5 STOPS AND THEN SOME REST

As is usually the case, when we need to get some sleep a tab bit earlier than normal, we toss and turn, and manage to get a handful of restless sleep. It wasn't too bad, we only had to get up by 2:30am Tuesday morning to make our 4am delivery in Rocklin. As most truck drivers know, the addresses and directions sometime are never quite the same place, which would seem to be the theme for today's deliveries.

Luckily, we found out beforehand, that the Rocklin delivery was at a different location, so we were able to pull right in, but then wait until 4am for someone to show up. Then we were told to pull out and go around the corner to their "chilled product" docks. Yes, I would say we definitely had a chilled product.....chilled rock solid that ice cream was. Since there was only about 700 pounds of the ice cream being taken off here, it didn't take long and we were on the road headed to our second stop in Fresno.

We believed we knew where we were going, and quite enjoyed the very large round a bout on our way to the address. Little did we know just how many times we would go around that thing. But first, we saw the dreaded yellow low clearance sign which indicated the height to be 13'7". Well, really! What worries are there when you have a whole inch to spare going under it? While holding our breath, we passed slowly underneath the over crossing and found the main entrance to Producer's Dairy. 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!

By now it is 11am and we start our drive into Wheeler Ridge, CA to stage for our early morning deliveries today. Again we try to sleep, but it's really no use. Neither one of us gets any good sleep and we are up at 12:30am and onto our first delivery in Chino. We arrive 30 minutes early, and two hours later we are on our way to our second delivery in Hawthorne 50 miles away. We actually make good time and arrive at a brand new Costco Business Center which is due to open in 9 more days.

90 minutes later we are finally onto our last and final drop in Moreno Valley, CA which is 75 miles away from Hawthorne. Luckily, the commute traffic had diminished from earlier in the morning and we arrived by 10:30am. What I haven't told you is that the appointment times for these deliveries were absolutely unmakeable after the first drop. They had us in Chino at 4am, then Hawthorne, 50 miles away at 5am, and then Moreno Valley 75 miles away from there at 8am. So when we pulled into our last stop, two and a half hours past our appointment, it was with bated breath wondering if they would or would not take us.

I really think Craig smiles real nice at the receiving clerks, because he was able to get them to take us, even though they didn't want to. After going by the local pallet place to drop off the pallets that were left in our trailer at one of our stops, we finally pulled into the company yard in Bloomington, CA a mere 12 hours after we started. We are both exhausted from lack of sleep and are looking forward to crawling in our beds and relaxing. Now if only I can get someone to do our laundry and fix us dinner!