Date: November 17, 1984.
Load: 42,000 lbs. Burley Tobacco (Grade AA).
Location: Red Clay Ridge, NC (Lat 35.312, Lon -77.804).
The axle hummed its final note. Not a squeak — a full-throat roar of surrender. The left rear hub had spun free of its bearing, and the ridge beneath us was slick as a polished mirror.
I didn't have a jack. I didn't have a crane. I had a coil of tire-chain, Grade 8, forged in Birmingham, 1968.
I wrapped it around the mountain's throat. I cinched it with the torque of a man who knows the cost of a slip.
The chain did not hold the wheel.
The chain held the valley.