other dog

This is true. Of course we have no choice in the matter, but I told Jeff i'd rather go out like Gary or my best friend David,who died of a heart attack at the wheel several years ago (also 49!), than like my wife died, suffering with cancer for 2 years. Gary and I hadn't been real close or anything over the years,but we went back a long ways, and I had just stopped to see him and took a couple of pictures of the Diamond-T a couple of months ago. ...and he was 3 years younger than myself.

Thanks for the pictures, that's a fine looking collection of R-models right there!

Same here, I saw Gulfway's ad in a "Wheels of Time" magazine and now I pay about half as much as I did before. They specialize in racecar and antique vehicle insurance.

Thanks Rob.

When I left Sunday headed to Erie,Pa. I called Ma to tell her I wouldn't be in the Christmas parade this year. She said ''you knew Gary Barr died didn't you?". No, I didn't.Gary was an old friend,been knowing him since high school.Been driving a truck all his life practically-he changed the date on his license to run double to California with me in 1979 because he was too young to run out of state, and he had been driving for several years then,even owned his own truck and leased it on with H.H.Moore Jr. Trucking Co. in Appomattox,Va. hauling wood chips to Covington,Va. Was an old 7400 White daycab, with a 220 Cummins and 10 speed. We ran together until I quit, and soon after they caught up with the license deal so the let him go,but told him to come on back when he did turn 21 because he must know what the hell he was doing.Years later Barry Warner and myself were on the way to Boston one night loaded with structural steel and ran across him on 95 between Washington and Baltimore. Gary was driving for P.L.Duncan then,Barry and I drove for H.H.Moore. We stopped in Baltimore and "hung out" for a couple of hours( you could do more,or 'get away with' way more then than now!), then Barry and I rode the rest of the night to be in Boston by 7 am...but we made it. When I stopped at his house and took the pictures of the Diamond T it was the first time i'd seen him in years. He was driving for Abilene, had been with them a pretty good while.We talked in his shop,and he showed me the truck and told me how he'd found it in N.Y. and brought it back in an Abilene van. I printed the same 2 pictures I posted here full page size on my best photo paper and mailed them to him.When I saw the parade entries listed in the Farmville Herald, I noticed one said "In Memory of Gary Barr" but it just didn't register-I thought he had the Diamond T in the parade in memory of his Dad or something,but no,it was him. His Mother called him to come eat dinner last Monday night and when he didn't answer she went out to his shop and found him dead of an apparent heart attack. He was only 49,and a truck driving son of a gun!

Hey, good thinking! I'm up and down 77 in Ohio a lot,except I usually run 21 through Massillon to bypass Akron and Canton.

Ya know,you might be onto something there.Sounds like a good plan anyway.

That's good,glad you liked it,and I appreciate the info on the paint. I'm thinking of taking the hood off and sending it to Illnois to have it buffessionally redone by a master. Gotta look into shipping charges first,but i've gotta do something with it,i'd hate for it to rust. Rob kinda got me worried about the moisture seeping into it.

I hoped you wouldn't have a worry in the world today, but I didn't match a single number in the mega million drawing last night. Oh well, maybe next time.

Thank you...and send me that recipe, in case I find a hound.

I cain't, don't have a shipping address. I think you just dont want me to show up for Christmas dinner!

on second thought, i'll just have to drive the mixer over there because it's too high to haul and I can't afford the over height permit. If I leave right now I can be there for Christmas!

you're right,i'm sure there's more to come!

