77GreenMachine
Phillip Talton
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2010
- Location
- Trinity, NC
Tiger King
Rattlesnakes
Square Grouper
A flop
A rollover
A barrel roll
This thing
Broken parts
Broken parts
More broken parts
Cookie Monster, and more ahead.
It was a Thursday evening, not too hot and a slight breeze. I’d came home from work and mowed the yard, having just finished I cracked open a cold Miller Lite and sat in a chair in my garage watching the breeze move the tree tops. I was smiling thinking about how exactly one week from then, I’d be looking at mountain tops at AOP with my crew. I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself. Then the thought hit me, why not leave Wednesday evening and arrive that night so we have all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday to wheel?
I called Derek and said hey I have a crazy idea, his reply without hearing it was “I’m in”. Nearly the same conversation with Chris, then hit the group chat with the idea and just like that we’d planned to leave Wednesday instead of Thursday.
That Wednesday rolled around and we all fell in line on the highway around 3pm. Myself and Chris, Derek, Joe Jones, Alan and Rod were on our way to what we hoped would be an epic wheeling trip. This was Rods first time wheeling with us and he was in for a real treat. We decided to run 81 to avoid possible traffic on 40W. At our first stop for fuel we needed dinner, so we made sandwiches on the tail gate and rolled on.
Somewhere on the west side of Knoxville it got real interesting. We were going uphill, I was behind Rod, and Alan behind me. Rod got on the brakes and I realized we were slowing down hard. Then I realized we were really slowing down, like almost stopping. My brakes locked up, and in that moment I had to make a split decision. I either slam into the back of Rod, or dip hard to my right hopping no one is beside me. I have no time to check. Figuring side swiping someone lends a much better outcome that rear ending him and knocking his 4Runner off, I dip hard to the right.
Mind you I have a 1,500lb camper in my bed!
The truck leans hard and the trailer gets some wiggle but I BARLEY miss Rod. Alan is behind my and repeats the same maneuver but even further right. (We we’re all in the left lane) In that moment I was thankful to be driving a 1 ton truck and not a half ton, although Alan WAS in a half ton, an F150. But he didn’t have a camper.
The radio is lit up with people going WTF and yelling. I get up ahead expecting to see Derek, who was out front, scattered with a rig and camper all over the highway. To my surprise there is no wreck, but there are cops at the crest of the hill and guys working in the median. Derek is OUT of the truck yelling and waiving his arms in the air in a rage of anger at the cops. No warning signs, no cop well before to alert this or anything. Just right there with the workers just over the top of the hill. There’s no way we could have known. They should have had the second cop further back.
Joe Jones is on the other side of a cone/barrel barrier cause as he topped the hill it was either dip left, or kill the cop standing behind his car IN THE LEFT LANE! I don’t really understand fully what’s going on at this time. We all get rolling but are very separated and shook up. We grab the next exit to gather ourselves, have a smoke (even those who don’t smoke) and change underwear after we check our straps.
That event really put a damper and a funk on the whole evening. We didn’t really level out from that till the next day. I’m glad to say though that we all now keep a much greater following distance since then.
We roll into AOP at 11:30pm and setup camp. We were tired, but wired up at the same time. I had no AC the last hour of that trip, and discover my AC belt came off for some reason. Nakoma is set to arrive the next morning. I’ll have him bring one on his way in.
A slow moving morning of breakfast and crap talking ensues the next day.
We have the whole park to ourselves, and the weekend of carnage begins.
Stay tuned for more, as this will take me a while to type it all out. This story will get MUCH more interesting I promise…
Rattlesnakes
Square Grouper
A flop
A rollover
A barrel roll
This thing
Broken parts
Broken parts
More broken parts
Cookie Monster, and more ahead.
It was a Thursday evening, not too hot and a slight breeze. I’d came home from work and mowed the yard, having just finished I cracked open a cold Miller Lite and sat in a chair in my garage watching the breeze move the tree tops. I was smiling thinking about how exactly one week from then, I’d be looking at mountain tops at AOP with my crew. I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself. Then the thought hit me, why not leave Wednesday evening and arrive that night so we have all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday to wheel?
I called Derek and said hey I have a crazy idea, his reply without hearing it was “I’m in”. Nearly the same conversation with Chris, then hit the group chat with the idea and just like that we’d planned to leave Wednesday instead of Thursday.
That Wednesday rolled around and we all fell in line on the highway around 3pm. Myself and Chris, Derek, Joe Jones, Alan and Rod were on our way to what we hoped would be an epic wheeling trip. This was Rods first time wheeling with us and he was in for a real treat. We decided to run 81 to avoid possible traffic on 40W. At our first stop for fuel we needed dinner, so we made sandwiches on the tail gate and rolled on.
Somewhere on the west side of Knoxville it got real interesting. We were going uphill, I was behind Rod, and Alan behind me. Rod got on the brakes and I realized we were slowing down hard. Then I realized we were really slowing down, like almost stopping. My brakes locked up, and in that moment I had to make a split decision. I either slam into the back of Rod, or dip hard to my right hopping no one is beside me. I have no time to check. Figuring side swiping someone lends a much better outcome that rear ending him and knocking his 4Runner off, I dip hard to the right.
Mind you I have a 1,500lb camper in my bed!
The truck leans hard and the trailer gets some wiggle but I BARLEY miss Rod. Alan is behind my and repeats the same maneuver but even further right. (We we’re all in the left lane) In that moment I was thankful to be driving a 1 ton truck and not a half ton, although Alan WAS in a half ton, an F150. But he didn’t have a camper.
The radio is lit up with people going WTF and yelling. I get up ahead expecting to see Derek, who was out front, scattered with a rig and camper all over the highway. To my surprise there is no wreck, but there are cops at the crest of the hill and guys working in the median. Derek is OUT of the truck yelling and waiving his arms in the air in a rage of anger at the cops. No warning signs, no cop well before to alert this or anything. Just right there with the workers just over the top of the hill. There’s no way we could have known. They should have had the second cop further back.
Joe Jones is on the other side of a cone/barrel barrier cause as he topped the hill it was either dip left, or kill the cop standing behind his car IN THE LEFT LANE! I don’t really understand fully what’s going on at this time. We all get rolling but are very separated and shook up. We grab the next exit to gather ourselves, have a smoke (even those who don’t smoke) and change underwear after we check our straps.
That event really put a damper and a funk on the whole evening. We didn’t really level out from that till the next day. I’m glad to say though that we all now keep a much greater following distance since then.
We roll into AOP at 11:30pm and setup camp. We were tired, but wired up at the same time. I had no AC the last hour of that trip, and discover my AC belt came off for some reason. Nakoma is set to arrive the next morning. I’ll have him bring one on his way in.
A slow moving morning of breakfast and crap talking ensues the next day.
We have the whole park to ourselves, and the weekend of carnage begins.
Stay tuned for more, as this will take me a while to type it all out. This story will get MUCH more interesting I promise…
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