New excuse

31 OCTOBER 2013, 21:45 After two straight nights of putting off stopping until it was almost too late, I decided to lecture you on the dangers and temptations involved.
And then I did it again. Consistency is a virtue, right?

Here I am, in a parking lot that had maybe five empty spaces when I got here. Out of 150 or so. And at least two of those were unusable by anything much bigger than a UPS truck.* And by the time I squeezed into this spot (with help from both the drivers whose trucks were threatened) I had maybe 15 minutes left to legally drive. No backup plan.

It's not my fault. Really.

I got a fairly early start this morning, wending my way through the East Tennessee hills toward Knoxville. Passed a truck broken down on the shoulder, and spared a thought for the poor fellow.

Which is when the tire blew on my trailer.

At the time, I wasn't sure what had happened. The truck sort of bumped, and there was a puff of smoke or dust or something; but no shaking, no pieces of tread flying around and endangering innocent bystanders. I thought I might have run over something. And since ther was a rest area right there, I pulled in and parked to make sure nothing was damaged.

What I found was more or less the skeleton of a tire. And a steel mudflap bracket bent halfway into a hairpin by the departing tread.** And the reason I hadn't seen the tread depart? Well, it hadn't. Exactly. The tire that blew was on the inside of the wheel. And this time, instead of flying away, it had wrapped itself around the axle of the trailer. Two or three times. And then stuffed a couple of feet of itself into the brake drum.

Whoops.

When the road service truck arrived, it took nearly three hours to change that tire. Most of which we spent trying to get that tread out of the brake drum.*** I'd planned on a late breakfast at my fuel stop. I lunched instead.

And when my dispatcher asked me If I could get to the West Virginia border tonight to trade loads with someone--and thereby have a chance of getting home on time--I said "Sure, no prob." And remembered--two hours later--how much time I'd lost.
I hate screwing up appointments. So I pushed. And got here just in time to park. No harm, no foul, right?

Yeah. Sounds like "the dog ate my homework," doesn't it?
-----
*Just because a space is big enough to fit you doesn't mean you can use it. You've got to get into it first. And that depends on other things. Like what's front of it…

**Oddly enough, the mudflap itself wasn't damaged.

***Yes, "we." Even with crowbars and a carbide cutter, the service guy needed help. It was jammed in that tight.