merlot566jka
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0800 Thursday March 24th, I woke up enjoying the extra time I got to sleep. I got showered and dressed up in my service dress blues to man the rails coming back into homeport Everett WA after a 6 month deployment.
0845, my roommate tells me his duty section was changed last minute and he wasn't going to beable to go with me to Montana to recover my deuce. I panicked trying to find anyone that would be willing to leav WA at around midnight, drive to MT, get my truck and follow me back in my rental. I was desperate!
1350, picked up rental truck. I had a compact reserved, but they ran out and gave me a 4 door chevy 4x4. Could have been worse I suppose. But the MPG were gonna kill my plans. I decided I was going to drive to MT and the truck was going to "break down" and I would just leave it in MT near the enterprise rental place and justdrive my deuce back. So I drove to the bank, withdrew a whole lot of $100 bills, and head back to base.
1630, a buddy calls and asks if I can help him. His battery was dead and they jumped it, but he only made it two blocks before the car gave up the ghost. I made a shady deal and told him I'd install a new alt, batt and belt if he paid for the parts and rode with me to Montana tonight. He said sure, let me tell my wife. Luckily his wife was in Canada! She gave him the go, he gave me the signal and I was elated.
1700 I make it back to my house with my roomate following. We get into the house to find out the roof was leaking for 6 months and apparently I forgot to clean out the coffee pot and take out the trash. Whatever, I decided to deal with it later.
1830 I make it with tools to my buddies car. He had a newb from the ship with him. I saw he already had the new alternator, so I quickly yanked the old one and plopped in the new one. Then took him to autozone for a battery and belt. We get back to find out the newb had locked the keys in the car. So we get the new guy to call and pay for a lock pop.
2025. Lock was popped and we drove back to my buddies to drop off his car. We load up and head out. We get about 60 miles into our journey when we have sherrif cars blowing past us with sirens blaring. We get to a stop poin to find out there was a serious crash on HWY 2 and it wouldn't be open till the morning. I turned around, headed back down HWY 2 to 405 to I90E. This was about 1.5 hrs added on to my original plan... Or what was left of my plan.
2200-0730, normal road trip. The other two slept, I drove. No bad weather, smooth sailing the whole way. I was amped up on adrenaline and had enough caffine to kill a small farm animal.
0730 I call the guy selling the deuce. He sounds shocked that I made it. I got a little nervous and started to question everything. I begin to drive the last 45mins to his house, bi*ching the way about how I was about to buy something that was absolutely ridiculous and what a mistake this was. The others woke up and were not excited to hear me complaining. I guess the 24 hrs of no sleep were getting to me and I was being a grouch.
0850, we ge there. The guy is friendly, odd looking and seemed a little shady. I walked up to the deuce. HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS HUUGE. Ok so now my second thoughts were becoming my primary thoughts. What the **** am I doing buying this thing!? I drive corvettes and small sports cars, not military tractors. What am I doing here!? I ask him tons of questions and he walks me around the vehicle. I was still in awe at the size. He showed me how to start it, showed me that almost everything worked and gav me some general info about the truck. Then he gave me a 3 minute driving lesson. I dis get to drive a deuce twice while I was an Individual Augmentee in Alaska in 2007. I do not remember things being this difficult and big. But whatever. I went inside after the drive and plopped down $4000. We shook hands, shot the shlt while his wife made up the temporary tags and transfered the title to my name ( they have a dealers license). I get a cup of coffee and away I go.
1015, first gas station I see. I've **** near ran 4 cars offthe road, I think I ripped my rotator cup out, my balls are frozen solid and the heater fan is very very angry with me. I've ground every gear and only one wiper works. The rain is coming in from the windshield's lack of seals and the soft top is flapping by the bed pushing cold air down my britches. My ears are ringing from the sound of the engine. I start to stop.... sHIIIII..... No brakes. Islam the pedal... And I lock up all 10 tires and slide into the gas station perfectly lined up with the diesel pump, just in the wrong side! My buddies are there waiting, laughing and in a rush to get the he'll outa Montana.
