Open Thread - 07-29-22 - White Line Fever

I'm on the road. Back to the land of endless corn and beans. Back to the land of Lincoln. And Obama.

If I were king of the world my first decree would be all semis must travel in the slow lane only and they cannot pass each other.

trucker-passes-blocking-semis-e1615221226639.jpg

Some observations:

  • There are very few RVs on the road.
  • The car to semi ratio is way lopsided, there are more semis than cars. Probably because of the price of gas, car owners have the option to stay home and spend less on gas. The semis don't have that option.
  • Buy gas before you get to Illinois.
  • There are shredded tires everywhere along the interstate highways, and I mean everywhere. They must not be making tires like they used to.
  • The crops look very good in the upper midwest.
  • The new Tucsons can really scoot for a four cylinder.
  • It will be 97 degrees in east Texas, 79 degrees here.
  • Wifey is a saint for putting up with my bitching about the trucks.
  • The grass is indeed greener on the other side of the country.
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my brain is mush and the damn wifi is flaky at this motel.

I'm back to my old stomping grounds along the Illinois River where Captain John Hartford and the Julia Belle Swain used to run back and forth from Peoria to Starved Rock. I would wave every time I saw the Julia Belle chugging along, knowing John was on there.

What's been happening in the world, anything new and exciting? Have I missed anything. Has Joe said anything coherent?

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11 users have voted.

Interstates are for transport of commerce I was told and you the mere mortal in a car can travel at your own peril. Interstates are avoided whenever possible when I am traveling. This was one of the reasons before gas prices rose not to drive to see sister in Ann Arbor was the amount of interstate driving entailed.

I am heading back up to SantaFe in the next week or so, and secondary roads are the way I travel. Much more pleasant and very little traffic. Made the mistake last year of making wrong turn and having no choice without backtracking many miles and having to drive for 40 miles on I40 heading toward Albuquerque. Semi’s jockeyIng for position, potholes, tire shreds and no place to go. Finally, the exit for Clines Corner and back on secondary roads.

Have a nice time in the cooler temps.

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12 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

@jakkalbessie
that's what we do when traveling throughout Texas. I love that many of the FMs are 75 miles per hour. We're under time constraints now though, so interstates it is.

I know trucks are essential, especially the ones making special trips:

"I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun every time I go to Mexico
And I'm still, willin'." Biggrin

Have a good and safe trip to Sante Fe.

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@jakkalbessie when time permits. The problem is that they are speed traps, and there is not always a store handy if you need fuel or a restroom.
I saw an elderly man drive his Toyota beside a semi in the passing lane. The guy would slow down, the truck would put his right blinker on to change lanes, the guy would speed up and drive beside the semi. Then he would slow down, truck would put on his blinker again, and the old guy would immediately speed up and block the semi from getting into the slow lane. This went on for about 15 minutes. Any driver who blamed the trucker for that just doesn't like truckers.
I may be old, but I am aware of, you know, other vehicles on the damn road.
Be safe and enjoy Santa Fe! I used to go to the opera festival, enjoyed eating at Tia Maria's. Is it still open? It has been decades since I did that trip.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

dystopian's picture

Hey chief!

I am presently in sedentary mode. The road sounds like fun! I just saw a thing about RV's, many going shorter distances this year, due to gas they said. And, the rates at RV parks are sky high. A guy in WV paid $90 for a night at a KOA! They used to be $10 and $20, then $30 for big rigs. Was $5 for tent space, though only to be used in emergency.

I think all tires like car batteries are made in China now. My Chinese made shoes do that all the time now too.

I used to do road trips all the time, actually lived on road most of a few years. I have probably done a million miles. Loved it. Glad I did it when I was young and gas was .50 cents a gallon and decent motel room could be had for $30. Or less. In 80's, Deming New Mexico once, $13, looked like a time machine room from 1957, wife loved it. A chalet suite in Chattanooga for $20. And so on. And there were no people living in them in the 80's. Much of our travel we were camping and birding Friday noon to Monday morn. One of these days I will get back on the road again.

That Jesse Ed Davis is one of the best unknown guitarists that was on the most stuff that folks never knew. When the Beatles want you playing guitar what does that mean?

I saw him once, on the Faces '75 tour, the last semi-original Faces tour. Tetsu had already replaced Ronnie Lane, but the rest was the same, save Jesse playing a second guitar! I wish there was footage of those two guitar player Faces shows in '75. I gave a pair of tickets to and went with my guitar mentor (for his wedding present). It was mind-blowing. But Jesse stood too close to Ron Wood too often and
became addicted to heroin and got white line fever. What a surprise the Faces could turn one into a party animal. My guitar mentor became an accountant.

