As the next week of driving started, I heard, once again, the dreaded "hissing" sound. I also was to a point that I needed a regular service for my oil and filters. I was thanking God for my loads and my beautiful truck. I asked Him to lead me to a place for a service and a check of the new "hissing" I heard.
I was sitting at a very small Pilot truck stop in Mahwah, NJ. There "happened" to be a small truck repair shop right in their parking lot. I walked over and asked them if they could help me! =) Of course they were happy I stopped by, but for me I took my location as providential. They serviced my truck and fix the second air chamber on the back driver side airline for $427. That was not a real "bargain", but I had the money and was pleased it was fixed in a timely matter, that did not interupt any loads I had dispatched.
It was about noon and I headed out to my newly dispatched pick up about 50 miles south of me at 5PM that afternoon.
The front end of my truck started shaking violently. I didn't want to believe it was anything serious!! I slowed down and the shaking stopped. Everytime I accelerated it started shaking again! I did a u-turn and headed back to the shop I had just left 15 miles back.
They could not figure out why it was shaking, but recommended a shop down near the place where my pick up was scheduled. I soooo did not want to turn down the load I was scheduled for. It was a load back into Canada in Montreal.
I drove slowly to keep from shaking. At the next shop, they said they would have time for me the next morning. I was very firm and said that I would have to cancel my load to Canada and REALLY did NOT want to do that. They relented and took my truck in.
It turned out the tiny pull to the left I had felt and didn't think much about was my front end out of line. It had badly worn the inside of my passenger side steer tire. It had also worn out the tie rod ends. So, even though, it cost me $700 for two new tires and another $250 to put them on and realign the front end and replace the two tie rod ends, I was on my way in time to make my pick up on time and head to Canada!!
I was and am very thankful I was safe and on the road again.
The REAL miraculous part of this story goes as follows:
As I drove over the next couple of weeks, it seemed the truck was pulling very slightly to the right now!! This made me very nervous because the last time it was pulling slightly to the left, it turned to be out of alignment and ruined one of my tires and the tie rod ends and cost me $950!!
I was out of money now and didn't know what to do!?
I prayed and thanked God for my truck and job and asked Him to lead me and show me what to do!!
The alignment I had just had done had a 30 day warranty on it. That warranty was up on July 19th. It was July 16th and I had not been dispatched anywhere near Elizabeth, NJ where I had had the work done. I did not want to pay for the alignment check somewhere else when I had a free warranty check waiting for me in northern NJ. I prayed, I was sitting in southern NJ, a couple of hundred miles away from Elizabeth, the closest I had been all month, but still too far away to just "deadhead" to.
A dispatch came over my Qualcomm sattelite system. Pick up in Parsippany, NJ at 4 o'clock the next afternoon!!! I almost couldn't believe it!!! That was only about 15 miles from the repair shop!!! So, I took off, drove to the repair shop and parked in their lot. The next morning they took my truck in, checked it out and corrected the small problem. Also, my generator had not been blowing very cold air through it's air conditioner. I took the easy opportunity to have them refill the freon, which only cost $58 and I was on my way with a perfect driving truck and a great cool air conditioner.
It is such a wonderful feeling to know that God had provided this opportunity so miraculously. I felt very blessed and happy.
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