Monday, September 27, 2010

The Skies Were So Dark, Even GE Couldn't Brighten Things Up

Whew! We made it through my first oversized load trip and delivered our load safe and sound to General Electric, which was founded in 1878, in Schenectady, New York:



The driving part was easy, since we only had to drive 11-12 hours per day depending on where we were. We got permits for every state, found our places to stop for the night ahead of time (which we usually don't do) and checked the internet for the sunrise and sunset times each day. We had to re-route around a couple of areas, one of them didn't make much sense to me though. They took us off the interstate to route us through this tiny, winding country road:
Not really the place you want to be in a truck, let alone a truck hauling an oversized load. As you can see, there wasn't much wiggle room. No shoulder on either side. Where does one go if they come upon another oversized load? And what are the chances of that, I wonder?

The rain followed us all the way from California to New York. Every night we'd go to sleep after a fairly nice day and when we awoke, the rain had begun. It wasn't torrential and it wasn't a hinderance, but it was a constant. I'm actually kinda glad it rained so much because it prompted Ed to buy new windsheild wiper blades. The old ones were on their way out and there was a big swath of area that the blade completely missed. These new ones cut through the water like a knife through hot buttah.

It's hard to see with the dreary weather and the distance, but here's a picture of an even W-I-D-E-R load up ahead of us - they had THREE pilot cars a New York State Trooper guiding their way!

We're going to try to squeeze in a few more loads before we leave for Italy. I think we'll head out to California one last time and then get something coming back to New York. It's a lot easier to do the long haul, unloading and loading just once on each end, rather than doing a bunch of little loads in one area.

Well, that's about it for now folks. Not much to report. And even though it was dreary out, I did get to see some fall color:
Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about what I eat for breakfast.

Oooooh, exciting!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
Not So Deep Impact
2 YEARS AGO:
My America. Your America. OUR America.
3 YEARS AGO:
Frozen In Time
4 YEARS AGO:
Ohhh, Paaablo
5 YEARS AGO:
Apparently, Aliens Tell Time With Their Ass

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darn! When you were at GE you were 5 minutes from my house. I would have loved to meet you and Ed!!

Anonymous said...

Next time you haul a load for GE I've got the tips on the Italian food in Schenectady. Glad you got to see the foliage right this moment - we're peaking...

MAE said...

Absolutely beautiful NY scenery. Thanks for your wonderful pictures.

The Daily Rant said...

Liz: Next time we deliver there, I will let you know on advance.
Maybe we can meet for coffee!!

Anon: Bring it on! I love having the inside scoop on good places to
eat!

MAE: Anytime!

Unknown said...

other than not being able to go to Barnes & Noble :( how was driving your oversize load? Do you get paid more for that?

The Daily Rant said...

Chris: Driving the oversized load was pretty easy - we'd definitely consider doing more of them.

And yes, the pay was more. Another great reason for doing more oversized stuff!