WWJD

                                                             WWJD

                                                   What Would JESUS Do ?

Back in the 80's and 90's their was a saying going around that was started by a minister in a small church when he challenged his congregation to follow his lead for the next 30 days that whenever they were faced with a dilemma that they should ask themselves "what would Jesus do ?" and take the answer as the way they should handle the problem.

I was a truck driver at that time, like I've been for 50 plus years, and my wife bought me a leather bracelet to wear with those letters on it to remind me and I must say it proved impossible for me, just like the people in the ministers parish, to follow for more than a few days. Even though at that time the environment was a lot less hostile than now.

I look back on my 76 year life and wonder what happened to the easy going world I grew up in and I realize that things started to change about the time they removed prayer from school. Then they started taking GOD out of everything, but leaving other religions alone, even atheism. I started seeing that people seemed to be more angry and ready to clash with anyone who didn't see things their way.

It may just be me but I feel that without GOD's presence in your life you don't have that buffer that lets you see the other persons view and except it not as an affront but for what it is, just their perspective. We all see the same thing differently through the filter of our life's experiences and we need to allow for the other persons view and not take it personally.

In closing I would say, Try WWJD for just 7 days, I dare you. If you don't know JESUS, now might be a good time to find out what your missing.  Just say'in,  Dutch

Heard around the table----

 A trucker came into a truck stop...

A trucker came into a truck stop cafe and placed his order. He said, "I want three flat tires, a pair of headlights and a pair of running boards."

The brand new blonde waitress, not wanting to appear stupid, went to the kitchen and said to the cook, "This guy out there just ordered three flat tires, a pair of headlights and a pair of running Boards. What does he think this place is, an auto parts store?"

"No," the cook said, "Three flat tires mean three pancakes, a pair of headlights is two eggs sunny side up, and running boards are 2 slices of crisp bacon."

"Oh, OK!" said the blonde. She thought about it for a moment and then spooned up a bowl of beans and gave it to the customer.

The trucker asked, "What are the beans for, Blondie?"

She replied, "I thought while you were waiting for the flat tires, headlights and running boards, you might as well gas up!"

A watch for the woodworker !

Paypal link on right

 

Stop smoking now !

 

Truckers round table !

In the old mom and pop truckstops there used to be at least one big table that would set 6 or 8 and if you wanted to talk or hear a bunch of trucker "BS" you would set there or near by, things like this were common.

Just happened to remember a joke that has been going around the drivers tables at truck stops for years and thought I would share it.

Do you know the difference between a fairy tale and a truckers tale ?

A fairy tale starts---- Once Upon A Time, 

and a truckers tale starts----  You ain't going to believe this shit !

So if you find yourself surrounded by truckers in a truck stop and you hear those words you know what's coming,  Just sayin,  Dutch

Better highways

                                                                       

 Talking about the runs from Columbus to St Louis made me remember the highways of that era and the one most people think of is I-70 but it was not finished most of the way across there.

We ran US40 from Columbus and picked up some interstate west of Dayton to the state line and again from the west side of Indianapolis to the Illinois line.

The most interesting part of that run was crossing the Mississippi. Early on they didn't have the bridge on I-270 that they have now, you had to cross the "Chain of Rocks" bridge which still stands and can be seen from the interstate. This old metal bridge was 2 lane and very narrow plus it had a "dog leg" just west of center that even in a cab over with a "35 foot trailer, you had to have both lanes to make it across.

Thank GOD they finished I-270 shortly after I started driving that highway. Which makes me remember another nerve wracking event on that road.

My first solo trip was in an early 60's model GMC or "Jimmy" as they were called. This one was a single axel with a 238  6 cyl engine with a 5 speed trans and a 2 speed rear axel giving me 10 forward gears and 72 mph top end but it was real hard to get to that speed.

Anyway, I had taken the load to Kansas city alone because the lead driver was sick and it was in the fall and just about the first snowfall. While waiting for them to finish unloading me I noticed the sky starting to look a lot like it was getting ready to snow there in KC so I was in real hurry to get moving as I had never driven a truck in snow, never even ridden in one in snow, didn't have a clue what to do except growing up in OHIO I had plenty of experience driving cars in it.

You guessed it, I got to the old Kenworthy truck stop on old 40 in Indiana and made my first mistake.

