Maine freezer

The news that we were taking a load up to Maine got me excited that we would be adding a few more states to our 'been there' list. But we were not prepared for the weather up there.

But first let me start with ...
 The day before yesterday I drove the whole length of Pennsylvania, from West to East. Since Schneider did not want us taking the toll road, our trip consisted of all US and PA hwys. Non-interstate driving is exhausting. You have more curves, hills, and most of all, lots of turns and stops and gos through towns. But I got the load delivered on time in New Jersey, then headed back to PA to pick up our next load, which is the load that had to go up to Maine.

We had time to get the load delivered on time and my copilot wasn't feeling very good so we stopped for the night and slept. He took some nyquil but still did not feel very good the next day, so I drove again. Got us up through the George Washington Bridge and beyond into Maine.

It was sunny when we reached Maine, but chilly. Once I got to the drop location, a Walmart distribution center, the sun had started to set and it was now a blistering 27 degrees with a huge wind factor. When we had left our home in Lehigh Acres, Florida, we thought we wouldn't be seeing anymore cold weather. I had left my hoodie behind, and had packed shorts and capris. Thankfully, though, I had packed one pair of jeans and we still had our jackets. But our jackets are thin fleece and more appropriate for 58 degree weather.

My Panamanian copilot was not having any of it. That and he still wasn't feeling better. So I had to drop the trailer and pick up the empty by myself. I was doing ok, but then I hooked up to a defective trailer and had to start over. By this time I was a frozen popsicle and in a bad mood. But I got disconnected and mozied on over to another trailer and got hooked up to it. All the while coming in and out of the truck to warm up. I was almost done when I lost  one of my gloves, I had set it down on the steps of the truck and the wind had blown it away. At this point it was over an hour into the process so copilot helped me to try and locate the glove. We almost left, then came back to look for it again, and success! Those gloves are oily and smell like diesel but dangit I paid a lot of money for them!

On to the next location to pick up our next load and it's full night and probably minus something. Then I found out that I couldn't slide my tandems, the pull out handle had something in the way not allowing the handle to be pulled. So sorry to the company but I definitely wasn't going to tell them about it, I parked that thing anyway! (I did, however, send a notice to Schneider telling them about it...)

The next job I had to do was connect to the loaded trailer, and when I pulled up behind it I noticed it was super high. I had to lower it. Not a problem in warm weather! But in my haste to get out of the cold, I couldn't get the handle in low gear, and it was not budging in high gear because it was a heavy load. The wind was blowing hard right through my jacket, and even though I had a hat on I didn't have a scarf so the wind blew right down my neck. I was miserable.

After 2 attempts I sat in the driver seat about ready to cry. But instead I said a little prayer asking for a little more patience and the ability to get the handle in low gear to be able to get the job done.

So I sat there, quiet, digging down deep, and then it suddenly hit me... I look over at copilot and he's comfy warm but not wearing his jacket... 'hey. let me borrow your jacket' I say. I take mine off, put his on, then put mine back on over it. Then I looked around for something I could use as a scarf... the bed sheet! It was perfect! It's made from the same material as t-shirts, soft and warm. I wrapped that thing around my neck, made a knot, then pulled it up over my hat. When I went out again I was warm enough to calmly put the handle in lower gear and get the trailer lowered. Success!

Later we pulled up the their scale, it was one of those 1-axle at a time dealios. We were overweight! This was the first time this ever happened to us. 'Move the tandem towards the trouble' is the motto, so we did this. First we were on the 14th hole, then we tried the 12th hole, still overweight, finally I put it in the 8th hole and we were ok except that the front axle was still over by 60 pounds. When the weight came up on the scale I looked over at copilot sitting in the passenger seat and said 'well I guess you have to get out so we can be legal' I was only kidding but when he got back into the sleeper berth, the weight went down to 12,000 pounds exactly!

We saw that we had enough time to deliver this load that we could stop the truck for the night again. By the time I drove 40 miles up the road to a service plaza I was exhausted. We both slept 10 hours straight and thankfully, he was feeling better in the morning and was able to drive to give me a break.