I was on my way from Terre Haute to Carmel with a load of brick to deliver to a construction site when I got a message to scrap the delivery and meet Eli, another of our day drivers, at our yard in Indianapolis. Eli's truck had sprung an exhaust leak so we were going to swap tractors and I was going to take his back to Bloomington for repairs. It was late in the day so I dropped the brick there on the yard rather than haul it back and forth, hooked to an empty and headed home.
The truck that I was given to use the next day was a road tractor, which meant that it was big, with a significantly longer turn radius and severely limited visibility compared to what I was used to in my day cab. On top of that the seat wasn't air ride, it was on a mechanical spring and the spring was sprung. I sat too low and the seat couldn't be adjusted. In order to use the convex mirrors on the passenger side I had to half stand, and believe me, use of the convex mirrors is absolutely required. Then, once I got going I found that the engine was a dog, sputtering and low powered, and the transmission was stiff as hell. I could have gotten used to the transmission in time but I was having trouble with it then, especially when downshifting. There seemed to be a really narrow range of rpms that would allow it and it was off from what most trucks are at, or where the engine sounded like it was ready to be shifted. Again, I could have gotten used to it but at that time I hadn't even figured out exactly where its sweet spot was.
I started early and took a load of milled limestone to another construction site in Carmel, then went back to the yard and hooked to that load of brick I'd dropped. we didn't have directions when I'd picked it up so I called dispatch to get them. It sounded really easy: US 31 north to 136th street, then west a few miles to Pinto road, then north to the job site. I was going to look on google maps but my phone was acting up again, it's really old and tired, so I said screw it and took off.
To go west on 136th St. from US 31 North you have to go through a roundabout, under the highway and then through another roundabout. I was spending a lot of energy just managing the damned ungainly truck but when I got half way through the second roundabout 136th St. had disappeared. A road called Elgin Drive had taken its place and it was narrow and definitely residential. Another street went off to the south but it was unmarked and looked narrow and residential too. Rather than take a wrong turn I kept going around and around till I could get back on US 31 North and pulled over on the ramp.
I pulled up google maps and looked. That unmarked road was 136th St. It curved around to the west again after a little jog to the south. It was definitely narrow and residential, but then I was delivering to residential new construction, so that didn't bother me. What gets me is that my boss was looking at google maps as he told me how to get there. He could have warned me about that little jog to the south. It's stressful going anywhere you've never been before in a big truck because a wrong turn can spell real disaster. I made it in one piece though, once again.
I sometimes wonder if my boss doesn't leave out information on purpose from time to time. He sent me to a stone mill that I'd never been to out in rural Lawrence County today. He said I'd pass Washboard Road and then it'd be on my left. "Angelo's Stone," he repeated the name twice as if that was what to look for, a sign. I passed Washboard Road and then almost passed the mill. There was no sign at all, just a narrow lane heading back into the woods, but I spied some limestone back there so I put on my flashers and went to investigate. Sure enough that was it. What really gets me though is that the lane to Angelo's Stone is directly after a recycling public access site. I know for a fact my boss has been there before. Why the hell didn't he give me the information that I needed instead of stressing irrelevancies? Lord only knows what trouble I might have gotten into if I'd kept following that windy road out into the hills below Lake Monroe.
The things I put up with, I tell you. At least I was back in my own tractor today.
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