IT WASN'T AS IT SEEMED

Telling you we spent New Years Eve in San Diego most likely congers up images which I can guarantee you will not even remotely resemble what our evening was like. First off, we were up at 2am on Thursday morning having to tackle the last two of our seven drops on this ice cream load. And on an unrelated rant while I'm at it, I ask you this.......of all the places we went, why is it the two places where there were only one and two pallets coming off the trailer, it took them nearly 3 hours each to unload and complete the paperwork?? But I digress....where was I? Oh yes, New Years Eve.

Wednesday night we were beeped with a pre plan to pick up bananas at the Port of San Diego. No big surprise there, except that they were only loading trailers from 8am to 12pm. With our last of the seven drops being at 8am, and with a 120 mile drive to the port, we knew if anything went askew, we would most likely be without a load over New Years Day.

Arriving at our last drop an hour early, we checked in and waited for their 4 pallets to be unloaded. Little did we know when we retrieved the paperwork, that they had left the 4 empty pallets inside the trailer. That facilitated going about 3 miles down the road to drop the pallets off before we could head to San Diego. But really, no worries, as we were empty, had the pallets dropped off, and headed south by 8:45am......plenty of time to get to the Port before noon.

Unlike when we drove into the LA area on Wednesday afternoon, where it was bumper to bumper traffic, the drive into San Diego was relatively traffic clear and we sailed into the harbor by 11am, and that is where we stayed as we watched Craig's 14 hour clock start ticking down. The later it got, the more it was clear that we would have to find a spot to stay for his mandatory 10 hr break and that we would not be leaving San Diego until the new year had fully rang itself in.

By 4pm we were finally loaded and rolling down by the harbor to find a parking space which would be free from any possibilities of getting another autograph from the local police. We found such a place amongst the many other trucks lining the street and settled in for the night, which basically meant we were both asleep by 7pm with nary any celebrations to be had or heard except for Craig's watch to unexpectedly start chirping at midnight. We both muttered a "Happy New Year" and rolled over to get a few more hours of sleep.

By 3am we felt the highways just might be safe to travel and were happy to see that the cabs and limousines far outnumbered the cars and trucks that were out on the roads. I guess people are finally getting smart about partying and not driving. We decided to stop in Wheeler Ridge for showers and a hot breakfast and then continued into the yard in French Camp where we called it a night. Here's hoping your New Years celebration was a bit more exiting than ours!