A LA JOHNNY APPLESEED

Along Highway 99, near Chowchilla, CA, we came upon a vision of color. I don't know who is responsible for such a vibrant show, but I liken it to Johnny Appleseed, as seeds of wild flowers and poppies had to have been sprinkled along an almost 3 mile patch of medians and off ramps. If only the ones responsible for such beauty would have sowed these seeds the entire length of California, maybe we would have not moved away.......Oh who am I trying to kid?......we would have moved anyway, but it truly was beautiful! 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.

Tonight finds us at our favorite Casino in Corning where we will enjoy their free soda and coffee without donating any cash, except to pay the washer and dryer machine to do a load of laundry. Then it will be time to sit back and relax the rest of the evening for our final leg of the journey into Aurora, OR tomorrow afternoon.