i AM the slow truck....ugh
We made it, and luckily in one piece. I don't have internet access at home yet, so sorry for the delays in writing and getting back to you if you've written. I can get on really easily on campus, so I'll be able to keep in pretty good contact with y'all from this point on.
Well, my goodness. That trip was fun and absolutely took EVERYTHING out of me. Mom and I got up at the a** crack of dawn and headed out. We were on the road by 6:30 am, which was good because it gave me some time to be on the freeway with less congested traffic and get used to driving my 18-wheeler. No, not really, but for someone who usually zips around the city in a teeny tiny Nissan Sentra, I might has well been commanding the Titanic--and without a rear view mirror! That was the hardest to get used to. And speaking of icebergs and other obstacles, after two and a half hours of easy and pretty pleasant driving, we had our first (and luckily only) major problem...
On a quaint little stretch of road on I-84 between Tremonton, Utah and Twin Falls, Idaho, Mom and I started to hear something that just didn't sound right. I looked into my rear view mirror only to see the back of the cab I was sitting in (oh right...that doesn't work, duh!) and then over to my side mirrors and saw little bits of tire dragging off and tumbling across the road. Although startled by the sight, nothing seemed wrong with the car, the wheel wasn't leaning one way of another, and everything else felt fine, and so I figured that I had just driven over a blown out tire that had been close to the side of the road (because of COURSE I was driving by the side of the road, when you are driving a U-Haul and towing a trailer, you don't actually DRIVE anywhere, you crawl). Mom heard the same noise, and looked out her side and didn't see anything wrong and said, "Do you think that was our car?", to which I replied, "I don't think so, and if it were, some driver would SURELY try to be getting our attention". And literally as I was articulating that last syllable 'tion', I heard the warning semi-truck horns that I so eagerly worked to hear as a child on road trips (you know...you pass a truck and mimic pulling down on the cord to get them to acknowledge that they too are bored out of their minds on a long expanse of road in the middle of nowhere). I turned to Mom and with a laugh and said, "See what I mean?". We followed the truck driver and pulled over at the next exit, #263, the Juniper Road Exit for all you curious readers, and safely parked our car and took a deep breath. The kind and concerned driver got out and showed us that indeed WE had blown a back tire on the trailer the car was loaded onto. All that was left was a mere 6 inches of tire, we had basically been riding on the rim for the last mile. Besides the tire, everything was just fine, so we had a lot to be grateful for. I had cell service, so the truck driver left and Mom and I were stuck in the center of Idaho. I called U-Haul and they sent some nice guys from Tremonton to fix the tire. The whole scenario only put us out two hours (thankfully), and soon enough we were back on the road again.
I had already slept pretty poorly the night before, and with the tire malfunction, I was maybe one of the most alert drivers on the road. Luckily I-84 is not the most traffic heavy thoroughfare, so I didn't have that headache to worry over. My goal, even with the delay, was to get to the state of Washington before we stopped for the night. Luckily we made it a lot further than just in the state. We stopped in Yakima, which is pretty much in the middle of the state. We were welcomed with the smell of sweet grapes, as Yakima is known as Washington's wine country. I think from the time we stopped in Idaho to fix the tire, to the moment we pulled inot the motel parking lot I had not had a moment's feelings of relaxation. At dinner I felt my body finally give into the softness of the padded booth bench, and it took all of my strength to eat my food. After dinner and a nice long shower, I zonked out for about 10 hours. I finally slept really well.
The next day we only had two and a half hours drive to Seattle, so we were able to sleep until 8. That drive was gorgeous, winding in and out of the Cascades. Besides not being able to use a rear view mirror, the other aspect of driving that I never got used to was not being able to pass the slow trucks. I WAS the slow truck. Every once in a while I would come up behind a truck, going about 65, and turn my blinker on and start the process of passing. About half way through I would catch myself and say, "I am NOT driving the Suburban, there's no way I can pass this thing". It happened A LOT, and each time it did Mom and I would laugh harder. You'd think that I would have learned, but as you drivers know, there is a sense of passiveness when taking a road trip, and you start relying on auto-pilot responses. Needless to say, after two days on the road, I have a new found respect for those who drive large cargo types of vehicles. It's hard work! Glad I don't have to deal with that for a long time.
