A Kind Of Nutty Merry Christmas

Well, I elected to work over Christmas, as Im taking 4 days off for new years. The plan was that I was going to take the Mrs on a few runs. That went out the window, She had work, they couldnt get me routed as needed and the weather, mostly wind kept shutting me down. Anyway, up in Denver, went to go run a load to Gering NE, turned around at Fort Collins because the big sign said I25 closed due to wind to all CMVs. On the way back to the terminal , got a message that one of our drivers got blown off the road and rolled over...right at the exit I had turned around at. I was loaded at 36k in the box, and it was pushing me all over, I kept the speeds down to 45-55 mph, Im guessing they were light or empty and perhaps not keeping the speeds low enough.

Anyway, fought off several bad loads that would have ran me up 80 (which was closed) and or right into the incoming storms. Since its darn near impossible to get anything out of our Denver terminal besides north and west, I took a load to Vegas, but got authorization to go 25 south to 40 to 93. Sure enough the next plan was back to Cheyenne. I declined and asked for something to Phoenix, and then to Texas from there. Got a Phoenix load, beat the storm coming in and woke up to heavy rain . Its now Christmas eve.

My DM and a DM from the El Paso yard call me and ask me if I can go finish a run for a driver to El Paso, they say the trailer is ready to go, bout 180 miles east of Phoenix. I say for sure. I haul butt over to Wilcox AZ to grab the trailer, get there only to find that the drivers truck is inoperable and thus cant get out from under the trailer. Its now Christmas eve night. No wrecker to be found, No recovery straps sufficient to pull his out with my tractor. Hes a combat vet, army. I volunteer to bobtail him back to his home in El Paso so he can be with his wife and kids on Christmas. I end up buying him Christmas dinner at the Country pride in the TA. They finally get back to us and tell us no Tow truck tonight, will be first on the list tomorrow.

Christmas morning rolls around, my DM is working today, he says whatever we need to do get him home is ok with him. The drivers dispatch from El Paso has different plans, tells him to stick around, finally gets a repair guy out in the afternoon. He is able to get the truck moving again (software update issue). My dispatch is out. His dispatch tells him he has to have an empty to return to our El Paso yard. It really frustrates me. This poor guy has been trying to get home to his family for Christmas and his terminal isnt really being helpful. On top of it, they tell him that because of his home time (the 25 to the 3rd) that he will have to clean his truck out so they can loan it out. I offer to drive him and his stuff in my rig, with the load, to the terminal in el paso.

I finally get under his trailer, now my load, teach him how to do a T Call and head for El Paso, of course its a sams load, so they are closed today. Ill get paid nicely for my efforts, but thats not the point, nor why I did it. I would have done it without pay. Anyway, hes stuck in Tucson waiting on an empty with a bad tire. I tried my hardest to get him home to family. More than a bit frustrated with his terminal, but other than that made the best Christmas that I could for him. God Bless.

God BLESS YOU GREATLY,

Davy.

That's a HECKUVA Christmas story.

Yes, it teared me up. You are a kind soul, a helluva trucker. Proud to 'know' you, good sir!

~ Anne ~

Thanks Anne. Sorry, didn't mean to make you tear up.

The saga got worse for the poor fellow, they sent him to Tucson for a broken empty and then had him go to Buckeye AZ to get back to El Paso. I feel for the guy.

I ended up in el paso, then waited on Christmas day there, cause Sam's was closed, then waited Sunday for the high winds to calm down, by that point Sam's closed early for boxing day, an obscure holiday lol.

Then my terminal dispatched Me or tried to anyway back to Phoenix when I have a flight booked out of Dallas tomorrow. I gently explained that wouldn't work, walked into the el Paso terminal and grabbed a load to Dallas from them. They were very cooperative and said thanks for helping with their driver.

You're good,Davy.

I had a WHOLE diatribe typed up, and lost it .... looking for a photo of MY toolbox.

Being a 'trucker's wife' .... it's a necessity, haha!

Your noble goodwill WILL come back to you, TENFOLD. I'm not the 'Bible' nor 'any' goodreads... but .. JUST saying, IMHO!

Thank you, sir.

~ Anne & Fam ~

ps: Sure hope you & your compadre FINALLY got to enjoy the Holidays, man! Did you get out of DFW, btw?? ;)