Murphy's World

The Big Squeeze

Dear Murphy,

I had a four-drop load, with the first three stops scheduled to come in Philadelphia. After the first stop, my dispatcher changed appointment times and switched me out with another driver who needed to get home. I was to meet the driver at a truck stop in Philadelphia. Another driver who wasunloading with me wanted to go to the same truck stop, so he decided to follow me.

To get to the highway, we had to go under a railroad trestle. A car was parked at the corner leading into it. I had to rub my mirrors on the trestle to get my Peterbilt and trailer around the car and under the trestle. The driver behind me in the Mack pulling a 48' utility reefer wasn’t so lucky. He clipped the front left corner of his trailer on a support beam.

Once past the trestle, I noticed a sign indicating a 13' 5" bridge ahead. I cleared with inches to spare. Again, the Mack driver wasn’t so lucky. He rubbed the top of his trailer.

We made it to I-95, but the only on-ramp headed north, and we needed to go south. We figured our best bet was to head north, take the next exit and turn around. At that point, another truck driver who also wanted to go south joined us.

We took the next exit, but the only exit for 95 South was off the east side of the road, and we were traveling west. Upset and frustrated, all three of us did a U-turn at the same time across
the median, blocking a total of six lanes of traffic to get to 95 South.

When we finally got to the truck stop, the driver I was switching out with wanted to know what took me so long. I told him he didn’t really want to know.

Sam Kimmerly Jr.
Springfield, OH

Dear Sam,

Did you ever see the Disney animated movie, “Fantasia?” In one scene, a trio of hippos in tutus performs a ballet to a classical piece of music. That’s the first thing that popped into my head when I thought of you Three Amigos pulling off a well-orchestrated, simultaneous, triple U-turn in big rigs, blocking half the streets in Philadelphia in the process.

The second thing I thought of was the old saying about the blind leading the blind.

The third thing I thought about was the poor guy in the Mack truck faithfully following you down the road to ruin. If you think you had a Murphy Day, what about him? He nearly turns his reefer into a flatbed while you escape with a few scratches.

Life’s not fair, especially in Murphy’s World. Don’t you just love it!

Regards,
Murphy and Lucky Dog