In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Options
Pulled a rookie move today, got in trouble
Big Sky Redneck
Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
A phone call would have avoided this mess I got into today, a simple phone call for directions.
Left Pheonix this morning headed to Cottonwood, store address came up screwy in the GPS so I googled the store and compared the map to the phone. Looked my map over and it is all little black lines going there. In sort of a hurry I didn't look at it all that close, put my faith in Google Maps and Garmin.
So off I go, GPS is sending me through Prescott Valley and I could have sworn Google showed a different route, pulled over and glanced at the route again,,,, my mistake was not looking CLOSELY! The store address is in RT 89A and rhe GPS is taking me straight to 89A, ok it knows what it's doing.
I pull out and keep going following the GPS, make a turn and it says 89A is a few miles up, turn right. Get to 89A and turn right and all of a sudden the GPS starts with the popups and the road turned red, what the hell??? It says the store is something like 8 miles, can't look at Google now due to the 2 lane road, ok you ignorant witch, you better be right. As I'm driving along I start to get this feeling that something isn't right, Google Maps shows it a lot further across this side if I remember correctly.
A few miles up I pass two big honking * signs that says NO TRUCKS OVER 50'.
Uhh ohh.
Time to make a decisions, I passed a big wide spot arguing with myself, the store should be right up here! Went past where the GPS said the store was and it's nothing but trees, time to turn around. I'm driving along and the road starts getting skinnier and there is a sign that says "MOUNTAIN GRADES AND SHARP CURVES NEXT 12 MILES", ohh sheet!
I'm thinking to myself, it will be OK, these roads are never as bad as the signs say, biy was I wrong!! This road was a *, I had to creep around several turns praying a car wouldn't come around the other way. Hairpin switchbacks that go damn near straight up, I really need to turn around!!
Finally get to the top and there is a pull over spot, I pulled in trying to figure out what to do, I can turn around but I don't want to go back through that, looking across the valley what I can see of the road is fairly straight. Look at my phone and no signal. Too late now, keep going.
Down the mountain I go, holeeee craaaaap. Twice as bad as it was coming up, switchback after switchback one right after the other and a lot of traffic, had to stop several times to let a a curve clear and had a few near misses. Goddang I screwed up. Now I'm concerned, I need out of here and I need out now.
By now I have a few cars behind me, I picked a straight stretch and just stopped, stopped in the middle of the road and unassed the truck. I walked back to the first car, she rolled down her window and was laughing, I explained that I knew I screwed up and I needed help. Asked her if she would go in front and help me out on the turns, made sure she knew I did not want to cause a wreck. She agreed and went to the front of my truck, I waved the other traffic around and got back in the truck. Off we go.
She is doing a great job and after a few miles I see a sign that says Welcome To Jerome, AZ. Woohoo I'm out of it, I'm saved!! WRONG!! There are switchbacks in town with houses and buildings touching the road, ohh my god. We get through a couple of them and I hear a siren, THANK GOD IT'S A COP!!!
I pull over, he stops in front of me and walks back to the truck, I shut it down, roll down the window and the first words out of my mouth are "please don't get all mad and start yelling 'cause I just went through hell!" He looks at me and asks me if I realize where I'm at, tell him I am now!! He explained the fine and points, told him I expect that. We chat for a few minutes, I told him all I really care about at this point is getting out of there safely.
He comes back with a deal, if I agree to pay a $175 Police Escort fee and promise never to do that again he will escort me the rest of the way out and make sure I don't get into an accident, he also told me as far as the bad roads I'm not out of them yet, still have a few more miles to go. Told him if I thought giving him a hug would work I'd do it, hell yes I'll pay the escort fee to get out of here and chalk this up to a lesson learned. He did the paper work and we took off.
Lesson?
I've been catching mysef more and more becoming a slave to the gadgets we have now. 20 years ago this would not have happened unless it was done on purpose. Can I blame the gadgets? Nope, they are only a tool and not to be depended on blindly. I know better, I screwed up. My gut told me I was fixing to get into something bad and I let it go.
No excuses, I screwed the hell up.
P.S, that was a hell if a ride and Incan laugh about now that it's over. Will I go that way again, HELL NO!!!!
Left Pheonix this morning headed to Cottonwood, store address came up screwy in the GPS so I googled the store and compared the map to the phone. Looked my map over and it is all little black lines going there. In sort of a hurry I didn't look at it all that close, put my faith in Google Maps and Garmin.
