On of the things you get used to in trucking is the dispatch that gives you all the time in the world to get to the shipper, but then makes the delivery time so tight, you barely have time within the legal limits to make it. Such was the case with this dispatch. After making our drop in Spokane, where by the way, I saw my Cousin's truck again making a delivery, we headed to the yard in an attempt to get a service on the truck.Enroute, we received our next dispatch and saw that we didn't pick up until Monday afternoon at 1pm. Well, certainly enough time for the service, but they were backed up and a service tech was out on a road call, so we had to scrap the service. This dispatch required pallets, so we next hit up the trailer guys for a wash out, and then the yard guy to load 24 pallets into our trailer. With only 140 miles to the shipper, we decided to head out and stage in Pasco, WA where we made ourselves comfortable for the rest of the day and evening.
We did enjoy a nice leisurely hot breakfast Monday morning before heading over to the shipper a few hours early. We were given a dock immediately, but then had to wait while another truck, which had been loaded before us, and was over the 80,000 pound gross limit, got his load readjusted. An added bonus to this load was that the shipper had on site free scales to use. With just under 43,000 pounds of french fries, and a few adjustments on the fifth wheel, we were off and headed towards California.Normally, we don't have much problems with other drivers, but for some reason we had at least two drivers pull out right in front of us making turns in which we just barely missed hitting them. But the worst was another truck driver, near the Pilot in Biggs Junction OR, who decided to stop in the middle of the road and start backing up to pararelle park without ever looking to see what was behind him. No amount of blowing the air horn, or attempting to back up would stop him, and by the grace of God, he missed taking out our front bumper my the thinnest of margins.
Fueled with an adrenalin rush that would keep us awake for hours, we powered on knowing we needed to get as far as we could in order to make our delivery. We made it to the little casino in Chiloquin, OR, where we took our mandatory 10 hour break. We are now almost to the California border, with two fuel stops scheduled for the day before we will call it a night in Avenal, CA. That should set us up nicely for just under 200 miles for our delivery in Vernon on Wednesday.
I had finished helping my friends move by Friday mid morning, so I took off towards our home in Usk, WA to check on things. Arriving Friday early evening at home, and satisfied that everything was in order, except for a railing on our side deck that the snow pack took out on its nosedive descent to the ground, I spent the night and took off towards Spokane Saturday morning just as the rain was beginning to fall. Craig was bound for Spokane too on Saturday after a delivery in Auburn, WA earlier in the morning. 
By the time I had completed our grocery shopping for the next few weeks, the rain had turned to snow as I pulled into the Company yard. Craig was there waiting and we made quick work of loading my personal items and the food into the truck. Man, did it feel good to be home, but more importantly, be back with Craig. It had been a long 16 days off the truck, even though we did have a couple of days together in Modesto while he was getting medical attention. 
We awoke this morning to a cover of whiteness as the snow had continued to fall all during the night. We had a delivery at 7am at Charlie's Produce in Spokane. As I write this, it is now almost 8am, we are still sitting, along with four other trucks that arrived after us, waiting for the one lonely dock available to get our two pallets of produce unloaded. We are on the clock for detention pay, so we are just sitting back enjoying the snow fall from our warm truck and listening to "Click & Clack" on NPR. Oh happy day we are back together and on the road again!
Craig has another doctor's appointment today. We are hoping that the good news on the infection front keeps coming and that by the end of the week he will be allowed to return to work. I do know that he plans on going out to his truck at the company yard after his appointment. Think he just might be missing being on the road?
Notice on the left side of the photo, your regular trucker guy. But on the right side, the stereotypical red neck, white trash, trucker guy. This look was obtained by cutting the arm off his t-shirt to allow easy access to the effected area of his under arm, to be able to change the dressings. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to poke a little fun at Craig's expense. After all, you got to keep your sense of humor during stressful times.
Now let's switch it up a bit. Bad news, the Doctor says it will take up to two weeks of every other day visits to the doctor's office to cure the infection. Good news, Craig has two weeks of vacation that he can use to cover him not driving. Bad news, while he is off on his sick leave/vacation, I will not be here with him, as I have other commitments in Washington with my best friend Cori. Good news, if it does in fact take him two full weeks, at least I can drive back down after my time in Walla Walla and spend the remainder of his time off with him.
He was sent an additional dispatch on the heels of the food bank run. After dropping that load, he is to head over to Tyson Meats in Wallula, WA and get loaded with boxed meat to take to our friends at King Meat in Vernon, CA. The one thing nice about this run is that I will be able to meet up with Craig for a quick hello and give him a bounty of food care packages. Hopefully the food and treats will keep him from feeling hungry until we can meet up again in another week or so!
As much as I hate having to travel on snow covered roads in a big 18 wheeler, I hate it even more when I am not with Craig to help with the chaining, and having an extra set of eyes to watch the roads and the idiots driving around us. Probably much to Craig's relief, I am not with him, so he doesn't have to experience the anxiety vibes that radiate from my whole being during such times. 
