Down With A Loud Thump, Thump, Thump

I-5 North in Washington. Driving along about noon on Sunday and tuning the radio. Happy, in the fact that I was, in spite of all the shopping traffic, on schedule. I had just turned the XM to the Led Zeppelin channel to escape all the talk radio which at that point, was really going nowhere. Comes a point after all when at least it seems like it has all been said. At any rate, I was climbing this slow hill doing about 55 MPH when the sun got in behind me and gave me a great shadow of both the tractor and the stacks. That was when I noticed the smoke. I looked in the mirror and the smoke was going back a hundred yards. I was lowering the power and looking to find a place to pull over when the engine started thumping loudly and shaking the entire tractor. I just made it off the freeway with enough power and put on the brakes. It was kind of surreal. The engine wasn't leaking, smoking, or for that matter, not showing any outward signs of anything being wrong. The temperature was 195, oil pressure was 50 but rpm's were down as I was lugging down in 9th gear. I really couldn't find a thing wrong except that the oil was down 1.25 gallons. I had filled it 2 days prior. I hope Caterpillar can find out what the heck is wrong and quickly.

Really, all that mattered yesterday evidently was not what I did or was able to do. What mattered was what I had no control over. The dispatcher was all concerned about the delivery and how he was going to get another truck to pick up the load and rescue it. I was concerned about where I was going to stay and how to get there. My wife was concerned about whether I was going to make it home for our Thanksgiving get together for the family. The shop foreman at Cat was concerned about this truck being added to an already overloaded work roster. No matter where you are at in a situation, there are concerns and all of them will be different and will intersect at points. I think I will read a book. Dedication %\-