Don't listen to your bright ideas

by Brittany
(California)

I barely started driving was in maybe my second week of driving. Picked up a 44,000 pound load of bleach, sent in my loaded call was driving down the road and feeling rather good. Then two hours down the road i get a message on my little magic box, thinking it was something vital i look for a place to pull off. So just on the fridge of Stockton i find a little road to pull off on so i intend to find a little pull off park on the side of the road read the message and get on with my job, well after i pull off i can't find a place to pull over so i continue down the road.

Five miles later I'm driving past fields coming to a bridge near a marina and now I'm panicking. My gps tells me to go down a little road and i pull off only to be in a residential area that doesn't look like it has an outlet. My idea is to turn around and go back the way i came... So a simple U-turn and I'll be out right?

I pull forward av me start to pull off the maneuver... Now this is early March, it had been raining and well where i was there was a lot of soaked ground and where i decided to flip my U-turn was right on the nice green saturated ground so you know what happened....

I had opened enough room to finally turn the most of my tractor bank the way i came and so putting it into second gear i start trying to pull my truck forward.

Nothing

I try again and really lay on the gas. My truck is staining and groaning but making no headway. So i get out to see what the issue is. My trailer tires are sunk halfway in the mud, and my tractor is too weighed down to get out of the mud.

Now here comes the bright idea. The great idea. The one i think will save me from having to call for assistance.

I check the ground near where my drive tires are. Seems firm and solid, i mean my tractor hasn't sunk at all so i lower my landing gear, press them firm to the earth checking to see if they sink. They don't and I'm like "yes this will work" and so i hop back in to my truck lower my suspension and start to ease out from under my trailer. About the time i unhook i hear a crash. I get out and look... My landing gear have sunk in to the ground and now i can't get back under my trailer.... I stare in horror and can only think. "Fuck"

I call my company and after a brief... Two hour panic attack, roadside comes out and lift my trailer so i can get back under it and they haul me out along with my heavy load. After that i drive back the way i came and said, "never again".

Lesson learned. Bright ideas aren't that bright in hindsight.