riding the rails

The passengers behind me on the train are long distance truck drivers. They're swapping stories of their years on the road. I stopped reading my book two hours ago to listen to tales of wide loads, state police, warehouse employees, and chasing the sun across the country.

-Driver 1 carried an old WW2 airplane from Illinois to the east coast. Every time he stopped for the night, locals driving by would gather to look at the plane. He met many a veteran and heard many a war story on that trip.

-Driver 2 once fell asleep while waiting for a train to pass. He had put the emergency brake on, rested his head on his arm, and the next thing he knew, someone was radioing "Hey there, truck, you okay?" He looked up and realized the train was long gone.

-Driver 1 was running late at night and there was no one on the road. A train came up running along the side of the road. He was lonely, so Driver 1 radioed out "Hello, train!" Unexpectedly, he got a reply, "Hello, truck!"

-Driver 2 and another driver were carrying two wide loads across the country, from east to west. Wide loads are only allowed on the roads from dawn til dusk, so all day they were chasing the sun trying to stay on the road as long as possible. They crossed into Nevada with the sun hovering on the horizon. Driver 1 radios over to his friend, "If we hurry it up, maybe we can make it to Reno by sunset!" His friend agrees to push it. Just then, a state trooper comes on the radio saying, "I doubt you'll be doing that, boys." He escorted them to the nearest truck stop and told them, "I'll be out here all night. Don't you try sneaking away!"

-Driver 1 and another driver were taking a couple of large, empty tanks out to a new military napalm testing facility. While the officers were unloading the tanks, there was a loud clap of thunder and it started to look like a storm was brewing. The facility was at the bottom of a mountain, beside a gully. The drivers suggested to the officers that they should fill up the resting tanks with water to weigh them down in the impending storm. The officers replied it was a waste of time and water to weigh down such heavy tanks. The drivers went to eat. Pretty soon the storm started, followed by a flash flood. As they were finishing dinner, an officer came in. Driver 1 asked, "How's it going?" The officer replied, "Not so good. Those tanks got washed down the gully and are now floating half a mile down the stream."