First Recordable Incident In 27 Years

Well I finally bit the bullet and had my first incident in all these years . I'm not counting the light pole I took down when I first started trucking or the car that was parked in the no parking zone that I backed into 25 years ago. This was the real mccoy only thing was it was around 3 O'clock in the morning and there was not another vehicle on the 5 lane highway neither trucks nor cars anywhere. I didn't even know what was happening when a 4 wheeler slammed into my front passenger fender. He must have come up behind me and was going to pull one of those jackrabbit lane changes in front of me you know the ones I'm talking about, but he misjudged. Luckily no one was hurt and there was minimal damage to my truck but his pickup was a in a little rougher shape than my vehicle. Funny he didn't have a thing to say when the police came and I told them what happened but naturally he changed his story when he was speaking with the officer alone. Oh well Sh- t happens, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later just a matter of rolling the dice enough times. Be Safe

Mexican Trucks Set To Roll This September

I heard that the Mexican truckers have now been given the green light to drive across the United States with unrestricted access to the states. This was in the plan that was just passed where they raised the debt ceiling and stole another couple trillion meanwhile doing the old gangster double talk about reducing the debt. Anyway that is the newest story not being told to you by the press.

A statement was made that this would create more jobs but the question is for who?

Truckers Music

Trucking used to be more than a job and to some of us it still is. It was a way of life like farming or fishing. Awhile back I was talking to another trucker and something was mentioned about the movie Convoy. Never heard of it he stated and I was amazed. I asked him if he had never heard any trucker music and again he said he hadn't. Not even Red Sovine? Here is some old trucker music some from before I was born. Tried to get the original versions and these pages will lead you to other trucking music you might care to listen to.
Truckers Prayer http://tinyurl.com/3cbpmue

Convoy http://tinyurl.com/3gabg5o

Phantom 309 http://tinyurl.com/3mtqybp

Teddy Bear http://tinyurl.com/3nqcc72

Trucking For Hayter Trucking

In 1983 I walked into Bob Calvin's office at Hayter trucking in Fellows California. I want to learn how to drive a truck I said. We don't train drivers here son was Bob's reply. Okay I said I will find someone who will and started walking out the door. Don't be so hasty he replied maybe we can give you a shot but you only have one week to learn and no pay. Be here at 5 O'clock tommorrow. Fair enough I said thanks.
The next morning at 5 I met my trainer Irish. He was a big man who had lost his left leg up to the thigh in Vietnam. We would be servicing drilling rigs which continually needed drilling mud hauled off and water hauled in. We were driving an old Mac and this was before the formula engine and the gear shift was a large round metal knob with a button on the side with 3 positions that read ID DIR and OD. To shift you would run through the low gears in Indirect then shift into high range or direct tach out the engine and flip the button to overdrive tach it out which would increase your speed by about 5 miles per hour then drop to the next gear flipping the button back to direct and repeating the procedure. I think the transmission was a Dana Spicer but I usually didn't take a lot of notice to things like that except when something needed fixing
Three days and 50 hours of driving later Irish took me to the office and told Bob I was ready to drive. I am not trying to brag but everything just came natural the rest I would have to learn on my own. A week later I had my liscense and yes they paid me.
I became good friends with Irish and his wife and 3 girls. Most of the drivers used to get together and have a beer at one of our houses. There was a different atmosphere of companionship back then. One day a couple years later Irish showed up dressed in a suit and declined to drink with us and even stated he had quit smoking and started going to church. We sat and talked for awhile then he left. A few weeks later he had a massive heart attack in front of his wife and died.

Wow Been Awhile

I haven't posted anything for awhile but things sure heated up this year in more ways than one. In my personal life an Aunt passed away shortly after the last posting.
We had the flood of Nashville and mother passed away May 25th from cancer. We have a few more months to go hope they will get better. I am thankful to still be working and on a brighter note I learned how to put a camcord movie on youtube.

Rough Thursday Night

One driver started out the night by going into the store and while he was gone someone left there car in neutral and it jumped the curb and hit a fuel tanker. The car was damaged a little but the tanker was not. The driver took off before anyone could get her information.

Stolen Tractor Trailer Foiled By Driver

Someone stole a tractor at exit 6 KY truckstop a week ago or so and then hooked up to steal a trailer in another lot however the kingpin did not latch and they made it out into the middle of the intersection where the trailer hit ground. They took off heading southbound with the tractor and I believe left it at the top of the intersection. I am not sure if they have been apprehended or not. I am also not sure if the thief tried to latch with a king pin lock as I heard may have been in place.