Well, my goodness. That trip was fun and absolutely took EVERYTHING out of me. Mom and I got up at the a** crack of dawn and headed out. We were on the road by 6:30 am, which was good because it gave me some time to be on the freeway with less congested traffic and get used to driving my 18-wheeler. No, not really, but for someone who usually zips around the city in a teeny tiny Nissan Sentra, I might has well been commanding the Titanic--and without a rear view mirror! That was the hardest to get used to. And speaking of icebergs and other obstacles, after two and a half hours of easy and pretty pleasant driving, we had our first (and luckily only) major problem...
On a quaint little stretch of road on I-84 between Tremonton, Utah and Twin Falls, Idaho, Mom and I started to hear something that just didn't sound right. I looked into my rear view mirror only to see the back of the cab I was sitting in (oh right...that doesn't work, duh!) and then over to my side mirrors and saw little bits of tire dragging off and tumbling across the road. Although startled by the sight, nothing seemed wrong with the car, the wheel wasn't leaning one way of another, and everything else felt fine, and so I figured that I had just driven over a blown out tire that had been close to the side of the road (because of COURSE I was driving by the side of the road, when you are driving a U-Haul and towing a trailer, you don't actually DRIVE anywhere, you crawl). Mom heard the same noise, and looked out her side and didn't see anything wrong and said, "Do you think that was our car?", to which I replied, "I don't think so, and if it were, some driver would SURELY try to be getting our attention". And literally as I was articulating that last syllable 'tion', I heard the warning semi-truck horns that I so eagerly worked to hear as a child on road trips (you know...you pass a truck and mimic pulling down on the cord to get them to acknowledge that they too are bored out of their minds on a long expanse of road in the middle of nowhere). I turned to Mom and with a laugh and said, "See what I mean?". We followed the truck driver and pulled over at the next exit, #263, the Juniper Road Exit for all you curious readers, and safely parked our car and took a deep breath. The kind and concerned driver got out and showed us that indeed WE had blown a back tire on the trailer the car was loaded onto. All that was left was a mere 6 inches of tire, we had basically been riding on the rim for the last mile. Besides the tire, everything was just fine, so we had a lot to be grateful for. I had cell service, so the truck driver left and Mom and I were stuck in the center of Idaho. I called U-Haul and they sent some nice guys from Tremonton to fix the tire. The whole scenario only put us out two hours (thankfully), and soon enough we were back on the road again.
I had already slept pretty poorly the night before, and with the tire malfunction, I was maybe one of the most alert drivers on the road. Luckily I-84 is not the most traffic heavy thoroughfare, so I didn't have that headache to worry over. My goal, even with the delay, was to get to the state of Washington before we stopped for the night. Luckily we made it a lot further than just in the state. We stopped in Yakima, which is pretty much in the middle of the state. We were welcomed with the smell of sweet grapes, as Yakima is known as Washington's wine country. I think from the time we stopped in Idaho to fix the tire, to the moment we pulled inot the motel parking lot I had not had a moment's feelings of relaxation. At dinner I felt my body finally give into the softness of the padded booth bench, and it took all of my strength to eat my food. After dinner and a nice long shower, I zonked out for about 10 hours. I finally slept really well.
The next day we only had two and a half hours drive to Seattle, so we were able to sleep until 8. That drive was gorgeous, winding in and out of the Cascades. Besides not being able to use a rear view mirror, the other aspect of driving that I never got used to was not being able to pass the slow trucks. I WAS the slow truck. Every once in a while I would come up behind a truck, going about 65, and turn my blinker on and start the process of passing. About half way through I would catch myself and say, "I am NOT driving the Suburban, there's no way I can pass this thing". It happened A LOT, and each time it did Mom and I would laugh harder. You'd think that I would have learned, but as you drivers know, there is a sense of passiveness when taking a road trip, and you start relying on auto-pilot responses. Needless to say, after two days on the road, I have a new found respect for those who drive large cargo types of vehicles. It's hard work! Glad I don't have to deal with that for a long time.
posted by D-Rock at Monday, September 11, 2006
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