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Highway Closures & the ups and downs of trucking…

Today was a shitty yet amazing day. I woke up this morning and started my day. It was storming pretty hard. Got on top of Montreal River Hill and started losing all my air and it wasn’t building back up. Made it to the next pull-out. Little to no cell service. I get out, start checking things out.
I’m not gonna say what or how I fixed it, cuz this post isn’t about me. I’ll just mention it took 8 hours of laying down in a frozen puddle under my truck in -25 blizzard weather. Pretty sure I have some major frostbite cuz f**k does it hurt. If the next town wasn’t 100km I’d a walked away from trucking today. Glad I didn’t. That would have been a cold long walk.
So here’s the cool thing. Roads were closed. I had no idea until my company tried getting someone out to help me. So, I was out on my own minus a plow truck going by every hour or so. All I had was shitty service and an awesome maintenance/safety guy working for my company.
Helping a contractor on a Saturday? That meant the world in the moment. Felt just a little less alone. After the brutal 8 hours and finally driving to Wawa. Me and an O.P.P officer had a good little chat. Found out they were getting updates on my situation from the plows but didn’t have the resources to send someone themselves. As I walked away I turned to him laughingly said “you guys outta close them roads, their awful bud”. The irony was we were chatting in front of the road’s closed sign.
Bout half hour ago (10pm-ish) I got a text from my company asking how I’m doing and if I’m ok. A Saturday night, I figured I’d be the last thing on their mind. Not only was he checking on me but also said Wawa O.P.P called to make sure I was doing OK as well. That made all the things earlier in the day worth it.
I have never been more happy to write a letter of appreciation to T-Lane Nation and the Wawa O.P.P for not leaving a driver on the road alone.
A huge thank you.
Grant Mactavish
(Editor’s Note: shared from facebook with permission from Grant.)
Brenda Stockton
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