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.
Hey John, is that fire?
That's right, our latest adventure included the truck being on fire!
John got a call from his friend Chris asking him if he wanted to pull a water filtration unit permanently mounted on its own trailer. John said yes, and so we left out trailer home and bobtailed (that's what truckers call riding without a trailer) down to Concord, MA and hooked onto the trailer. John and several of the people involved with the unit had to tarp the whole unit. This was the first trip and the tarps were new and never rolled out to see what they looked like. As a result, they were rolled up backwards and the three of them looked hopeless, scratching their heads, trying to figure out what was wrong. I had fun watching them. Finally, they figured it out and got everything tarped and tied down and off we went. The trip went well until we stopped at a rest area just past the state line in Alabama. That's when I saw the smoke. John got out and saw that one of the wheels was on fire! He got out the fire extinguisher and was able to put it out without further complications.He then found a brake component that had an air leak. He thinks this leak was enough to allow the brakes to come on enough to build up heat but not enough to really notice. When he put the brakes on in the rest area, that was enough to touch off the grease inside the wheel. Fortunately, there was no damage, He plugged off the air leak and headed on to our destination. We were able to get it fixed the next day and were off to our next adventure.
Since we had no trailer, we now had to find another trailer to hook on to. This is a different side of trucking for us, but there are lots of trailers that need to be moved around. Most are new trailers that are picked up at the factory for a nominal pay rate, and the you load the trailer in the direction of where it needs to go. John didn't think this would be the best paying option, and as luck would have it, he found another option. Ho spotted an empty trailer up in Tennessee that had to go to Idaho Falls. someone bought it on line and needed it transported. The rate was actually pretty good, so John booked it. The man in Idaho said the lights had all been replaced and everything should be in working order. He was leary and was ready for an adventure. Hudson Chronicles - January 2010The trailer was 32 years old and it was bought by one farmer from another farmer. Now don't get mad-these two men were nice and extremely helpful, but some farmers seem to have different ideas about maintenance. As it turned out, the trailer looked really good for it's age. the lights had been repaired and the tires looked ok, except for the fact that 3 were flat. The gentleman that sold the trailer, had to go to Nashville for the day so his father showed up to help me air up the tires. We couldn't get one of the tires to hold air so he called the local tire shop and gave me directions, wished me luck and left. I hooked up and Pulled down on the trailer brake handle and...nothing. no brakes! John spent the next three hours with his tools trying to find what was wrong. The lines were blocked somewhere between the tractor connection and the main air valve on the trailer. By this time, the father was long gone, the shop was locked, and the man that sold the trailer was still in Nashville. They finally decided there was nothing more John could do so he told John of a garage about 10 miles away that could look at it. So, off we went, carefully, to the garage. They were busy but said they could fix it in the morning.
As it turned out, it was a simple repair. Some mud wasps had made nests in both airlines just behind the tractor trailer connectors. the trailer tire had a split in the sidewall so a used tire was put on. At 11 am, we were finally under way. The trip went well that day, the old tires held up, wheel seals didn't leak, we didn't even have any fires. I was feeling pretty good about this part of the trip, and then it happened. We pulled into a McDonald's in De Soto, KS to stop for the night. We had stopped there before, it had truck parking and was a nice quiet place to sleep. Trucks had filled one side of the lot, so John started another row on the other side. He misjudged where the edge of the gravel was and got onto the grass.No problem, if there hadn't been the major snow storm a few days ago, and then the recent warm weather and melting snow. That's right, he got stuck! The more he tried to get out, the deeper we sank. Hudson Chronicles - January 2010Finally, he gave up and went to bed. The next morning, he had to call a wrecker to winch us out. It cost John $200.00 but he was expecting a bill twice as expensive, so I guess in a way, he got lucky. After we got pulled out of the mud, We had a great trip to Idaho Falls without any more problems.
We dropped the trailer a it's new home and the owner was grateful for the extra care and work that John did that he gave john a tip to make up for his time and troubles. We then went to a nearby truckstop and spent the next three days waiting for our next adventure. At the time John booked this farm trailer, he had found a bunch of trailers in Ogden, UT going back to Vermont. There is a snowboard competition sponsored by Mountain Dew and they had just finished an event in Utah and everything had to be shipped to Mt. Snow, for the next event. He was able to book one of these trailers at the same time he booked the farm trailer. Things don't usually work out this well in trucking, but everything fell together on this trip. We hooked on to the loaded trailer on Wednesday and had a perfect trip back to Vermont. We even missed a major ice storm in the midwest. We got to Mt. Snow on Saturday morning and dropped the trailer and made it home later that day without incident.
It was an exciting trip with lots to tell. fortunately, just minor stuff, and we even made some money. I don't know about John, But I've had enough excitement for a while.
Hudson, the semi-beagle
