Muddy Nights

Easily the smoothest part of the haul road

I'm really starting to get into the swing of things here. I have a daily routine of watching tv shows on my laptop during the day, making lunch, having a bite, getting ready for work, going to the Timmies up the street to fill my thermos and then getting on the crew bus. Everyone is generally in good spirits before during and after work so the bus ride is pretty entertaining. We travel about 15 minutes up the road and enter the coal and grain terminal. Shortly after that we get to the entrance to the project. At the 2km mark we have the dump site where all the mud and trees we are pulling out of the job-site go, it's also where we start the day with a general safety meeting. Once the trucks are pre-tripped we head into the job-site (another 3 or 4 km) on one of the roughest roads I have ever been on. Some of the spots we load in are pretty hard to back into at night in the rain so thankfully the hoe operators guide us in most of the time. It seems as though the day-shift takes the easy, fast spots and leaves us to do the harder ones for which they get made fun of on a regular basis. The last couple nights we have had to drive into a "lake" to get loaded up... It's deep enough that the radiator fans spew water up into the air as we drive in and the headlights go under water for a bit. Keep in mind that the front bumper comes up to my chest and the headlights are above my shoulders... Then we have to drive about half a km through it to get back to the road. It's so deep you cant actually tell where you should go so we just guess lol. I found a really good classic rock radio station but it only comes in briefly at the top of the hill near where we load and then again at the dump. I think I'm going to have to buy an fm modulator so I can listen to my iPod... I think my favorite thing about these trucks is the foot actuated, adjustable jake brake; it works awesome on the hills and makes a hell of a racket lol.