he FVFD received its new water tender a couple of days ago, and today I took it our to learn how it works. Since high school, I’ve always wanted to get a ride in a big rig, preferably a Peterbilt. Now I can say I’ve driven one. This particular Peterbilt used to be a gas tanker for Chevron, and we had it rebuilt with a new tank and pump more suited for water. It has over 600,000 miles on it, but apparently that’s not bad for a truck. It has a 12-speed transmission, and now I know why trucks take off so slow from intersections. Just getting up to 25mph you go through 7 gears. It still needs lettering and lights but we’re all pretty excited, because it’s a huge improvement over the converted milk tanker that it’s replacing.

By the way, it’s called a water tender, not a tanker in fire department lingo, because a tanker is a plane.