alone again, for a while

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
We are moving our daughter from one city in Arkansas to another this weekend. (Fayetteville to Little Rock) We have lined up volunteer helpers (lifters) at each end. I will be driving the truck but will stand around watching the young guys do the heavy work loading, then unloading.
Wife is at daughters townhouse right now helping pack boxes. I'm a temporary bachelor again. These are always 'clean out the refrigerator' events so I don't starve. ;)
Yesterday, I reserved a 17' U Haul truck for the job. I wasn't, and still am not looking forward to driving it in Little Rock traffic. The narrow, winding streets and roads are a death defying thrill at best with a car. :eek: But, a clunky U Haul truck is sumptin' else.
To make matters more exciting, this a.m. I got a call from U Haul. They don't have a 17 footer available. But, they will upgrade me, at no extra cost, to a 26 footer. More :eek::eek:
Now, the thrill of driving a big, bigger, truck in Little Rock increases exponentially.
I have driven all kinds of trucks in my lifetime but had little experience with city situations. And, it has been over 20 years since I drove a large straight. In that time I have pulled stock trailers, campers and such but no larger trucks.
I'll just take it easy and try to ignore those folks honking behind me because I'm not driving fast enough to please them.
Stay tuned.......
 
I'm sure you've heard this, but my dad always told me that if your truck is bigger than theirs....they'll move over. :D I learned to drive in a dump truck and I used that rule more than I should probably...:wave:

Be safe don't lift to much. :thumb:
 
something I learned early on when I learned to drive an 18 Wheeler was sometimes you gotta make em move. On more then one occasions when I needed to turn a corner and some idiot in a 4 wheeler wouldn't give me enough room he found his self staring at the grill of my truck, then they would back up.
 
not so bad

I'm back. Put eight hours behind the wheel of the big (26') U Haul. Wasn't as bad as I had built up in my mind. It had been twenty years or more since driving one like this. But once I started it was like getting back on a bicycle. The "gentle ride" or "glide ride" U Haul advertises is just that....advertising. This one jounced like a horse wagon on a log road. Headlights didn't point anywhere useful and the fuel guage read something different every few minutes. The front end was loose so steering was a matter of constant adjustments, no relaxing on the interstate. But I made it OK.
Did manage to wipe out two Mercedes, a Portia, a Lexus, a Silverado and a Kia. Got a pretty good score even though there was a ten point deduction for the Silverado and the Kia scored nothing. :rolleyes:
 

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When we moved back from Tucson to Houston I drove a Penske 26' with a tow dolley behind with the Honda up on it... when I first took off the tow felt kinda sluggish and I figure I was going to have to fight it all the way back to Houston, but the parking brake cables on the Honda broke after about a mile and everything was fine from there..:rofl::rofl: ... imagine my surprise when I backed the Honda off the dolley and parked it down the street in my sister-in-law's neighbor's front yard... :eek::eek::eek: .. I learned the hard way ($550 for the lesson) that you're supposed to release the parking brake after you finish loading and tying down the car on the tow dolley. I was so tired that morning after loading the truck, I'm surprised I even remembered to hook the tow dolley onto the truck.

Very first time I ever drove a box truck like that, I had just started as export manager for a company out of San Francisco that had an airfreight division... I had a load of cargo for the airport and dispatch didn't have a driver... he tossed me a set of keys and told me to drive myself.... I had driving some smaller trucks, but never one with a dual rear end... I pulled out in low range and needed to switch to hi-range... made the mistake of trying the switch just as I went down the 3rd avenue on ramp, near Candlestick Park, and naturally hung it in between ranges..:eek:. which meant I hit the freeway with no power.:eek:.. it took about a minute to figure out how to make the transmission reconnect.:eek:. first and last time to drive a dual rear end... :rofl:
 
Frank you got it, like riding a bicycle. I one of the guys who learned tactical military driving with anything from jeeps to 18 wheelers and then school buses in college. I would jump in a big rig in a heart beat if give the chance. I love to drive.
Good you back safe and had a very uneventful trip. BTW did you drop any yellow bombs ? :rofl:
 
Frank you got it, like riding a bicycle. I one of the guys who learned tactical military driving with anything from jeeps to 18 wheelers and then school buses in college. I would jump in a big rig in a heart beat if give the chance. I love to drive.
Good you back safe and had a very uneventful trip. BTW did you drop any yellow booms ? :rofl:

Dunno wat yellow booms are. :dunno:
School busses? It that is it, never. I always stop WELL in advance of those stopping to let kids on or off.
 
When we moved back from Tucson to Houston I drove a Penske 26' with a tow dolley behind with the Honda up on it... when I first took off the tow felt kinda sluggish and I figure I was going to have to fight it all the way back to Houston, but the parking brake cables on the Honda broke after about a mile and everything was fine from there..:rofl::rofl: ... imagine my surprise when I backed the Honda off the dolley and parked it down the street in my sister-in-law's neighbor's front yard... :eek::eek::eek: .. I learned the hard way ($550 for the lesson) that you're supposed to release the parking brake after you finish loading and tying down the car on the tow dolley. I was so tired that morning after loading the truck, I'm surprised I even remembered to hook the tow dolley onto the truck.

Very first time I ever drove a box truck like that, I had just started as export manager for a company out of San Francisco that had an airfreight division... I had a load of cargo for the airport and dispatch didn't have a driver... he tossed me a set of keys and told me to drive myself.... I had driving some smaller trucks, but never one with a dual rear end... I pulled out in low range and needed to switch to hi-range... made the mistake of trying the switch just as I went down the 3rd avenue on ramp, near Candlestick Park, and naturally hung it in between ranges..:eek:. which meant I hit the freeway with no power.:eek:.. it took about a minute to figure out how to make the transmission reconnect.:eek:. first and last time to drive a dual rear end... :rofl:

Chuck, I drove a school bus for a few years and then came to my senses. When I started they had dual rear ends. They were an adventure when I first started driving them. Several times I had to stop in the middle of the road and get it to shift.

Frank, I'm glad you had a safe and uneventful trip.
 
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