Fuel for Thought
Busy week and a Wind Farm!
It's been a very busy couple of weeks. I had 3 weeks of short runs.. wierd.. but anyway, that's how it worked out.. I was home almost every night, which usually doesn't happen... anyway, after that, the last 2 weeks have been all nice long runs, with one near record week. I went to from New Jersey to Arkansas, then to Memphis, Chicago, back to Ohio this week.
In between I had to get some more maintenance done to the van... somehow, I had a brake rotor collapse, then decided to go ahead and replace both front ones. All the salt and chemicals from this winter had damaged them apparently. Also, fun fun... Saturday night on my way to Ohio, I had another blowout... the heat and heavy loads really taking a toll on them. So this morning was another visit to the tire shop for rear tires and rotated the fronts. Now front and rear tires have been upgraded, so I should be good for a while. Also set up to have my rear brake rotors changed.
One neat thing I got to do last week was deliver to a Wind Farm.. I'd never been on one before. I'm sure most have driven by them, those huge wind turbines.. but you really don't get how big they are til you're parked next to them. I delivered some electrical cable that was desparately needed, one of those 'feel good' runs, where the guy who meets you is visibly relieved, and immediately calling for a forklift to get the cable...
Forgive the quality of the following pics... a storm had just passed, and it was pretty dark that morning. You can at least get an idea of the size. In the 3rd pic, that is a Dodge 4x4 parked next to the turbine housing. The housing is big enough for all the machinery, plus for a team to get up inside and maintain the equipment. They enter thru a full size door in the base of the tower, and climb a ladder all the way up... kind of like a giant fire escape!
Dale is a solo van owner operator for FedEx CC and can be reached with comments at [email protected] or by using the comments form below.