As he waited for his load to be ready, I of course scanned the weather and DOT sites for traffic information. As is normal, as soon as snow starts falling on Snoqualmie pass, they immediately put the chain requirement ups. I checked out the traffic cams along his route and with each passing hour I fretted more. Then right before Craig calls me to tell me he was heading out, DOT closes the Interstate for avalanche control. Craig still heads out, as he is about 60 miles from where they have the roads closed, but not without promising me that he will call as soon as he reaches the other side of the pass.
Finally, at 6:30pm, I get the phone call I was waiting for. He made it off the pass, albeit, with wet clothes from having to put on, and then take off chains. He was going to stop and grab himself something to eat in Ellensburg, WA before pushing on to make the delivery in Spokane tonight. What was suppose to be an 8pm delivery. will now most likely be a 10pm or 11pm delivery. Of course I will be waiting for that phone call tonight, no matter how late, that he has made the delivery and is safely at the company yard in Spokane, and only then will I be able to sleep myself!
Yes, you read that right, we had 15 cases of mint chocolate chip ice cream happily occupying our trailer. Craig tried finding someone in the office, but they wouldn't answer his knock, or answer the phone. Well now what? I was having dreams of a mint chocolate chip feast, but Craig was on the phone calling customer service before I could even think about grabbing me a pint.
Since the maid I had wished for wasn't there to do our laundry or fix our dinner, I went about my chores, while we waited to hear what would become of that ice cream that was just taunting me in the trailer. About an hour later we had our answer. We were given a number to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Riverside, CA, to which we called, and they would be more than happy to take it from us. Since we were out of driving hours for the day, we told them we would be dropping it off first thing in the morning. 
I'm always a little apprehensive going into new territory with the truck and trailer, never knowing what tiny little streets would await us, but I was pleasantly surprised, as we made our way to the food bank, that the streets were wide, and we saw no signs indicating trucks were not allowed on the streets. To say they were happy to receive the ice cream was an understatement. Both Craig and I think that maybe a pint or two were sampled shortly after we left just to make sure it was edible, after all, it was rice milk ice cream. And so in honor of Paul Harvey............ now you know the rest of the story!
After finding someone to get us into the gate, we found an out of the way spot to park and Craig took off on foot to check in. He returned muttering a mantra of a new address we needed to go to, to actually make the delivery. Back out we went to the main road, under the dreaded low clearance over crossing, and then around the round a bout, not once, but three times before we figured out which of the many roads leading off of it we needed to take. 
We then ventured down a tiny little road which told us it was a dead end, only to not be able to find the address Craig had been muttering in an attempt to remember it. "Was it north or south"? "Are you sure of the address"? "Maybe we should call someone", these were the rapid fired questions that spewed from my lips, when I happened to look through some of the paperwork and found an address on the street we were on, albeit with a different street address. 
Then all of a sudden Craig remembers that he was told it was right before the railroad tracks, and that you turned into a driveway and make your way towards the rear of the building. It's times like this I wish he would use the pen and paper method other than the muttering mantra method! This would have been the stop/load for me to have sampled some of that ice cream. They had it off loaded within 15 minutes and never even counted the product. But I think even I would have had a hard time consuming a 3 gallon tub of ice cream in order to hide the evidence!
We arrived at the Oregon Ice Cream Company in Eugene, OR on Sunday morning. We did have a very slight detour, when we took the wrong road, but it was easily fixed at the next off ramp, and we pulled up to the business 30 minutes early. The place looked deserted, as Craig took off on foot to see if he could find any sign of humans. He returned without making any contact with anyone, but then we saw someone walk through the gate into the office. 
Craig, ever aware of how fragile early morning arriving workers can be, allowed the person to at least grab a cup of coffee and have a few minutes of peace and quite, before he made his approach to the office to inquire about our load. We were directed through a couple of turns through their complex to their one loading dock. After confirming the order in which the product should be loaded, we settled into the truck to enjoy our breakfast of fresh oranges and banana bread. 
After less than an hour, we were loaded and ready to head out, as we saw another TWT driver make his way towards the dock we were vacating. We had heard that there might be snow, but were happy to see going over the passes into California, that the snow was barely there, and the roads were clear. 
As is my routine now, and especially since the skies were so clear, I had to take a few pictures of my Mt. Shasta as we went by. The rest of the trip into Corning was uneventful as we enjoyed the beautiful weather and 60 degree temperatures. Which leads us back to where we are now. The sun is shinning, the temperature is rising, and before long we will need to run the A/C. I guess if it gets too hot, a quick product check in our minus 20 degree trailer just might do the trick to cool us off!
When he got pulled into the scale house, he was told he was 1600 pounds over 80,000. He had the scale ticket from the other driver, but of course that was not with his truck. He did receive a ticket, a reasonable $80 one, unlike the one he would receive in California had he gone much further than Weed and hit the scales in Dunsmuir. Both Craig and I couldn't figure out how there was a 1700 pound difference from the previous truck to his truck, so we hooked up to his trailer and scaled with our truck. It was still 1400 pounds over, but we had a full tank of fuel and an APU and he only had half a tank and no APU. 
