BACK INTO THE ROUTINE OF THINGS

Tuesday went just as we thought, with a stop at the company yard in French Camp to fuel up and fill up our water jugs, then it was off to Avenal, CA for the night. Word must be getting out on our little truck stop, as there seemed to be more than the usual amount of trucks parked there, but still plenty of spots to find just the right one for some prime TV watching. But tell me, why is it the one person you want to see sing on American Idol is always the last one to sing, and I wasn't going to stay up later than I needed, I'd just read about it on someone else's blog in the morning.

Up early Wednesday to put in the last 200 miles to Vernon, we took off in the pre dawn darkness and watched as the sun slowly rose. For the past couple of months I have been fascinated by a grove of orange trees that had been pruned into a square shape. I had joked to Craig that they must be the oranges that make it into the juice boxes. Alas, when I finally get a chance to take a picture, most of them had lost their boxy shape and have become a bit rounder, just like my backside! On one of the city streets leading to the receiver, while stopped at a stop light, a guy in a car next to us asks if we are going to US Growers. "Why yes, we are", says Craig. "Do you need a lumper"? he asks. "Yes we do" say us, and he has us switch to a CB channel so that we can discuss the details of our soon to be business transaction. I've said this before, but this lumper business is a real rip off, but then I guess the greed of Wall Street has in deed made it to Main Street.

Thankfully, since we had not been to this receiver before, the lumper was more than happy to have us follow him right to where we needed to go. Had he not, both Craig and I were certain we would have ended up passing the place by at least once as it was not marked as clearly as I would have expected. Two hours later and the Company out $190 for the lumper to unload the trailer, we were off to drop off pallets at a yard about a mile down the road. With that we were directed to head to the company yard in Bloomington, CA where we found the yard surprisingly mostly empty. We took advantage of that and got a spot real close to the office and took showers and did laundry before settling in and waiting for our next dispatch. Just when we thought we wouldn't get anything until morning, the cheerful beep of the QualComm went off and we found ourselves being sent to the Port in San Diego for bananas, with a delivery of said bananas in Clackamas, OR on Sunday morning.

We are now headed south to San Diego on a very hazy/foggy Interstate, after a great nights sleep! We have a nice easy run north over the next three days which I am sure will consist of a stop at a Starbucks along the way. It sure is great being back into the routine of things!