Long DiagonalMar 12, 2012
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Sunshine Miners Memorial in Idaho
Redbud Tree
| It was about 3,000 miles to go from Othello, Washington to Lake City, Florida. Sometimes when we empty out with a load, there is no freight to take out of that area. At least, not through Prime's accounts. They had us deadhead out of Washington 620 miles to Idaho. Even with the "dh", it paid pretty good so we agreed. Our load wasn't picking up till tomorrow morning. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a leisurely 10 hour drive back thru upper Idaho, Western Montana and down I-15 into the eastern portion of Idaho. We actually crossed the Continental Divide 3 times!! Jim drove so I was able to watch for wildlife. I should have been catching up on sleep but I would have missed so much!!!! We watched a huge moose running thru a mountain stream, herds of elk, some laying in high pastures and others grazing near the interstate. Lots of bald and golden eagles soaring up the thermals they found. And it's always nice going up and down a steep grade without any weight! On the way back we saw a sculpture called the Sunshine Miner's Memorial. The Sunshine mining disaster occurred May 2, 1972. Fire broke out in the mine and smoke, carbon monoxide and other gases swept through the mine tunnels and shafts. There were 178 miners working at various levels in the mine, 85 made it to safety, 2 miners were found alive seven days later. The last of the 91 victims was brought out of the mine on May 13. The disaster was the worst hard-rock mining accident in the country since 1917. The Sunshine Mine is the nation's largest silver mine over a mile deep and over 100 miles of tunnels. That got us talking about Jim's grandfather who was a coal miner his entire life in Scotland. He started working the mines as a teen but by retirement, was diagnosed with Black Lung and died soon after. Even today, mining is a very hard and dangerous occupation. And when it comes to work, Jim is very much like his grandfather. Now, I had to read back over old journals because I remember writing about Idaho. I had mentioned Idaho before......remember? 80,000 pound load...potatoes....been there, done that. But it's where the action is right now. There are HUNDREDS of loads of potatoes coming out of there daily. We had 3 pickups; different potato sheds of different products going to the Target Distribution Center in Lake City, FL for Monday morning. This time we had a heavier than average trailer, a rail trailer that Prime is experimenting with (ones that go by train across the country). They weigh about 350 lbs more and have a reefer fuel tank three times the size of a normal trailer. As fuel weighs about 7 pounds a gallon, a full 75 gallon reefer tank adds an extra 350 pounds. I know all this doesn't seem like much BUT our load had us weighing 79,900 lbs! And that was with 1/3 tanks of fuel in the truck. One hundred pounds to work with is around 14 gallons of fuel. As we are only suppose to be 80,000 maximum that equals a lot of stopping for fuel and only putting in 20-50 gallons depending where the weigh stations are. Most states give trucks a bit of a variance, as scales are not totally accurate. However, 3 states: Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia do not. If you're over, you have to fix it and pay a fine. Once, my first year with Prime, I was driving thru a weigh station in Illinois. Jim had just filled the fuel tanks and it put us over. Prime had to call in another truck (who was empty and in the area) to transfer some product onto his trailer. After the officer saw our weight was down, he let us go; after paying a $300 fine. (This was in 1996!!) We pulled into the next truck stop and put that product back on our trailer. So ridiculous! But we learned the lesson of how fuel can effect our weight. This entire trip down we were careful to watch the amount of fuel we used, making made sure to only put fuel in after scales. Thank goodness our fuel line is sitting right on the bottom of the tank! We ran it pretty low a couple times. We also changed our route to avoid Illinois and Kentucky, opting to go thru Alabama instead. Some states are more "truck friendly". We also siphoned full out of reefer tank to 1/4 tank and burned it in the truck. I wish I had got a picture of that! The best part of the trip was that we were able to spend a night with Josh (our son) and Bethany at their new home in Kansas! They are minutes from the interstate, and we found a great route that will take us thru there when going diagonally across the country, without causing us to go very many miles out of route. The warm weather across the country has been wonderful. It was 63 in Kansas when we left the following afternoon. The next day, I noticed many signs of spring driving down through Mississippi and Alabama. Trees are pushing out green, little leaves, daffodils are all opened up and the Redbuds were in full bloom along the highway! Everything is coming back to life again, and it will slowly work its way north. It is a rejuvenating time of year, making you feel fresh and vibrant! I love Spring! I hope it will be this easy getting a load to Florida again in a week or so. We will be heading back to finish our time at the campground and prepare for hauling the camper to Maine. In the mean time we have more work to do. Now I am sitting at Target, waiting for them to call our phone and tell us which door to back into. It's a grey, overcast day in Florida. I was warned of big storms heading into the Northwest, so hopefully we won't be going back up there. Will see where our next load takes us. In the meantime, we are thankful for a safe trip across the country, cell phones so we were able to take care of business while traveling, and another day to enjoy on earth. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalms 8:9 |
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