That still didn't answer the mystery, but we called in our findings, were thanked for our help, and we continued on our way. We guessed that they would have to have another truck that was going the same way maybe off load some product in order to get the load down to where they needed to be legally. We rarely go without scaling a load, even when another driver gives us a copy of his scale weights. We always like to play it safe and not have the worry of getting pulled into a weigh station. 
Our drop in Clackamas, OR went smoothly, as always, and with the pre plan we had received the night before, knew we would be going to Eugene, OR to the Oregon Ice Cream Co. Now you know the reason for the title "Cruel and Unusual Punishment". That just isn't fair to have over 24,000 pounds of ice cream and not get even a little tiny taste of my favorite dessert! 
We will have 5 different stops on this load, Rocklin, CA - Fresno, CA - Chino, CA - Hawthorne, CA & Moreno Valley, CA. The delivery times are extremely tight and we will be doing some night driving to make the early 4am delivery times for the first drops on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both Craig and I love a challenge of making things work, and I'll have to take on the challenge of having all that ice cream within my grasp and not being able to have any of it!
Our super secret special parking area was just waiting for us by the time we pulled into Vernon, CA Tuesday night. In the pre dawn darkness the next morning, Craig made the walk down the street to check in. By 6am we were unloaded and had entered our empty call and by 6:05am we had our next dispatch. We were correct in thinking that we would be heading south to San Diego and picking up bananas. 
It seems since we have had our TWIC card, every time we are anywhere near southern California we will be sent to pick up bananas. We don't mind, as we actually enjoy going to the dock and watching the going ons. Wednesday it was the gigantic wind mill parts that were being loaded onto trucks for transportation. As we were waiting to turn into the port area, a pilot car was blocking our access to allow for one very long load, with part of the windmill base on it, to maneuver a corner and head towards the freeway. Those drivers must have nerves of steel to haul those thing. We came face to face with another oversize load, this one about a third the size of the previous one, waiting for his pilot car to lead him away from the dock. 
We were loaded and scaled and on our way out of San Diego by 1:30pm. I don't know what we were thinking......or more to the point, what we weren't thinking, when we decided to stay on Interstate 5 instead of veering off and trying to avoid the 5pm commute traffic. But before we knew it, we were stuck and crawling along at about 5 miles an hour. It took us an extra two hours to get out of LA and onto the Grapevine. 
We stayed in Lebec, CA at the Flying J, arose a bit early this morning to take showers and then detoured onto Highway 99 to swing by Selma, CA to visit with Craig's parents and enjoy a hot breakfast with them. After a couple of hours, and loaded down with cookies and banana bread (Thanks Mom), we were back on the road with a stop at the company yard in French Camp to drop off a trip packet and refill our water jugs.
This called for action, and I knew just what to do. Grab the Starbucks card and walk down the street and get us some coffee before we tackled this problem. After all, a good cup of caffeine induced coffee always makes me feel much better in the morning. With coffee and a fresh pastry in hand we walked back to the truck to make a phone call.
Moments later we receive the phone call and are finally backed into a dock and getting half of our ground beef unloaded. Thirty minutes later we are done and at last on our way out of Stockton and headed south to Vernon. We gave dispatch an update on our best estimate on when we could be there, (around 5pm tonight), and inquired what our updated appointment time might be.
We can't really complain about this load, as we really didn't lose all that much time with the purchase order number problem. Plus we got a bucket load of detention pay sitting there waiting to get unloaded, and we enjoyed a Starbucks. Now that's what I call turning lemons into lemonade!
We can't really complain, since 8am we are getting paid to just sit and enjoy the cold, rainy weather, not to mention watching not one, but two big trucks get stuck in the mud along side the road way. They both made the day of the tow truck driver who responded to both calls for help. Craig made the journey up to the guard shack to check on any progress, but it seems no one was communicating with the other. 
Finally at 3pm, seven hours after our appointment, we get a message that our new appointment time will be 8am again on Tuesday morning and that they now have a purchase order number that everyone is satisfied with. Of course the appointment time for our drop in Vernon, CA will have to be changed as well, but as our dispatcher said, "We'll deal with that issue tomorrow after we see how things go in the morning". I'm not holding my breath. I think the odds of this thing still working out are about as good as me finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow we were fortunate enough to enjoy late in the afternoon. 
Along Highway 14 on the Washington State side of the Columbia River, our eyes caught something up in the sky. Upon driving closer, we saw several people enjoying the sights high off the cliffs of the gorge, by what we think was para sailing, although they were not attached to a vehicle or boat. It certainly looked like fun, until I thought about where and how they would eventually land. In that case, let's just hope they had said their "rabbit, rabbit, rabbits".
