other dog

I took a load of pipes to State College, Pa. Monday. Unloaded Tuesday morning and went to Sharon to get 2 coils. It was snowing pretty good when I left State College, this was after I got on I-80. Saw this unit across the street when I was leaving Sharon Coatings. It snowed most of the way back, but 79 was clear- rt.19, not so much. This is coming up Powell Mountain, north of Summersville. HatCity said he was plowing and salting this section, but I think he was parked in a cross over drinking coffee. The only time he did any actual plowing was when he went to Sheetz to refill his thermos and grab more donuts. After I unloaded the coils in Madison Heights I went to the shop and hooked up to the bulldozer trailer again so I could run down to the S.C. line on rt.38 Thursday and get that dozer that I was supposed to get last week for Mr. Burke. We left the shop at 6:15am and got there around 10:30am... the dozer got there around 3:30pm. Last week the truck that was bringing it broke down, this week he blew a tire on the lowboy. Then after somebody brought him a tire and put it on, he made it about 10 miles and blew a tire on the lowboy. So he had to get another tire brought to him- and it was the wrong tire, so the tire guy had to go back and get the right tire and come back again. So what should have been a fairly easy one day mission turned into a 2 day deal. The only other issue was that Jeff told me the blade was 10'6'' wide. Mr. Burke said it was 11'6'', and my N.C. permit was for 11'. But I didn't get stopped or checked, so it didn't matter. We couldn't run after dark so we went to Candor, N.C. and parked it, then we went over to Southern Pines- Mr. Burke just happens to own a home there and he plays a lot of golf . He called a friend that he knows from one of the golf courses to come pick us up and he took us to Mr. Burke's house, and picked us up yesterday morning and took us back to the truckstop. The home is for sale by the way, because he said he just didn't go there much any more- a palatial estate too, and only 200 grand. He called a taxi to take us to get something to eat. Went to some sports bar, I don't remember the name of it. Mr Burke said "they've got everything from hot dogs to filet mignon here,and it's all good- I highly recommend the filet mignon". It should be good, it was $32 I think. A hot dog was $10.99- but fries were included. I got a shrimp po'boy, $13.99, and had 4 Bud lights at $4 each. I felt uncomfortable- but just a little- that he was spending that kind of money, but he's as nice a man as you'd ever want to meet and he paid for everything. He apologized for all the delays, but I told him that it was no problem for me, it was pretty much par for the course driving a truck, things seldom go as smoothly as planned. And if any of you are ever stranded in this area, just call me, i'll come get you. We'll stop by the store and get a pack of hot dogs and a loaf of bread and cook them over a fire on a stick, that's more my speed. But we got the dozer back yesterday and unloaded it in a field at his house in Appomattox, then I dropped the trailer at the shop and went to Lynchburg and got a load of coils going to Raleigh and Benson, N.C. for Monday, binness as usual. They're calling for 2 to 4 inches of snow here Monday. I don't know about N.C. but I told them if it was slick around here Sunday the load would still be sitting at the shop Monday morning. Supposed to be warm again by Tuesday, in the 40's. Nice looking old KW Mr. Burke's brother has. At the truckstop in Candor, N.C. Unloading

that was a tight squeeze- thought at first they weren't gonna fit, we had to move the quarter fenders to get them in there.

A little over 32, full of fuel.

Never did post one with the tool boxes and headache rack installed did I?

those are Winfall shorts, the zipper's in the back.

You might be onto something there, I went over to the Winfall Garage yesterday, and the owner/head mechanic wasn't very friendly.

maybe you could send me a sausage bistit and a cup of coffee in the mail?

Yep, you never know what you might see in Winfall.

I just got off there to go to sleep. I kept on down 250 to the Crozet exit and got back on 64 and over to 29 at Charlottesville. Last time I went down 6 it cost me over $300, and that was about 7 or 8 years ago.

oh...I knew it was something like that.

I didn't even tell everybody what you said about that KW when I met you in Bensalem a while back- something like "man, I wish I could drive that fine looking ride just one time, my Dad would be so proud of me!"

