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.
Good morning. Summer is finally here! The kids next door had their last day of school yesterday. It's fun to come home from a trip and have them around. They are so much more fun than John!
Things have been going pretty well and we have been keeping busy.
Picking up from last trip... we left Florida, and ended up in Seattle, Washington. It was a good trip that took us to Houston, and San Antonio, TX. From there, we went to Oklahoma City, OK to get a super-paying load going to Seattle. John then found an Excavator going back to Ohio that was oversize. We went to load the next day only to find out that it was taller than John had been told. It was going to be heavy, but they didn't know the exact weight. The morning was spent on the phone between the customer, the broker, and with the dealer figuring out if and how the get it down to legal height. We then loaded it and drove across town to weigh the machine so we could get an accurate weight. Seems that they were off on their estimate by 12,000 pounds! After all that time, we wouldn't be able to get permits for something that heavy.
We found a couple of other loads the next day heading back east, so we were on our way. But... Saturday night, in downtown Fort Collins, CO, John was stopped at a traffic light. When the light turned green, he let up on the clutch, and all of a sudden there was a loud BANG, and the truck wouldn't go. There was also a loud clanking. It was so loud, I could even hear it over John's cursing! John got out and found out that the drive shaft had snapped in half! Fortunately, it was the small shaft between the two drive axles on the rear of the tractor. John locked in the other axle (kind of like four wheel drive) and was able to get out of the middle of the intersection. John removed the broken shaft on the side of the road, and we were able to limp down to Denver. We got it repaired the following Monday.
Sunday morning John was able to visit with his nephew, who goes to school in Denver. Monday evening, we were back on the road headed for Portsmouth, VA.
We were able to spend Mother's Day weekend in Virginia, visiting John's mother and two sisters who all live in the metro D.C. area. It was a nice surprise for everybody. After that, we had a load of trailers going back to Maine. After 6 weeks, it was nice to be home.
While we were home, John had a lot of things to do on the truck. He needed 8 tires, and a new steering box, as well as the usual oil change. He also had the brakes replaced on the trailer. This was an expensive time home, but all part of the glory of being an owner/operator. Part of it was timing, since the annual nationwide 72-hour safety inspection was coming up in a couple weeks. I'll let you know how that goes in the next update.
Hudson, the Semi-Beagle