Have a great trip!

per wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ed_Davis

In 1971, Davis recorded his first solo album after Atco Records signed a contract with him to record two albums with the label. The first was the album ¡Jesse Davis! (1971), which featured backing vocals by Gram Parsons and performances by Leon Russell and Eric Clapton, among others.[16]

Davis was close friends with Gene Clark. In 1971, he played on and produced Clark's second solo album, White Light, and provided lead guitar on Clark's album No Other in 1974. On Jackson Browne's 1972 debut album, Davis played the electric guitar solo on Browne's hit song "Doctor, My Eyes".[13]

After guesting with Russell on Bob Dylan's 1971 single "Watching the River Flow", and collaborating in Albert King’s Lovejoy, Davis went on to work with George Harrison, performing at the ex-Beatle's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, along with Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Russell, Keltner, Clapton and others.[17]

Two more solo albums followed: in 1972 Ululu, which included the original release of Harrison's "Sue Me, Sue You Blues",[18][19] and in 1973 Keep Me Comin, occasionally listed as Keep On Coming. Around this time, Davis began playing with John Lennon, for whom he played lead guitar on the albums Walls and Bridges (1974) and Rock 'n' Roll (1975).[9] In addition, Davis was a guest performer on other albums by former Beatles: Harrison's Extra Texture (1975)[20] and Starr's Goodnight Vienna (1974) and Ringo's Rotogravure (1976).[13]

In the late summer and fall of 1975, he performed with the Faces as second guitarist throughout their final US tour. It was on this tour that Davis became addicted to drugs.[11]

After the Faces tour, Davis continued to work as a session player. In addition to the artists listed above, Davis contributed to albums by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Keith Moon, Steve Miller, Guthrie Thomas, Harry Nilsson, Ry Cooder, David Cassidy, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Rick Danko, Van Dyke Parks and others. He played on Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), produced by Phil Spector.[13]

safe travels!

have a great weekend all!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian
I picked up Jesse Ed Davis' first album when I lived in Memphis back in '72-'73 and subsequently sought out and purchased his other work. He was fantastic. He met an untimely demise if I recall correctly, he ODed and died in a laundromat.

This is my favorite Jesse Ed song:

He sings about growing up on a reservation on the Washita River. That's Clapton backing him up. With his heroin addiction and death by ODing it seems like he never did leave the reservation after all.

Thanks for stopping in old buddy!

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usefewersyllables's picture

participating in the snail races. Such fun!

I hate road trips, at this point. Between the snail races, and the fact that the interstates are either a) under construction/restoration over 60% of their lengths, or b) so busted up that you can't drive on them for the other 40%, I would rather drink molten lead...

I had the distinct mispleasure of having to tow a heavily loaded trailer behind a diesel F250 from Denver to the West Coast and back on several occasions. I was one of the snails, of course, although the downhills were fun in their own way.

The absolute worst chunk of road ever, though, was the Cherokee Turnpike across Oklahoma. The paving slabs were not planar: every even-numbered slab tilted down, and every odd-numbered slab tilted up, with respect to the direction of travel. At the speed limit of the day, that led to an ungodly resonance in the suspension of truck and trailer, the result of which was pulling oscillating negative and positive Gs at about 2Hz. I even hit my head on the headliner a couple of times on that bronco ride. I found that going either 10 over or 10 under smoothed the ride out a bit, but hit the number on the nose and it was a bad day all around. Gag a maggot on a shitwagon, as my dear departed gray-haired mammy used to say...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
not! We ran into some construction but it wasn't too bad.

As far as truck traffic the worse is the stretch on Interstate 40 between Little Rock and Memphis, it's always almost bumper to bumper with semis. I surmise it's because they are headed for the bridge that crosses the Mississippi at Memphis that creates a bottleneck. And of course the trucks pass each other constantly to get ahead of the truck who's traveling one mile an hour slower than he is. If the slow truck is going 70, the passing truck goes 71 to get around him. Can you tell I've been traumatized? LOL!

"Gag a maggot on a shitwagon". I like that, it's the perfect description of interstate travel.

Thanks UFS.

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snoopydawg's picture

Traveling up Echo canyon to Evanston is like playing chicken with big rigs cuz of the hills. 1st time one passed me going well over 80 it was all I could do to keep the trailer on the road. They pass on the downhill only to falter on the uphill. E-gads I need to find a time of day when traffic is lighter. Plus there’s so many dumb asses not letting trucks move over so merging traffic can get on the freeway. I drive 5-10 cars ahead so I’m aware if someone might need to move over, but I guess they don’t teach that in driving school anymore? I’m surprised more people don’t make it home every day here. Then you have people driving slow in the fast lane or HOV thinking that they should set everyone’s speed limit for them. Then there’s the people yapping on their cellphones…with nary a cop insight.

Yeah I’ve been holding this in for some time. Glad tho that Sam isn’t a backseat driver. And good thing she likes her head out the window so she doesn’t hear me bitching about other drivers. Or swearing when people look right at me and then pull out in front of me anyway. Can’t tell you how many times that’s happened just this month. Love the horn on the beast.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
let Sam drive.

luke.jpg

You know what would really be cool? LED signs on the front and back bumpers of our vehicles so we can give other drivers a piece of our mind, in real time. With pre-set messages complete with emojis. That would be awesome, donchathink? Heh!

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CB's picture

@JtC

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6 users have voted.

