One of the most magnificent things I have ever seen is the view from the top of Deadman Pass, also known as Cabbage Hill. This stretch of highway runs between La Grande, Oregon and Pendleton, Oregon on I-84. If you ever get a chance to head northwest, you really need to drive down this road… make sure you do it carefully though.
One winter during my truck driving days, we had a delivery to make in Bend, Oregon. I was a fairly new driver who had only been at this for about a year at this point and wasn’t very familiar with Cabbage Hill or its reputation. Well, it just so happened that the weather turned nasty pretty quickly, so when we got to La Grande, Oregon, we found out that the trail was closed over the mountain due to blizzard-like conditions, with little or no visibility and ice greater than 12 inches. on the road. We waited for the storm to pass and after 3 days we were told that the road was now passable for vehicles with chains. Fortunately (or not) for us, the company we were driving for had provided us with chains that we had attached to our flatbed and trailer for our trip up the famous Cabbage Hill.
It was decided, given that my driving partner was too tired to drive after all that messing with the chains and the fact that he was hungover from last night’s drinking, that I would be the one to drive through El Paso and pull over. once we were done. I got to Pendleton, which was only about 55 miles away. Let me tell you, driving that road in a tracked semi and a bunch of other semis is actually a lot of fun, albeit a bit slow and dangerous.
Well, I was driving, irritated at my partner for forcing me to drive on a road I wasn’t at all familiar with in the first place, so some of the other drivers we were with suggested I play a little prank on him. and we devised a plan.
I started yelling at him in the sleeping car, “Hey, what do I do if the brakes catch fire?”
He replied, “You better jump.”
I grabbed the door handle, let it open a bit, then slammed it shut after a few seconds.
You must realize that you were only driving about 20 miles per hour, but in your foggy state, all you could think about was burning brakes, an icy road, and deep gorges in the side of a massive mountain. She flew out of the bunk in her underpants and almost landed on my lap…and started berating me to the highest degree. Of course, the whole time this was going on, I had the CB mic on so all of our fellow drivers would be aware of the entire episode. They booed and yelled… how amused they felt with that little episode.
A while later we arrive at the truck stop in Pendleton, Oregon, where, believe it or not, they sell cattle prods. It was the first truck stop I’d ever seen something like this for sale, so I laughingly pointed it out to my partner… BIG MISTAKE! Though he now saw the humor in my little joke, you can guess what happened as soon as I turned my back on him. Ah well, turning around is fair game I guess.