Timmay2

Once a year i drive from AZ to WA and back again.. Good 24 hours or so.. total. Usually do so with just stopping for fuel, food, and about a 4 hour nap in some random parking lot.

Was coming back once and they had I5 closed for some reason (snow? pff).

Anyways took a detour, a right, a left, who knows.

Ended up circling some mountain in the oregon california border that was HORRIBLE to drive.

Even with offroad tires, 4wd, and 10mph the truck was slipping and sliding. No chains or studs to my available.

Took a good 6 hours to get back to the highway.. ended up finding a ford focus or some simliar car in a ditch.. pulled them out while going uphill on ice, wasnt too bad.. got offered some illegal narcotics and happily declined.

Road trips...

vzdude

Had a heck of a white knuckle drive myself back in March! Took a friend with me for moral support and to help keep me awake! We left about 3 in the morning. Went to Utica Michigan to buy a used camper , about 350 miles one way. No biggie right? Just a 29 ft. bumper pull shouldn't be any problem for the 'ol Dodge! Wasn't until we hit the 30-40 mph sustained winds that we had trouble! It was either 45 mph or 70 mph. Could not find any happy medium with the truck. - No mods at all at that time, so could have used a little extra power! Well, we survived all the way to the intersection of 421 and 94 so I decided to get off the I-state. I can take secondary highways the rest of the way home from there at a little slower speed. Well, 1st mistake was I took the wrong exit. Went North on 421 instead of south. No prob! Turned in at a bank and decided to walk around the truck and camper to make sure everything is o.k. and it was! We don't make it a mile, as we are going over the 94 overpass, and I notice "papers" in the wind in the driver's side mirror! I say to myself, huh? Where did those come from, I didn't see anything in the road? Almost instinctively looking in the right mirror at the same time, my heart sank as I saw my awning hangin out and flapping in the breeze no longer attached to the roof rail anymore! Oh, NO! We pull off, and try to salvage it by rapping it up on the roller to no avail. I end up getting out my trusty Case knife and just cutting the whole thing off the roller and the camper, wadding it up and putting it in the back seat of the truck. We drive another 1.2 mile or so and it is very quiet in the truck! We stop for fuel, and we both go inside for a "pit stop". I make it back to the truck first and call my wife. After a LONG conversation trying to convince her that this was no joke, we head out again. 5 or 10 miles down the road my buddy says " I have to admit, you dealt with that pretty well!" I was fine from then on out because really, what else could I do?! We decided that the previous owner was messing with the lever on the awning and had it in the wrong position and the wind grabbed it once we were at the right angle to it. Anyhow to make a long story short, the return trip took almost twice as long as the going trip and it ended up being a 15 hour day! Insurance fixed the awning, well, after deductible and pro-rating the price of the awning due to age and wear and tear, I replaced it and ended up only like 50 bucks in the hole.

LOGAN

drove back from florida in 2006 with almost no brakes on my ranger, i had a leaking brake line and i clamped it off before i left for florida 4 months earlier, it was fine until i was in the mountains in alabama and lost all brake pressure, i didnt tell my buddy jeremy, cause either way we was gonna drive, wether he knew or not, he kept asking why i was driving so fast, a woman pulled out in front of me in a construction area at the bottom of a HUGE hill, that about sent all of us to see the lord. if anyone has ever heard the song "wolf creek pass" from C.W. McCall you will know what im talkin about. at one point in time my speedomoter was pointing straight down, no numbers, just straight down, and im pretty sure i started to see smoke coming off the front fenders, looked like the space shuttle on re-entry.

i was running 75 in the fast lane coming up from panama city florida to dothan alabama and had a semi pass me on a huge hill, i just seen lights behind me and then i heard "kkssshhhhhhh" and looked over and he was throwing gears going by me on a STEEP hill and leaving me, i ran with him all the way to dothan alabama and i rolled my window down at a stop light and asked him what he had under the hood, he said all stock, just empty and trying to get home after a week on the road.

coming back from florida from getting my truck i crossed jellico at 3:30 am in a dense fog, watch a semi truck dissapear before your eyes into a white wall of fog will really mess with your mind when you've been driving for over 12 hours especially when your doing 55 and he is doing 75+.

had a semi truck pass me one time on the north slope of jellico on I-75 in 2004 blowing the weeds at over 120, i was doing 90 and he blew my doors off, big red pete hauling cattle. only reason i knew it was a pete is cause i caught him on the climb up the next hill.

