Montreal to Delta

I waited for my trailer to be loaded it was going to Vancouver but I said because of my time off I would drop it in Calgary and was told that was OK but after I thought about it and checked my hours on my computer I could make it to Vancouver as long as they had a trailer to come back to Calgary. I rang my guy (Wayne) and had a quick chat about the load he knew how important it was for me to turn around quick. By the time I got back to my truck there was a message telling me to pic up a loaded trailer from delta yard to go to lethbridge now that's what you call service lol.

It was getting late by the time my trailer was ready so I only got as far as New Liskeard in Ontario 2 reasons I stopped there 1 so I could start early the next day and 2 there is free Internet there.

The next morning I was following this truck through the road works and he was knocking over every other cone I was laughing and calling him a dumb ass and thought why didn't he move over... I know it was tight but not that tight! Then I looked in my mirror and saw I was knocking over the cones he missed, just up the road was a young guy standing the cones up in front when we got to him he looked behind us and saw we had knocked every cone over I could see steam coming out of his ears lololol. He was not happy but if he had stuck them in the right place in the first place we could of got by them without knocking them over I will not drive on that soft shoulder I had a very heavy load and it would of sunk (again lol).

I stopped for fuel and to ring my wife. Then I stopped at Ignace Ontario for the night as I pulled in I saw Phil's (Monty) truck so I went in and had a chat he was with his mate Paul a new driver. They were going on a few more hours so I pulled down the road to the hotel for the Internet because it's crap at the truck stop, they have an old router which is wireless B. For some reason my laptop will not connect to wireless B and mine has the new wireless N card.

The next day because I started early I caught up with them and we ran together to the Flying J then we fueled up at the Husky and met up with another H&R driver called Sean we got as far as Regina then they split off to Saskatoon and I stopped at a place called Caronport Saskatchewan for the night.

The next day I had a very long but good run all the way to the Husky at Sicamours BC I went in and had a shower when I got back into my truck I sorted out a film to watch then I fell asleep as soon as I laid down to watch it.

The new road in the Rockies will be great when its finished I left Sicamours early and went to the Delta yard. On the way down a baby deer came out of the bush in front of me I saw it in time to break but the dumb deer got spooked and jumped the centre barrier and got hit big time by a 4x4 truck, if the driver was paying attention to the road he would of seen that deer but like most car drivers over here they see nothing until the last moment.

I dropped my trailer in the Delta yard and picked up my other trailer and scaled it in less then 30 minutes it was very heavy I crossed the scale at 97,000 lbs I made my way back up as far as I could go in my hours and I worked it out I could get back to Sicamours BC.

I took it steady up and down the big hills until the very last hill in Kamloops for some reason the Jake brake was not working a quick check to see if I was in manual or automatic because mine will not work in manual and then I noticed I had turned my Jake off what an idiot!! I switched it on quick but by then I was going too fast so I hit the brakes hard, smoke was pouring out so much so I could not see the cars behind I have never been so scared in my life! I nearly ran out of brakes and there was cars stopped at the bottom by the lights I was just about to yank the wheel to my right and hit the guard rail but I managed to get the truck back under control and stopped in time the smoke was stilling pouring out from my wheels! If I had stopped there and then there would of been a very high chance my brakes would of caught alight so I took a very slow drive to the Flying J about 5 miles up the road which gave the brakes time to cool down.

This has never happened to me before the thought of hitting a car at the bottom of that hill scared the life out of me when I got to the Flying J I was so shaken up. When I got out of my truck to check my brakes I was sick everywhere lol.

The next morning I got under my trailer to check my brakes and everything was fine so I went to Sicamours to fuel up and made sure my Jake brake was switched on! There was a few mountains but nothing as bad as the others I had been up and down the day before. When I got to the top of Rogers Pass I stopped for 30 minutes to let my brakes cool down and because I have always wanted to go in the visitors centre I brought 2 books and fed a ground hog and took his pic as well lol.

I came down Rogers Pass very slow with my Jake's on and under full control. Coming down the mountain at Kamloops was a wake up call... I have been down that mountain loads of times but this was a very heavy load and I had switched my Jake off I learned a lesson that day and thank god no one was hurt!