THE HOT SOUTHWEST

From what we have been hearing on the news, it seems it is hot everywhere here in the southwest and California. We really didn't notice it too much thanks to air conditioning and the APU. The routing we were given, took us on a Highway we have never been on before, Highway 89 from Utah into Arizona. What a vast difference in scenery from the day before. We went from green to the desert colors of the southwest.

We took the opportunity to stop at the Glen Canyon Dam near the city of Page, Arizona. It reminded me very much of the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. It is huge! On the other side of the bridge we looked down to see people getting onto rafts to do a river tour of the Grand Canyon. Definitely something we will want to do in the future. But as the sun was getting higher in the sky, we made our way back to the truck and headed to Flagstaff.

We arrived in Flagstaff with the temperature in the mid 80's and settled in to get some rest, but hold on there Sparky! Just as we had settled in, the truck computer beeped us with a preplan dispatch. Up we got to figure out if we had enough hours to accept the load. It will be close, and as Craig says "do-able", but we would have to leave Flagstaff and get into Phoenix right away. So we fired up the truck and set our sights on the Flying J in Phoenix which was our next fuel stop and only 6 miles from the receiver.

I don't know how the poor reefer did it, keeping the meat at a temperature of 28, because as we pulled into the parking lot, happy to see several open parking spaces, we noticed the temperature reading at 115. After sitting on the asphalt for about 30 minutes, it quickly rose to 134! Needless to say....it was HOT. Safely tucked inside with the AC running we went to sleep with a 1am wake up call.

Right now we are sitting at the Fry's Distribution Center in Phoenix as they unload the meat, and with our next Shipper only 1 mile away. It is a Broker dispatch, so there isn't much info on it yet, but we do know it delivers to two yet unknown locations in Los Angeles early tomorrow morning. All I can say is, we can't get out of Phoenix fast enough!