Eagles on Highway?

OMG After sitting for a day in Delano, CA recovering and recouping some hours I finally got rolling again. I was told to bob tail 120 miles or so south to pick up an empty trailer that would get me prepared should a load become available. I was off like a prom dress and thankful that my ear wasn't hurting too badly any longer.

I didn't make it to a pharmacy to get the script for the antibiotic filled because I just couldn't bring myself to step inside the only thing available in the area (Wal-Mart). So I've just hoped that I'd heal naturally and so far so good. If I find a pharmacy like a Walgreen's or Rite Aid or something in the next day or two that I can park close enough to to get it filled, then I shall. Otherwise, I'm waiting till I get home.

So back to the story. I hit the road bound for a town called Lancaster to pick up the empty trailer. I crossed back through the mountains where the painful pop in my ear originally occurred, thankful that the second pass of the range was pain free. Making my way ever closer to Lancaster things seemed to be going well. I was feeling good and happy to be rolling again. I was cruising along listening to XM radio, entering the town of Mojave when all of a sudden the tractor started to fishtail and I began hearing a hissing noise in my cab.

I thought at first that I'd half flipped the splitter switch on the gear shifter, which is something I do entirely too frequently. So I checked it first and found it in the full up position. Then I realized that my air pressure was dropping dangerously low. As I pulled on my flashers and pulled off the highway onto the shoulder, I began smelling the distinct smell of hot brakes.

I looked in the side mirrors and saw my fish tail trail on the highway behind me. When I came to a complete stop I set the brakes, the hissing stopped, and I shut down and got out to see what the hell was going on. Turned out that one of my air brake canisters took a crap and was leaking air at a rather rapid rate. So I had to call emergency maintenance, for the third time since heading west and sit and wait for a road side service crew to show up.

The guys that arrived about half hour later were not adept at the English language and we had a very hard time communicating. But thankfully, they were able to determine the source of the problem themselves and had it fixed within the hour. Back up and running I drove the remaining 30 or so miles to get my empty trailer.

I missed the first road I needed to turn on and had to drive a mile or so to find a place to turn around. Finally I made the correct turn and then after making a wrong turn and retracing my steps a second time I finally found the place. The trailer was backed up to a dock that was sort of like a narrow alleyway, with half walls of cinder block and stucco less than a foot away from either side of the trailer. It was tight and I was thankful I was not the one who had to back it in there. But it was my duty to pull it out, so I got hooked up to it and dollied up the landing gear and fired up the engine to let the air pressure build up.

As I waited for the air pressure to build I caught up my log book and checked my truck stop guide book to see where the closest overnight parking location would be. When my air dryer "spit" I released the tractor brake, gave the trailer a two tug test to make sure the king pin was firmly and securely in its place on the fifth wheel and then I pushed in the trailer brake.....

.............

only to find that the trailer wouldn't move when I attempted to pull forward.... I rolled down my window and heard the hissing coming from under the trailer.

CRAP! Seriously?

I got out checked it out and figured it was another blown air brake canister. I crawled under the trailer and could feel air rushing out. So I got back in the truck, set the brakes and called emergency maintenance for the fourth time. The guy that showed up this time was a red blooded American and we had no problems communicating. Which came in handy when he made the same mistakes trying to find the place that I did and I was able to tell him where he could turn around and how to find the joint.

Once he arrived he checked a few things and determined that my assessment was wrong. The canisters were all okay from what he could tell, instead it was the main air supply valve that was jacked up. And of course that's not a part he carries in the service truck. So after a lengthy call with emergency maintenance, he was approved to manually back off the brakes on the trailer and escort me to the nearest truck and trailer repair shop, back in the same town I'd broken down earlier that day.

Since he'd manually released my trailer brakes, I had NO brakes on it whatsoever for the 30 mile drive back to Mojave. Relying on just my tractor brakes to slow and stop my rig (thankfully the trailer was empty), we made our way slowly to the repair shop. Of course, they were closed til morning but at least the trip was safe and over! I was definitely white knuckled throughout most of the trip, hoping and praying that none of the "if" type of scenarios the road side guy warned me about before we hit the road. One of which included "if you start to see or feel the trailer pulling to one side you need to maneuver to the shoulder as quickly as possible to avoid a jackknife". When I asked why that might happen, he said it was because he might not have backed one or more of the brakes off "enough" to keep it from catching the drum. YIKES.

So settled in the parking lot and stuck waiting till morning, I decided to treat myself to a nice night in a hotel. Lucky for me there was a nice hotel right across the street, so I got some stuff together and walked over and checked in.

The next morning I was back at my truck and ready to be serviced as soon as someone would show up at the joint. While I was waiting for the arrival of the employees, I decided I'd better call emergency maintenance just to make sure that we were clear to have the shop do any necessary repairs with no fuss. While I was talking to the guy who answered my call he asked me to try something with the air lines where they attach to the trailer glad hands.

