Okay, here we go again. What's wrong with this picture?:

(You can click on the picture to go to our gallery where you can see the other pictures I took.)

This is now day 8 of the ordeal (sorry, I mean "adventure") of the trailer axle. I won't go into alot of detail about everything, but this has been one of the roughest weeks I've had here on the road. Since the 17th (a week ago), I've only travelled 847 miles. Most of time time has been spent waiting for repairs to be done in the various places where I kept breaking down. I admit, it got very depressing a few times, but with the help of other caring people I have survived to look forward to better things in the future. What Lenutt said in his latest blog (Click Here) really says a lot to me:



Amen, brother! The climax of my little saga was probably when the second weld broke as I was getting ready to deliver in Alapaha, Georgia. It happened as I was trying to get turned around on Hwy 82. I heard a loud "Bang!" and realized something bad had happened. Unfortunately my rig was blocking all but one lane of hwy 82 and I couldn't seem to back up out of the way. I looked at the axle and saw that the left side was completely wrecked. I called 911 to ask for a tow truck. Now here's where all the teamwork came together. First, a DOT officer showed up within minutes and he started directing traffic so vehicles could get around the truck without a major accident. Other officers arrived later. Then the wrecker arrived. As he looked at the situation, I realized I needed somewhere to put the trailer. Mr. Morris, the father of the customer who owns the furniture I was delivering, told me the name of the man who owned the property I was currently occupying and said that he might let me leave the trailer there until the repairs were done. I asked him, and without hesitating he said I could. The tow truck driver literally dragged the rig back onto the lot finally clearing the highway. I managed to find a welder who could come out and do the job properly, and the mechanics at the local truckstop said they could fix the rest of the problems. I had a lot of help from my dispatcher Paul, who was doing all he could to help me figure out solutions to the thorny problems that kept multiplying. The local guy I hired to help was very understanding, and he never complained even though I kept rescheduling the delivery due to the previous breakdowns. The customers were also very understanding about the delays. And lest I forget, my wife and several other people have been praying for me during this trip. I even owe a debt of gratitude to the guy at the truck rental place. I needed to rent a truck to move the shipment from my trailer to the storage unit, so I showed up at his place yesterday morning to get one. Unfortunately all the trucks he had were already reserved. Somehow, though, he managed to free one up. I got the idea that someone owed him a favor or something and that's how he did it. By the strangest coincidence, he was telling me that an Atlas Van Lines agent in Florida (probably the one I drive for) had literally saved all of his son's belongings when a hurricane came through Vero Beach. Whoever it was that helped him, I have to give them a big "thanks" too, because they may have helped me get a shuttle truck. My helper faithfully worked with me until 11 last night to get the furniture delivered. And now I sit here at the Pilot truck stop getting the rest of the repairs done. I should be able to make it to Savannah tomorrow some time. Ooops. I just found out the guy forgot to tell them the shocks needed to be replaced and they don't have any in stock. Oh well, maybe I can get 'em replaced in Savannah...

The shocks are a small thing actually. So many people helped me make these deliveries within the date spreads. Like Lenutt says, it's a real team effort...

Category: General

I'm cutting ties with Navizon, so you won't see our Buddy Locator button anymore. I'll still be looking for a tracking site so you can see where we've been lately. It's just that Navizon has changed its format and it's not even close to user-friendly anymore.

A comment on the last post from VM:



Funny you should mention that, mano. I carry a high-end Yamaha electronic keyboard in my trailer in case there's an opportunity to use it. But it seems like I never get the time anymore. Maybe some day we both can retire and start a little band or something.

But now it's time for our favorite contest called "What's Wrong with This Picture???!!!"

