After we dropped out last load in El Paso, I headed over and got the truck washed and we hung out at the Petro so J could get some non-moving sleep. After he woke up, we went in and grabbed some dinner and then headed back to our terminal to wait for the load that night. I headed to bed and J stayed up and waited for the load to be ready. Once it was ready, he hooked up and hit the road.
He made it to Van Horn,Texas and that is where he woke me up and I took over. At this point, we had a little over 1200 miles to go and about 24 hours to get there. I drove all day and got him to Shreveport,LA where we switched out. After we switched, I grabbed the laptop to blog, but it wasn't going to happen. I-20 through Louisiana is horrible! The laptop kept trying to leap out of my lap! I decided it would have to wait until later. I decided to head on to bed and get some sleep, what I could anyway with the bumpy roads. J got us into Atlanta around 0200 hours, so we dropped the trailer and came around back to park. We had run out of hours so we have to sit here and do our re-start so that we have our full 70 hours back. Our re-start ended this morning and we have been available since 0500, but we still haven't gotten a load yet. They better hurry up and get us something. We are not getting paid if we are sitting, and that is no good.
Driving OTR has reminded me of a lot of things that bug me that 4-wheelers do around trucks. That is what we call cars and pickups. With that being said, I will just point out one thing today that drives me nuts and not EVERYTHING in this post!
A semi truck and trailer can weigh up to 80,000 lbs. For comparison, your car probably weighs around 3,500 lbs. A semi truck weighs the equivalent of about 22 cars. That being said, a semi truck going 55 mph needs a MIMINUM of 100 yards to come to a complete stop. That is locking up the brakes to get stopped. How many highways are 55 mph anymore? Not many. There is a reason why we leave space in between ourselves and other semis or 4-wheelers. We need that room to stop. Please, please, please do not think it is ok to jump in front of a semi , right on our front bumper, in the middle of traffic! If you do that, and we are in traffic, what is going to happen to you when the truck in front of you stops and the other lanes are blocked and you can't get over? I will tell you, and it is sad. You will most likely get stopped in time. But that semi that you jumped in front of, and took up his stopping space? He will probably get stopped also, but not before ramming your car into the back end of the truck in front of you and quite possibly killing you and anyone that is in the car with you. That is the cold hard truth, and something I want you to think about next time you take up the space a semi needs to stop. 80,000 lbs does not stop on a dime like a car can. When we hit you, it will be like 22 cars just piled up on you. I pray to God that it never happens to anyone and that it never happens to us while we are driving our semi. But I see 4-wheelers do it every day, and it makes me cringe, because they have no idea what kind of a situation they just put themselves into. And if you have children that are at the age where they are starting to drive, please share this with them, because they have no clue. Or heck, share it with anyone you know regardless of how long they have been driving. Chances are they don't know anyone that drives a semi and are probably clueless also.
That is my rant for the day. I figure I will share a little of them so that people understand what we, as truck drivers, have to contend with on a daily basis out here. I do understand that there are those truck drivers that are just jerks, and I get that, but you should not judge all truck drivers actions based on the actions of idiots that you have ran across in the past.
On a happier note, I did get some pictures while we stopped at a rest area. There are some really crappy rest areas across the US, but there are also some really nice ones. This particular rest area was in Mississippi. They had some cool tile work in the restroom and the grounds were beautiful. They even had 24 hour security on site. Very nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment