A lot happened between the time Craig left to drop the french fries in the Company yard in Bloomington, and the time he finally made it back to French Camp. While I waited, I got to experience record breaking temperatures in Modesto. It reached 110 degrees, and made me realize what a great idea it was to move to Washington! But I digress, back to Craig and his adventure.As I mentioned in the previous entry, he only had enough hours to get into Wheeler Ridge Saturday night, and made the final leg to Bloomington early Sunday morning. He had been forewarned not to have a lot of fuel on board, as the trailer he would be swapping his french fries with, was loaded down with more than a few six packs over 45,000 pounds.
Craig had noticed that after hooking up the trailer of beer, the engine wasn't starting as quickly as normally, and that the voltage meter was reading low. He made a mental note of it and then drove a mile down the road to a small truck stop to scale the load. Upon returning to the truck, it wouldn't start, but thankfully, with an APU, it would charge the battery up enough after 10 minutes to get it started again.
Craig was happy he scaled out legally, but knowing when he picked me up and my belongings, we would have to play the fuel stop/weigh station game, and plan accordingly so as to not have too much fuel on board when crossing the scales, but enough to at least get us to our next fuel stop. Now onto his next problem, and what he guessed to be the alternator.
He made it about 15 miles down the road to the TA truck stop in Ontario, where much to his surprise, there were no trucks ahead of him to be worked on. He was immediately directed into a work bay, and if they had the part, would be in and out in record time. That would be necessary if he was to make the delivery on the beer load in Walla Walla, WA Tuesday morning at 7am. No worries, they had the part and he was on his way and headed to French Camp by 9am.
By 4:30pm, I had arrived with my Mom and Nieces, and we proceeded to try and find a nice cool restaurant to have a bite to eat before I said my goodbyes. The record breaking temperatures made saying goodbye a little easier, but with promises to be back in about 6 weeks for another visit. With the APU blasting cold air inside the truck, Craig and I high tailed it inside. Yep, it's great to be back home again, and Craig absolutely loved the new hair cut too!
What we didn't know ahead of time was just how quick the visit would be. Craig called into dispatch to let them know that he was way ahead of his Tuesday delivery, and as luck would have it, the weekend dispatcher was looking for someone to take a beer load which would be in the Company yard in Bloomington, CA whenever Craig could get there. 
While Craig waited for my arrival in French Camp, he took a shower, started laundry and was set up to participate in a safety meeting on a conference call. When I arrived, he was happy to do a taste test on the banana muffins with coconut lime glaze and gave them a big thumbs up. As soon as the safety meeting was over with, we gathered his clean laundry and muffins and headed back to the truck. 
A quick check of the QualComm, a hug and a kiss, and Craig was on his way south. With what hours he has left for the day, he will make it to Wheeler Ridge tonight, and then get into the yard in Bloomington early Sunday morning. Then if all goes right, he will have just enough hours to make it back to the Company yard in French Camp to pick me up by late afternoon tomorrow!
Receiving the good news that our next drop would indeed take us early, we started our adventure into San Francisco. With both of us having spent our fair share of time in the Bay Area, it is always a thrill to cross the Bay Bridge and get your first glimpse of the City by the Bay. I don't think either one of us ever gets tired of the views, and having the ability to be sitting up high in an 18 wheeler helped with getting some shots over the bridge railing. 
We were both thankful that the way into our drop would be a relatively easy one, just one exit off Highway 101 and two left turns and we were on a tiny little street with just enough room to back into an alley way to off load the meat. While Craig checked in, I was observing some unsavory fellows who seemed to be checking out the truck and it's contents. With my prior years in law enforcement, I was sure they were up to no good, but with a sigh of relief, they turned out to be, well how can I say this, some "local residents" the receiver used for lumpers. 
My suspicions about these characters were confirmed as a couple of them started fighting after the unload and proceeded to bust a side mirror on a truck parked near ours. Come to find out, the one responsible had just gotten out of jail the day before. I was more than happy to get the paperwork in hand, put in our depart stop, and get the heck out of there. 
As I had mentioned before, there was two more stops on this dispatch, but at 1am and 4am in Vernon, CA. No possible way for us to make those, so we were directed to head to the Company yard in French Camp and drop the trailer for someone with fresh hours to take it into LA later in the day.
Upon arriving at Columbia Cold Storage in Kennewick, we were backed into a dock and loaded to the gills with frozen french fries. Even the dock workers commented on how much product they were placing in our trailer. I got to hand it to them, they did a great job, as when we scaled the load, we only had 40 pounds to spare before we would have been over gross, and it scaled out perfect on all axels the first time through. 
Then we got beeped and knew something was up. Seems another driver had truck problems and couldn't make it to pick up his load. We were told to drop our loaded trailer at our drop yard in Pasco and then head over to Tyson Meats in Wallula, to take over the other load. We arrived around 1pm, but the load wasn't suppose to be ready until 5pm. Normally they are done early, but it wouldn't be the case this day. Exactly at 5pm, the paperwork rolled off the computer and we headed out once again to scale. 
Having started this day at 7am, we had just a few more hours to drive before Craig's 14 hour clock ran out. We made it as far as the Oregon border in Biggs Junction where we called it a night. Up and rolling after our 10 hour break, Craig put in a full days driving where we got to see the fields of sunflowers and enjoy scenic Shasta Lake. We arrived in Dunnigan, CA to stage for an 8:30am delivery in West Sacramento, CA this morning. 
This load has 3 additional stops, one in San Francisco, and two more in Vernon, CA. The appointment times in Vernon make it impossible for us to deliver those, so dispatch is already planning a swap in French Camp sometime after our delivery in San Francisco. Let's hope it is smooth going through that City and we make it out safe and sound!
On his first pass around, his eyes never met mine. Heart broken, but not discouraged, I knew he would come around again, and when he did, our eyes met and my heart skipped a beat. It was pure heaven, as he walked up to my door, displaying before me his bounty of cherries and strawberries. Like a kid in a candy store, I had hit the Mother Lode, and eagerly paid my money for the red, luscious, sweet fruit we would soon be enjoying. 
After all that excitement, it was a day of relaxing, as we knew we would not receive a dispatch until sometime today. But the weather was great, a cool 70 degrees with a gentle breeze, the people watching entertaining, and with TV and Internet reception, life was great. We couldn't ask for anything more.
Good thing we probably won't get a dispatch until later this afternoon, or there would be some pounding on some doors in order for us to get out of our parking space. The guy parked on the outside got interrupted so many times by people trying to get out of parking spaces on the other side of him, that he finally got wise and moved to a legitimate spot. Time will tell just how long this driver in the black truck in front of us will remain. It looks like we have time to wait him out, but I may have to resort to something other than eye contact to find my fruit man today on his rounds! 
As we said goodbye to the boxed meat, we took our trailer of apples across the scale. It couldn't have scaled out more evenly, and we were off towards Salinas, CA to Fresh Express for a Monday morning delivery. With a quick stop at the Company yard in French Camp to drop off some trip packets and refill our water jugs, we had just enough time for a "pit stop" at the Starbucks in Santa Nella, CA before getting into Salinas for the night and finding a parking space. We first thought about staying at Fresh Express, but seeing that there were still plenty of spaces at the truck stops, decided to stay down the street and come back in the morning. 
As was the case the last time we delivered apples at Fresh Express, they were in a hurry to unload us, as apples must be in short supply everytime we come here. It really doesn't matter to us, as Craig's driving hours are pretty much done for until Tuesday. In fact, after we finish up here, get the trailer washed out, and then drop it back at Fresh Express, he will be down to only about an hour left. That will leave us taking a nice long break at the truck stop, and hoping that the fruit vendors are out in force. We could go for some fresh strawberries and cherries delivered right to our door!
The first of the messages were to take the bananas and drop the trailer in the drop yard in Troutdale, OR. After that was accomplished, we were to hook up to an empty trailer that was there and deadhead to Wallula, WA to the Tyson Meat Plant where we were to pick up a load this morning at 9:30am. Craig had enough driving hours to accomplish all of that, so off we went for a full day of driving. 
We made it to Tyson by 8pm, and were informed our load was ready for us. So as Craig had done three previous time during the day, he parked, unhooked from one trailer and rehooked up to our now fully loaded trailer of boxed meat. With just enough time left, we drove to the Flying J in Pasco to scale and fuel the reefer, and then finally some down time to unwind and relax a bit.
We have never really had any slow times with the refrigerated division of this Company, but I have to believe that freight is really moving hot and heavy, as everyone, including us, has been driving non stop for the last couple of weeks. We aren't complaining, as we like to keep moving, but as it turns out, we will be 2 hours short on Craig's 70hr driving clock to be able to deliver the meat in Vernon, CA on Monday morning. Anytime you can use up your 70 hours is a good thing and dispatch is already looking to hook us up with a swap somewhere between here and there. Stay tuned!
I couldn't believe the amount that finally ended up being wrapped up and stored, for when the driver could come back with a vehicle to take it away. Would you believe the driver actually had about 3 plants in pots inside the truck? It really was fascinating watching it all come out.
By 11:30am, we had our new assignment. We were to head to Quincy, WA to Custom Apples and pick up a load headed to Carson, CA for a Saturday morning 4am delivery. There was no way we would even come close to making that delivery, and word was sent to dispatch to inform them. They were already on top of it, knowing that they would have to have us swap with a team, but for us to get as far as we could.
With a beep of the QualComm we were told to meet up with the team drivers in Chemult, OR at the Pilot Truck Stop. Anyone familiar with that place, knows that it fills up quickly, and with us not getting there until well after 11pm, we were wondering if we would find a place to park. But no worries, upon arrival there were still a few spaces open, and we quickly found a home and crawled into bed to await the drivers we were going to swap with in the morning.
We are now in possession of a trailer full of bananas that don't have to be delivered until Sunday at 4am in Clackamas, OR at the Fred Meyer DC. We won't know if they have plans for us to drop it and receive another load, or if we will end up doing a 34 hours restart on Craig's driving hours. But what we do know is that we will have the joy of taking a secondary highway from where we are to Interstate 5, and be able to take in the beauty of the landscape of Oregon. All in all ,not a bad way to spend a few hours on a Friday afternoon.
Oh Boy.... here we go again. Visions of the ice cream that were left in our trailer awhile back came rushing back. A quick call into claims, a few photographs to document the damage, and we were headed to the Oregon Food Bank to donate the juice. You can see from the photo, that on the cases of orange juice, the boxes were wet but not damaged, so the food bank was more than happy to take ownership of the juice. 
What happened next, took us on an adventure we have yet to experience in trucking. We get a cryptic message to call a number to get the details on our next load. Strange....we normally just get a dispatch and off we go, but feeling a bit James Bondish, Craig made the call and the fun began. First he was told to start heading towards the TA truck stop in Aurora, OR and that we would receive a phone call with further directions. Sure enough, a short time later the phone rings. Craig hands it off to me and I start writing down directions to our first stop. Two pages of directions, consisting of turning right at the tree stump, and then left once past the bridge, and then look for some green houses, and we were at a nursery out in the middle of nowhere. 
Unbeknownst to us, the nursery business is one of the largest industries in Oregon. At the first small nursery, we loaded on 400 small plants, and then tried to figure out how we would get turned around. But first, we had to call our connection to get the directions to our next pick up. Thankfully, this time, it was only one page of directions and right off of Interstate 5 in Brooks, OR. Here we had to wait while they retrieved about 15 pine trees from another location, and brought them to us. With 24 different types of trees on board, it was time to call the connection again to obtain instructions to our third pick up location. 
After starting our day driving at 5am, we finally pulled into our last pick up at 5pm, and watched as they loaded 275 assorted trees and plants into the trailer. With only one foot of room to spare in the trailer, we made the final call to our connection to confirm that we were fully loaded, and taking our mandatory 10 hour break on the premises of the nursery in Corvallis, OR. Our last instructions where to leave as soon as our 10 hour break was over, and drive 450 miles to Spokane, WA to make the delivery at Gibsons Nursery. 