If you had to look at this more than 5 seconds then you probably should consider letting someone else drive. This ugly mess was brought to my attention shortly after I took off on I-10 going east out of Baytown, Texas. I had just had a trailer tire replaced in San Antone, and the T/A mechanic noticed that all of the trailer brake pads were worn too low, so I let him replace them too. Did he adjust the brakes too tightly? I can't tell for sure. All I know is that I was headed east on I-10 out of Baytown and I saw a motorist pointing to my left like there was something really wrong on that side. I looked in my mirror and didn't see anything, so I figured he was just another kook, like the dozens of other space cadets that we encounter every day that do the most bizarre things without the slightest thought. But he kept at it and when I looked again I saw smoke pouring out from one of the trailer wheels. My first reaction was that I needed to prevent a trailer fire, so I put on my blinker and downshifted while looking for a chance to get to the shoulder. A friendly motorist flashed me so I could change lanes, and I found the first open spot in the area which was restricted by a lot of construction. I pulled over into the space after an on-ramp, and I managed to get the rig out of the travel lanes. The wheels smoked heavily for a while, but eventually they cooled off. Initially the bearing was still intact, but not for long. I backed up the onramp a bit and tried to weigh my options. It seemed that if I could drive back the 20 miles to the truckstop things might work out okay. Since I still had a bearing at the time, and the manager at the T/A said they could do the repairs, I thought it might be worth a try. I found out I could get online using my Verizon connection, so I did a virtual recon of the route I would need to take using Google's mapping and satellite services. I have to say there were some sketchy places along the way. Considering that I would need to keep my speed at 20 mph or lower, I had a bunch of construction areas to go through that had no place to pull out of the travel lanes, and at one point there's even a bridge. But if it looked like everything might hold together long enough, I might be willing to try it. I had called my dispatcher Paul (on a Sunday-sorry boss!) and he thought it might be worth a shot. While I scrutinized my planned route online, a Texas trooper suddenly appeared in front of the truck. I explained the situation and he thought I would probably need a complete axle job on that side, which is what the T/A manager had said. He said he could call a wrecker for me, but I told him I wanted to see if I could limp this thing back to the T/A. He pointed out that the road going back to Baytown had a lot of construction, and if I got stuck there it would really mess up traffic. I nodded in agreement. And then he suggested that I could go to Beaumont instead, which would be going east the way I was headed, and I wouldn't have to go through any construction. This seemed to be the answer. So I powered down the laptop and tried to merge gracefully into traffic. (I need to give a lot of credit to the Texas trooper for his wonderful attitude. Other states would have shut me down in a minute and found a dozen ways to fine me for my problems. But this guy was totally sympathetic and he gave me credit for being the proffesional that I am.) I found a huge opening and started up through the gears to an incredible speed of 20 mph (with my flashers flashing away)! I was ready to merge onto the travel lanes when I noticed two trucks approaching. There was a tanker in the right lane and another truck in the fast lane. They were about 1/2 mile back when I saw them, and I noticed, to my horror, that the tanker was running side-by-side with the other truck, and he wasn't slowing down a bit! So I did the safest thing I could think of and used what little shoulder I had to come to a stop out of the travel lanes. Of course, Mr. tanker couldn't resist blaring his horn as he passed me. Does the term "aggresive driver" come to mind here? I don't know about you, but whenever I'm in the right lane, I am actively prepared for anything. Driving in the slow lane, the last thing I expect is that I can drive along at 70 mph and not come across something that will slow me down. But what I figure happened is that Mr. tanker was in a hurry and he was probably trying to pass the other truck on the right, and since this isn't a densely populated area, he wasn't expecting merging traffic. Big mistake, mister. I'm sure he realized his mistake when he saw me at the last minute, but of course he couldn't help blasting the horn just to cover his error.

My actual journey from the breakdown point to where I am now was not much more than a mile. When I finally got back on the highway again, I took the first offramp so I could inspect the condition of my wheels. I didn't see any smoke, but I thought I should see how things were holding up. Fortunately I found a Bar-B-Q place called "Gator Junction" that had a nice big parking area for trucks. And this is where I took the picture you see. No bearing. Kind of scary, actually. Frankly, there ain't much to keep those tires from flyin' off the end of the axle and making life a lot more sucky. So I opted for plan B. Which is either find someone who can do a little major axle work out here where I'm parked, or have someone come out and pull the wheel off and chain the axle up so I can make it to a mechanic in Beaumont. I tried calling several places today but noone answered the phone. Heck, waddya expect? It's the Chinese New Year!
(A curious coincidence: Chinese New Year today and US Presidents' Day tomorrow. Think about the connection: What US president won great acclaim for his diplomatic victories with China?)

