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Boston, Massachusetts

[Fri 30 Oct 2020 04:42:27 PM CDT]   This is about a trip to Boston which was nothing unusual except for one thing which I'll get to. I had a load of swinging out of Le Mars, Iowa on a Thursday for a scheduled delivery on Monday in Boston. I loved this load because it paid well and gave me time to stop at home for a day. So I leave the house on Saturday. Boston is something like 1500 miles or more from Le Mars, closer to 1600 probably. All this goes into my log books, which were all lies by the way. I left the house later than I should have and ran through Chicago, and ran US highway 30 across Indiana and Ohio, slower than taking the turnpikes, but saves about $40.00 in tolls.

  I was south of Cleveland and it was already Sunday, I had a long way to go and I was tired already so I did something you should never risk. As I jumped on Interstate 71 to get back up to Interstate 80 and got on the radio and asked if anyone had a Pocket Rocket. That's slang for speed. Kind of crazy to say that over the radio, but to my surprise a guy came back on the radio asking if I was the meathauler that just passed him, and I said yes, he said pull over at the next pickle park, that's a rest area to you non-truck drivers. So I pull over and a freighthauler bless his heart pulls in behind me. I get out an walk back where I meet a middle age black man headed for Cleveland. I told him I need to run straight through to make it on time, so he hands me a benzadrine, a fairly potent amphetamine. I shook the man's hand and thanked him profusely. What a super nice guy. Well, I pulled into Boston at 3 AM Monday morning. Without that guy I doubt if I would have been on time. I don't really condone popping pills, but it's beats falling alseep and waking up in a ditch or worse. It's speaks to the term Outlaw Meathauler. We were no angels but we got the job done and I'll never forget the freighthauler for his help.

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Hunt's Point, Bronx, New York

[Thu 15 Oct 2020 03:32:48 PM CDT]   The meat and produce markets in the Bronx is arguably the most dangerous place for a trucker, or anyone for that matter to tread. Sometimes referred to as Hell's Kitchen by truck drivers, and a well deserved title it is, the real Hell's Kitchen is historically the upper west side Irish neighborhood in Manhattan. Regardless, Hunt's Point Market in the Bronx is incredibly dangerous. Many drivers refuse to go there for the following reasons, due to the high volume of trucks coming and going 24 hours a day, every day, the number of professional thieves is amazing. I have heard bone chilling stories of guys found in their trailer hanging from a meat hook after thieves stole the beef. The first rule for going into the market is DO NOT STOP. The cops will tell you not to stop, not even for red lights, thats when they break into your trailer and they can do it while you moving. They did it to me one night but didn't get anything, I has swinging instead of boxed meat. No way are they going to lift a 350 pound half of beef off that truck while your moving. This is how to get there, I use Interstate 80 from west of Chicago, to New Jersey cross the George Washington Bridge to the Cross Bronx Expressway, get off on the BQE - Brooklyn Queens Expressway take the exit for Westchester Avenue, end of the ramp, take a left and go a short distance to Hunt's Point Avenue. This is where the danger begins, slowing down to take a right turn gives the bad guys a chance to break into your trailer or get you to stop. KEEP MOVING!

  One night, just after turning onto Hunt's Point Ave., a driver going the other direction said on the radio, Hey driver, they got your doors open! Sure enough, even though I never had stopped, they got in. I thanked the driver and looked in the mirror, where I see one of my doors swinging open. This is what I did, I slammed on the brakes and hit reverse, I tried like hell to hit the Cadillac behind me, that's when I saw a guy wave at me from my passenger side mirrow and saw the cadillac veer out of the way and his accomplice run away. I had the best lock money can buy on the trailer, but these guys are pro's. I kept going until I got to the guard shack at the meat market, got out and shut my doors. Of the many times I delivered Hell's Kitchen that was my only close call. What the thieves attempted to do is get the doors of the trailer open and toss boxes of meat on to the cadillac. Too bad for them, I had swinging. Getting out of the truck and challenging them would be crazy, you'll end up dead, had I hit that car, I would have kept going, if cops ever showed up they would have known what happened and would have said I did the right thing. Personally, I wish I would have hit that car, just playin' the game and THEY knew it. That's just another night in the Bronx.

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Rap and Hip-Hop

[Posted Fri 09 Oct 2020 11:48:47 AM CDT]   I happen to be a product of the late 60's, 70's, and 80's music world. I love music of all kinds with few exceptions. I couldn't tolerate disco, man that stuff was to be avoided at all costs. This brings me to Rap, and Hip Hop music, and I use the word music with trepidation. As per the very definition of music, rap and hip hop vaguely qualify. I fail to see what people like about it. Anyone can utilize rhythmic, cacophonic, alliteration to the sound of a drum machine and other synthesized sounds, often with vile phrasing. I personally qualify music as musicians and vocalists, singing and playing in harmony to a good melody. This takes talent, skill, and practice. I do not hear that in rap and hip hop. Hopefully the latter will go the way of disco and disappear. That's my two cents on the subject.

