Freight Hauler Dave Part 4

The vacation was winding down and I was savoring the memories of the last couple weeks.

Heading out of Beaufort S.C.

In North Carolina, the roads are awesome. Once off the interstate roads they become two lane black top roads that twist and wind up and down back and forth through the hills. The shoulders on the roads are about a 1/2 a car width wide. Then trees so thick that one can't see 10 feet from the road. Some of the trees are hanging out over the road. Really cool driving. I couldn't take my eyes off the road long enough to snap a Ricky Cam picture. What's a Ricky Cam you say. That's when the camera sets on the dash and periodically a picture is snapped. Anyway those that had occasion to pray for my protection and safety while I was gone on vacation I have to say it worked. The first morning as I was traveling the 30 miles on the black top windy road to Merlefest in the early morning hours, I had an experience. I was headed down a hill with a curve at the bottom to the left. The trees and the curve were blocking the view. Upon hitting the bottom of the hill and rounding the curve there in front of me about couple hundred feet away was a big freightliner in my lane passing a little while car. All three of us had a split second to react so I hit the brakes and got off the road on the half width shoulder a far as I could and the little while car did the same. The big freightliner snaked right down the middle of the road between us. I was sure glad to have a clean pair of underwear along that day.

That's North Carolina up there ahead.

Well, it's time to head back home. I filled up Ricky with 87 Octane and grabbed a couple sandwiches, a big coffee, and a diet pepsi for myself. I'm anxious to get home so it's a mad dash to make a 24 hour trip from there to here. Ricky has a about a five hour tank so it was a real challenge to have my bladder keep up with Ricky's tank, but I did a pretty good job. Every stop was about the same. Fill up Ricky and drain out myself, grab the sandwiches and drinks and head out on the road. Set the cruise to 70 MPH and five hours later do it again.

Good Ricky Cam shot of the Appalachian Mountains in N.C.

We make it across North Carolina and blew through Tennessee. We hit Kentucky and beat the bug storm across the Ohio river. I was able to get a fairly good shot of the Ohio River while I was whizzing over the bridge at 65 MPH by snapping a shot out the side window.

Ohio River shot on the way home.

Somewhere in the middle of Kentucky, Ricky and I made another stop, but Ricky insisted since we had just hauled a load of freight to the East coast we just had to park in the lot with the other freight haulers. Shhhhhhh, don't tell him he needs to grow up a bit.

Ricky parking with the big guys

I'm really thinking that I'm a genus because leaving on Sunday morning would put be close to St. Louis about 9:00 PM on a Sunday night. Traffic would be slow and I could shoot right through the 20 mile construction zone easy as could be. I was right I hit the St. Louis area at just about 9:00 PM and you would think the construction workers would be fast asleep dreaming about Tonka Trucks. But NoooOOOOoooo not in Illinois they love their construction. That's right, 9:00 PM on a Sunday night they have dust flying from sawing holes in the road, jack hammers busting up concrete, and dump trucks running up and down the closed off portions of road all the while I'm creeping along at an incredible speed of 5 MPH. Once again I creeped my way through the Illinois construction zone near East St. Louis. So at 11:00 PM I was headed out across the fruited plain of Missouri on highway 70 toward Kansas City. While passing through St. Louis I gave the radio dial a twist and came up with sock hopping with the early 60's oldies program. Cruising and singing along with the windows down kept me awake and heading toward that comfy bed in Omaha. When the St Louis station faded out beyond hearing, I twisted the dial again and found......oh my heart be still..........a community college station having a special Bill Monroe Bluegrass show.

We hit Kansas City about midnight with visions of being home snuzzin' by 4:30 AM. After getting around the K.C. bypass and heading toward St. Joe the my eyes were toast, full of sand, and the eye lids were really dropping fast. I was really gettin' tired. So rather than being foolish, I tapped into that God given wisdom again and wheeled my rig into a rest stop, threw back the seat, and immediately fell into a deep snore for about 3 hours. It's amazing what a little snoring and big jug of truck stop coffee can do. Finally home at 6:30AM and I hit the bed and finally came back to life about 5:00 PM and this vacation went into the history books.

This adventure is completed
The adventure called life continues