Sad End of Flying Eagle Flagship : Truck # 03.

____Day 1: Over the years I have been involved in several recovery jobs at various companies. One thing is always certain; it will not go smoothly and as the boss has just incurred enormous costs, pay for all the work done will be minimal. Instructions: take empty trailer to Osseo, Wisconsin, load damaged cargo from wrecked trailer and return it to the shipper in Indiana. Reload a replacement shipment and get it to Winnipeg, asap, undamaged. As I am empty, I get to choose the border crossing point; across country to Warroad, giving Interstate 29 a break on my way to Osseo via Duluth.

____Day 2: Flying Eagle #03 has gone off Interstate 94 into the trees; a sorry end to a heavily customised Peterbilt 379. A brand new Great Dane dry freight van, coming home from the factory, was carrying it's first cargo and now has the whole front torn off. But the cargo will not be released to me; so I leave the trailer at Osseo and new instructions send me bobtailing down to Terre Haute, Indiana, to collect another Great Dane for the Flying Eagle fleet.



The driver escaped uninjured; except for his pride.



____Day 3: Another early morning change of plans: the construction of Flying Eagle's new trailer hasn't been finished. But there is  another trailer waiting to go to Canada at nearby Brazil. So new, that the paint on the chassis is still soft. Loaded with plastic film, I'm setting off back to Canada, nervously wondering if this load is not jinxed. Crazy, but I do think that some jobs work out like that. Back to Osseo, for no particular reason except that it's a quiet truckstop where a late arrival can always find a parking spot.



A Great Dane outside the factory gates. It will never look that clean again.



____Day 4: This time, I come back into Canada at Emerson. The trailer has to clear customs as an imported item, the same as the cargo. The trailer is going to the Great Dane dealer for the Canadian Prairies. It's set up for "Turnpiking", double-53 foot trailers on four-lane highways. A nice piece of kit with disc brakes, super-single tyres and a device that makes the rear suspension into a rigid unit; for when a fork-lift truck needs to run into the back. Just a four day trip, I leave the new Great Dane in the yard at Niverville and take a log hours reset, ready to leave again on Saturday morning.

____Overall Distance: 3470 km.



#03, at it's best with it's old matching trailer.