Globe, Arizona.
Old mining town, active copper mines all around.
Go up there occasionally with deliveries.
Well, I was to deliver to the city, which I had never done before.
I have delivered to a store; several of the mines and several street projects
going through there and surround towns.
Went to the office. It became immediately obvious that the address on my delivery ticket?
Was definitely NOT the place this material was going to be going to.
No yard there at all, just a building and surround by grass, a park and a kid's playground.

I ask a lady inside where I should take this material, noting to her the name of the person that ordered it.
Oh yes, she replies, you have to take it to such and such a place.
K, how do I get there?

This lady starts going into a litany of different streets that I would have to turn on, making all kinds of turns.  I was writing the information down as she was giving it to me, and asking her to say the names of the streets twice - I always do that to make sure I have the right name.

So, I find the first street she was referring to and take the right turn she instructed.  Old town, spaghetti style streets - just sort of thrown out there like if you flinging spaghetti and that's how the streets end up.  I went down this street looking for the next street to turn on.

I never found it.  I'm in the semi - pulling a 48 foot flatbed trailer?  Yes.  The big truck.  As I progress down this road, it comes to a fork.  To the left the street narrows considerably and is very steep - 15% grade.  To the right, the road also narrows, goes on for about half a mile before it turns out of site.

I had a bad feeling about both of those streets.  I've learned to come to trust those instincts, so instead of going either direction, I put the truck in reverse and started backing up.  Not that there was any place to turn around within a thousand feet at best..........

Well, I have to stop.  A Jeep is coming up behind me, I have my flashers going and my brakes/lights are on.  I just waited and then saw that they pulled into the drive of the house I had stopped in front of.  Good, directions, please.

I turn the truck off and get the attention of one of the ladies that gets out of the vehicle. Why hello there, how are you today?  She is ready to get into whatever kind of conversation it was to be, so I informed her that I had been victimized by bad directions and could she tell me how to get to such and such a place?

Ohhhh, yes, well it's on the other side of .......... that..........point to a deep chasm on the right of me where the road literally drops off and goes well down - at least 30 feet and also some railroad tracks down there. Ummm, okay.  She gives me detailed instructions, I thank her and begin my backing procedure.

I did eventually find a dirt driveway into whoever's property that was large enough - barely - to accomodate a truck to back into and then pull out.  Should have I asked for permission?  Well I didn't, I executed a flawless backing/turning procedure that had me running into nothing back there and had to do no pull-ups  and left.  Well, if I can't do anything else, at least I can drive a truck!  That's all I'm saying.

Now, I get down to the stop sign she told me to go to, turn left and find a bridge that says weight limit 20 tons.  My truck, empty is 26,600 pounds and the load on it was about 3,000 pounds, so I was safe there.
But I did learn why I had missed the turn.  The actual name of the street was nothing like what this lady had told me it was.  I repeated that street back to her twice and she nodded her head in agreement that that was the street name that she had stated.

Well it wasn't even close.  Same first letter after that nothing was the same.  My gosh.  I've had farmers give me better directions by watching for this colored silo and that colored barn to make turns at. I end up at the top of the hill and yes, there is the yard I am looking for.

Just my little Globe trip today.  I was really sweating it because I was driving through residential neighborhoods on narrow streets and wondering if I was going to run into a sign with a picture of a truck, a red circle around it and a line through the truck - no trucks.  I see those signs all over the place in the valley.  I was ON one the other day.  The dummies that put up the sign had it 50 feet down from the entrance to the road.  What was I supposed to do, put the truck in reverse and back out into heavy traffic on a major surface street?  They usually put them right there at the entrance, once you've made the turn it's too freaking late!

Went and got the car's oil changed - 1,000 miles past due unfortunately. If I'm making a trip up North tomorrow, I didn't want to do it with old oil in it.  Got a free wash out of it, too.  Plus, this is one of the few places left that has a rain guarantee: if it rains within 48 hours of getting it washed, they will re-wash it again for free.  I had the owner of a car wash place tell me that NO-ONE in the Phoenix area gives that kind of guarantee.  Bunk, I replied, I named off 2 places and now I know a third.

Went to the food store today instead of waiting until tomorrow and having to waste even that much more time in trying to get everything ready, doing laundry right now and so, the only thing to do tomorrow is come home, load the car and dogs up and go.  That includes having to get out the tools and materials to fix the leaky roof.

But I'm running out of steam.  Have been cranking away since 6:00 am.  Pretty much sat down here and the wind let out of my sails.  Which is okay, just a few more things that I have to get done today, if not, just add a bit of extra time tomorrow.

I'm straining to figure out how to go to San Diego, get on a boat and spend a day at sea fishing.  It may simply not happen this year, or, perhaps later on in the year.  I don't know.  I like to get out of town and do something different once in a while. Going up to the mountains is awesome, yes and it is definitely something I want to continue to do, but a trip over to California would be nice, too.

Well, another entry getting long.

ben