We received a load assignment we haven't had in quite a while, and one that required four pickups and one delivery. Usually it is the other way around. After going empty in Santa Clara, CA on Sunday afternoon, we headed to Salinas, CA to stage for the first pickup in Castroville on Monday morning.
We left at 7am for our 8am appointment, we only had 13 miles to drive, but since we missed the exit we needed off of Highway 101, we needed all of that time to find a road that would get us turned back around. I secretly hoped that this little mishap would not be a sign of things to come.
As you can see from the picture, Castroville is the artichoke center of the world. I wished we could have stopped at the many produce stands along the road, because they were selling artichokes 10/$1. I don't know about where you live, but at home, the last time I bought an artichoke it was well over a dollar just for one!
We quickly loaded on the four pallets of miscellaneous types of wine, and headed the 15 miles to Watsonville to a little two dock facility in the middle of town to pick up one pallet of wine. Then we headed north to a little town of American Canyon in the Napa Valley. Into an industrial area where the streets were lined with warehouses from some pretty big name vintners from the area.
We pulled up to our shipper and right away ran into problems with a purchase order number. After several phone calls we were finally told to just tell them it was a "rush order", and lo and behold that did the trick, along with an additional $35 fee for processing. After our 8 pallets of wine were loaded on, it was now closing in on 3pm and we knew we would run into commute traffic no matter which way we went, so we chose the way we thought would be the path of least resistance.
The traffic was manageable, and we rolled into our last pick up of the day in Ceres, CA at 6pm at the fourth largest producer of wine in the United States. We gave them the purchase order number and after much paper shuffling and phone calls, we were told that the load had already been picked up earlier in the day. What the hell? More phone calls, names and times written down, and as much info as we could get about what company picked up our load, and we were released by dispatch to leave the premises.
I gotta tell you, it was a long day, and with this last hiccup, I was so tempted to partake in some of that wine in our trailer! We made it back to our company yard in French Camp and called it a night. We now have two leisurely days of driving to make our delivery in Spokane on Thursday morning. Cheers!
