Profile For Ralph D.

I just posted on another thread about leaving my laundry in the dryer at the terminal.

What stupid or funny things have you done on the road?

I'm out with my trainer now, about 178 hours into my 200 hours before upgrade with Swift. I signed on to the flatbed fleet and was sent with a dry van mentor, who then went regional dedicated reefer with Target. Well we have made the same run from Denton, Texas to New Orleans probably 6-7 times in the last 3 weeks. About a week ago, I was driving at about 0300 and suddenly there was a fog so thick that I couldn't see beyond 20 feet in front of the tractor. After probably 50 or so miles at 35-40mph, I decided I need to pull it over and let dispatch know I needed to shut it down before I was in an accident, because I had already passed quite a few of them and all of the more experienced drivers(aren't they all more experienced than me right now lol) were shut down on various ramps.

So I break out the Trucker's Path app and look for a truck stop to at least pull into the fuel island to send a message to dispatch(because if they tell me to do something dangerous or unsafe, I want my objection and their response for safety to see).

Well I'm in luck because Trucker's Path says there is a mom and pop truck stop right here at the exit I'm approaching, and they are far more likely to have parking. Take the exit, follow the route GPS is giving me. Take the service road and get ready to make the left into the truck stop... Weird, it's a dirt driveway. Ok maybe I'll drive to the next truck stop then. Satellite view says that this service road goes to the next exit and there is a Loves. So I drive about 3-4 miles down this service road and come to the next exit. Just kidding, it's a dead end. No place to turn around. No visibility to back up. I begin drafting my letter of resignation on the Qualcomm and wake my mentor up to let him know the situation and ask if he will back the trailer for me because I'm not confident that I can back it down a dark, winding road, with fog thick enough that you can take a bite out of it.

He's like screw that, I'm not getting a preventable. Long story moderately shorter... He stood outside in his underwear on a back road parallel to an alligator and snake infested swamp, in a thick fog, holding a maglight to mark the edge of the road and a steep drop into said swamp, and talked me back down 3 miles of road on the phone.

Wish I could say that's the dumbest thing that I've done. Certainly it's the dumbest thing that I'm willing to admit to ;)