For the third time in less than a month, we find ourselves here in Laredo, Texas. It's not real high on the list of places I care to visit but ironically, it's worked out that way. It's hot and miserably humid already, but in spite of that, I'm sooo glad to be here. Our tales this week involve two real miracles. Some weeks doing this job seem more like a vacation. This week was the opposite. It felt more like a job.
We left Salt Lake City with our load to Wisconsin on Monday and delivered it on Wednesday. That same day, only about thirty miles away, we picked up another load in Kewannee, Wisconsin that needed to hurry up and get to Virginia by noon the next day. We delivered that shipping container to a nuclear power plant very far out in the boonies in a town called Surry, Virginia. The roads we took out there were so narrow that at times there was not even room for oncoming traffic to pass us. It was there the first of the miracles we experienced this week occurred. After driving all those miles, we had just completed our delivery at the plant and were on our way back to civilization when the dashboard displayed the battery light. As we suspected, it turned out to be the alternator. My internet signal was nearly as non-exsistant as my cell phone signal and I scrambled to find a shop that could fix it right away. We were supposed to pick up another load the next day in North Carolina so we didn't have time to waste. Not only that but our fear was we'd run out of power before we could make it to a shop. There was hardly room for the truck on those roads, and no shoulder to pull off on should the truck shut down completely. By the grace of God, we found a shop that even though they were busy, they said to bring it over and they would fix it. We made it there under our own power and they dropped everything to get us back on the road. Not only that, but they actually gave us a really good price on it. We were sure counting our blessings that day and off to North Carolina we went.
It was in Clinton, NC where we picked up this load of escalators that were going to Laredo, Texas. We loaded it up on Friday, tarped the entire load, and had all weekend to finish the trip since it doesn't deliver until Monday. Our second miracle happened on this trip. On Saturday I had driven as far as a truckstop in southern Alabama when we stopped to take a break. Before Jorge got in the truck, he did the required load check (it must be done and recorded in the logbook every three hours or 150 miles as a precaution.) What a shock to find we had sprung a leak in our driver side fuel tank! That's never happened to us and I don't really know how it happened. Something on the road must have hit it just right. So what were we going to do? We had alot of fuel in that tank yet. We decided to drive and burn most of it up. Jorge took over the wheel from there while I got back on the phone trying to find anyone on a Saturday afternoon that could help us fix this problem along our way. Bad timing...by that time of the day on the weekend, they were almost all closed. One shop said it would be a week before they could see us. We just kept driving. We were about four hours from Laredo in the wee hours of Sunday morning when we made it as far as Victoria, Texas. We were exhausted. The tank was still leaking and we were looking for a dirt lot in which to park. We had gotten lucky and missed all the truck scales on the highway. Thankfully alot of them can be closed on the weekends too. Finally in the wee hours of Sunday morning, we parked near Victoria, TX at a Mack Truck dealership. It was closed for the weekend but we were hoping to at least find a dirt lot for the leakage and found it there. We weren't sure what to do next so Jorge got a bucket to collect the leaking fuel and we went to sleep, ready to tackle it again in the morning. Our idea was that if we could get it to the point where it quit leaking, maybe a little JB Weld would at least plug the hole and allow us get to Laredo for our delivery. Jorge woke up early only to see that it was still dripping steadily and the bucket was full. He funneled it into the other good tank and figured it should stop pretty soon so he put the bucket back under the leak and went back to bed. We discussed what are we going to do if our idea didn't work. We'd probably have to sit there and wait for the dealership to open Monday and delay our load, we figured. Really at a total loss of what in the world was going to solve our problem, at that moment a pickup truck pulled into the lot and the answer to our prayers was driving it! Even though the business was closed, this mechanic had decided to come to work to catch up on a job he needed to get done but there we were in front of their gate. Jorge went out to try to explain all the diesel fuel in their lot and figured this guy might either kick us out or kick us out and call a hazmat team while he was at it. Instead the guy was just the opposite. Jorge told him our situation and he said he could just plug the other tank off so we only would be using the good tank on the passenger side. He went inside to get his tools. It wasn't long before he had it fixed but this guy wasn't done. He went to get a couple five-gallon buckets and siphoned all the fuel that was left in the tank and helped us put it in the other one so we could at least salvage that. With the price of fuel being what it is, it was hard to watch it dripping onto the ground! When I asked this man what we owed him, he said $20 was all he wanted! How can I NOT believe there are guardian angels when things like this happen? We were back on the road in no time and finished the trip to Laredo....and THAT is why I'm so glad to be here today.
