What A Long Drive Will Do To You
The truck stop sits atop a hill on the north side of Denver, Colorado. It was dark when I arrived here a short time ago, and looking down on thousands of lights glimmering in the cool night air, I'm inspired with one simple, inescapable thought: Rand McNally is a communist.
Oh sure, the trip up from Amarillo today looked simple enough, like every other utopian pipe dream, though this one happened to be inspired by diesel fumes. Just take US 287 north out of Amarillo, stay on the main road, and presto! You'll be in the suburb of Brighton, Colorado before you can say "we don't need no stinking map."
I knew there would be trouble first thing this morning when no less than 10 people huddled around the coffee dispensers at the Flying J in Amarillo, making a group effort to actually pull the little lever down so the coffee would pour out of the spout. Their luck was intermittent at best, as one person's success was followed by the next person's amnesia. This is what it would be like, I thought, to watch the congressional super committee work on the budget.
Finally, with the truck full of fuel and my travel mug full of coffee, I was ready to get all 18 wheels rolling north. The little line on the map showing the highway looked like a fairly straight shot. I only had a little over 400 miles to go, on a Sunday no less. There shouldn't be any significant delays, right? Wrong, asphalt breath! One construction zone after another lay in the path, complete with enough traffic barrels, cones, speed bumps, people holding signs, people holding sledge hammers, people driving big Tonka thingies to populate a shovel-ready purgatory. There were people wearing hard hats, orange vests, sunglasses, and people talking with other people who were holding shovels, jackhammers, and other assorted tools of the trade. On at least four occasions, traffic was limited to one lane only, meaning that we had to sit for an extended period of time while south-bound traffic passed through the cone zone (do not pass go, do not collect $200), before we were allowed to negotiate that same one-lane sobriety test going northward.
As I had 45,500 pounds in the trailer, I could only keep my fuel tanks half full without exceeding the 80,000 pound max we are allowed by law. That kind of weight makes winding through 10 gears a tiring process, and it stayed tiring all day since there was no interstate travel to speak of. It was all small towns, narrow roads, and construction zones, so that what should have taken 7 hours, took almost 10. But the the little towns have a way of rejuvenating me. They are almost always very interesting. My favorites are the really small places, …places that might have one or two traffic lights at most, and where the tallest, most imposing structure in town is the church steeple that seems to reach all the way up to the bright blue sky. American flags stand in the windows of stores that are closed on Sunday. Children on the sidewalk pump their fists in the air, asking me to hit the truck's air horn. A blast of the horn sends them jumping and giggling as they exchange waves with me. On the whole, it was a good day. More tiring than I had anticipated, more time consuming than I had planned for, but it's what I signed up to do. America is my office, which makes me one lucky guy. But that Rand McNally fellow, …we need to keep a close eye on him.
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Jun '10
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
I had a cousin that was a trucker. He could run through the truck's gears in his sleep, and sometimes did. He's gone now, but it was health-related--not sleep-related. He could tell road stories, smoke a cigarette, adjust his radio, read a map, and drive his truck through stop and go rush-hour traffic, all at the same time. And occasionally, he'd even look ahead through the windshield.
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
You have just reminded me of the time during college that my best friend and I got off of work one night in Denver, went for coffee, and decided on a whim to drive to Lubbock, Texas (about 2 hours south of Amarillo). So we did that, got out and smoked a cigarette, and then got back in the car and drove back. We did take a scenic route through New Mexico. It has nothing to do with your post, other than it reminded of the folly and fun of such a random driving experience. And while I do love all those things that tie me to my home, darn if I don't envy you a bit even on a rough day such as today!
Oct '10
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Appreciate the elements one can buffer the driving experience within the states, rather warming thoughts as well as something to reminise. Wish one could share some of the same from driving in Mexico.
One of the signs that makes one pause is Rejuvination, IE, Highway. There is a practice here that, on the face of it, keeps road crews busy. Just replace road sections in the middle of ugly nothing for no real reason, save keeping busy.
Makes one ponder the infrastucture bank in the speak of today. One well understands the socialist model of employment here. Wonder how the real counterproductive measure of this would work out in the states as proposed.
A right foot, left foot thing.
Jun '10
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Dave, can you or do you syncro-shift through your ten. I do it all the time in cars, makes for a better drive because you have to concentrate and anticipate so as not to use the clutch. The standing joke when my buddies talk about cars that I drive is that the clutch is like new, used only to start and in emergencies. Matching revs perfectly with a syncro box and no clutch is as close as you will ever get to mechanical heaven. Mind you I'm always dealing with two to three times your RPM's so it's a lot easier.
