10-4 Magazine August 2022

The Veteran’s View: By Dennis Mitchell Oh, happy days, or so the saying goes. The temps are up as usual (it’s August), and the dog days of summer have arrived. I love the heat and spend as much time as I can outside basking in the sunshine. I hear all you southwestern drivers looking at me and asking, “Are you nuts, or did you fall and bump your head?” Nope. I like it hot. Well, maybe not 116 degrees, but I’m good with 95 and sunny. Let’s me defrost from winter and dry out from spring. Something that may surprise most of you is I don’t run air conditioning in the truck. The truth is, I don’t have one that works anyway. The easiest way to raise you fuel mileage is to cut your idle time. If you don’t run the A/C there’s no need to leave the truck running. As long as it doesn’t work, I don’t have to spend time or money on repairs and charging to keep it blowing cold air. I run “2-60” air in my old “Just Steppin” Peterbilt. That’s 2 windows down and 60 miles an hour roaring down the open road. Open the wing windows and let ‘er rip! I may have lost a few of you newer drivers who have never experienced the accommodations of a pre-aerodynamic cab. They came with split side windows and real mirrors, most of which were mounted on polished brackets – and some even had chicken lights or turn signals. Most of the large rides had the arm rest high enough on the door to let you hang your arm out the window. You know, that’s where we got the stigma of the trucker’s tan. Oh, the days of free wheelin’ with the wind in your hair, sliding down the street, wearing cool Oakley shades and a sleeveless t-shirt with some rock band printed on it! Those old cabs were hot as hell, but real drivers didn’t notice. They just cranked up the tunes and opened the squelch on the CB radio, 10-4. There were no screens covering the window, either. We took direct hits from those marauding mosquitoes, wayward rocks, and a few hard-shelled June bugs the size of a quarter. When we stopped for lunch, many folks couldn’t distinguish us from a group of bikers, with all those bugs on our face. More than once, I clipped a yellow jacket bee and didn’t kill it, which enraged it and got me stung. Try to envision driving your cabover all day and every winged creature that hit your mirrors would wind up in the sleeper. Most of us learned to spread out a beach towel and then roll it up and shake the bugs out before we laid down to rest. So much for our road trip down Memory Lane. But I really wanted to address something else this month. Hold up, wait a minute, there is a driver who needs some help. I will be back in a minute. Okay, I’m back, and the crisis has been averted. I ran over to help a new driver get unstuck in a driveway (he was suffering from pothole fever). The darn thing jumped out and sucked his tractor duals in. He was calling a wrecker to help him move. A couple of us rounded up a log chain from a flatbed and I towed him backwards until he got traction. We all like to talk old school, but how many of you are living it? Back in the day, we all helped each other. It didn’t matter who you drove for or what kind of equipment, drivers jumped in if someone was in need. As I write this, I’m setting here at Ernie’s Federal Way Truck Stop in Auburn, Washington, waiting to load in the morning. I’m supposed to be loaded and gone by now but, as usual, someone dropped the ball, so now I’m the one waiting. The shipper tried really hard to spoil my day. Ha – that didn’t happen. I simply moved to “Plan B” and continued to do my deal. I found a parking spot and started writing this month’s article. I have been thinking about this for all of last week on my ride out here from the east side. I made my first picks in Michigan and Ohio, then set out for Minnesota. I found a couple more picks there, transferred some of them onto other trailers, and then reloaded my trailer with four drops to deliver here in the PNW (Pacific NorthWest). Since I haven’t been this far west in a year, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the scenery. It still excites me to see not only the Rocky Mountains, but the high plains of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Rolling through Chicago and Detroit have their own appeal for urban sights, as well. 58 10-4 Magazine / August 2022 STICKER SHOCK!