Sept 28, 2009: Truck Spills

A gazillion trucks carry the stuff we need, and a lot of crap we don't need but will buy anyway, over the highways... night and day... 24/7.

And sometimes they drop things....

see also: The Gallery of Transport Loss

Focused more on maritime + aviation accidents. And with a less-than-current approach to website design. But there are some real golden photos in there.

I have corrected the statement.

…and there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut!

They can count themselves lucky those gators were already dead.

Years back, the main highway into Adelaide from the East snaked down through some hills where the trucks could burn out their brakes, then swung around a 180 degree hairpin turn officially named "The Devil's Elbow". The stuff that spilled there included a truckload of live cattle, a load of nails and scrap metal, and once, about 8,000 live chickens. No crocs, that I remember hearing about, though.

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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce A gazillion trucks carry the stuff we need, and a lot of crap we don't need but will buy anyway, over the highways... night and day... 27/7. ...

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Originally Posted by chrisinhouston …and there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut!

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Originally Posted by ZenGum They can count themselves lucky those gators were already dead. Years back, the main highway into Adelaide from the East snaked down through some hills where the trucks could burn out their brakes, then swung around a 180 degree hairpin turn officially named "The Devil's Elbow". The stuff that spilled there included a truckload of live cattle, a load of nails and scrap metal, and once, about 8,000 live chickens. No crocs, that I remember hearing about, though.

Get your motor running
Cookies on the highway
Looking for some skim milk
Or whatever comes my way!

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Originally Posted by birdclaw Get your motor running Cookies on the highway Looking for some skim milk Or whatever comes my way!

There's a mostly accepted urban legend about the brood of chickens that inhabit the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. Snopes are certainly willing to accept that a poultry truck overturned near the Vineland Avenue exit, and the survivors formed a permanent colony.

Not a truck spill, but along the same lines of cargo lost in transit, our most recent opportunity for looting came from the sea rather than the road, from the MSC Napoli:

Or Doritos...

Regarding the spilled cookies, how come they aren't surrounded by swarms of birds, rats, flies, and ants after sitting out there for so many hours?

I don't foresee that I'll be eating any Honduran phony cookies that nature's scavengers don't even recognize as real food.

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Originally Posted by Spexxvet Those are some Loooong days!

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Originally Posted by newtimer Regarding the spilled cookies, how come they aren't surrounded by swarms of birds, rats, flies, and ants after sitting out there for so many hours?

What do they use alligator carcasses for here?

Is that what "imitation crab meat" really is?

Crabsticks are reshaped white fish flesh (surimi.)
Only half as tasty as crab, but if you put them in front of me on a buffet I can't speak for my actions.

Never heard them called imitation crab meat, so we may be on different channels here.

I would imagine that alligator corpses make alligator goods.
And the meat goes into some form of food. Can't tell from the photo, but I guess the van was refrigerated. Still, I guess it's probably animal feed anyway - animals are usually killed and processed on site when it comes to human consumption. Slightly educated conjecture, feel free to correct me.

With your alligator skin whip

FWIW - alligator comes from el lagarto. The lizard in Spanish. But my ex and I heard the story from a Cuban (in Cuba, so not a big surprise.) For years we believed that the original name for an alligator was legga-TEUR. I prefer it still.

It's the same here SG, ground up/reformed white fish, usually pollock. It comes in different forms here, not just krab sticks. The chunk kind is used in seafood salad along with those sea-monkey sized shrimp. There's also fake scallop and fake lobster varieties.

Tastes ok to me unless it's heated. I hate it when they put it in chinese food.

And I think gator is yummy but haven't had it in a very long time. A seafood restaurant in Paoli used to serve it...

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Originally Posted by Sundae Girl Crabsticks are reshaped white fish flesh (surimi.) ...

Cheers for the info Jinx & Spex

Crabsticks below.
Scale: about as long as a female index finger, but thicker:

ETA - turns out the supermarkets call them seafood sticks now. Probably forced to be more accurate by the European Union. We still eat them because they're cheap. But it's a sad come-down for the 'rents - the East End of London used to be alive with seafood. Even I grew up in a time when seafood was sold in pubs by women with baskets - imagine an usherette or cigarette girl, but with cockles, mussels, whelks and crab claws. Or indeed outside them - a family member of ours had a seafood stall outside a pub.

I nearly bought jellied eels the other day, only to come home with mussels and have Dad say he never liked them (eels, and well as mussels! though Mum says he used to like both and out of the two she has the better memory)

At least my curiosity is satisfied as to what those trucks were carrying. I'm always intrigued by large, lumpy, roped down objects on truck when they are covered by tarps and things. I want to pull them over and say, "What is it? What? Tell me!" but alas, I am left in the dark. Never would have suspected Doritos.

Question for BrianR: What's the strangest thing you had to haul?

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Originally Posted by chrisinhouston …and there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut!