STOP - GO - WAIT - STOP - GO BACK

It was a relatively quiet drive on Sunday through North Dakota. We stopped in Fargo, ND to get the truck and trailer washed, and then refuel, before heading into Minnesota to get into Little Falls by 6pm local time. Little Falls is located along the Mississippi River, and is everything you would imagine a small mid west town would be. Driving down Main Street, there is a large mural painted on the side of a building, which I'm sure mimicked what the street actually looked like years ago. I got to tell you, except for newer cars, and a paved street, not much has changed in this quaint town.

Ever since Craig and I watched a special on pizza on the Food Channel, we have decided to try and find, out of the way pizza places, much like we did early on in our adventure when we went on the Great North American Taco Salad Tour. We have seen the sign for Charlie's Pizza on our previous trips through town on the way to the boat plant, so since we had arrived at dinner time, we decided to go to Charlies and start our culinary journey. We decided on a thin crust, basil sauce, sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, onion, and green olive pizza and were not disappointed. We even had left overs for breakfast!

Speaking of breakfast, we made sure to set the alarm to be up and awake when the employees got to work. The alarm wasn't needed as a car alarm, from one of the employees, who had just parked his car, sounded and woke us up. A light snow was beginning to fall as Craig went into the office to let them know we were there. A short time later, he comes back, only to tell me that the boats are not ready, a problem with the production line, yadda, yadda, yadda, and the load will not be ready until Wednesday. Sound familiar? Since our dispatcher wouldnn't be in until 7am pdt, we at least enjoyed our left over pizza and sat and watched the snow fall.

Then the fun begins, first a message saying our load was cancelled. We sit and wait for the next one. It finally comes, and says to head to New York Mills, MN for a load of boats going to Port Colborne, Ontario. Oh man, just what we didn't want, a load going east into the storm. But off we go. We hadn't gone more than a mile, then another message saying, wait, go back, we have a load for you back at Little Falls. WHEW.....we were happy to hear that, eastbound was not where I wanted to be headed today!

Back at the yard in Little Falls, we drop the trailer and find out we will still be going to California, but to only one of our stops we had before in Lancaster, CA. After an hour or so our trailer comes back out loaded with 3 pontoons, but we also see that with they way they are loaded, the side support bars are out past the 8'6" legal limit, which now means we have an over size load. OH VEY..... if you have been reading this blog long enough, you know the routine, 8 States, 8 different rules and regulations, no driving between sunset and sunrise, etc, etc, etc.

So as we sit and wait for the faxes to come into the truck, our plan is to be in California, no later than Friday, if the weather holds out, but from the looks of it right now, with snow blowing all around us, maybe sitting and waiting awhile just might let the storm pass us by....... only time will tell.