So off I go, GPS is sending me through Prescott Valley and I could have sworn Google showed a different route, pulled over and glanced at the route again,,,, my mistake was not looking CLOSELY! The store address is in RT 89A and rhe GPS is taking me straight to 89A, ok it knows what it's doing.
I pull out and keep going following the GPS, make a turn and it says 89A is a few miles up, turn right. Get to 89A and turn right and all of a sudden the GPS starts with the popups and the road turned red, what the hell??? It says the store is something like 8 miles, can't look at Google now due to the 2 lane road, ok you ignorant witch, you better be right. As I'm driving along I start to get this feeling that something isn't right, Google Maps shows it a lot further across this side if I remember correctly.
A few miles up I pass two big honking * signs that says NO TRUCKS OVER 50'.
Uhh ohh.
Time to make a decisions, I passed a big wide spot arguing with myself, the store should be right up here! Went past where the GPS said the store was and it's nothing but trees, time to turn around. I'm driving along and the road starts getting skinnier and there is a sign that says "MOUNTAIN GRADES AND SHARP CURVES NEXT 12 MILES", ohh sheet!
I'm thinking to myself, it will be OK, these roads are never as bad as the signs say, biy was I wrong!! This road was a *, I had to creep around several turns praying a car wouldn't come around the other way. Hairpin switchbacks that go damn near straight up, I really need to turn around!!
Finally get to the top and there is a pull over spot, I pulled in trying to figure out what to do, I can turn around but I don't want to go back through that, looking across the valley what I can see of the road is fairly straight. Look at my phone and no signal. Too late now, keep going.
Down the mountain I go, holeeee craaaaap. Twice as bad as it was coming up, switchback after switchback one right after the other and a lot of traffic, had to stop several times to let a a curve clear and had a few near misses. Goddang I screwed up. Now I'm concerned, I need out of here and I need out now.
By now I have a few cars behind me, I picked a straight stretch and just stopped, stopped in the middle of the road and unassed the truck. I walked back to the first car, she rolled down her window and was laughing, I explained that I knew I screwed up and I needed help. Asked her if she would go in front and help me out on the turns, made sure she knew I did not want to cause a wreck. She agreed and went to the front of my truck, I waved the other traffic around and got back in the truck. Off we go.
She is doing a great job and after a few miles I see a sign that says Welcome To Jerome, AZ. Woohoo I'm out of it, I'm saved!! WRONG!! There are switchbacks in town with houses and buildings touching the road, ohh my god. We get through a couple of them and I hear a siren, THANK GOD IT'S A COP!!!
I pull over, he stops in front of me and walks back to the truck, I shut it down, roll down the window and the first words out of my mouth are "please don't get all mad and start yelling 'cause I just went through hell!" He looks at me and asks me if I realize where I'm at, tell him I am now!! He explained the fine and points, told him I expect that. We chat for a few minutes, I told him all I really care about at this point is getting out of there safely.
He comes back with a deal, if I agree to pay a $175 Police Escort fee and promise never to do that again he will escort me the rest of the way out and make sure I don't get into an accident, he also told me as far as the bad roads I'm not out of them yet, still have a few more miles to go. Told him if I thought giving him a hug would work I'd do it, hell yes I'll pay the escort fee to get out of here and chalk this up to a lesson learned. He did the paper work and we took off.
Lesson?
I've been catching mysef more and more becoming a slave to the gadgets we have now. 20 years ago this would not have happened unless it was done on purpose. Can I blame the gadgets? Nope, they are only a tool and not to be depended on blindly. I know better, I screwed up. My gut told me I was fixing to get into something bad and I let it go.
No excuses, I screwed the hell up.
P.S, that was a hell if a ride and Incan laugh about now that it's over. Will I go that way again, HELL NO!!!!
Comments
I have gone out of PHX a few times on the highway and couldn't place 89A. Holy crap that is switchback hell. GPS should have sent you up I-17.
And Beast has enough sense to not go there in the first place.
I had to look at the map on that one.
I have gone out of PHX a few times on the highway and couldn't place 89A. Holy crap that is switchback hell. GPS should have sent you up I-17.
Here is what my trucker atlas shows, notice Route 260, it is a small black line and if you go to 89A it is a larger red line. Red lines are good and black lines can spell trouble!
So when the GPS sent me to Prescott Valley on 69 then cut over to 89A I assumed that was the way to go and there was something wrong with 260, so like a * I went.
