Welcome back, my fellow truckers!
Today I picked things up where I left them.
I stopped in Aarhus, Denmark last night and then went for a well-deserved rest.
Planning called me first thing in the morning. I had to go to Drekkar Trans in this very city and pick up a cargo of graphite grease.
I was going to cross borders once again as I was travelling to Norway. Specifically Stavanger. It wasn’t a very long drive, just shy of 400 kilometres. I entered the route into the navigation system, and started the engine.
After having picked up the cargo, I made my way to the motorway. I took my first stop early on to eat some breakfast. The sun was shining bright here in the summer, so there was no reason to worry.
After having driven around 170 kilometres, I had to get on the ferry. It wasn’t a direct ferry, unfortunately. That ferry would see this cargo delivered way too late.
So I took a shorter ferry to cross the North Sea and be on the final stint of the travel.
I crossed a really lengthy and massive bridge. Engineering like only the Nordic countries can do. When I arrived at the destination, I found out that I had to be in the harbour of Stavanger. That was exactly the place where the ferry would have docked if I had taken the direct one. Kind of defeats the point of being on time, but hey, here I am.
I delivered the cargo and checked it off as complete in our systems.
I called planning to ask him whether they had something else for me. They informed me that there were no loads available in the area. So it was driving all the way back to Cologne, Germany, where the home base is.
After the journey home took two days, I arrived back in beautiful Köln.
And planning called me again. They told me to pack up my bags because I was going to Austria, baby. I was going to transport a wheel loader all the way to Graz.
There is just one thing. My lovely Mercedes New Actros needed to be sent in for maintenance. It has to happen from time to time, but it still felt sour to me. So I got this non-customized blue Volvo. Standard edition, nothing fancy. While a wheel loader is not that heavy, I still knew that the Volvo doesn’t have the acceleration that my lovely Mercedes has. So much for hoping to go fast enough when trying to merge into traffic.
Boy was I in for a hell of a trip. Driving out at the first glance of dawn. I already spotted many police cars behind me wondering what was going on.
It seemed that a truck had broken down. That still doesn’t explain why there are this many police cars. So just a couple of kilometres ahead, I saw a car broken down.
Apparently the towing services had their hands full this morning. Then when you thought you’d had the worst… it got worse.
Just another ten kilometres passed by and then I saw something that shouldn’t be happening. An oil tanker was on fire. Luckily, the cab itself was disconnected already. Though there was no help, no emergency services nearby either. And another truck just passed by like nothing’s going on.
The road should be closed at this point, but nothing of the sort.
So in this case, I quickly called emergency services and told them where to be and what was going on.
Because of the possible hazard, I decided to stop ahead of the detached cab. I told the driver that emergency services had been called. From that distance, I tried to instruct other traffic to stay well clear of the flames. Hoping that they would stop until the fire had been extinguished. Apparently my signals worked and traffic came to a halt.
The good news is that the police from earlier arrived at this place. I told them quickly what was going on, that I had called the fire department and action needed to be taken immediately.
They closed off all the lanes on both sides of the motorway after conveying the message to colleagues on the other side of the motorway.
The fire department arrived after around twenty minutes, and the fire had been controlled quickly. There was nothing left of the tanker beyond ashes and pieces of metal.
The danger had disappeared and so I brought my truck back into action, so the traffic jam could start to move again.
I took another rest stop to gather my thoughts and also informed planning as to why I was behind schedule.
After leaving the main roads, I hit the last countryside roads and really small unpaved roads, all the way to EuroAcres.
I never thought I would arrive this early at the final destination. While it seemed like a big company, this was just a farming family working for the big company.
After unloading the cargo, they invited me in for a nice dinner. A fresh salad, with some nice tender spare ribs from the grill. What a wonderful summer day this was turning out to be.
The only thing missing was a cold beer. Just one, so I was allowed to drive again after we finished. I got a cold bottle from the farm owner, while his wife came out with some fresh fruit to go along with all the goodness that had been put on the table.
The farmer told me the story of how they got this farm. It had been passed down for generations. He told me that the cows are sent into the hills and mountains during the spring, to get the freshest grass possible.
It looked like nature had not been touched by man here at all. They respect the nature around them, from the mountains to the cattle that graze on them.
A wonderful day came to an end. The farmer even offered me a place to sleep. I informed him that I was getting back into my truck. I was ready to go back to Cologne.
I couldn’t wait to get back to my precious Mercedes truck. The purple one that is all mine.
The sun set and a new trucking day will dawn soon.
I'm Amethyst, 30, and from the Netherlands. I've always had a passion for adventure in roleplaying games. Being able to immerse myself into these universes allowed me to escape the trauma's of my youth. Now I want to share my gaming passion with all of you!
