Back In The Truck And Ready To Roll!

Well hello everyone and welcome back. These last two days have been well quite boring! I waited around all day yesterday and they finally got the truck into the shop around 4PM. About 8PM, they finally sent me to the Holiday Inn to get a room.

This morning I get back over here around 7:30 AM hoping they completed the work overnight, only to find that it was STILL being worked on. I hung around here all day in the drivers lounge. Then I checked once again around 6:30 PM and the truck is finished! Yea!

Well what they worked on was finished anyway. I had 3 things that needed fixing that I knew about. 1) windshield cracked: replaced; 2) check engine light on: still on; and 3) engine noise: they replaced a cracked exhaust manifold. Well a cracked manifold needs to be replaced, but a cracked manifold doesn't make the same noise as what I heard. But of course it's not making the noise anymore. Just like it did a few days before Christmas. The noise was there for about an hour and hasn't repeated itself until a few days ago. So we'll see.

But now I'm back in the truck to get a good nights sleep tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good long road to a warmer climate. LIKE HAWAII!! Well as soon as they build that Pacific Highway anyway! One can always hope.

That's it for now. See ya down the highway...

Just When You're About To Have A Good Day...

...something happens to change all that!

I woke up early this morning, about 6:30 AM, because I wanted to get to my stop early in the afternoon. I had barely over 400 miles to drive, so I was expecting maybe around 2PM. I was headed to Kings Bay, GA which is right on the southeast corner along Florida and the Atlantic Ocean. This would have been plenty of time to go for a nice bike ride.

So I headed out of Kenly, NC at 7:15 this morning. Drove for about an hour and a half before making a quick McDonald's stop for breakfast.

Continuing south on I-95 about halfway through South Carolina, another trucker calls me on the CB and tells me that one of my brake chambers is hanging down. A couple miles later, I pull into a rest area to check it out. ARRGGG!! Yep, the mounting studs broke off and it's hanging on by the air lines and the main shaft. Just swell!

I look up in my truck stop guide to see where the nearest T/A to get it fixed. Well I can back track north 20 miles or go south 100 miles. Better play it safe, so I back track to Manning, SC. I pulled into the T/A and see that there is only one other truck in the shop. Great! I can get in and out quickly! NOT!!

The one mechanic there does tires and other lite mechanical stuff. I have to wait for the other mechanic who's out on a road service call. FOUR HOURS LATER, I'm finally done and out of there.

By the time I arrive in Kings Bay, GA, it's 7PM, the sun is setting, and no time to ride my bike and explore the nearby islands. Oh well, it just wasn't meant to be.

After I parked, I go inside the truck stop and had Church's Fried Chicken for dinner. So much for a good afternoon planned.

That's it for today. Tomorrow morning at 6AM, the Naval Sub Base for my delivery! See you back again.