Real DOUBLE Trouble

Hey Now!

What a week it has been - and boy am I thankful for the Christmas holiday and the time I have off this and next week!!!

So here's my story.

Sunday morning, I take a 36 hour run to Chicago, IL. I get back 9ish Monday night.
Tuesday morning they have me scheduled out at 8am for Baton Rouge, LA. Cool.

Get to the bakery and the guy I'm running with wants to drive all the way down, we unload, and I drive all the way back. Fine, it's only 500, or so, miles. No big deal.

So we get to Baton Rouge about 4p and I'm hearing every time he hits his brakes, a serious air leak. Turns out, on the interstate, he was following a doublewide being transported. Well that doublewide blew two tires and rubber was flying everywhere. It just so happened that one chunk flew under out trailer and broke an air hose to one of the brakes. So everytime he stepped on the brake, pffhhhhhssssssssssttttttttt!

Once we got to the warehouse, the first thing we did was call the shop back at the bakery to get us someone to come out and fix it while we were working. They did, and called back to let us know they'd be out soon. So the towing company calls and my co-driver tells them we'll be working here for 4 hours just to make it in that time. Mistake!!! They didn't end up showing up until 10:40p. Of course it only took 10 minutes to replace the broken airline, but meanwhile we sat for 2 1/2 hours waiting. I of course saw no need to just sit and wait, so I climbed in the bunk and slept.

We finally got to the 2nd drop, emptied out and I started driving us home a midnight. At 3am I crossed the state line from LA into MS and had to pull into the weight station. I got the green light and as I worked my way up through the gears heading down the on ramp, I hear this extremely loud 'Pop' under the hood. Well, that got my adrenline a pumpin. The by product of this pop was that I had no power. The truck wouldn't go more than 45 miles per hour.

I pulled over at the next off ramp and looked under the hood for problems. None to be seen. So again I called the shop at the bakery to let them know of the problems. I found a truck stop at exit 15 and pulled in and shut it down. This truck stop was also 'shut down.' Nothing open. So the bakery calls back telling me they're trying get in touch with the Supervisor at our Pervis, MS outstation to get them to bring us a tractor. I figured it was going to be a while, so I climb into the bunk to snooze. They call back at 7:20a to say a replacement tractor is on the way and after it's delivered, we need to hang out with the broken down tractor until the tow truck picks it up.

All right. At 9a, the replacement tractor shows up. We talk with the guys for a few minutes, then they take off. We swap tractors, and the gear inside, then settled down to wait for the tow truck. It was supposed to be there by 10:30a. That time came and went, 11:30 came and still no tow truck. I call the bakery, "Where's the tow truck?" They call the towing company, um He had and emergency run for the police and is leaving to get our tractor right now. Should be 40 min. An hour goes by, I call again - still no tow truck. They call - Oh he's getting close - should be there soon. We wait 40 minutes, still no tow truck. Another call, and then another call. The tow truck didn't get there until 1:30p. We sat there for 14 1/2 hours. Over all we got close to 17 hours of delay time on this trip for the 2 breakdowns.

Aarrrgh. What an annoying trip!

I am thankful to be home for the holidays!!!

Merry Christmas you all!!!