I'm glad you asked- I put an idle speed control thing-a-ma-jig on it, put the home made bumper on it, got it inspected- just needed wiper blades to pass. When I drove it home the first time it was missing pretty bad. It had a plug wire arcing against the block, but a new set of wires cured that. I drove it home again last night and it ran great. I just got finished changing the oil a few minutes ago. I checked the grease in the front and rear end and the transmission and transfer case too. Had to add a little in the rear end and a little more in the front end- I put Lucas oil additive in them. Transmission was good. Then I adjusted the rear brakes and tightened the emergency brake cable- it had a lot of slack in it. When it snowed here the other week I made like Rowdy- cranked it up, locked the hubs, and drove out of the driveway onto the road- never shoveled a lick. It rides rough as hell, you can feel every bump in the road, it's loud, it's drafty- heater was wfo all the way home and you couldn't tell it was on. Drives great though, better than I expected- I like it!

Later, I saw two poorly photo-chopped girls when I was on the way home.

I've got no pictures of the Alamo, no pictures of bulldozers, but I have a picture of where they unload steel off of barges at Triad Metals in Neville Island, Pa. I did not move a bulldozer, I did not go to San Antonio- I went to N.B.Handy in Lynchburg and loaded a load of steel going to Norcross, Ga. I had 4 skidded coils in front, then 2 stacks of sheets piled up 4 skids high, and a regular coil in back. I put plastic on it because they were calling for rain, then it took 2 tarps to cover it. Then I went to Gerdau-Ameristeel in Cartersville, Ga. and picked up a load of 50' beams going to Neville Island, that I had to tarp. I'm pulling up there beside that trailer to get unloaded. The cab was outside the door, and I saw some barges go by while I was sitting there. A tugboat was right behind them. Then I went to Greenville, Pa. and got a load of dumpsters coming back to Lynchburg. I got off of 64 on top of Afton Mountain and pulled off at the scenic view area on rt. 250 and went to bed. Took this out of the sleeper window when I got up yesterday morning. Some more pictures I took while I was waiting around for my 10 hour break to be over- got to run compliant ya know! I saw some little black dots in a field down in the valley- which I later determined to be aberdeen angus cattle. Looking to the east- the little white dot just about the center of the picture... ...is this building. I don't know what it is. I was going to look for it on the way down the mountain, but when I left I forgot all about it. Dumpsters- This is the old motel on top of Afton Mountain. It was a Holiday Inn back in the 70's, then it was something else, I don't know if it's still in business now or not. I stayed there once when it was the Holiday Inn. A friend of mine who had recently moved to Virginia was there with his wife too, and he was just awestruck by the view. He said it was just like being in an airplane, without being in an airplane.You could see the whole valley from up there. Oh, that's Wintergreen Mountain to the left. Closer view of the old motel.

" honored Firetruck Great Master from Hellertown PA" That's a good one Vlad, I shall refer to 1958 F.W.D. as this from now on.

Yessir, I knew you were, that's why I didn't call when I was in Akron a while back.

I saw a picture somewhere a week or so ago of a water truck that belonged to some fracking company out of West Virginia that had crashed through a bridge in Greene county, Pa. The story said the driver was following his GPS. The bridge had an 8 or 10 ton weight limit on it. I know from past experiences with light weight roads and bridges in Pa. that that's gonna cost somebody a ton of money- maybe several tons.

No, it was this one...I think. or maybe it was this-

I used this picture for photo-chopping purposes. I think it was this one anyway.

Wow, that's a lot of work, since I only have one picture of the RGN, none with the truck i'm driving now, and none of the dozer- but i'll give it a shot... Holy mackle, i'm impressed- came out great, eh? The untrained eye could never tell that that's not the real deal right there!

Yes, I called him- he said it was OK.

I was supposed to go to Petersburg and get a load of beams going to San Antonio, Tx. Friday, but after sitting at the jobsite in Clarksburg, Md. until after 5 o'clock I missed out on that load too. Probably get a load of pipes or something tomorrow.

I had an important mission today- I was supposed to meet a guy from Appomattox at the truck stop in Candor, N.C. in the morning, and he was going to ride with me to Bennetsville, S.C. to pick up a bulldozer on the detachable gooseneck trailer. His brother was bringing the dozer up from Walterboro,S.C. with his truck, and he was going to unload it and load on my trailer in Bennetsville. Jeff said it was an old IH and it weighed about 35,000lbs. I went to the shop this morning, fueled up, hooked to the trailer, made sure the engine had gas in it and everything worked, put a marker light on it, got my permits, then came home. I was supposed to meet him around 9:30 in the morning, so I was going to leave around 6am. Good paying load too. Then Jeff called a little while ago and said the guy had called him and said his brother's truck broke down, so he wouldn't be able to make the trip tomorrow, so now I won't get to make the trip either. Never hauled a dozer before.

Nice Vlad!

Oh, never mind- I think I see him.