When I taught a friend's son to drive stick, before the lesson started I said to him that at some point this afternoon you are going to think you know it all, when that thought comes to you remember this: at which point I tucked up my clutch leg and shifted through the gears up and down and then back up without clutching. The look on his face was priceless.
Jul '11
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Hill north of Denver? Hwy 287 runs through prairie grasses. Now, if you look to the west- that is where we keep our hills these day.
Don Mackison
Boulder, CO
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Don Mackison: Hill north of Denver? Hwy 287 runs through prairie grasses. Now, if you look to the west- that is where we keep our hills these day.
Don Mackison
Boulder, CO · Oct 24 at 1:47am
Don, ...I-76, exit #16. Not a mountain, but a gentle hill from which perch in the evening, the city lights are dazzling. Just a gradual slope which is why I could look down rather than up at the beautiful array of lights. Not a Mountain.
Dave
Brighton, CO
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Cas Balicki: Dave, can you or do you syncro-shift through your ten. I do it all the time in cars, makes for a better drive because you have to concentrate and anticipate so as not to use the clutch. The standing joke when my buddies talk about cars that I drive is that the clutch is like new, used only to start and in emergencies. Matching revs perfectly with a syncro box and no clutch is as close as you will ever get to mechanical heaven. Mind you I'm always dealing with two to three times your RPM's so it's a lot easier.
· Oct 23 at 9:55pm
Cas, I had an instructor show that maneuver. I tried it a few times, but didn't like the way it felt sliding between the gears. We have good mechanics, and if I break something trying that, they will be able to tell. Best to drive the company truck the way the company likes, so that the company owns the repairs too.
Aug '11
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Your post reminded me of a fairly-recent family trip through the southwest. Always one to look for the "scenic drive" on the map and also take what appeared to be a short cut, we jumped off the interstate and chose what looked like (at first) to be a lovely excursion through parts unknown. Rand McNally did us a great disservice by labeling the route as scenic. In fact, it should have had a skull and crossbones designation next to the road. We started with low desert and ended up with alpine meadows. The road was so narrow and mountainous that we started praying somewhere in the middle of the "short-cut" that if God would just allow us to live, we would promise to never drive a mountain road again. We never did make it to Capital Reef, instead choosing to stop at the first motel available so we could calm our nerves. What? Doesn't sound too bad, you say? I forgot to add the free range calf that was in the middle of the road around one curve and the smoking brakes a little further down the road. Are we having fun yet?
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
HeartofAmerica, I feel your pain. I try to stay on the interstate as much as possible, when practical. I've been on those kinds of roads,...in a semi, no less. There always fun to laugh about later on,...once the blood starts circulating again and you're able to pry your white knuckles from the steering wheel.
Dec '10
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Dave Carter
Cas Balicki: Dave, can you or do you syncro-shift through your ten. I do it all the time in cars, makes for a better drive because you have to concentrate and anticipate so as not to use the clutch. The standing joke when my buddies talk about cars that I drive is that the clutch is like new, used only to start and in emergencies. Matching revs perfectly with a syncro box and no clutch is as close as you will ever get to mechanical heaven.
· Oct 23 at 9:55pm
Cas, I had an instructor show that maneuver. I tried it a few times, but didn't like the way it felt sliding between the gears. . · Oct 24 at 7:03am
Car have constant mesh transmisions with synchronizers. Heavy trucks do not. Totally different.
Constant mesh means the gears are always engaged. Shifting gears is a matter of disconecting one gear from the output shaft and connecting another to the output shaft. Synchronizers aid these operations.
Trucks actually move gears around.
Edited on Oct 24, 2011 at 9:36amAug '11
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
Someone asked me once if the drive was at least pretty and I responded..."How do I know? My eyes were closed for most of the drive!" It definitely was a white-knuckle drive. Amazingly, we did see a few trucks and RV's. Anybody driving something bigger than a mini-van up there had my respect and admiration.
Apr '11
Re: What A Long Drive Will Do To You
About Rand McNally, two comments:
1. Based on his last name, he's probably Irish, like that President O'Bama we currently have. So that's another reason for concern.
2. Wouldn't it be ironic for a person named Rand to actually be a Communist?