@CB
equipped with bullet proof glass also.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@JtC

wanted to build what he called the "Urban Assault Vehicle", which would be a 1978 Chevy Caprice Classic ex-cop-car with the rat motor (454ci), bulletproof glass, painted rattle-can flat black, and the bumpers replaced with chunks of railroad rail. The kind of vehicle that just screams "go ahead and cut me off, Bucko!". Mad Max meets the Blues Brothers.

I could get next to that.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
sign me up!

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snoopydawg's picture

@JtC

Charlie couldn’t reach the pedals and all kinds of mayhem happened.

A7D62E0A-8A63-40EF-B445-77E5DD7AF4F4.jpeg

And don’t give Sam any ideas about her driving. Besides she shirks most jobs I give her and does whatever the hell she wants.

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5 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lookout's picture

Really noon.

Been weed eating early. Came in drenched with sweat. Showered off, had a cold beer, and now mostly recovered.

I burnt out on road travel when I was in the band...not just on the road for gigs but for practices too. Just got old and took the fun out of it after 30 years or so. We do our best to avoid the interstate. In our trip to the FL Folk Fest in White Springs we only have an hour we have to deal with all the trucks on the interstate.
WhiteSpringsBathHousePostCard_0.jpg
Florida's first tourist attraction.

Just a reminder it could be worse...

Y'all have a great trip!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

Saw this posted and planned a video response with a certain tune, but got major involved in other stuff and someboddy beat me to it. Not the version I had in mind, so I'll still do it, later.

Don't know of any hard news happening, been a bit cooler here lately, but no precip.

Spotty wifi is liveable if you get decent cell reception and use a phone as a hotspot for a tablet or second phone. Sadly, huge chunks of where we like to travel get shitty cell signals, so you're stuck with the wifi.

I'm thinking maybe the tires is partly folks not changing them soon enough because money, and not maintaining them, rotating, checking pressure and all that. Just a hunch. Also suspect maybe running one grade/rating down, again because money.

I used to be a driving fool, loved and still love to drive and take road trips, only now I get groggy for a couple of hours after lunch, which is no bueno. Drove cabs, bobtail furniture trucks and for a bit a 2 and a half flatbed back in high school and college and even had a part time job at Lindbergh field that involved, among other things, some time at the wheel of a fuel truck.

My immediately preceding pick up was a HD 3/4 ton Ram mit hemi and an awesome rear axle. Towing our light travel trailer, with a bed full of extra gear I could routinely take Tehachipi Pass and Donner Pass at 70+. Life is much better when you can hop out and blast around the semis and others in an eye blink without a lot of run-up. Current half ton still has the hemi, but a mucho longer axle, gets way better mileage and still gets up and out, but doesn't really hop like the 2500 did. Ah well.

as promised:

After all, Tehachipi is my favorite pass. Wink

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

earthling1's picture

Headed out early to the farm this morning. Lo and behold, a line of Corvettes cruisin' up the I5 mostly in the slow lane.
Seemed ironic that they were all going so slowly but still weaving in and out around semis. Fun to watch but stopped counting after a few dozen. Had to have been over 60 of them. Want to say there were some real beauties in there, but hell, they were all gorgeous.
Road trips?
I'm old enough to remember doing Route 66 all the way from LA. Because it was the only way.
Who here remembers how Motel 6 got its name?
Yup, 6 bucks a night. An they didn't leave no light on for ya.
102° here today and roasting the corn right on the stalk.
Cools to y'all.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

enhydra lutris's picture

@earthling1

could start 66 at the Santa Monica Pier in order to get the whole thing, but we didn't go quite all the way to the other end.

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

soryang's picture

Some OTR companies set their speed regulators low to save fuel. I used to know the maximum speeds for different companies. If you met a driver of another company at a truck stop, the subject might come up, if you didn't already know from observation when you tried to pass them. My understanding was the speeds were fixed either for fuel economy or safety or both. The big LTL carriers, like UPS have their trucks max speed set very high. So typically they are passing the company trucks with lower speed settings. Independent drivers typically don't have regulators governing their speed.

The big problem came when a truck set at say 63 us trying to pass a slower truck, like maybe a Hunt trunk set at 62. Road grade and truck weight will affect the passing distance. I always tried to pass on the downhill when I knew it was close. The other driver in the slightly slower truck could coast downhill and keep me from passing, but if my rig's load was light, I would pass easily on the next uphill at the bottom if he was heavier.

I know that the regulator settings have changed since I retired. If the fuel prices remain high or increase there will be companies who lower them again. I know that the sequence could be from 63 to 65 to 66 or more as fuel prices dropped several years ago. They've probably gone back down since them. I don't see a lot of skirts or spoilers on the dry vans these days either to increase mileage. Surprised not to see more of them. I did see however a lot of slow trucks trying to pass each other and taking forever on I 75 the other day with a large flock of cars literally a mile long waiting in line in the fast lane (3 lanes wide) to get around them. I noticed that a lot more company trucks were set at over 65, maybe 67 or 68, but the private autos trying to pass them were sometimes going 85 or 90, and getting wild when cars doing 70 or 75 in the fast lane were blocking their reckless driving. Then wild maneuvers would take place. Every once in a while I'd see an independent doing 80 but not very often, wastes fuel.

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語必忠信 行必正直