Saving the best for last & getting the worst one's out of the way first.
No one run comes to mind when I think of "worst". There's a few that kind of stick out in my mind though. One was when I was in the mountains of Pa, driving a cube van that wasn't mine. I'd went from Michigan to NJ & this thing didn't even have a radio in it. Coming home from NJ, I was doing maybe 25 when I got on this bridge. This wasn't a regular bridge, but one that was maybe 400 feet high. Not real sure of the exact height, but one of those where ya could easily bungee jump off it. A little river at the bottom. One of those kinds of bridges. I skidded & was facing the wall of the bridge. I managed to get the thing straightened out, but mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn, was my heart-a-BEATIN!!!!! When I got across the bridge, I pulled over for a few minutes to get my bearings straight.
Another one, also weather related, was when I was driving to Minnesota. 10MPH was about all we could go. I called dispatch & told em the conditions, they told me to keep driving. Even then I thought it might be better to wait until morning & just add 10MPH to my speed. 6 hours of that driving was going to get me 60 miles further down the road. That time could have been better spent sleepin & just drive a lil faster once the salt trucks had been out.
Anyways, I came down this steep hill which then went back up. I could see a whole slew of trucks at the bottom of the icy hill. Unable to get up the next one. I started to slide a lil. Truckers on the CB behind me were SCREAMING in a panic. They were sliding down & in many cases unable to control their vehicles. When I got to the bottom of the hill I barely missed hitting a few trucks that were down there. Somehow I managed to make it to the top of the next hill, but that was enough driving for me on that particlar day.
Now, the BEST runs I've had aren't in expediting. They're actually from running pizzas. One delivery I had, this lady would order between $14-18 in food & always gave me $30 & I kept the change. I'd also stop in & play her son a game or 2 of foosball, which they had a table in their basement.
Another set of great runs were when I worked in this city called Lake Orion, Michigan. Women in bikini's would answer the door quite a bit in summertime. Often ya'd go to thier door & they'd yell out "WE'RE IN THE BACKYARD!!!" & ya'd go back there, to either their pool or the lake if they lived on it.. & ya'd see all these women in biknis!!! Mannnnnnn, what memories those were. The whole town seemed to be a party town. If ya took 20 deliveries in a given nite, it seemed at least one or 2 people would offer ya a beer to go w/ your tip. Yes I took the beers, no I didn't drink while driving. Plus I got a fair amount of invites to their parties. I'm not trying to imply that everyone who had a party would invite me, but every few weeks or so someone would.
Also, there was this lady who would order food & have me stop & pick her up a carton of cigarettes on the way over. She tipped quite well also. $73 I think was my best tip from her. Plenty of tips in the $30-40 range. Very affluent. She invited me to a New Years Eve party. No way was I gonna go to that one though. A whole slew of stockbrokers & those kinds of people & me coming to this thing as "the pizza guy" LOL!!
Yeesh, how times have changed. Now that it's 2006, I'm sitting home on Friday nite. Mannnnnn, to quote the Kinks..where did all the good times go?
Anyways, posting this sure did bring back some good mammories.. errrr, "memories" =)
Be well everyone,
Danny