It slowly dawned on me that my accumulated milage today might be a little less than the 600+ miles I was hoping for. Total miles for Feb. 18: 23. Resolutely, I resigned myself to this fate, and tried to make the best of things. And here's one of the things that made this side trip a little more tolerable: Texas Bar-B-Q, baby! After being taunted by the smells coming from Gator Junction, I decided it was time to see what they had to offer. For those of you who know what good Texas Bar-B-Q is like, you don't need any explanation. For the rest of you, I feel only pity. You see, in Texas they don't bury everything in a bunch of sauce. What they do is slow-cook the heck out of some really top-notch pieces of meat, with a perfect blend of seasonings, so you have this wonderful carne just falling off the bone. I went for the brisket and rib combo. What I should have done was just ribs alone, because brisket tends to be somewhat dry, and I'm kinda sensative to dry meat. But they gave me some sauce to dip the strips of brisket in so it wasn't too terrible. But the ribs? I could eat them every day for the rest of my life and ask for more! Actually I just did. Since it was approaching 9 pm, I figured I should make one final run before the place closed. Yes, they had some of those delectible ribs left. So I eagerly ordered a plate and chatted a bit while my food was prepared. Everyone noticed I had been here a good part of the day and we all joked about it. I explained to them why I was stuck here, and one of the employees told me about a mechanic nearby that I could talk to. Very friendly people, these Texans. And now if I have room, I'll finish the beans and coleslaw that came with the meal. But oh those ribs! Just enough "tang" to remind you you're close to Louisianna. But always that incredible smokey flavor that sets Texas cuisine apart from the rest. Poncho Villa, eat your heart out!


Here I am at 7:30 pm pacific time, and 9:30 pm central time. I guess I better get to bed. Let me leave you with these pearls of wisdom I found in the men's room at Gator Junction:

Category: General

For many of us drivers our current driver status is a temporary thing until we get a job doing one of the many other things that we really love. This can take some time, though. For some, it might be a few months. For others, a few years. And not uncommonly, some will have wait their entire lives. (Check out the movie "It's a Wonderful Life").

Greetings from Baytown (TX) :)

Category: General

Check, one two three, testing...

Do you hear me?

Anyone out there?

Well, for those of you might still be checking this blog once in a while, who are interested, who may have subscribed to the RSS feed, or maybe you just landed here by accident, or you have a strange attraction for the bizarre adventures of another truck driver, like VM, Lenutt, RoadHazrade, et al., we shall update you as to all things regarding your favorite bedbuggers. What is our status? One word- busyasusual. (Hey, I can make that one word if I want!) Yes, we have been constantly busy, even on our "time off". This is the fate of the truck owner. Only now it looks like we may ACTUALLY start to make some money so we can pull out of the hole we've slowly but persistently been digging ourselves into for the last 6 months. I never cease to be amazed at how much surplus time can be completely annihilated by the *details*. Oh details, my details! Will you never stop? Do I want you to? They say the Devil is in the details, but I disagree. Details give life depth and meaning. The Devil just tries to mess it all up so it drags us down. But he ain't gonna succeed. We all got details. VM has two young girls- do we have to tell him about details? I know Lenutt has details, and prolly Sir Hazard of Road Tambien. I know about details. Our portable recorder recently expired and after a long hard search we found another that produces wonderfully exceptional recordings. And so we have continued to document the lives of the people we relocate. And do you know what the really amazing thing is? Even though we aren't the very top-of-the-list movers for Atlas (in other words, we don't get first pick of the best loads. but not last pick either. somewhere in-between, which means we get a pretty good representation of the average American to move from one place to another), it seems that everyone we move has such rich and meaningful experiences to share with us. To be honest, I'm not very "patriotic". In fact, I'll be blunt and say the US government is the closest thing to fascism since mussolini held sway in Italy. Maybe worse. (Oh, you doubt this? Check out this link, my friends!) But it is not the government that makes America- it is *Americans* that make America! In spite of all the treachery from our supposed "public servants". And so Karen and I have been privileged (meaning "private law") to document the beliefs, hopes, dreams, aspirations, memories, and struggles of so many of our peers, as we journey across the continental US. Do you want to know what America looks like? Here we are:









These are just a few of the amazing Americans we've moved. If you want to learn more about these wonderful people, and others with equally compelling stories, just go to our Home Page. Or click on the "POD" link below to go directly to our podcast, which you can access with any Internet-capable device. (And then click on the little headphone icon at the bottom of each item.) Okay, the details are-a-calling and I can't put them off any longer. Happy trails!

Ken and Karen

Category: General