We left Salt Lake City with our load to Wisconsin on Monday and delivered it on Wednesday. That same day, only about thirty miles away, we picked up another load in Kewannee, Wisconsin that needed to hurry up and get to Virginia by noon the next day. We delivered that shipping container to a nuclear power plant very far out in the boonies in a town called Surry, Virginia. The roads we took out there were so narrow that at times there was not even room for oncoming traffic to pass us. It was there the first of the miracles we experienced this week occurred. After driving all those miles, we had just completed our delivery at the plant and were on our way back to civilization when the dashboard displayed the battery light. As we suspected, it turned out to be the alternator. My internet signal was nearly as non-exsistant as my cell phone signal and I scrambled to find a shop that could fix it right away. We were supposed to pick up another load the next day in North Carolina so we didn't have time to waste. Not only that but our fear was we'd run out of power before we could make it to a shop. There was hardly room for the truck on those roads, and no shoulder to pull off on should the truck shut down completely. By the grace of God, we found a shop that even though they were busy, they said to bring it over and they would fix it. We made it there under our own power and they dropped everything to get us back on the road. Not only that, but they actually gave us a really good price on it. We were sure counting our blessings that day and off to North Carolina we went.
It was in Clinton, NC where we picked up this load of escalators that were going to Laredo, Texas. We loaded it up on Friday, tarped the entire load, and had all weekend to finish the trip since it doesn't deliver until Monday. Our second miracle happened on this trip. On Saturday I had driven as far as a truckstop in southern Alabama when we stopped to take a break. Before Jorge got in the truck, he did the required load check (it must be done and recorded in the logbook every three hours or 150 miles as a precaution.) What a shock to find we had sprung a leak in our driver side fuel tank! That's never happened to us and I don't really know how it happened. Something on the road must have hit it just right. So what were we going to do? We had alot of fuel in that tank yet. We decided to drive and burn most of it up. Jorge took over the wheel from there while I got back on the phone trying to find anyone on a Saturday afternoon that could help us fix this problem along our way. Bad timing...by that time of the day on the weekend, they were almost all closed. One shop said it would be a week before they could see us. We just kept driving. We were about four hours from Laredo in the wee hours of Sunday morning when we made it as far as Victoria, Texas. We were exhausted. The tank was still leaking and we were looking for a dirt lot in which to park. We had gotten lucky and missed all the truck scales on the highway. Thankfully alot of them can be closed on the weekends too. Finally in the wee hours of Sunday morning, we parked near Victoria, TX at a Mack Truck dealership. It was closed for the weekend but we were hoping to at least find a dirt lot for the leakage and found it there. We weren't sure what to do next so Jorge got a bucket to collect the leaking fuel and we went to sleep, ready to tackle it again in the morning. Our idea was that if we could get it to the point where it quit leaking, maybe a little JB Weld would at least plug the hole and allow us get to Laredo for our delivery. Jorge woke up early only to see that it was still dripping steadily and the bucket was full. He funneled it into the other good tank and figured it should stop pretty soon so he put the bucket back under the leak and went back to bed. We discussed what are we going to do if our idea didn't work. We'd probably have to sit there and wait for the dealership to open Monday and delay our load, we figured. Really at a total loss of what in the world was going to solve our problem, at that moment a pickup truck pulled into the lot and the answer to our prayers was driving it! Even though the business was closed, this mechanic had decided to come to work to catch up on a job he needed to get done but there we were in front of their gate. Jorge went out to try to explain all the diesel fuel in their lot and figured this guy might either kick us out or kick us out and call a hazmat team while he was at it. Instead the guy was just the opposite. Jorge told him our situation and he said he could just plug the other tank off so we only would be using the good tank on the passenger side. He went inside to get his tools. It wasn't long before he had it fixed but this guy wasn't done. He went to get a couple five-gallon buckets and siphoned all the fuel that was left in the tank and helped us put it in the other one so we could at least salvage that. With the price of fuel being what it is, it was hard to watch it dripping onto the ground! When I asked this man what we owed him, he said $20 was all he wanted! How can I NOT believe there are guardian angels when things like this happen? We were back on the road in no time and finished the trip to Laredo....and THAT is why I'm so glad to be here today.