BORING UPDATE

So we waited over 6 hours before finally getting into a dock in Vernon, CA Monday.  It finally took our Customer Service department to call them to get them to assign us a dock.  Once we were backed in, it took all of 20 minutes for them to off load their product.  The only think that makes less frustrating, is the detention pay we started receiving at the start of our appointment time until the time we went empty.

Immediately after going empty, we were sent a dispatch to head to San Diego to pick up bananas.  We had just made the maneuver to get onto southbound Interstate 5, when the QualComm beeped with a cancellation of that dispatch.  Then the phone rang while we were stopped at the traffic light, and we were told to head to Castaic to repower a load.  We bypassed I5 and saw the on ramp to eastbound Highway 60 which we took, and then took I710 north to hook back up with north I5.  We only had about 90 minutes left of driving time, so were hoping that we would not run into traffic.

Thankfully, we made it to Castaic, CA in time, but finding a parking space would be a challenge.  As any truck driver knows, the Pilot there is a zoo, with absolutely no parking, and after driving through and not seeing the truck we were repowering, we called in to see what his ETA was.  After being told that it would be another hour before he arrived, we went in search of parking.  We ended up in a large parking lot which truckers had taken over for parking next to an abandoned hotel.  Finding a spot for our trailer, we unhooked and then parked the truck two spaces over to hold a spot for the other driver.

While sitting there, Craig looks to his left and sees a Panda Express, and that was all he needed to make his day.  He loves his Chinese food, and was off in a flash to grab some food and wait until we could swap trailers.  At 6pm, and without another parking space in sight, the other driver shows up and we do the trailer swap shuffle, and then settle in for the night.  We were now in possession of a trailer with only 8,000 pounds of meat, which we would deliver to Pomona, CA at 8am Tuesday morning.

We left a little after 5am to make the drive, and arrived with plenty of time to make our appointment.  Even better was that they took us early to unload, and by 8:30am we were empty and being told to head to San Diego for bananas.  We stopped by the company yard to fuel and scan paperwork, and then headed south to the Port of San Diego.  After almost four hours at the port, we had our bananas and decided to just stay down the street in National City for the night.

At 2am Wednesday morning we were on the road, confident that we would have a clear sailing through LA.  With a stop in Lebec for fuel, we powered on and made it as far as Dunnigan, CA where we stayed last night.  This morning we started driving at 3am, stopping for fuel in Corning and then our plans are to stop at the TA in Coberg, OR , where we will stop for the day and take showers.  Our load is set to deliver at 5am tomorrow morning in Clackamas, OR.