On August 24th, 2011, I was staying at this motel, and I went next door to the café for breakfast. I was three-quarters of the way through my meal when I found a hair in my food, but I was hungry, so I kept on eating. Then I found another hair, but it still wasn’t enough to deter me from my meal. Sometimes, when you’re on the road, you can’t be picky about your food. I got my load delivered, and went to Arlington. There, I picked up another load going toward Little Rock. When I got to Little Rock, it was too late to deliver. So, I stayed at this Super 8 that had good truck parking. I had been there before. I had just gotten into my room when I heard a knock on the door. I answered. It was this guy telling me he saw two other guys climbing up on my truck. He said the motel probably had it on the surveillance camera, and he would watch my back if I went over to the truck and found them. So, we went down to the front office and asked them if their surveillance camera was working. They said it was, but it didn’t go that far out into the parking lot. So, this guy suggested we go over to my truck and check it out. I said that was a good idea, and while we were walking over there, we saw one of the guys climbing on the truck. This guy that was beside me said he had my back if anything went wrong. So, I hollered at the guy and asked him why he was climbing on my truck. He said they were getting ready to go to an auto auction the next morning, and they wanted to know how much the new vehicles cost. I said okay and left it at that since I knew he and his partner were staying there at the motel. While we were walking back, I thanked the other guy for letting me know about them, and for watching my back. You don’t find people like that every day.