Route 260 is actually a 4 lane truck route, but the map shows it as a bad road!!
But, if I had looked a little further and verified the route I would have saw this,
That would have prompted me to make a phone call for directions.
Instead I trusted the GPS and drove through this,
Which in turn got me this,
And this,
Yeah, this is what rookies do then knowitalls like me give them royal hell for it. What a flub [:(!][:(!]
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I will bet that everybody here has been in that spot at one time or another, but not to the degree that you had just experience.
It is a good thing that there was a highly experienced , seasoned veteran of the Heavy Highway trucking business, boldly forging ahead to deliver said freight to a destination that may or may not even exist on a GPS unit.[;)][8D]
I threw my Garman out the window years ago and never looked back.[xx(]
Do they ever get restitution from actual criminals like meth smoking wife beaters?
PS- better photocopy that form and payment before you send it out.
I normally don't trust(or even use) the mapping feature of my work iPAD, but today being distracted by other things, I followed the directions. The problem arose when the electronic widget failed to understand the bassackward nature of Missouri's road labeling process. There just happened to be TWO roads labelled "Hwy Z" within 5 miles of each other. Not connected BTW. In fact a major water course separated Hwy Z from Hwy Z with no bridges for approximately 10 miles. I was on the west side of the river and my contact was on the east side. Twenty miles later, I was on Hwy Z EAST of the river. Alas, to no avail as the guy wasn't home.
Maybe even a name change here on the forums to 'BigSkySwifty'?[:D]
Just pullin' yer chain, BSR. Glad you made it out of there safe!
Escort Fee...sounds like the Town of Jerome has an extortion racket going.
Extortion or not that was the cheapest way out of that mess. If he wrote a ticket it would have been $450 plus 6 points. If he had called DPS to handle it the cost would have quadrupled. DPS would have had me towed. I took the cheap way out and I'm glad he ran block to get me out, traffic in that town was crazy.
Having hauled heavy equipment many years ago, the escort fee is not a racket or extortion. They know the area and the roadways. They make the trip much safer for everyone. The only thing you have to worry about is weather or not they have a tee time set up. I was hauling a D-8 dozer down to Maryland from PA (on a Saturday) and had a MD State Police escort set up to meet me at the state line. He shows up, asks to see my permit, and then asks how fast will my truck go. I told him it would run well over 70. He says "good, I have a tee time in 2 hours and I don't want to be late". Was a fun ride down Rt. 15.
Used to run under military escort in Iraq, those are the best because they are impatient and won't deal with traffic [:D][:D][:D]
quote:Originally posted by shilowar
Escort Fee...sounds like the Town of Jerome has an extortion racket going.
Extortion or not that was the cheapest way out of that mess. If he wrote a ticket it would have been $450 plus 6 points. If he had called DPS to handle it the cost would have quadrupled. DPS would have had me towed. I took the cheap way out and I'm glad he ran block to get me out, traffic in that town was crazy.
I was thinking it sounded cheap at the price for the situation you were in.
I actually prefer my handheld GPS over my vehicle type. My handheld will show all the roads like a roadmap and I can pick which ones I want to take. My cheap vehicle GPS only shows the major roads unless you zoom in and even then it doesn't show everything so you are kind of stuck following their route.
I run a Garmin Dezl truck GPS and it's hard to manipulate it to do what you want. Most times if you know it's wrong you just go the way you know is right and it should recalculate. It doesn't give the option to build a route like car GPSs and it is a pain in the rear. I keep it on mute because that thing barking at me all day drives me absolutely mad. Ohh and it is the same unit as a car GPS but since it has the truck software in it the cost is 3 times that of a plain Garmin Nuvi [:(!]
Rand McNally makes probably the better one but it's too damn busy. So much like my iPhones, iPads and iPods I have being used to one platform makes it difficult to change to a different brand. I can't use a Galaxy phone because I've been using Apple for so many years and it's the same with GPS, I tried the Rand McNally and hated it even though in all honesty it's a better unit.
Next thing I know I'm stuck in these back hills switchbacks. I wormed my way through taking the whole damn road every step of the way. It took a while but I got over the top and the roads got a whole lot better. As I go down, I see a deputy coming at me and start sweating. I'm going slow enough I could see his face for a while. I saw him reach over for his lights, then change his mind. He just looked at me and shook his head. Only thing I can figure is he decided making it that far I had already learned my lesson.
I guess I got lucky on multiple counts that trip.