It’s Sunday night as I write this blog post. I just got home from a two day run that started late Thursday night. Oh, yeah…another event happened to me.
This is the second time this year I’ve been stranded in a motel room for over a day because of an event.
An uneventful week would sure be a nice break me thinks.
I accepted a run to Memphis on Thursday with full knowledge I’d have to drive through the night again. Since I also wanted…no needed to attend a church function Thursday evening I knew I wouldn’t be able to try to sleep that evening.
Everything worked out honky dory for the function and the drive to Tennessee.
But then, instead of the company dispatcher of the company I was driving for calling me to explain the change of plans, Jose called the dispatcher of the temp agency.
Originally I was supposed to pick up a return load in Memphis. I’ve done this before so it’s no big deal.
There was a second driver running the same route that night, but only one return load. For some reason unknown to me they switched the return load to the other driver.
That meant I would get paid four fewer hours for the run. Not preferable, but manageable.
Per usual I picked up an empty trailer after dropping off the load I delivered to Memphis. I then drove to the motel in West Memphis, Arkansas.
That’s when the confusion began, but not the event, yet.
As I parked I got a call from the company having the load picked up in Memphis. She wanted to know where I was and how long before I got there. I told her I was told not to pick up that load.
A few minutes later I discovered I picked up the only empty trailer available for that return load.
I had to unhook from the empty trailer so the other driver could use it. Then I would have to backtrack 20 minutes to get another empty trailer before I returned home late Friday night or Saturday morning.
I slept about three hours Friday before I woke up. No, I still had six hours minimum I had to stay in isolation before I could legally drive again.
Before I dozed off a few hours later I shut my alarm off since I didn’t have a set time I had to be back.
I woke up again before midnight, rested and ready to go…or so I thought.
I bobtailed back to Memphis. That means I drove the semi tractor without a trailer. It makes for a rougher ride to say the least, but it was manageable.
Five miles from the motel room on I-55 at the start of Exit 1 the tractor decided to stop for some unexplained reason.
The engine was still running. The brakes had plenty of air. The only thing I could think of is the transmission locked up, maybe that’s just my prejudice against automatic transmissions on semi’s.
All I know is it happened so fast I didn’t get it off to the shoulder of the freeway. I was parked in the right hand lane of the interstate at one o’clock in the morning.
The semi following me saw my four-way flasher lights and got into the left lane in fine shape.
I didn’t see much else coming in the half mile or so of straight road in my mirrors.
I shifted into neutral to keep the engine running. The truck didn’t roll down the incline I was on so I slipped into reverse to see if that would free up the tranny. It did.
The headlights behind me were a ways back. I prayed they’d recognize the danger and get over as I shifted into drive and stepped on the accelerator pedal.
Unfortunately there’s a few second delay before the rig moves forward in that instance.
The driver of the Chevy pickup must have been distracted.
He hit me so hard I ended up mostly in the left hand lane when we came to a stop.
My glasses were on the dashboard next to the windshield, as was my hat.
I hate it when certain prayers aren’t answered in the affirmative. This was one of those instances.
I thought I was fine until I tried to stand up. When I got on the top step the world started spinning. I quickly sat back down.
Another driver walked up to the side of my tractor and asked if I had a fire extinguisher. Before I could find it he disappeared never to return. I guess the fire was a false alarm.
While I sat in my rig a Arkansas State Trooper handed me a clipboard and told me to fill out the first two pages.
I began shaking while I wrote. I decided to shut the door in hopes I was getting too cold from the temperature being below freezing. Fortunately that prayer was answered with a yes. Whew!
A few minutes later I was walking around taking pictures of the wreck. The pickup was wedged onto the right corner of my tractor. They had to pry it off.
My back two tires were now touching the front two drive tires. The pickup was definitely totalled.
I later saw them wheel the other driver to the ambulance on a gurney. He was sitting up. I later discovered he had a broken ankle.
So maybe that first prayer wasn’t answered in the negative after all.
I don’t know if it will ever be determined what caused my tractor to stop like that, or what distraction that other driver had.
I do know I missed a Sunday with my church family. I try very hard not to let that happen because they are my family.
I’m pretty sure I suffered a concussion to some degree. I was able to drive back home over four hundred miles so I’m not totally worthless.
Apparently a day in a motel room is proper concussion protocol.
My neck’s a bit stiff. I’m taking Monday off to catch up on stuff at home.
Eek needs me to come to his rescue now. For those of you who didn’t read my newsletter I’ll give you the good news.
Elk Lake Publishing wants me to resubmit Eek’s Gifts after I cut out some fluff. Yeah, I have a real publisher interested in my mouse story.
I wish I was up to doing some back flips or somersaults, but I don’t think I’ll chance it at this point.
The day in the motel room gave me time to contemplate some changes to the mouse story. I just might not have to kill off most of the other critters that get cameos in it. We’ll see.
It may be mere coincidence that these strange events are occurring when the writing might finally be taking off. But I still need to request prayer support for me to survive these days.
Those who share the roads with me need prayer support as well.
Thanks for standing with me. I can’t do this without my family supporting me in glorifying God.
I’ll see you later. Wade
Praying for you Wade.
Thank you, Melissa. I obviously need all the prayer support I can get.