Dusty Dirty

Dusty

            dirty

                        diesel

rag of steel

bakes in the sun

            ridiculed

someone spent a part of their life in you

climb in and you can smell it

hours and days and weeks away, away

            months of loneliness and diesel

                        sweat and oil

abandoned like the life that left you last

perhaps a life on a farm

            where loyal dogs will piss on your tires

and you’ll carry trusting cattle to their death

            as you trusted your last driver

sun bakes away the last of your glorious paint

            your stacks rust, your tires peel

and I notice a bad leakage from your ass

Twin clouds of diesel smoke, from a large Kenworth, in the sunset. Probably a Cat. Pulling an empty flat bed to an unknown location, That driver was off to the west, or the east, or the north or south.

When you drive, there is a certain romance about the sound of the engine, the weight of the load, and your destination. You may fear the mountains of the west and east, you may fear the cold of the north or the heat and humidity of the southeast.

You may find solace and poetry in the southwest.

And you may find yourself with a student driver or two that take you on some pretty wild rides. These are my stories - take from them what you will. Be assured that the life of the long haul driver is one of a gypsy, and the short haul driver one of the workman.

Stay tuned!

Chapter One - Learning to Drive

In the 1970's, when I learned to drive a "big truck", there was no such thing as a CDL (Commercial Driver's License), or any way of determining whether someone should be allowed behind the wheel of a big truck. The Big Truck I drove had air-brakes and a big diesel engine, and that smell that I loved early in the morning. (Smelled like victory).

After having driven those beasts (non trailer trucks) for about a year, I felt confident that I could take a 40 foot trailer, attached to a tractor, loaded with shredded paper, to the printer that would regurgitate it into explicit adult magazines.

It's an old '70's Mack tractor with a MaxaDyne diesel and a 5 speed transmission. Unless you have driven one, you may not understand how a 5 speed tranny can move 40K lbs of freight plus the trailer and the tractor, and then you are blessed. It didn't do it well. But it got down the stretch of road I needed. And it's a 40 foot trailer, in marginal condition, with 40,000 lbs of scrap paper.

Let me tell you about the first time you drag a really big thing behind you. You focus on the end of the trailer, and the end of the dock where you were parked flows away very quickly. The owners of the company are there to watch your virgin flight, and suddenly you are in traffic. Every incursion into your precious space (you're carrying scrap paper in an old Mack) is the most offensive.

Then you arrive at your destination, after fear and trepidation. Well, hell, they have these docks here too. More fear and trepidation. Because, after all these years of driving "straight" trucks, you need to come up with a way to back your trailer into a space marked with yellow lines and a light that tells you when you've successfully backed in.

My next post will detail those horrifying moments.

Tune in again!

Chapter One Continued - learning to drive

In a previous post, I talked about fear and trepidation when arriving at the "location".

I can feel the blood pressure rising to this day, as I pulled into the docks of the place I was to deliver this load of scrap paper.

Never having done this before, I just pulled into the lot as if I were parking a car.  Right.  Good idea.  The receiving workers were good enough to point out where I needed to go.  They were not good enough to tell me how to get there.

So, the docks are on my right, my trailer is pointed in ALL THE WRONG WAY, and I'm going to back this thing in there.

Ever heard of a blind-side back-in?  Well, it's when your right mirror is obstructed by the trailer you are trying to back in, because it's curling to the right behind you.  You can't see a thing but aluminum.  You are trying to move the trailer to the right, but you are in the left-hand seat.

To my horror, I'm getting instructions from the "ground crew" on how to maneuver this beast.  I mean, it's getting out of hand now.  I'm smelling clutch smoke, the engine is not happy with me, and neither are the people around me.

When I get the rig straightened out, I'm about 100 feet away from where I need to be, but this time, it's on the driver's side.

You'd think I'd have learned something by now.... "top of the wheel the way you want the trailer to go", "turn other way when trailer is straight".  These are simple things.

I left the trailer as close to the building as I could get it, and waited for another person more able to back it in.  .

I already knew how to disconnect a trailer (thank the gods for not forgetting the air & electric lines), and I bob-tailed home with my tail between my legs.  Thanks to the spirits for forgiving bosses!

Next...  I figure out the backing problem, and take to the streets!

Stay tuned,

dieseldon

Chapter 2 - The Docks

It's a cloudy and cold November afternoon at a printing factory. I have a load of 40,000 lbs of scrap paper, and this is my very first attempt at backing a trailer into a dock. I am driving a mid-70's Mack tractor, and I really have no idea what I'm doing.

But I should step back. "L.T." was the driver of that tractor. He was an old guy from Louisiana, and I learned a lesson from him. "I like everybody", he told me, and that has gotten me a long way in my life. Taught me that there really aren't any barriers to relationships, only likes and dislikes.

"I like everybody". Good enough.

On that day, L.T. was sick, and the printing house was hot for their load of scrap paper, so that they could bring more porn to the masses. (I gotta tell ya, I had a lot of good reading material in those days.)

So I hooked the trailer up to the tractor, attached the air lines and the electrical, and off I went. (I had seen it done enough times to fake it successfully.)

Pulling out of the yard, I could barely figure out where the back of my trailer was, but I made my way to the hiway. Some 20 trembling minutes later, I made it to the delivery site.

The fun begins.

I knew the basics of backing in a trailer, I just had no idea of the scale, even with a moderately size trailer. All I know is that I frustrated a number of dock workers and wore out a bunch of clutch material that day.

Eventually, I had to drop (safely park) the trailer off to the side, and L.T. had to come and put it in the dock.

That was my motivation to get the technique perfect.

I believe I did.

Tune in next time!