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A (very) short story about an experience I had this weekend.

At first I did not notice them.  I was driving my family home, 3 or 4 hundred miles left to tread under tired rubber feet and all I was thinking was how weary unpacking would be.  "I'll have to drag that giant rolling suitcase out of the cargo carrier, blegh," as I signalled and passed by a semi truck loaded with creosote-soaked posts. 

"Esmee will be worn out, I hope she can make it to Fort Payne,"  as I slide by another similar semi and a serious, worn pickup laden with toolboxes and orange cones. 

Esmee, my daughter, was watching Yo-Gabba-Gabba in the back seat.  I could hear Toodee and Moono getting excited about Nature.  Two more semi's and three trucks. 

Camille (wife) was trying to help Ellen (Grandma) send a text reading "redcross" to 90999 to donate to the effort to help families hit by hurricane Sandy.  Her iPhone kept autocorrecting "redcross" into "Red Cross" and they weren't sure if that would work.  I thought about how many donations might be lost from careless iPhoner's. 

That's when it hit me.  Power lines.  All these trucks, all these big semi's, they're all going north and they're all power company trucks. 

I think back to where we hit the interstate at Andalusia.  Counting in my head, ten, fifteen, twenty, I've lost count!  Looking ahead I can see more stretched out for miles through the long, barren drive between Gadsden and Georgia.  I speed up a bit to pass some more and verify what I already know. 

There must be hundreds.  Cherry pickers, augers, trucks with nothing but built-in toolboxes crammed with supplies, semi after semi loaded with poles.  All headed north toward the damage. Toward work and what must be done. 

And every single one with the same license plate.  Louisiana..

Greetings Will,

Here in Illinois, we were wondering if we would see one of our friends at the bowling alley on Friday night, as he works as a lineman for Commonwealth Edison. We figured he would be heading in the same direction (east). Much to our surprise he showed up, and the normal dollar a game scratch wagers were on! He explained to us that emergency out-of-state work is a privilege based on seniority, and he was too low on the totem pole to qualify. But he has been much busier to cover for his buddies who did go, so his attendance for the next few weeks would be iffy.

So when you saw that big long line of trucks heading north, know that it was full of volunteers who stepped up. Not one of them was told they had to go.

Cheers,
Tom

I got a little choked up and misty-eyed on that part of the drive. Makes me proud of my fellow humans.

We were heading back to Knoxville from Illinois last Monday and on I40 just East of Nashville, we passed a line of 50+ Asplundh tree trucks all headed East to clean up the mess.  I would guess they spent Monday night in Western Virginia and went to work on Tuesday Morning.