Keeping the plants and trees at a cool, comfortable, 45 degrees, we are currently on our way, enjoying the scenic beauty of the drive along Interstate 84 and the Columbia River. Having started this morning at 3am, we should be able to deliver these plants by 1pm and have just enough time after unloading, to make our way back to the company yard for the night. This incognito assignment has turned out to be a lot of fun!
Craig called into dispatch Sunday morning to see if there was anything for us, and we were happy to receive a dispatch for Monday morning out of Spokane. That left us all day Sunday to relax at home and watch movies, although I did get some laundry and packing done as well. It's amazing how much stuff we actually take back to the truck with us. What is even more amazing is that we find room for all of it!
Monday, after getting the truck all organized and cleaned up, we were told that our 11am appointment had been changed to 1:30pm due to them running late. We are picking up 42,000 pounds of chilled juice at Johanna Beverage Company, about 5 miles from the company yard. With plenty of time to spare, we drove across the street to the Petro truck stop, grabbed us a Subway and watched a movie in their driver's lounge. It was perfect timing, because when the movie was done, it was time to mosey on over a little early to check in for our load.
At first it wasn't so bad, but then any resemblance of a trail vanished, and we were in the middle of nowhere, trying to forge our way through thick brush and downed pine trees, all the while trying to swat away the insects that viewed us as fresh meat. After going this way, and then that way, and seeing no benefit to being the luncheon buffet for the creatures that resided in this remote area, we started making our way back down the very steep hill. 
You should have seen the look on my face, when Craig casually mentioned, "Oh by the way, this was listed as the hardest find, and there were several people that had to seek medical help after wards". Oh yeah, I'm sure they were in need of medical assistance after their significant others got done whooping on them after taking them into such rough terrain. 
But we regrouped and headed to the next area and by the time the day was done, we had located three more caches. The one we liked the most was the one where we got to check out an old deserted log cabin, along with the location of the outhouse, and the remains of the cans and bottles that had been tossed. This particular cache contained 75 35mm film cases and we had to find the log inside one of them to sign to show we had found it. Very clever! 
After almost 4 hours of searching and wandering the lay of the land, we were ready to head back home for a well deserved shower and dinner. We both agreed that we want to try our hand next at some urban geocaching and from our research, we will have to keep our searching covert from the "muggels" (non geocaching people). That sounds like the makings of a fun and exciting time! 
Leave it to my former search and rescue husband, who was in search of a new hobby to find this one, and right up his alley too! When we headed out today, our first destination was to find a benchmark. Benchmarking is very similar to geocaching, in that you head out in search of a marker used in surveying. Using our hand held GPS we drove as close as we could to the benchmark we were in search of. Then it was off the beaten path, onto railroad tracks and when we came upon the exact coordinates on our GPS we found this: 
Nothing but weeds and over grown vegetation. Not willing to venture any closer into the thicket, we just assumed it was there somewhere and made our way back to the pickup, a bit disappointed, but wanting to try finding the treasure that awaited us on our geocache search, but not without me having to become one with nature in the middle of the boondocks. Enough said there, I think, except that men are much more equipped to handle this type of emergency situation than women! 
Following the coordinates on the GPS we came to a stop near a turnout. Upon closer inspection we saw an old boot by a guardrail. Thinking that we had found our first treasure, we excitedly picked up said boot and were disappointed when finding nothing inside. Craig ventured around, feeling that his new found hobby was going to be bust, until he heard me yell "I found it". Tucked within the guardrail, I saw a small white plastic box. Craig come running over and we began looking inside. 
There was a card informing us of our find, and a few trinkets inside. The rules are if you take something you have to leave something of equal or greater value behind. Not wanting to take from the treasure box, but wanting to leave our mark, I left a tape measure key chain inside. We then signed and dated the log stating that we were there, and then carefully tucked it back where we found it. 
What a fun way to spend a few hours, driving out in the country and finding a little treasure. We are now in the process of creating our own treasure box to hide somewhere along our travels, and looking forward to going on many more treasure hunts in the future. If you are interested, click on this link to get more information on 
I'd thought I'd sign off this entry with a few of the sights we saw while on our treasure hunt. Enjoy!
