Hudson was rescued by B.O.N.E.S. from a bad situation in Limington, ME. After the gentleman called 911 (and subsequently passed away), the local ACO found 20 dogs living in squalid conditions.
B.O.N.E.S. took most of them and found them new homes. Overall, Hudson was in very good shape but when he had his physical, they found a serious mast cell tumor in his nose. As much as possible was removed.
B.O.N.E.S. wanted to find a wonderful home for Hudson and we did. John is a long-haul trucker that had lost his beagle companion of 13 years. He wanted a new companion. Luckily John found Hudson (or Hudson found John). It was a wonderful match. Hudson reported in regularly, and we share his "Chronicles" on this page.
Happy New year! John and I survived the holidays and starting another year. John doesn't get a tree like most people. I don't know if it's because we are never home or he doesn't trust me. He does however, get into the Christmas spirit by decorating his other truck. I have overheard people at the local store talking with him while he's fueling up, and when he tells them where he lives they recognize it by the "Christmas Cabover".
John had an oversize load going to Ohio the week of Christmas. We were planning to go to Virginia for Christmas, so this seemed like it would work out fine. We had on some re bar mats for a mine shaft on the Ohio/West Virginia border. We took a two lane hi way south out of Wheeling, WV and then turned west on a narrow road that crossed the river into Ohio. At the light, we met up with two coal trucks that were going to the mine. This road was very narrow and windy, with blind curves everywhere. Our load was twelve feet wide and the lanes weren't much wider than ten feet wide, at best. One of the coal trucks hollered to John that they run channel 14 on the CB radio. Well, John went to 14 and they gave us an unofficial escort to the mill. The road is so narrow that they call out when approaching bad sections. Thanks to these two truckers, we avoided several close calls. Besides that, it was fun!
We made it to the mine and got unloaded and made it out of there without any problems. The next day, we loaded for Northern Virginia. Since this was the day before Christmas eve, we wouldn't be delivering until the Monday after Christmas. We had a nice weekend visiting with John's two sisters and his mother, who was visiting. One of my favorite gifts he got was a mug from his neighbors.
I got to see the four dogs too. The dogs are all getting used to me so it doesn't take nearly as long for the growling and barking to settle down. I can never understand why anyone would want to bark at me. Can't they see that I'm no threat?
After a nice weekend it was back to work. John had some loads in the Cleveland area to get for a new customer. We found a load in Ashland, VA going right to Cleveland, which worked out well. He loaded a couple of huge magnets for a large scrap yard in Albany NY. He also found a fork lift in Cleveland going to Albany as well. This was good, since we had to come home from Albany empty. Again, we were delivering the day before New Years eve, so, there wasn't much freight to be had.
After a quiet new year John loaded another load of re bar mats. This one was going to Cleveland. He has hauled two of these loads in the fall. They are heavy, and if we take I 90 across Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, we don't cross any scales. Well...that doesn't work in 2011. After three years of inactivity, the scales in Ohio were re-opened! John was 1370 lbs overweight. He had to go to the local court house and pay the $190.00 fine and then had to make the load legal. If you will remember, We went through this in California last year. John found a local welding shop that came over with a crane to unload two mats. Unlike the time in California, we couldn't just shift the weight, we had to take it off. The welding shop sent over a small truck and loaded the two mats onto their truck. John had to reorder permits for our truck, as well as the other truck. The next morning, we headed out and had a little convoy to Cleveland. Not the best way to start the new year! Fortunately, the trip home went smoothly.
We are leaving Sunday afternoon with several partial loads heading to Pennsylvania and Michigan. Let's hope this trip goes better.
That's all for now.
Hudson, the semi-beagle