He asked me to swap out the lines, trade places with each other, and then press the knobs on the dash to release the brakes. So I followed his instructions and listened to the wild hissing that ensued from the trailer brake area. He asked me then to pull out the knobs, setting the brakes and to swap the lines back to their rightful places. Again I followed the instructions. Once back in my truck again he asked me to release the brakes again. After I did I listened but heard nothing!

Apparently there was something caught in the supply valve that needed "blowing out" and by reversing the lines the debris was cleared out. I was amazed and annoyed at the same time. But the annoyance overcame the amazement since I had to wonder why the person at our emergency maintenance department whom I dealt with the night before never thought of trying such a thing. And even more so that the road side guy never thought of it either.

Of course, in the end, while it remedied the problem of having to replace the supply valve, it didn't supersede the fact that one of the brake canisters was indeed bad and needed replacing. When the shop crew arrived to begin their day, they took me in right away and reset the brakes the other guy had manually released and then ran a full check on all of the components of my brake systems, finding the bum canister.

After getting repaired I sat in the lot there for about three hours before I was finally receiving a dispatch to do something job worthy. They wanted me to take the empty to a new customer down in San Fernando and then bob tail to a truck stop to shut down for the night. Good enough for me, I headed south and found myself backing the empty into a dock in an area I had never seen before. The greater LA area was a welcome change from the Mojave area.

Once I dropped the trailer I hit the highway heading north and found a Pilot truck stop on I-5 to spend the night. It was sweltering hot and I melted away in the bunk while I read a book, talked on the phone and thought of how refreshing a dip in the arctic waters would be. The next morning, early, I woke up to the lovely sound of beeps coming from the Qualcomm. I almost thought it a dream, but then realized I was finally getting dispatched to pick up a load that would get me out of the state of California!

I was sent to our company maintenance yard in central LA to pick up an empty trailer, which wasn't as easy as that since the folks that dispatch empties dispatched me three before one actually existed on the lot. Empty in tow, I was then bound for Long Beach where I would trade the empty for a pre-loaded trailer bound for Pueblo, Colorado. A new state to add to my list and much closer to home than Cali.

I was lucky that my dispatch came in really early and that I was able to get into LA before the traffic really thickened up. Once I'd picked up in Long Beach and headed out of town I was even more thankful that I was up and atem early because the traffic headed into the city was madness! I got out unscathed and unexcited really. LA wasn't as bad as I had pictured, but certainly not a place I'd prefer to be again anytime soon.

Since getting out of CA, the trip has been pretty uneventful. I hit Las Vegas at rush hour, which sucked but gave me time to snap a few pictures and drivers' side sight see a little. I shut down for the night at the smallest Flying J truck stop I've ever been to in St. George, Utah. I slept awesome thanks to cooler temperatures.

I got up this morning, headed north and stopped for fuel and a shower in Parowan, UT, then continued north and east. I hit I-70 and took it across the endless desert/mountain region that is southern Utah. It was lovely in some spots, boring in other... breathtaking even from time to time. I enjoyed the solitude of the drive with no radio of any sort on. It was just me and my thoughts and the highway.

Then I crossed the border into Colorado. Nothing exciting, but it was nice to finally get my 18 wheels in a new state. I've never been in Colorado before, even in a car. It was a nice drive for the 26 miles that I was on the interstate. And it was a struggle once I hit US-50. The road is nice enough, but damn the wind has been relentless since I got off I-70.

Now I know it wasn't on US-50 that I saw the strange sign, but I don't recall if it was still in Utah or after crossing into Colorado that I saw it. It was a yellow diamond shaped warning sign that stated "Eagles on Highway".

It struck me as odd since I'd not seen a single scrap of road kill which might attract a carnivorous bird like an eagle on my entire trip across I-70 today. I kept a watchful eye, however, mainly because I'd hoped that if I saw an eagle I'd have time to grab the camera and snap off a few shots. I didn't see squat for the next few miles... but did take notice to the particularly lovely snow capped mountains in the distance off to my left. I was driving along admiring the countryside when all of a sudden...

*thwack*

Something hit my truck, hard. Crap... I wasn't even looking ahead of me so I had no idea what I'd just hit. I tapped off the cruise control and let the rig slow down while my head swiveled side to side checking my mirrors to see if I was loosing truck parts, tire chunks, anything.... and then I saw it............

It was laying splayed across the lane about a quarter mile behind my truck. It was unmistakable and torn to shreds.....

Poor thing... I felt just awful.

... Ha! I bet you thought I was gonna say that I ran over an eagle, didn't you? Sicko!

I didn't hit anything, thankfully. Nor did I see any eagles today. My drive was rather uneventful as I made my way to this mom and pop truck stop in a one horse town. I had a delicious dinner in the greasy spoon style diner before coming out back out to my truck to blog. I needed my fix... and now you've got yours.

Ya'll have a great weekend! I hope mine will be spent acquiring the load that will finally take me home!