My drive shift was 2:30pm to 12:30 am, and as soon as it got dark it started drowning the Illinois and Indiana highways in SHEETS of rain. Like many states, neither does a very good job of keeping up with the painting of lane lines or installing reflectors, so in a pouring rain at night you have NO IDEA where you are relative to the travel lanes. It didn't help that the other truck drivers whizzing past me at easily 75 mph either knew the roads well, or had balls of steel. I felt like a total rookie, creeping along at 60 mph, weaving back and forth as i tried to determine if i was about to hurtle us down an embankment. At one point a friendly trucker barked through the CB, "England, you're scaring the shit out of me." (truckers usually use the company of the truck they are talking to as an identifier in the absence of knowing your name). Had i not been totally preoccupied with simply staying on the road i would have responded with an equally friendly "kiss my ass."Problem is, in those conditions, there was no way i was going to drive as fast as the other drivers, but at the same time i was desperate to keep at least one of them in my sights to help mark the turns in the road. I felt like the kid brother running madly behind trying to keep up with the big kids....
And it was a total RUSH!! I loved it and didn't want the shift to end.
Oh, and apparently i wasn't shifting too well today. At one point Fabrice/Mike shouted down at me from his bunk, "your downshifting sucks today". With his accent, I thought he said "You need to buy some socks today." Lol. He was right on both counts.
Stay safe everyone.... If you begin to hydroplane, press the clutch to the floor. It allows the wheels to spin freely.
KWA
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