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A few words about Meat Haulers

  When someone refers to meat haulers, they are talking about the original and rather elite group of truckers that carried Swinging Beef. What that means is when meat packing plants slaughter cattle it was typically slaughtered, dressed, and cut in halves and quarters for shipping long distances on special refrigerated trailers called Railers. This type of trailer has longitudinally placed aluminum rails on the roof of the trailer, where would hang 38-42 head of cattle. Sides of beef can weigh anywhere from 350 to 400 pounds, and are hung by steel hooks from the ceiling on the rails. This makes for a very unstable load, so only the best of drivers hauled it long distance. I was one of them. One of the particularly famous carriers of the product was Monfort of Colorado. They were among the best of the bunch, the best equipment, best drivers and fastest trucks. So fast were they, to this day the left lane on a divided four lane road is known as, The Monfort Lane. Reason being they were usually occupying the left lane. Meat processors were notorious for preparing trailers late, leaving the job of delivering perishable product on time and unscathed. Often referred to as pilled up meathaulers due to the fact the customers wanted the beef fast, and we would do whatever it took to accomplish that.

  I worked for Rowley Interstate, our trucks could be found all over the lower 48 states, but primarily the east coast. New York City was among my favorite destinations. For the uninitiated, trucking is divided into categories, unofficially of course. Meat haulers/ refrigerated trucks are considered the best of the best. Tanker yankers, portable parking lots, then come freighthaulers, these are dry van type non-refrigerated trucks, then greasy steel haulers and lastly bedbuggers. We truckers all have a friendly rivalry, when the chips are down, we help each other. Steel haulers are flatbeds, and they're cool, we just kid each other. As for bedbuggers, they are a strange bunch. They stick to themselves, they rarely talk to the rest of us on the radio, and are pretty much a clique. In the late '80's I believe, the Department of Transportation curtailed swinging beef except in special cases. Reason, too dangerous, it's like pulling a bath tub full of water. I spent thirteen years hauling meat and five years pulling tanks, gasoline, diesel, toxic chemicals, and compressed gases. Tank truckers usually don't go long distance which is why I preferred meat hauling and anything else that could fit in a trailer. So that's a crash course (no pun intended), in trucking, it's not what it used to be.

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Incident on FLA Interstate 75

  It was a holiday weekend many years ago, but I remember it like yesterday. I had left my home town with a load bound for the Port of Tampa, Florida. I drove about 500 miles when I pulled over and slept about six hours. I woke up, grabbed some coffee and hammered down, it was now Sunday afternoon as I passed through Altanta Georgia, it's 250 miles to the Florida border from Atlanta and I began picking up four-wheelers (tourists) chasing me. I just kept trucking, crossed the Florida line, now I have perhaps a 50 car train following me, strangely there were little to no trucks southbound that day, except me. Somewhere between Gainesville and Ocala, Florida, I happened to be in the passing lane when I topped a rise in the road and in my horror I see a four wheeler making a U-turn in the median strip with his trailer/camper completely blocking the fast lane! Unable to complete his idiotic and illegal u-turn due to heavy northbound traffic I knew there was going to be a wreck. I figured he was about one mile away, and myself and the cars along side and behind me were doing 80 mph. That's 117.3 feet per second, I had less than 45 seconds to decide if I should hit the brakes HARD, or pass the car leading the slow lane train along side of me. If I stop there is going to be a wreck into the back of me and a chain reaction crash after that, so I opted to make the pass, get in the right lane and miss the camper. Seconds after I passed the camper, everyone piled up. Sixty seconds or less after I passed, there was no one behind me and in my mirrors all I saw was smoke and steam. To this day I wonder if anyone was killed. I still have vivid mental images of what I saw that fateful day. There was nothing I could do, and I didn't care to be a part of that wreck. Moral of the story, DON'T CHASE TRUCKS. If you do, keep your distance.

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Thanks to Robin

  I want to thank my friend Robin for noticing my hyperlinks were underlined. I don't care for underlined links, active links on this site should appear as the color Indigo, while visited and hover links are other colors. I'm not much of a decorator, so thank you goes to Robin for a fresh set of eyes.

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To the protesters

  Unfortunately, racism exists in this country as well as excessive force used by police. What happened to George Floyd, Brionna Taylor was inexcusable, however rioting, burning, looting is also inexcusable. In my opinion, I do not think it is protestors doing the latter, but in fact being done by anarchists using the protests as a front. All of this needs to stop. Innocent people are being hurt. Peaceful protests are a constitutional right, rioting is not. Shame on the State Governors and Mayors for allowing it.

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