It was snowing and the roads were just wet so I thought I could just stop there for a nap and when I got up the plows would be out and all would be well  LOL.   When I got up there was 2 inch's of snow on the ground but the plows had been out so the road wasn't to bad. Ow ! did I tell you I had an empty trailer which gives you very little traction in snow and ice. Anyway, I did well until I got to the stretch of interstate just inside Ohio. As soon as I got up on it I realized the plows had not touched it. 

There was 2 tracks down the middle of the highway with no way to tell where you were in said highway and a very strong wind out of the north with very little to break it up as they had clear cut all the trees back a good distance to facilitate the building of the highway.

When I first got going as fast as I felt safe to run, I had a feu cars following me pretty close and then it happened, as I passed under an overpass and emerged on the other side the wind hit me hard in the left side causing my single axel to break traction and the trailer to jack knife. Thankfully GOD had his hand on my rig and let me get straight again but this happened at every overpass on that 12 mile stretch. By the way, after that first jack knife with me all over the road trying to get control of it again, the cars backed way off.

That was my first lesson in driving an 18 wheeler in winter weather, but no where close to the last.

Keep on keep'in on,  Darrell

 

The good old days

 

The good old days

I just retired from trucking after 55 years of beating around the USA in a big truck and I have seen a lot that I would like to share.      

  

When I started at 17 years old, I just rode along and help unload, but the guy that I went with thought I would make a good driver so he took me under his wing and taught me everything he could about being a SAFE and PROFESSIONAL driver.

Back then the only way to get a good paying driving job was to pay your dues and drive for some small outfit that didn't pay well and worked you as hard as you would let them until you got 2 years experience then you could apply at a big company but you still had to have someone to put in a good word for you or you probably would not get hired.

I started driving a cabover GMC with a 238 Detroit engine with a 5 speed trans and a 2 speed axle giving it 10 forward gears and if you didn't load it real heavy you might get it to 70 on the flats with no headwind. Along with very few interstates, it made for a pretty tiring day especially with no air ride suspension or air ride seat or air conditioning or power steering and a radio that would only pick up country western channels.

BUT, in my opinion those were the good old days !  Everybody acknowledged other drivers, there was a comradery that has been lost in the last 20 years that the current group of drivers will never know or understand. There used to be mom and pop truckstops that offered real home cooking in a downhome atmosphere that the corporate chain stops can't come close too. but then they didn't have all of the amenities that the current stops do. I can remember when Jim Ryder started the T A truckstops. At that time it was Truckstops of America not Travel centers of America and was touted as an upscale rest/fuel stop with modern facilities for TRUCKERS that the traveling public could share.

To be fair there were other truckstops on the roads like Union 76, Standard oil, Skelly oil and the like but I truly feel that the T/A was the best for it's time. All offered fuel, parking, food and showers in varying quality but T/A was just a little better until it was sold, then it started down hill and hasn't stopped except for some who have slowed it's demise a little.

In the next few months I will try to recall some of the more interesting situations I've found myself in so all may get a laugh at some of my mistakes and luck.

Keep on truckin 😁 

No comments: 

Distracted Driving

Back in the good ol' days there wasn't much to distract you. The radio in the truck usually would only pick up country western channels on the am side, we didn't have CB's until the late 60's and no mobile phones.

Now however the phones are as bad as drunk driving. And the silly thing is the Government in it's ultimate wisdom made it illegal to hold the phone in your hand if your driving a truck but you can use handsfree devices to carry on your conversation while trying to negotiate rush hour traffic.

The problem isn't holding the phone so you have to drive one handed, It's being involved in the conversation to the point that your not concentrating on what's going on around you !

 it's being involved in the conversation at all. 

I know that many people think they can multi-task and do two or three things at once equally well but-----     

                                            They are wrong !

Just test it some time. If your on the phone while driving, pay close attention to the conversation and after you hang up try to remember your surroundings while you were on the phone, like what you passed on the side of the road or how many cares passed you in a mile, what song was playing on the radio, things that would have registered in your mind had you not been engaged in a conversation.

That is why it doesn't register that you may have changed lanes unsafely or you probably slowed or sped up without even knowing it, while other motorist adjusted their driving to keep from having a problem with you're erratic driving.

I not only see a lot of people talking or worse texting [were they take their eyes of the traffic in front of them] but see them putting on makeup, brushing their hair, tuning the radio, adjusting their cloths or a myriad of other things that could cause them to loose that split second of stopping time to keep them from that accident that could take their life or someone else's.

What really bothers me is seeing truck drivers doing it when it's so much harder to change lanes or slow down rapidly to avoid a wreck of a serious nature.

