I woke up this morning bright and early to deliver a load of cut fruit and vegetables to Wally World in Clarksville, AR and prepared myself for the "short" drive up to Springfield, MO to get my Rigmaster generator installed. To shorten the drive and make it interesting, I chose to take state road 21 to US412 to US65. Well, I did succeed in making it interesting...
I wouldn't dare compare Arkansas SR21 to the likes of "The Tail of the Dragon" (www.tailofthedragon.com), but taking a truck through there wasn't wisest of choices. I'm not stupid. I knew what taking a little state route through the Ozarks in Arkansas would entail. And for the most part, it wasn't THAT bad. Just a couple of 25-35mph stretches which were really twisted and one curve that was posted 25mph and became VERY apparent once I was in the curve that the 20mph I was going was about 10mph too fast. And I got to climb a long 11% grade. And the atlas has the route marked as a designated route and no restrictions are listed. So imagine my surprise when I encountered a 34 ton bridge. I drive a truck with a gross combination vehicle weight rating of 40 tons. Let's just say that: 1) I was empty, 2) no cops around, and 3) there was no where to turn around at this point. I'll leave my solution to the problem to your imagination.
I finally arrived in Springfield after fighting strong temptation to run over some of these Missouri drivers who absolutely refuse to drive any faster than 50mph in a 60mph zone. With the amount of traffic on the road, it's dangerous to impede the flow of traffic like that, but I guess that they don't care and never will.
My truck gets to spend the night in the shop getting the generator installed while I get a bunk room at the terminal. A bunk room is essentially a scaled-down motel room. It has a double bed, a couple of nightstands and lamps, a chair, and a tiny tv with basic cable. It's not the Hilton, but it's comfortable. And it's free.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The Great Rigmaster Install and a very twisted road
Posted by Dr. Zebra at 1:55 AM
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3 comments:
You know a bunk room at sni oc's would be a very welcome change from the motels that they sometimes won't reimburse you for. As for the bridge, that's what u get for trusting an atlas on a route in AR. :) Just messin, I've ran across a few of those on valid truck routes.
Thanks alot for sharing your adventures. I am considering a second career in trucking.
Debbie
Good info and interesting stories...
I'm looking into Schneider and got here from the pumpkin sight...
The hr lady told me it was by some disgruntled dude, but it says and seems to be a standard support site???
As for the Misssouri-able drivers, it must have been oposit day...last time I was there they did 90-ish in the twisties with the one lane bridges
-MDR
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