Early this morning we were at Technibilt to pick up our load headed to the Bronx, NY. I got up early (imagine that) and went over the maps again and the gps. Trapper and I agreed (with help from google earth) on our route. We agreed that we didn't want to get into the Bronx tonight, so we were going to stop at the last service area on the NJ Turnpike... just before crossing into NY. This way we could be in and out of NY... bypassing traffic and problems. Solid plan!
Everything was set, we were loaded, and leaving! Yes! I could see myself wearing my "I Love NY" sweatshirt in a couple of days! I could see my pictures that I knew I would take!
And then it happened.... we drive 3 miles, stop at a red light, take off from the red light, and we are all of a sudden coasting down Hwy 321 in Newton, NC! That's right... the truck completely turned off... no gauges... no power under the hood.
Hwy 321 is four lane so luckily we were coasting in the far right lane and then we were stopped in the right hand lane. We tried a couple of things.... still nothing... Trapper gets out and puts the triangles out behind us and then calls the service department of CFI.
A qualcomm message confirmed a wrecker was on it's way and a second qualcomm message confirmed that my hopes of going to NYC were just reassigned to another truck!
My picture taking for today started with this... the wrecker backing up to us to pull us away from our trailer. Our trailer was taken to a safe place by a different truck.
Four or five hours later we are back in the truck. We had blown a huge relay fuse caused by two of our four batteries being bad and the other two were really low.
Earlier today our relay driver showed up and took our trailer onto Bronx, NY tonight. We have his empty trailer and are headed to the nearest truck stop.
We've been dispatched to pick up on Wednesday in Old Fort, NC and deliver Thursday in Nashville, IL.
I'm a little bummed because we didn't get to "the city" but we didn't for a reason. Everything does happen or does not happen for a reason. This is a job, first and foremost... but the vacationing/siteseeing side is a perk!
For the curious readers... no compensation for days like this... you make money when the truck is moving... being towed doesn't count.
The bright side is that this didn't happen in NYC, we are rested and ready, and maybe the jinx is broken now!
I'm still (secretly) wishing us to California!
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