06 DIESEL

This was back in Summer 05 I think, I was working for Home Depot at the time, had to do some training in e-ville, in. I recently (end of May 07) moved out to MD for my new job at Whiting-Turner.

ajg617

Try flying to work every week. WOOF! Did that to San Fran, San Antonio, and D.C from NH for years. San Antonio was the hardest. There were no direct flights from New England to San Antonio. My only option was to change planes in Chicago. You haven't lived until you have to change planes at 10pm every Friday night at O'Hare. Still, even with all the layover time, total commute time for the week (both in the air and on the ground in San Antonio) was less than the 5 1/2 hours in the car going to work in 'neighboring' MA.

Got sick of flying so I started to drive between D.C. and NH on weekends. I learned two things from that. First, my 99 Dodge Ram 1500 Club cab was great to sleep in and second, never ever drive the MD 95 corridor on the night before Thanksgiving!!!!

dssimecek

10 years or so ago when a son got married in Aspin CO. Wife and I drove from Seattle to CO. She was into photography so she borrowed an expensive 35mm SLR from a friend. This was going to be a mini vacations as we both had been working long hours.
We went through Yellowstone NP, she took lots of pix as she did along the trip. Wether was perfect, late fall.
I stll needed to get a haircut, and she wanted to get her nails done before the wedding. I was also incharge of getting some meat to grill for the dinner the night before the wedding.
We deceided to spen the night in Vernal UT. On the way into town, wife spotted a 1 hr photo in a camera store. She wanted to see how she was doing with the borrowed camera. We went in just before closing. He said he could not get the dozen or so rolls done, but he would have them ready in the morking OK by us.
Saw a dinosour musuem, it was about to close, we looked around to see if we wanted to come back the next morning.
Stayed in a cheap motel in town. Still needed a haircut, wifes nails and meat for the dinner.
Next morning, at a small resturant watress had beautiful nails. Wife ask who does your nails. Her mother, who is a pro, she sets wife up with an appointment latter that morning.
While we were walking, wife spotted a gentlman with a real good haircut. Ask him who cut it. He pointed out the barbershop. I got a good haircut there.
Went to the museaum and enjoed the exibits, paid to get in. Time to get pix from photo shop. It was also the local photographer. Pix were ready, and he went over each photo with wife and gave her several pointers on them but commented she did an excelent job on the photos. Gave her advice on taking portrates at the wedding, filters, and lighting.
Across the street just before we left town spotted a butcher shop. Went in and explained what I needed for the dinner that night. He cut some nice 2" thick serloin steaks.
We were on our way. \
Only mistake I made was eating a hot dog at a gas station when we refuled.
Arrived and started the steaks, I got sicker that a dog from the bad hot dog. Had to have Bro-in-law finish the steaks.
I was told the next day I would have loved them steaks they were great.
Vernal UT was a great stop.


Th

vzdude

^ That would make a good commercial! Not for the gas station, but for everyone else in Vernal, Utah!

Raspy

It's was a while back. Before I wised up a bit (only a bit).

I took off with a couple of friends and a car trailer to P/U an old car in Oregon. On the way we had a wheel bearing go out and ended up along the road with a cops headlights on us as I tried to get that thing apart.

The next day, on the way back, I was way tired and laying down in the back of the van. I kept hearing the engine rev a bit and then slow down, then rev up, etc. We were in the mountains. I was thinking we were on a slippery road and it was cold and snowy. So finally I sat up to look around and the road was dry! It was the tranny slipping! Eeek. My buddy was completely clueless and was burning it up. So after a cool down we took off again and it would not up shift. We drove for many miles in low gear. Just rolling along at the RPM we decided was a good max. Plenty of time to see the scenery. All of a sudden, after a long way, it shifted. Bang! next gear. We all cheered.