I tell them to drive slow cause I'm topping out at 55mph and this thing is hard as shot to drive. They took a pick of me and said there going up the road to get some food. This was the last time I saw them.
I gave the truck a good look now, really questioning what I just got myself into. I went into the store and got some gloves, can of chew, 2 gallons of water, and a huge mug of coffee. I walked back out to the deuce and started pickin out anything I could to make me possibly enjoy the next 500miles. Oh a muffler, that's nice. A bed full of M135 wheels with 30 year old tires, that's cool. Uh yeah, that's all I had to be excited about. I sure as shlt wasn't excited about driving home up the snowy mountains in this thing. I was certain I was goin to kill someone or my self. My confidence in my driving skills hit an all time low. Oh yeah, where were my buddies in my rental truck? Well no cellphone signal, I was certain I'd run into them on the way to the freeway. I didn't.
1145, I am doing it! I am driving this thing and not destroying everything around me! How much fuel do I have??? No idea, guage doesn't work. Ears are ringing again. And every bump releases about a lb of dust from the spring seat. I start getting heavy eyed, and the humming is makin me tired I pull over to rest and check the fuel tank.
1227. Trucker and two other people knocked on my door to ask me about the truck. I couldn't sleep here. But it's cool I'm already getting attention in this thing.
1250, back on the road. I drive and stop every couple hours to check the fuel. I'm running on 29 hours with no sleep now and everything just doesn't really matter. All i see is 55mph 2600rpm, left mirror, right mirror, road....
1600, first big uphill, I mash the go pedal in 5th gear and anticipate the rpms to go down like I just let off the go pedal. WTF? I was pulling up hill, 50....55.....57 Whoa! I backed off and held it at 56mph. I was astonished. I was passing a semi! Whoo hooo I am not going to die in this screaming white and green coffin!
2000, it's dark. I can't see the headlights in the rain. I have no gauges now. Only one wiper is working about half ass. Then I start going up, and up and up. My ears are popping. Then I see it. Snow. And a whole metric ass ton of it. It starts getting bad. I'm looking out of a 8 square inch hole through the snow covered windshield and doing about 50mph in a couple inches of snow. The truck isn't driving any different, but everyone around me is. I realize I am leading the pack! This is so cool.
2110, I pull over somewhere in Stevens pass for some pictures and to romp through the plowed snow parking lot. I put the front axle in, put it in low and go play. by the time I stopped there wa a crowd of guys laughing and cheering. This was freaking awesome. One of the city road maintainers was in a truck by the entrance to this lot. He comes over to tell me how he can't belive that I found one of these and how he wants one. We bs for a few mins and I decide to take a few more pics and get back on the road.
2230, I am out of the snow and going down the road to my house. I pass my street twice. Third time was a charm. Got to the house. Rental truck was there. Buddies weren't. My phone died about 12 hrs ago and my charger was locked in the rental truck and I couldn't find the keys.
2300, I shower, eat, and get some beer. Room mate shows up and tells me how my buddies conned him into helping them move to thier new apt with the rental truck and how he was pissed about me volunteering him. I had no idea about this. He told me he didn't know where my rental truck keys were. I said forget it and went to bed.
1015, I woke up. I am soaking wet. WTF!? My water bed was more like a kiddie pool. Aparently they leak when you don't use them for 6 months.
My roomy asks me about the truck. I tell him the story. We then took it outside to Destroy the shed that was falling apart.
1130, at les schwab. Nail went through left front tire.
I go into napa acros th way while a guy is fixing my flat. I bought convex mirrors, a 12v wiper motor that fit perfect, and found out my front marker lights don't "mark"
I get home and my roomate tells me he needs help moving his stuff out of storage.. And tomorrow I have to help another buddy move.... And then I get an email about working on another corvette.... It just doesn't end!
So here I am now, on the ship, on duty about to go on watch. I can't post the pictures from my cellphone but I can txt email them out and someone else can post them or just wait till 1800 west coast time and I'll post them.
