When we lived in Tucson, Arizona, I drove for Arizona Tank Lines hauling fuel and gas in Southern and Eastern Arizona. I made a weekly trip to Globe, slow travel most of the way up to El Capitan Pass. The return trip was fast, and a lot of fun with no load.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_Route_77
Most of my trips were to open-pit copper mines, sometimes delivering to skid tanks down in the mine. Some of those trips set the rear end to puckering, trying to eat a hole in the seat cover you might say. The ore trucks could have run over my rig like I was a bug.
One time I stopped to check my tires before coming down the mountain from Oracle Junction. When I got started going again, a front tire blew out! New tires were put on the front the day before, and I got one that had a flaw in it. Talk about an angel riding shotgun. If that tire had blown going down the mountain with a full load, that would have been not nice. The mine at Oracle had a BIG storage tank, 8000 gallons made it raise 1/2 inch. One night west of there the road was covered with tarantulas after a storm. Running over rattlesnakes was routine, gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it. I will take South Dakota over any place.
The picture shows the cuts on the mountain grade near Clifton and Morenci, Arizona, taken in my rearview mirror. My truck just barely had power enough to go up that steep road. That is the oldest copper mining region in the nation.
I delivered to skid tanks all over this mine. It was near the Mexican border, we went there most of the time. I even saw a bunch of coati mindes near there one day.
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