But, unfortunately, it was leaking from being so burned up and every once in a while we had to stop and add oil. Finally, we were out of money and out of oil. So I got the bright idea of draining a little engine oil and adding it to the tranny. I figured it was OK because the engine had a ten quart pan and we needed some oil. So that's what I did. A quart or so and a few more miles. Then another quart or so and a few more miles, etc.

Finally we made it back. Running on empty, tranny slipping and dead tired.

Turned out we brought the wrong car home!


John

Wolfeman

In 1992 I drove from Haines Alaska to Austin Texas in 5 days. Over 4000 miles, by myself, in my 92 CTD 3500, top speed about 85mph. Got a speeding ticket in Montana, payable to the officer - $5. Stopped every night.

cumminsdriver635

Me and a buddy took his 1st gen to Colorado to work for 5 weeks during the summer last June. Drove straight through about 22hours. Took a little longer because the flange broke off the downpipe in St. Louis Missouri, and it was 5am on a saturday with no place open to fix it... So we eventually found a small tractor supply like place, bought some wire, and 3 inch clamps, and fixed it ourselves. Made it all the way out there, and all the way back home with the downpipe wired up Also had problems on the way home. We kept blowing a fuse that would just kill the whole truck.. Motor, lights and all. Finally got it fixed with a bigger fuse, but it sure aint fun when the truck just dies on you with a semi behind ya at night We made it home though, and i never was so happy to see my house. Plus i had been 5 weeks without my truck

Eric

tbarbee1

My wife our three year old daughter and I drove straight through from SLC to Tulsa last month me pulling a 35' travel trailer and her and Hanna following me in her truck just as I was ready to stop and take a break my wife hollered on the radio and said Hanna just went to sleep do you mind if we just keep going for a while we made it from SLC to Denver in about 7 hours then we were just too close to home to stop I tried to stop at Wichita she wouldnt have it we drove 19 hours straight only stopping for fuel I sure was proud of my girls for making the trip the way they did

Iron Mike

06 Diesel
I just want to know what a Wooden Shoe is doing way out in Maryland?
Haloman,
I used to live in Carmi, IL. We had an office in Henderson, a field in Smith Mills, 1 near Waverly, 1 on Diamond Island and some near Omaha & Dix, IL. Spent lot's of windshield time all over the Tri-State area back then. 2 of my kids were born at Wellborn's Baptist Hospital in E'Ville. Did you ever eat at Peak Bros. BBQ? I still have an ashtray from there.

haloman

When you say field do you mean Farm field? I live in Smith Mills. I was born at Welborn myself. What kinda work do you do? I know where all those places are very well. I never did eat much at Peak Bros.

Edit:
My dad is a Farmer in Smith Mills so you may know him.

cmac

well not as good as some of these but about two weeks ago i took leave and headed from Ft. Campbell Ky to Duluth MN. it was my self, the wife and my 3 year old nephew in my 96 reg cab ctd.... a little crowded to say the least. we left here around 1 am, by 6:30 or so i was on I-74W between champane and bloomington IL, heard something that sounded comparable to a squirrel with its head in a mouse trap coming from the truck. i crawled underneath at the wayside rest but couldn't find anything wrong. i called my g-pa and he suggested a few things but it all looked ok. so about 20 miles outside of bloomington just after passing a semi my front right wheel bearing went out. felt like someone grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it as hard as they could. it made me go from the left lane to the shoulder almost instantly. i almost lost the rim and tire... pretty scary. luckly no one got hurt except for my wallet. $150 for a tow truck and $515 and some change for a new hub and bearing. luckly Sam Leman's dodge dealer was a great help and got me back on the road by 1:30 ish that same after noon. the mechanic working on my truck worked right through his lunch break to help us out. i couldn't have asked for a better group of people.

estshrrdnck725

Not too long of a trip, but we went to the Brad Paisley concert up at the Delaware State Fair on July 25th (my birthday). Came home that night round 1 AM and needed something to do. So we raced a Ford Bronco and a Chevy 1500 on Rt. 50 coming home. We raced them in an '05 Dodge Grand Caravan V6! The sad thing was, we BEAT them!