[TheUNZippee!]

I had an interesting, stressful week this past week. It started like shit, and it ended even more shitty. lol

We started the week off with a trip to Quebec city, and just outside Toronto, the snow started on Sunday night. I left a place called Cardinal, ON, at 7am, and it took me 8 hours to get to Quebec City...normally a 4 hour drive. I've seen a lot of shitt trips/storms/roads over 20 years of driving for a living, and this trip is one of the worst.

I could easily have taken 50 pictures just of vehicles in the ditch or accidents.

So I finally get to our customer in Q.C, and they haven't got their street plowed. Well, I'm in the city, and I can't exactly turn around and go home, so I have to go down the street, and sure enough she gets stuck in about 20 inches of snow, with ice under that. Every time I try and rock the truck back & forth, it slides off the crown of the road, further in to deeper snow, so I have to call a tow truck.

Surprisingly, the tow truck showed in less than 15 minutes, which must be some kind of world record for gettting a 100 ton wrecker out in a storm. lol

So, the wrecker pulls me free, and I now get the customer to call a plow for the street & their driveway. Keep in mind that everyone I deal with barely speaks English, if at all. lol

So I finally get pulled up to the tank, and I open our helium bottle. Our valves open with helium pressure. And I hear "SssSssSss"...the system has a leak somewhere. So I only get 1/2 the load off before the helium runs out & the valves close. So here I am standing out in the storm, after busting my ass for 8 hours through hell to get to the customer, only to not be able to deliver 1/2 the load.

Meanwhile, they close the highway I just came down, and we are supposed to go back that way to Montreal. So off we go to the hotel. Beer time babY! (one of the bright spots of my week.

The next morning we wake up, and the truck is buried under another foot 1/2 of snow or so. That takes us an hour to clear up. Then we spend the next 4 hours with dispatch figuring out where to fix the helium leak & get helium. The next 5 hours were spent trying to find our way around downtown Q.C. finding the place to get more helium. We get to this place, one of our competitors we normally exchange product with, and due to the laguage barrier, they try and charge me 500 bucks for two bottles of helium. lol

So I get the bottles on the trailer 1/2 full with the bottles we dragged outside using a cheater hose, and off we go. We get 2/3 of the remaining hydrogen off at a customer in Montreal, without fixing the leak. We finally got back to our yard in Sarnia on Wednesday at 3 pm, after leaving the yard at 10pm Sunday night.

The trip normally takes about 30 to 36 hours....this trip took 65 hours. lmfao

After that we banged off a short 3 stop trip in Michigan, and we get back to the yard nice and early Thursdat, so I'm leaving the yard at 2 pm and looking forward to getting home (a 240 mile drive) just in time to watch my hockey game.....

I'm on the back roads heading home in my beater Merc, about 2/3 the way home, on this little county road, when a plow comes at me the other way...down the fucking middle of the road, and won't move over. 'm guessing he was looking down sipping a coffee or something, cause normally those dudes pay attention. So I slow down from about 50 to 25 or so, and I think I have enough room on the right.....but the last plow through had gone too far right, and created a flat snowy surface over the ditch that looked like road. My right tires hit the ice under the snow at the lip of the road, and I was sucked off right in to the ditch. lmao.

Now I'm in the middle of nowhere, but a guy was nice enough to stop and give me a lift in to the next town where I had signal. I pay for road side assistance, so getting a tow wasn't a big deal other than the time. About an hour 1/2 later, the tow truck shows up, takes me back to the car, and he yanks me out fairly easily, as it was pretty deep at the front end, but because I slowed down I didn't go that far in.....just as well I did slow, cause even at 25 mph when I hit the snow and the car stopped, I almost put my head through the windshield. lol

So, I check the car for damage, and I can't see any, and off I go. I get about 35 miles, now about 20 miles from home, when the car overheats. I pull over, open the hood, and both sides of the rad including the fan, are jampacked with snow. I cleaned the snow off, and of course, the lower rad hose neck was snapped off....&$#@&*(!!@

I'm standing there, and this guy comes walking over to help. Turns out he has 2 Mercs like mine, so I limped the car to his driveway. Wasn't my lucky day though, as he didn't have an old rad laying around in his parts heap. The guy was nice enough to let me in his house to warm up and use his phone (again, no cell signal here), and he even made me a couple of rum & cokes.



Turns out, the guy has a 72 Merc he takes to car shows in my town, and is part of my car club...we have probably walked past each other on Friday nights. I owe this guy a box of beer for helping me out and letting a stranger in his house to use his phone and warm up....with rum!

Anyway the another tow truck showed up, got my car and I home, and I walked in the door just after midnight....almost 10 hours to get home.

I just got off the phone, and a new rad is costing me 300 bucks, installed, with new coolant. Needless to say, if I could find that snow plow driver who didn't move over, I would be having a nice chat with him.

I have pics and videos uploading, and they will follow this post.

[Vinyl66]

too many dem dare words things

[TheUNZippee!]

There is no way to shorten the story any more vinyl. I left out a shitpile of details as it is. Read it or not then. lol

[Drtbkercr5]

i liked it. lol. it kept me entertained for awhile

[TheUNZippee!]

lol thx man. Wait till you see the pics & vids.

[TheUNZippee!]

Leaving the truck stop in Cardinal Ontario at about 7 am or so.

Leaving Cardinal Truck Stop

Leaving Cardinal Truck Stop

[HMUSN]

I betcha my week was worse

[TheUNZippee!]

Feel free to pm me if you want man.

[HMUSN]

I bet your writing my a novel right now

[TheUNZippee!]

Originally Posted by HMUSN I bet your writing my a novel right now

Ah, you know me well, Obi-Doc pm sent.

lmfao

I'm just about done editing/uploading the last pics & vids of this trip.

[TheUNZippee!]

Driving to Quebec

[TheUNZippee!]

Driving To Quebec

[TheUNZippee!]

Driving To Quebec









This is not an over exposed picture, it's a whiteout.

[TheUNZippee!]

Driving To Quebec

[TheUNZippee!]

Vids Of Driving To Quebec

Hwy 40 To Quebec City

Hwy 40 To Quebec City

Hwy 40 To Quebec City 2

Hwy 40 To Quebec City 2

Hwy 40 To Quebec City 3

Hwy 40 To Quebec City 3

[HMUSN]

You are not the only one with a snow problem.


look at this massive snow storm..




and the mountain of ice forming..
(that's not a leak under my truck that's a bad dipstick o ring that I'm to lazy to fix.. it's ..uhh.. melted ice.. yea.. melted ice)

[TheUNZippee!]

lmao Jon good stuff

[TheUNZippee!]

Now I arrive at the customer in Quebec City......


Coming off the hwy to the cust.



Snowy road/driveway to the tank. That horizontal white vessel on the left is what I need to fill.

[TheUNZippee!]

But, the snow was too deep on the unplowed road...






I made my co-driver stand out in the snow....just cuz


Mmm snowy Zipper legs...

[TheUNZippee!]

So, being stuck, we needed this:






Then I had the customer call in this: