Big Trucks on Mountain Roads

Big trucks on mountain roads - you just get used to them. They are better to listen to than to encounter, though, even after you get used to sharing the road. We live 100 yards or more back from Route 33, at which distance the truck noise blends into the general soundscape. But I'm likely to hear a truck at any time of day or night if I listen for a few minutes, for we are on a major East-West commercial route.

One night I awoke at 3 and happened to look out the window. Though traffic in the middle of the night is sparse, two tractor-trailer trucks passed each other at that moment right at the end of our driveway.

I don't know what "air braking" is, exactly, but it lifts the sound of a truck on a long downgrade up to ear-grinding levels. When you hear that noise late at night, you expect to find tire treads across the foot of your bed. Glen explained it to me at breakfast, though I didn't retain anything. He says he's seen signs on interstate offramps that say "No Air Braking."

I'm not going anywhere by car today, just for a change. No, take it back, I have errands in town and then tonight, a short hop to the drive-in, for which I've been waiting a long time.