I mentioned in the previous post that my week was a bit on the horrid side....I was wishing I'd gone for 2 weeks off instead of just the one. First off, I started out tired because of the race earlier. I may have to start rethinking the Sunday races, that or ask for Tuesday appointments in Tennessee. I just don't like doing the Tuesday option because it messes up the training for the week, especially the cycling.
I arrived at our yard to discover Lola the truck had a dead battery. The person who'd picked it up at the International dealership had left the interior floor lights on. Don't ask me why they even had them on in the first place, guess the wrong button was pushed accidentally. Finally get the truck going and within 6 miles of leaving our yard I wind up in a major storm complete with tornado warning. Traffic in the hammer lane was going 25 mph!!!!!!! Cars and trucks were almost bumper to bumper parked on the shoulder which if you don't feel capable of driving in that kind of weather is the best place to be, so not complaining.
Monday morning however is when everything when to hell in the proverbial handbasket.......I was to drop my trailer at Mt. Juliet and get an empty to reload at Glasgow, KY later that afternoon, ugh. At this particular place you can't just get any trailer you have to take out whatever they assign you. Ended up with a trailer with a completely flat tire and a broken door safety latch. Now I probably could have sweet talked the office clerks into giving me a different trailer but still would've needed to call the trailer in for the repairs and our road rescue dept would have still made me take the damn thing for repairs. I suppose I could've done like the other drivers and just left it for the next person to deal with but my conscience wouldn't allow it. Darn inconvenient, that conscience thing.
Anyhoo, get sent to TA at Antioch, TN and thats where it started getting really fun.......see these repairs were major issues but still something that should've only taken 2 hours max including the paperwork. Very simple to do. The tire guy gets the tire that had been flat (auto air system on the trailers, once I started rolling it came back up, but was hissing air out of a nail hole) off and finds a fist sized bulge on a tire on the front tandem. So picture is taken and emailed to our RR for approval to be replaced. And I wait. And wait. And wait some more. Mind you, the tire that was flat could have been repaired and replaced during this time as well as the safety latch replaced but nooooooooooo. All work comes to a screeching halt. Each time I walked up and asked were they going to have the part for the latch I was told the girls up front would have to get approval. Thing is, it WAS approved! The girls at the service desk were all "It's in the comments but the mechanics don't read them". Sigh...........I was there and in a bay by 10:30 am and didn't get out of there until 1630. My appointment in Glasgow was at 1600. Oh and they didn't have the part for the latch repair. Yep.
So rush hour in Nashville is battled, make it to Glasgow at 1854 and my LOAD IS NOT READY!!!!!! Good news is once they got around it was only a partial load so much lighter than normal. Next day I call our NLR shop explain the latch issue and spend 3 hours there while they replace another tire, all the brakes, the safety latch, and a turn signal light that was full of water because of the rain I'd drove through that morning.
At this point, things are looking up. I'm thinking hey, I've practically got a brand new trailer and I've got just enough time to get to Laredo.........fast forward to 3 am, I'm sound asleep in a very quiet, safe fuel stop at Kerens, TX and BAM, BAM, BAM!!!!!!!!! Somebody's banging on the side of my sleeper so hard I swear they're gonna knock the paint off. Turns out to be some bum claiming to be a preacher from Corsicana whose wife's father was dying in Athens, TX and they desperately needed gas money to get there. I'm just looking at the guy and he's literally wailing I'm so sorry to wake you, praise Jesus, thank you God and it's a first rate performance. If I hadn't been so peeved about being woken from a desperately needed sleep I might have even been entertained. This spiel was so completely rehearsed and he went down the line of trucks doing it to every single one of us. I ended up giving the jerk money but only because I didn't want my truck screwed with because he was wanting to get even, sigh........After that couldn't get back to sleep so just got up and headed towards Laredo.
There you go.......that was most of my work week. Next one should be better seeing as I'll be back on the Lewisburg. Cross your fingers everybody!
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