THINGS THAT GO "BOOM" IN THE NIGHT

We didn't get unloaded at our last stop Tuesday morning until 8:30am, well past Craig's 14 hour clock, so we had to stay parked at the back of the store for 8 hours. Just the place I wanted to try and get sleep after being up all night. But I did manage to make use of that time, besides trying to sleep, and took advantage of the store to restock our supplies. By 4:30pm we were rolling towards the company yard in Spokane, and looking through the details of our next dispatch.

It is a load of Tyson meat, picking up Tuesday night, with three deliveries. The first being in Burly, ID at 8pm Wednesday night. Then two more deliveries in Vernon and Santa Fe Springs, CA on Friday morning. However, doing the math, Craig would not have enough hours to make the deliveries in California. A quick phone call into dispatch, received the usual comment, "get as far as you can and we'll see about a swap". Only problem I see with that is, once we leave Burly,ID there is a whole lot of nothing out there between Burly and Las Vegas. Last time through there last week, I hardly saw another big rig, let alone one of ours anywhere.But, we soldiered on, fueled up in the yard, took showers, and headed to Tyson to pick up our loaded trailer. We were pulled out in front of the complex and completing our loaded call when all of a sudden we hear a loud creak and then..... "K A B O O M"!!! Craig and I look at each other as to say, "What in the hell was that"?, when we both realized it had to be an air bag. We go out with flashlights, and sure enough, an air bag on the trailer exploded, which left us totally stranded not being able to move the trailer. All I can say is thank goodness it happened while we were parked and not moving, and on top of that, not in the middle of the desert on Highway 93!Craig gets on the phone with road service to inform them of the problem, as I get the not so pleasurable duty of just sitting and taking in the putrid smell of this meat plant. Not sure exactly how good that shower will be after sitting here letting that smell penetrate every fiber of my clothing. As with all smells, you eventually get used to it, and as we waited for the service tech, we had to wonder if we would ever get started on this load.

Turns out we may not have to worry about it. The on call repair guy did not have a replacement air bag. He responded to our location, and was able to by pass the line so that we could at least get the trailer moving. We drove into Pasco where we parked it in the company drop yard and went to sleep after sending in a message advising of our circumstances. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what the morning brings us.