0845, my roommate tells me his duty section was changed last minute and he wasn't going to beable to go with me to Montana to recover my deuce. I panicked trying to find anyone that would be willing to leav WA at around midnight, drive to MT, get my truck and follow me back in my rental. I was desperate!
1350, picked up rental truck. I had a compact reserved, but they ran out and gave me a 4 door chevy 4x4. Could have been worse I suppose. But the MPG were gonna kill my plans. I decided I was going to drive to MT and the truck was going to "break down" and I would just leave it in MT near the enterprise rental place and justdrive my deuce back. So I drove to the bank, withdrew a whole lot of $100 bills, and head back to base.
1630, a buddy calls and asks if I can help him. His battery was dead and they jumped it, but he only made it two blocks before the car gave up the ghost. I made a shady deal and told him I'd install a new alt, batt and belt if he paid for the parts and rode with me to Montana tonight. He said sure, let me tell my wife. Luckily his wife was in Canada! She gave him the go, he gave me the signal and I was elated.
1700 I make it back to my house with my roomate following. We get into the house to find out the roof was leaking for 6 months and apparently I forgot to clean out the coffee pot and take out the trash. Whatever, I decided to deal with it later.
1830 I make it with tools to my buddies car. He had a newb from the ship with him. I saw he already had the new alternator, so I quickly yanked the old one and plopped in the new one. Then took him to autozone for a battery and belt. We get back to find out the newb had locked the keys in the car. So we get the new guy to call and pay for a lock pop.
2025. Lock was popped and we drove back to my buddies to drop off his car. We load up and head out. We get about 60 miles into our journey when we have sherrif cars blowing past us with sirens blaring. We get to a stop poin to find out there was a serious crash on HWY 2 and it wouldn't be open till the morning. I turned around, headed back down HWY 2 to 405 to I90E. This was about 1.5 hrs added on to my original plan... Or what was left of my plan.
2200-0730, normal road trip. The other two slept, I drove. No bad weather, smooth sailing the whole way. I was amped up on adrenaline and had enough caffine to kill a small farm animal.
0730 I call the guy selling the deuce. He sounds shocked that I made it. I got a little nervous and started to question everything. I begin to drive the last 45mins to his house, bi*ching the way about how I was about to buy something that was absolutely ridiculous and what a mistake this was. The others woke up and were not excited to hear me complaining. I guess the 24 hrs of no sleep were getting to me and I was being a grouch.
0850, we ge there. The guy is friendly, odd looking and seemed a little shady. I walked up to the deuce. HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS HUUGE. Ok so now my second thoughts were becoming my primary thoughts. What the **** am I doing buying this thing!? I drive corvettes and small sports cars, not military tractors. What am I doing here!? I ask him tons of questions and he walks me around the vehicle. I was still in awe at the size. He showed me how to start it, showed me that almost everything worked and gav me some general info about the truck. Then he gave me a 3 minute driving lesson. I dis get to drive a deuce twice while I was an Individual Augmentee in Alaska in 2007. I do not remember things being this difficult and big. But whatever. I went inside after the drive and plopped down $4000. We shook hands, shot the shlt while his wife made up the temporary tags and transfered the title to my name ( they have a dealers license). I get a cup of coffee and away I go.
1015, first gas station I see. I've **** near ran 4 cars offthe road, I think I ripped my rotator cup out, my balls are frozen solid and the heater fan is very very angry with me. I've ground every gear and only one wiper works. The rain is coming in from the windshield's lack of seals and the soft top is flapping by the bed pushing cold air down my britches. My ears are ringing from the sound of the engine. I start to stop.... sHIIIII..... No brakes. Islam the pedal... And I lock up all 10 tires and slide into the gas station perfectly lined up with the diesel pump, just in the wrong side! My buddies are there waiting, laughing and in a rush to get the he'll outa Montana.
I tell them to drive slow cause I'm topping out at 55mph and this thing is hard as shot to drive. They took a pick of me and said there going up the road to get some food. This was the last time I saw them.
I gave the truck a good look now, really questioning what I just got myself into. I went into the store and got some gloves, can of chew, 2 gallons of water, and a huge mug of coffee. I walked back out to the deuce and started pickin out anything I could to make me possibly enjoy the next 500miles. Oh a muffler, that's nice. A bed full of M135 wheels with 30 year old tires, that's cool. Uh yeah, that's all I had to be excited about. I sure as shlt wasn't excited about driving home up the snowy mountains in this thing. I was certain I was goin to kill someone or my self. My confidence in my driving skills hit an all time low. Oh yeah, where were my buddies in my rental truck? Well no cellphone signal, I was certain I'd run into them on the way to the freeway. I didn't.
1145, I am doing it! I am driving this thing and not destroying everything around me! How much fuel do I have??? No idea, guage doesn't work. Ears are ringing again. And every bump releases about a lb of dust from the spring seat. I start getting heavy eyed, and the humming is makin me tired I pull over to rest and check the fuel tank.
1227. Trucker and two other people knocked on my door to ask me about the truck. I couldn't sleep here. But it's cool I'm already getting attention in this thing.
1250, back on the road. I drive and stop every couple hours to check the fuel. I'm running on 29 hours with no sleep now and everything just doesn't really matter. All i see is 55mph 2600rpm, left mirror, right mirror, road....
1600, first big uphill, I mash the go pedal in 5th gear and anticipate the rpms to go down like I just let off the go pedal. WTF? I was pulling up hill, 50....55.....57 Whoa! I backed off and held it at 56mph. I was astonished. I was passing a semi! Whoo hooo I am not going to die in this screaming white and green coffin!
2000, it's dark. I can't see the headlights in the rain. I have no gauges now. Only one wiper is working about half ass. Then I start going up, and up and up. My ears are popping. Then I see it. Snow. And a whole metric ass ton of it. It starts getting bad. I'm looking out of a 8 square inch hole through the snow covered windshield and doing about 50mph in a couple inches of snow. The truck isn't driving any different, but everyone around me is. I realize I am leading the pack! This is so cool.
2110, I pull over somewhere in Stevens pass for some pictures and to romp through the plowed snow parking lot. I put the front axle in, put it in low and go play. by the time I stopped there wa a crowd of guys laughing and cheering. This was freaking awesome. One of the city road maintainers was in a truck by the entrance to this lot. He comes over to tell me how he can't belive that I found one of these and how he wants one. We bs for a few mins and I decide to take a few more pics and get back on the road.
2230, I am out of the snow and going down the road to my house. I pass my street twice. Third time was a charm. Got to the house. Rental truck was there. Buddies weren't. My phone died about 12 hrs ago and my charger was locked in the rental truck and I couldn't find the keys.
2300, I shower, eat, and get some beer. Room mate shows up and tells me how my buddies conned him into helping them move to thier new apt with the rental truck and how he was pissed about me volunteering him. I had no idea about this. He told me he didn't know where my rental truck keys were. I said forget it and went to bed.
1015, I woke up. I am soaking wet. WTF!? My water bed was more like a kiddie pool. Aparently they leak when you don't use them for 6 months.
My roomy asks me about the truck. I tell him the story. We then took it outside to Destroy the shed that was falling apart.
1130, at les schwab. Nail went through left front tire.
I go into napa acros th way while a guy is fixing my flat. I bought convex mirrors, a 12v wiper motor that fit perfect, and found out my front marker lights don't "mark"
I get home and my roomate tells me he needs help moving his stuff out of storage.. And tomorrow I have to help another buddy move.... And then I get an email about working on another corvette.... It just doesn't end!
So here I am now, on the ship, on duty about to go on watch. I can't post the pictures from my cellphone but I can txt email them out and someone else can post them or just wait till 1800 west coast time and I'll post them.
![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]"){kind=icon}
. Great to have another member on board!! Hoorah!!!!!
when you get off duty.