6/26/09

Every now and then it's good to reinforce the things that you already know. For instance, I know that I'm functionally illiterate with respect to the mechanical aspect of the trucking world. Today I got a little reinforcement of this knowledge. I headed down the street to the T/A and told the gal behind the counter that I needed my wheel seal fixed. She made her notes in the computer and told me that she would call my cell phone once they were ready for me, as the mechanics were presently occupied with other trucks. After an hour or so, I got my call. I pulled into the bay and the mechanic asked me where was the cap from the outside of the hub. Hell if I know, dude. That's the problem, isn't it? He checked over the innards of the wheel and axle and told me that the wheel seal and the bearings were all good. Yeah... of course... I knew that... err... umm. He shot some oil into the hub and stuck a new cap on the outside, then sent me on my way. My own ineptitude aside, this was good news overall.

I headed out to the freeway and began what seemed like the longest 320 mile drive in history. With my heavy trailer and all of the hills, it was a given that the motorists of Pennsylvania would insist on getting in front of me and going juuuust a bit slower than I was going. So I got to ride my brakes coming down each hill and thus eliminate the possibility of getting a run at the next one. Long, long day doing that shit. Then there was a ten mile backup waiting to get to a construction zone. That whole 'merging' thing hasn't caught on just yet, apparently.

I got into Ohio and managed to catch the afternoon traffic in Akron. There are not nearly enough people in that city to account for the traffic backups. Right on cue, the people who needed to be in the left lane to catch I-77 would all stay in the right lane and those who needed to be in the right lane for I-76 would stay in the left lane. Then, right at the last second, they all had to cut each other off and turn the whole freeway into a parking lot. Asswipes.

All of this merging nonsense has me wondering; On the autobahn, do you suppose that Adolf from Berlin insists on staying in the lane for Hamburg until the last possible second? Or is this a purely American trait? I don't know. Whatever.

By the early evening I made it down to US-30 and began the leisurely part of this trip. There are some hills in this part of Ohio, but it will get progressively flatter as I go further westward. It's not a congested road and I can usually cruise along at 55mph without anyone bothering me. I stopped at a little truck stop in Bucyrus for the night and found that neither my cell phone (AT&T) nor my internet card (Sprint) had any reception. That's odd. Usually, even in the most remote areas, one or the other gets a signal. I found that I'm parked next to a motel with an unsecured internet connection though, so I was able to watch the Tigers blow their early 4-0 lead and lose to the Astros. As for the absence of a cell phone, I gotta say... I don't hate it.