INTO THE SOUTHWEST AGAIN

I tip my hat ( if I had one) to the Raley's organization in Sacramento, CA. Their facility has got to be the cleanest, most organized distribution center I have been to since we have been with TWT. They have a very large staging area for the arriving trucks, every single person we came in contact with were professional and courteous, the lumper fees were the least we have seen so far, and we were in and out in less than a hour. I'll be sending off a nice little email to the corporate office today.

Our time schedule was tight for a 6am delivery in Phoenix this morning, so after leaving Sacramento, we knew we had to get as far as we could get, and still be awake . We decided to stay at Buttonwillow, CA, my enthusiastic recommendation to stay there of course had nothing to do with the Starbucks across the street. Arising Friday morning, we took the walk for our morning coffee and scone, and at 10am we were headed south.


We stopped at the Company yard in Bloomington, CA for a fuel and lunch break, and then continued on our way. We were both surprised that the temperatures this time around were just under the century mark. We decided to stay about 90 miles away from our delivery location in Vicksburg, AZ for the night. Since it was out in the middle of the desert, we had no TV reception, but Craig was quick to set up the computer for a little Simpson's/American Dad viewing off the Internet.


This morning, with the air warm and stagnant, we drove into Phoenix, AZ to an empty parking lot at the Southwest Cold Storage facility. We were relieved when we finally saw employees pulling into the lot right at 6am. In short time we were unloaded and heading back to the Company yard in Bloomington. We had received a preplan dispatch yesterday afternoonhad to go to the yard to pick up a trailer loaded with beer destined to go to Kennewick, WA, by Tuesday.

By the time we finish that run, we will have over 3,000 miles for the week, and have about 2 hours left of driving time after we make the delivery. So as we pull away from Phoenix, our plan is to head to the Company yard for showers, laundry, pick up the loaded trailer, and leave the sultry hot Southwest behind us.......at least for a few days.