I saw my dad back a set of doubles around a corner, right up to the dock. No more than 5 minutes.
I was in the truck when he did it.
He logged over 3 million official miles with the Teamsters. Probably drove over 4 million.
Knew every knot there was, some sailors never heard of.
I have a scraper on a dolly. Impossible for me to back.
In my business we deal with about 30 big rigs a day. Most over the road trucker can’t back a rig up to save their life. The guys that can backup are the local delivery drivers. The guy from Saia could back his 40’ box as far as you want him to and he would hit it on the first try.
Good on your Dad. Lost skills.
Your story about being with your dad reminds me of a time I was in the front seat of our station wagon, and some idiot behind us was honking the horn way too much. We ended up stopped at a railway crossing, waiting for the long train to pass. The idiot behind us still honked the horn, even though no one could move at all. When the guard rail finally went up, and cars started moving, my dad put the car in park, and opened up the engine hood. I was not about to stay in the car with this lunatic behind us, so I got out and went to the front of the car to be with my dad. (I should mention that my father was a pilot in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Thank God he survived it all and came home) So, when I got out of the car and went to my dad, he was just waiting. Eventually, the honking idiot came forward to see what was going on. When he saw my dad just staring at the engine, he asked what the BLEEP was wrong. My dad said “I’m trying to figure out what wrong in here, pointing at the engine, that’s making the car behind us honk so much.” The idiot realized he was an idiot, cursed and went back to his car.