Got some film developed the other day, some pictures so old they were taken this summer. My scanner still won't work so I took a picture of the 35mm pictures I wanted to post with the digital camera. Tried it all at once this time instead of individually, so you'll probably have to biggerize it to see anything. This is an experimental process, thought i'd try it here instead of the test forum...we'll see. not too bad- the pictures are, top row L to R- the Areva trailer I bobtailed to Florida to pick up, unloading Kyanite in Negley,Oh, loaded with coils in Masury,Oh. middle row- log truck in Rustburg,Va, an old GMC I spotted in Concord,Va. this summer, Navaho truck in Food Lion parking lot in Altavista,Va. a few weeks ago. bottom- what it would look like if you were following a coal bucket on rt. 20 in West Virginia.

only 4? I don't know, i'd better do more research and plan my route so there'll be one about every 50 or 60 miles, just in case... wish I could find a good straight hood so cheap i'd think I stole it, then i'd go ahead and paint the top of it black too, like I wanted to do at first.

peel the clear coat off and krylon it you mean?

thanks Rob,looks like paint in the future,as I have no place to store it inside.It's been sitting outdoors for the last 4 or 5 yrs. at least.

amen brother!...as nocluejoe would say "other dog quoting nocluejoe quoting bulldog man"

welcome back Bulldog Man. You hadn't been seen or heard from for so long I thought maybe you had transferred to an undisclosed location somewhere in the Pacific northwest!

That sure is a clean and neat shop, nice!

ain't that the truth!

Yeah, i've heard them CB Rambos, but like you say they're seldom actually seen. I heard a story some years ago about 2 drivers arguing on the Pa. turnpike-I have no idea if it's true or not, but I heard the same story several times-the one driver told the other one to pull over to fight. The driver didn't stop of course, but there just happened to be a Yellow Freight driver pulled over where the driver that wanted to fight had told the other driver to pull over, so the other driver pulled in and commenced to beating up on the Yellow Freight driver, who was out thumping his tires or something, and didn't even know what was going on.

Only got in one trip this week, was supposed to go to Negley, Ohio monday but went to Fremont instead. Had to untarp one pallet at a time in the pouring rain so it wouldn't get any wetter than it already was. Then I went to Brookfield to load and there was 4 trucks ahead of me at door 12. Got there at 3 o'clock and left at 8. Didn't really matter though. I unloaded about noon Wednesday in Roanoke and was done for the week until I went to Moneta today and loaded treated lumber for Erie, Pa. I wouldn't leave until late Sunday, or maybe Monday morning, because of the Cumberland county Christmas parade, but it's so slow i'm just gonna have to miss it this year and get on up to Erie. First one i've missed since I've had the mixer, and won a trophy every time. But times are tight, gotta go-can't eat those trophies! And speaking of the mixer, I started it Wednesday and it looked like there was a piece of clear plastic laying on the hood. I got out to get it off and unfortunately it was not a piece of plastic but the clear-coat peeling off in big sheets. My theory is that when I waxed it I waxed through the clear coat and a little moisture seeped in, then it froze and pulled it loose from the base coat. Never had any problem 'til I waxed it, so I assume that's what happened. Looks terrible now anyway. Might try to peel the clear-coat off and wax it, if that doesn't work too good I might have to repaint the hood. Someday, that is-right now I couldn't afford a can of krylon.

yessir, the 285 in the F-model I drove would "tote the mail" in it's day.I could go all the way up Christiansburg mountain in 4th gear with 25 tons of fertilizer on, in a van. Yes, the fuel was turned up a wee bit. I would climb most of the hills on rt. 8 coming from Butler Pa. back south to the turnpike in 3rd. gear with 48,000 lbs. of steel, and the one time I drove a 237 F-model up there to load I was in 2nd. gear on every hill it seemed like.

Yeah, i'm not anti-union BUT i've loaded at and delivered to many union steel plants and seen them in action (or maybe inaction is a better word!) so it's hard to feel much sympathy for them when they already make more than most of us for doing way less work. A truck driver called a radio talk show I was listening to a few weeks ago and his brother worked for Dana corp. and his father was retired from Dana. He said his father told him when they wanted a break somebody would throw a wrench in a machine or something so they could do nothing or 3 or 4 hours, while somebody fixed the machine. He also said his brother bid on jobs, and his job title was spill-cleanup-he just sat in a little office and read the paper until he had a spill cleanup to do, and that's the only thing he did.