other dog

looks like they had some rain in Texas-

You were safe- I went to the Toms Brook exit and came south on rt. 11 so it would be easier to back in from the road. A driver who'd been there before advised me to do that. Went back to 81 the same way, so I never got into downtown Woodstock.

Load of Kubota tractors, and a neat little truck. The salesman told me this unit sells for about $15,000. Could be real useful on the farm or a big jobsite but you can get a nice pickup,or several not so nice ones for that kind of money. Old tractor in Woodstock, Va. Some older trucks on rt. 13 in Delaware. I stayed well to the right here. Annapolis Bay Bridge.

I've heard of a 6 and 4 but hadn't seen one before. saw this Freightliner with a 7 and 4 and a Peterbilt cap at the show in Colfax last year.

it is, it derates itself when the light comes on and it came on just as I got to Woodstock Sunday night,then I had 2 more stops in Md. and De. Probably came on because I was just telling another driver Friday that I hadn't had any trouble for a long time. This truck is a 2006 model and this driver that I was talking to was loading Kubotas in Ga. too. He drove for H.H.Moore a long time ago,then got his own truck,leased to Landstar now I think. He was saying Cat had a lot of engine problems in '06 and '07. He must be right. By the way, I was reading a truck paper a week or so ago and it said 55% of owners reported problems in new engines last year,up from 25% the year before,before the newest emissions laws took effect.Said the engines with the fewest reported problems was Detroit Diesel.

Hi,my name is Tom...and...and I...OK, I drive a Peterbilt! It's in the shop right now with the engine light on again.

"...about 5 gallons of orange paint". ...DoubleL? That's a masterpiece!

I was going to edit and say "sent in an e-mail from Old Bill,with a few minor changes". Now it's "from an e-mail from Old Bill with some major changes"...thank you Hatcity.

Two central Illinois rednecks are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it. The first hunter says, "Wow, that's some hole; I can't even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is." The second hunter says," I don't know, let's throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom." The first hunter says, "There's this old automobile transmission here behind this body shop by the corn field, give me a hand and we'll throw it in and see". So they pick it up and carry it over, and count one, and two and three, and throw it in the hole. They are standing there listening and looking over the edge and they hear a rustling in the brush behind them. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole and with no hesitation, jump in head first. While they are standing there looking at each other, looking in the hole and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old body shop expert and master antique airport radar technician,as well as being a Mack truck enthusiast walks up. "Say there," says the old expert master enthusiast, "you fellers didn't happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?" The first hunter says, " Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin' about a hunert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this hole here!" The old feller said, "That's impossible. I had him chained to a transmission!"

indeed!

