The Latest Adventures

#3 falling asleep in the drivers seat

It's been a couple weeks since I posted last, and boy have we had some adventures! One thing you can say about trucking: it's pretty much never boring!

Let me back up. Our truck is a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia. All vehicles have their quirks, of course, but this truck has had a gremlin in it since we first got it. It was brand new at the time, with plastic on the seats and 7 miles on the odometer, but within the first week it did something a bit odd. While driving down the road, the dashboard suddenly went blank and all the gauges died. The truck continued to operate normally, but with no way of knowing its speed, fuel level, rpms, or anything else, we immediately pulled over and shut it down. A few minutes later we started it back up and everything ran normally.

It's done this a handful of times since then, always the same way. The gremlin also shows his ugly head periodically by cancelling our cruise control, telling us the brakes won't work for a few seconds, and randomly flashing varios warning lights on the dashboard. We've put the truck in our company shop a few times, but they cant seem to find anything wrong with it.

Fast forward to last week, when we were driving through Wyoming and the whole truck suddenly shut itself off. This time it wasn't just the gauges - the engine died too. Next thing I know, I'm coasting uphill and rapidly losing speed! I got the truck pulled over and safely stopped and turned the key off in the ignition. After a few moments' discussion, we turned it on again and the truck fired back up like normal.

We made our delivery in Chicago then put it in the company shop again. This time they took us seriously and put us in a hotel for the weekend (at no expense to us!) while they tried to figure out the problem. They were on the brink of giving us a different truck and taking ours to a nearby Freightliner dealership when they tried a new idea and seemed to have it fixed. We took our truck back out on the road, and it hasn't shut down the gauges or engine since then, but the gremlin is still there, regularly flashing dashboard lights at us. He's probably sticking out his tongue at the same time. We'll see what happens. If it shuts down on us again, I will be on the point of demanding a different truck. It's a scary thing!

Oregon was beautiful 

We've had some very scenic drives lately. The run from Seattle, Washington to Sacramento, California is one of the most beautiful drives we have taken in a long time! In the Midwest, trees are in bloom, and the South is full of vibrant spring greenery. I love seeing the colors of the seasons, and springtime fills me with such gladness and celebration of new life.

In other news, we recently were stopped in Indiana by an accident that screwed up traffic for several hours! We didn't see the accident, but we heard all about it on the CB radio. It seems that a flatbed truck swerved to miss another vehicle and jackknifed, flipping over and spilling his load everywhere. Afterwards, apparently the driver was so shaken that he was in shock and unable to climb down from the flipped truck. He sat on that truck until they finally brought out a boom crane and lifted him down! Once he was on the ground, a wrecker crew was able to flip his truck back over and clear the roadway.

Meanwhile, we were sitting in a rest area that happened to be right where we had stopped in traffic. While there, we struck up conversation with several other drivers also waiting out the traffic jam. Even some car drivers came to join us as we stood in the parking lot chatting about trucking, life, and everything under the sun. It's always interesting to hear other drivers' experiences and perspectives, and we can all learn something from each other. The time passed relatively pleasantly until the interstate was cleared and we were able to get back on the road.

Spring in Tennessee 

Talking to the other drivers and the car people made me think about the last 8 months of trucking. It has been challenging, at times frustrating, at other times discouraging; yet there have been new experiences we could never have gained any other way. We've been able to see most of the country, we've spent a lot of time together, and we've reconnected via phone calls with people that are important to us. It's been good for our relationship too, teaching us to communicate and work as a team. I'm certainly looking forward to when we come off the road and settle down, but this has certainly not been a waste of time. We're meeting our financial goals and improving our marriage at the same time, and for that I will always be grateful.

Drive safely, friend.