Now this just sucks... I stopped for fuel, filled up, then pulled the truck forward. Everything seemed just fine; it started without a problem and ran smoothly as I eased it out of the fuel island and parked it in front so I could run inside and grab a drink. But when I came back out, it had a hard time starting. I let it idle for a couple minutes, thinking that perhaps some air got into the lines, then drove off. I didn't notice anything obviously wrong until after I got out onto the road, when I couldn't get the thing above 1500 RPM and it struggled to even get that high; normally it'll go to 1750 without a problem. With a bit of creativity and a few downhill stretches, I barely got the thing up to 40, but when I came a long, slight hill, the thing practically died. I had to take 8th gear, then 7th, then 6th... then I just gave up and pulled over, figuring I'd never even make it to the top.
I double-checked the oil (it's fine), then looked at every other thing under the hood that I could think of... nothing is obviously wrong. I'm thinking that I might have somehow pulled too much fluid out of the fuel-water separator again, but I didn't let any more out than usual and it started just fine the first time, so I'm a little unsure as to what the problem might be. Whatever it is, I hope that the emergency maintenance team can figure it out and send the appropriate stuff here, since I still don't have a cell phone and am three miles from the nearest exit. I'm also hoping that I don't get chewed out for missing the delivery appointment again; after the road conditions prevented me from making it yesterday morning, they rescheduled it for this morning and now I can't even make that. It's not like I could have foreseen the truck dying, but that isn't necessarily going to make me look any better for failing to make a delivery appointment twice on the same load. I know I'm going to have to call management and I'm sure I'm going to get an earfull...
6:20AM: Got a message back from customer service before I even heard from maintenance. The people I'm delivering to are going to "work me in when I get there," so hopefully that means I'll still be able to get this load delivered today, instead of having to wait yet another day on it. The longer I'm stuck here, though, the greater the risk that I won't be able to restart the truck even with help; it's -2 right now, and if the engine temperature drops below +10F, there's a very real risk that it won't start again. And since it wasn't running right, it was only at 150F when I turned it off instead of the usual 180...
6:40AM: Well, road repair messaged a couple minutes ago asking me where I was. I put in the original message that I was at mile marker 200; I'm literally parked next to the sign! Hopefully they won't get confused this time. Speaking of time, I'm still very much worried about running out of it, since the engine temp is down to 120 after being here about an hour. Even scarier is that my voltmeter is down to just below 12, since I have to leave my hazard flashers on and they draw a lot of power; I really hope I don't need to get the rig jump-started, since I've heard that can take an hour or more.
6:45AM: Just a note about the situation... my hands are rather quickly going numb. I've lit a candle for warmth and keep trying to heat them up, but it's a steadily losing battle. It's also so cold in here that I can see my breath, and I know it's going to only get worse as time progresses. I really wish I owned a pair of mittens or something to keep my hands warm.
7:00AM: It's getting steadily colder in here and there seems to be precious little I can do to keep my hands warm. My feet are also starting to go numb, especially my left foot. I'm seriously considering lying down in my sleeping bag, with the Qualcomm within easy reach, just for survival's sake. I really am starting to worry about hypothermia setting in, as well as frostbite for the exposed areas. For anyone reading this later and wondering why I'm so worried about this, keep in mind that I'm from Florida, where it rarely gets below freezing; I'm now trying to deal with zero-degree weather and don't really have any idea how I'm supposed to handle it.
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