Back in the mid '80s we hauled structural steel from Montague-Betts in Lynchburg,Va. to Boston and the surrounding areas like mad. Sometimes we would load lumber in Palmer,Ma. to bring back but if we were real busy we'd unload and come straight back to Lynchburg as quick as we could to get another load of steel to go straight back to Boston. As you could imagine, the jobsites were a real pain in the ass to get into,the traffic was horrible,and all the ironworkers were assholes when you got there. We had a dropsite for a couple of jobs,and that wasn't quite as bad. It was in Everette or Chelsea I believe-I know you had to go by the big produce market to get there. I was driving a 1984 Kenworth K100 with a 400 Cummins in it-big horse at the time. I left one Sunday right after church going up and got to the drop yard a little after midnight. I stopped in the street and went to open the gate but it was locked.Sunday night...hmmmm...I sure didn't want to wait until morning when all the traffic was out trying to run over me,still felt good-I was young then-so I got my tools out and took the gate off the hinges. The truck was in the street with the flashers on and I was taking the gate off the hinges after midnight at a trucking company's yard. But apparently I didn't look suspicious. Got the gate off and out of the way,pulled in the yard and dropped the trailer,took my chains off,hooked to an empty and pulled it out into the street,put the gate back on,and hauled ass out of there. I stopped at the 7-11 store in Gainesville,Va. Monday morning to call headquarters,and was back at the shop in Appomattox,Va. by lunchtime. Didn't even have to go back out until Tuesday. We also used a different drop yard just down the street before we started dropping trailers at the trucking co.-or maybe it was a construction company where I took the gate off,I don't remember. Anyway,I got to this yard late one evening,around 4:30 or something to 5 o'clock. I dropped the trailer as fast as I could, found an empty, then pulled around to the load i'd just dropped to take my chains off and throw them on the empty trailer. About then some hateful bitch- I mean, a woman- came out of the office and pretty much told me to pack sand. I told her all I needed to do was snatch the chains off real quick,and I was done...out of there...gone.Oh, hell no you're not-"you're leaving this yard right effin' now,if not sooner" she said. "But all I gotta do is get these chains off-" "You're not doing anything but leaving,it's 5 o'clock and my guys get off at 5,and i'm not paying them overtime to wait on you,now beat it!". So I had to lay over and wait until the next morning just to pull 5 or 6 chains off the load i'd busted my ass to get there before 5 the day before. So I went over to King Arthur's Bar and motel and got a room,reserved enough money to pay the tolls to get home,and invested the rest in beer. And then there was the time I picked up a load of steel in Lynchburg,and when I chained it down I got up on top of the load to make sure my chains were in the right place-sometimes there might be a short piece you couldn't see from the ground that a chain wasn't over,so you always climbed up on top to check everything before you tightened the chains. All my chains were fine, but I did notice a dead possum laying in one of the beams. Obviously been dead for several days, because it had already swollen up and had a swarm of flies around it. I tightened the chains and went up 29 to the Tye River Truckstop,backed up to the edge of the lot,and looked around until I found a long stick in the edge of the woods. Figured i'd climb up there and push that dead possum off the end of the beam and into the woods-but it was gone. I looked at the beam it was on and there was a big rectangular hole cut into the web of the beam,and the possum had fell down onto the next beam down. Hmmmm....nothing I can do for it now without having to touch it. So I let it ride on to Boston and dropped the load,dead possum and all,at the drop yard. To this day I wonder what those a-hole ironworkers reaction was when they were unloading that load and got down to the possum-already well "ripe" when it left Lynchburg!

That's not as bad as Jo hitting a tree in the front yard with the pickup. She was backing up, no trailer involved, and put a big dent right in the rear corner of the cab on the right side. The tree has always been there by the way.

.

I pulled into the fuel stop in Woodbine,Ga. Tuesday and saw a Dodge Bighorn parked off to the side. I was going to take a picture of it but as soon as I paid for the fuel and got parked it was pulling out. Got one bad picture of it leaving. First one i've seen on the road instead of at an antique truck show in years. First single axle one i've ever seen. Had a big sleeper too,and it was pulling a single axle van trailer. Maybe i'll run across it again.

hmmmmm...ya' got me,I have no idea.

I taped "Ice Road Truckers" for Old Bill again. Been doing it every year because they can't even get it in Canada,or if they do it's a year behind. Today,or one day,I just got home-I got a package with all this stuff in it. Some pictures, A coffee mug from Hay River,NWT. a beer glass, an Australian Bulldog-Mack 25 year anniversary medallion, an Australian boomerang ash tray,some decals from Australia and a sign. And a couple of Canadian trucking magazines- Pretty neat stuff there,eh?.

That's way better than what the ancient Inca's used to do. They would carry perfectly good R-model cabs to the top of an active volcano and throw them in for a sacrifice.

Thank you-also looks great!

I couldn't see the B-81 but the DM and RM look great!

I wish we could have, but it was in Pamplin and we took the back roads home. Only 37 miles I think, but narrow, crooked roads,no lines,Jo was driving,I was hanging on. They did have some Steely Dan going before we left.

Thanks Herb,they said everyone had a great time at the reception,some more so than others! We left kind of early,got to turn in early nowadays. Only had 1 cup of beer from the keg.

Yeah, that was the first part of the country that I traveled that had the no-idle law.

Now, aren't you guys ashamed?

I can talk about it now, the case is over. The tomater can people hired some big shot city slicker ambulance chasing attorney from New Jersey who now lives in Virginia. He said I didn't have a leg to stand on because the can had a warning label on it just for dumbasses like me. I can not prove it didn't because the can has since been disposed of.