I was taught to keep your eyes moving from out the windshield to each mirror so you can know what is happening around you all the time, always have an out, and pay attention to what the 5th vehicle in front of you is doing and react to him and you will be one step ahead of the rest.

                   Until Next Time, KEEP ON TRUCKING  

  

Sunday, October 13, 2019

More Good Ole days

I'll try to share pictures of some of the trucks I've driven as I write about the events. 

The Late Great U S of A

 When I first started out of Columbus, Oh. C/F had a terminal there and sent several sets of doubles like that this to their St. Louis terminal everyday. It was an 8 hour drive each way so the driver would layover at each end for their 8 hour break as they didn't have a bunk to take that break in.

At this time there wasn't many conventional tractors east of the Mississippi so most everybody drove cabovers or "COE", cab over engine. Eventually owner operators started buying the bigger "Large Cars" so that now even the fleets use them and you hardly ever see a cabover.

                                                            

That just reminded me when I saw the pictures on the news the other night of the big pileup on I-80 in the snow. Going from Columbus to St. Louis and return on 40 and I-70 used to be treacherous in the winter and a lot of times those doubles would be loaded light so that the wind blowing out of the north, when you were running east and west, would blow you right off the road.

Many times their would be C/F, Roadway or Yellow trucks parked in the median all over the place.

Thank GOD that's over !   Keep on trucking, Dutch  

The Late Great U S of A

This post will be a little different .  

It has elements of trucking and things I have experienced in my career but it addresses something that I see wrong with my beloved country.

Back when I started driving being a truck driver was nothing more than a dock worker that drove a truck to work. You manually loaded and unloaded your trailer some times several times a day and then got to drive to a different destination and do it all over again.

You really had to want to be a truck driver and you had to have help to get a good paying job in that industry. Therefor most of the drivers where born and breed American males who spoke English and lived  in cities, towns, and farm communities with shared likes and dislikes with others in that area.

With few exceptions, when you stopped at a T/S for fuel or food you usually had no problem at all communicating with the help and other drivers and finding decent facilities as everyone respected the other people they had to interact with, it was just understood.

That slowly changed as the truck builders improved the ease of driving of the rigs and the demand for drivers approached the critical point. Then the "driving instruction schools" started popping up and the Government started to take able bodied men from the unemployment roles and taught them how to be productive and tax paying drivers.

These people came from all walks of life and some had no desire at all to be truck driver but they couldn't draw unemployment any longer so they became the "NEW BREED" of truck driver and some realized that they had more money than ever before even though they didn't like the job.

This opened up a new opportunity for people from different countries to find employment here in the U. S. and several got licenses under questionable circumstances with little to no experience driving trucks on the highways of this country or having any idea of the common sense protocols that had been taught from men who started the trucking industry to begin with.

It didn't take long for these short cummings to appear as first with our neighbors to the south and the equipment that they drove into the states and couldn't pass safety inspections and some of them had trouble managing winter weather in the mountain states. This soon started showing up with Middle Eastern drivers as there was a large population in California that started to haul produce to the east coast which is also hard driving in the winter.

This brings me to the crux of this post.  The Mexican drivers new there place and that they would have to prove they could operate safely among the rest of us on the highways to gain our respect and that would take time but as more and more young driving school graduates entered the ranks we started getting more and more drivers that had no concern for their fellow drivers, that coupled with an increase of Middle Eastern trucks on the road with drivers that seemed like they didn't want anything to do with the rest of us as witnessed by some things that happened in the rest rooms and parking lots most of us truckers have all encountered, makes me worried that the America I've known and loved is slipping away.

And a final point I would like to add, we have before us a serious situation in 2020.  It appears that the elections have now changed from differences between two parties to the difference of the old style of common sense Republican conservatism and Socialism and I for one don't want Socialism !

I look at what we have in the President now. A person who works hard every day to make changes to better our country for it's people, minorities included, improving our standing in the world and our future. Even though their are those who would have you believe he has and is doing something sinister, but as I see it, isn't doing anything that most all politicians have done, do and will continue to do no matter what side of the isle they're on.

Then we have the Democrats, [read Socialists] that have an X Vice-President who had shady dealings over seas, a Hispanic, a Muslim, a admitted Socialist, a Gay and a want-a-be Indian squaw just to highlight a few. It looks like the Democrats have the minorities covered pretty well.

 I myself am going to vote Republican and hope we can hold on to the country I love and help Mr. Trump to continue to make America Great for us all. [Democrats included]