A STATE ON FIRE

As many of you know, California is battling 800 wildfires, the result of 8,000 lightening strikes and very dry conditions. We had heard of them from news broadcasts, but didn't realize the extent of it until we hit the Central Valley of California yesterday morning. At first we just thought it was haze, but soon it dawned on us it was smoke. You could barely make out the mountains in the distance and it was as if a light gray screen had been pulled in front of our eyes. With both myself and Craig having been in public service, we know how hard our fellow workers are at this time, along with the help of the bordering States. We hope they are soon successful in controlling these fires.

We left the Miller Brewing Company in Irwindale, CA around 11pm Monday night. Once again, we ventured down to the little fuel stop in LA to scale the load. Thankfully, we only had to adjust the axle tandems one notch to be legal and still have room for fuel. We made it as far as Buttonwillow, CA before pulling into a TA Truck Stop to get a few hours of sleep.

TA's are not my favorite stops of the big 5 truck stops, but this one had a Starbucks right across the street, so I could overlook any imperfections. It also had a Denny's, so after a 3 hour nap, we decided to get a hot breakfast and then a Starbucks to fuel us on. Craig only had 5 driving hours left, so north we headed, first to the Company yard to drop off some trip packets and pick up log pages, and then to the Flying J in Lodi, CA.


We had an afternoon of relaxing, a good night's sleep, and a hot shower this morning and we were ready to forge onward north towards Spokane and our delivery destination at Odom Northwest Beverage Company. We then have one week left on the road, before we have asked for some home time in the Spokane area, as we hope to be able to take possession of our Park Model home in Usk, WA. Looks like maybe time for one more run down to California and back, but as we have found out, just when you think you know the routine, they go and change it on you, and that is what makes trucking fun.