EDIT: This was a reply to Chili that got split somehow.
I drove an hour to work, climbed iron in a petro-chem plant for ten hours, the hour back home, and climbed into my rig to make a quick run to Hollis OK to pick up a load of alfalfa, 745 miles each way. My wife wanted to ride so off we go. Get to Hollis, only a twelve year old boy to help load hay. Had to back almost six hundred feet between thirty foot walls of hay in the co-op barn and the farmer didn't have a key to the doors next to his hay. 580 bales later back on the road! I am more than a little whipped by now so I decided it was time to let my tiny wife try her hand at driving an eighteen wheeler. Technically not an interstate but a divided four lane. My cabover had a thirteen speed roadranger in it, an easy tranny to drive. I stopped on a downhill and explained that there was a couple hundred miles of nothing ahead, just let off the brakes and nudge it in gear when it started rolling and no clutch was needed to shift gears. It took a lot of effort and a long time for her to get the clutch pushed in.
I got her rolling and climbed into the sleeper for a couple hours sleep. I stretched out and felt like I was falling down a hole. Suddenly, "HU, HU, HU, HU, HU!!! I had overlooked one little detail, Wichita Falls, Texas. Nine redlights a short city block apart before the bypass was built. "Just get it stopped the first time and I'll take over." So much for sleep, she would never consider getting behind the wheel again, ever! With only a three day weekend to get home, rest, and go back to my regular job Monday I took a fifteen minute nap somewhere the other side of Wichita Falls in North Texas and took the truck straight home.
Not my worst trip, I topped a hill on a two lane and found a four vessel cement pumper across both lanes and shoulders. A wooden shack not far from the ditch and I knew if I plowed through it at four in the morning there would almost certainly be people killed, including children. I also knew I was almost certain to jackknife trying to hold another load of hay in the ditch. Had it down to about twenty miles an hour when I picked my spot and went off the road. Jackknifed as expected and ended up greasy side up. Not sure hauling hay was fun but it was inneresting!
Hu