Once again having difficulty posting from my mobile device. Been trying to resolve it at bigger.com with no success yet. Stay tuned.

In WA again

Missing post

Hey all, I finally managed to get the lost post. I had to email it to myself, copy and paste, but here it is. So, the previous post of "Back in AZ" should come after this one, but you'll get the jist of it. After all, you are all bright persons. :-)

Good morning Wenattchee, WA!!!! For those that don't know, (I didn't) it is a big Apple growing region. Tree Top has a big bottling plant here. I'm not here for Apple juice though. I'm getting a load of corrugated I think. Problem is the load is not ready, and won't be till 3 this afternoon. Then I have to take it to Phoenix. Looks like I won't be home for another 4 or 5 days. Worked out of the WA terminal for a couple of days. Day one was making deliveries in N WA. I actually made a delivery on an Island. That was a first. Granted I got there over a big suspension bridge, but still technically an island. It was beautiful, the weather was perfect. Saw a nice RV park right on the water I would like to try some day. 2nd day was in Canada. Not a whole lot to say about that, except I missed the truck turn off for the border crossing, (was talking with my dispatcher about this load) and had to be escorted back through the US side and come back through the truck entrance. They said it happens all the time, but I still felt like an ass. Which puts me where I am. I saw some absolutely gorgeous scenery on the way here, with the most impressive Wenatchee river following along the road for 45 miles. I will post a couple pics I took when I am on my computer. I am posting this from my phone, and the site won't accept pics from a phone for sine reason. Well, till later!!

Your traveling gnome,

Larry

Back in Arizona

Good morning everyone. Or those few that even check this blog anymore. :-) I sent a post a few days ago from my phone, but it never showed up. It was converted to a MMS message by my phone application and evidently, this site doesn't accept MMS messages. I have been trying to convert it, or copy it so I can post it here, but so far have not succeeded. I will try to get it posted in the next day or so. I think it is worth the effort. LOL.

Anyway, I am in Arizona today, after a week of driving to WA, into Canada for two days and then across WA to Wenatchee to pick up a load for Phoenix. I sort of explained al that in the post that won't appear. I went through Vegas on Sat, Sun and stopped in Wickenburg, AZ on Sunday to visit my friends Scott and Patti Colbath. We had a great visit yesterday, and Scott cooked up some extremely delicious Rib Eye steaks in his Big Green Egg smoker. What a meal!!!! It was so nice to have a good home cooked meal. Something I miss sorely on the road. I think I have mentioned before that good food is hard to find now. Most truck stops only have fast food, like Taco Bell, Subway, or Chesters Chicken. (don't ask) Anyway, stayed the night last night, got up and showered and am getting ready to head into Phoenix and make my delivery. What happens from there is a mystery, as always, but I am hoping to get to head home for a day or two. Looking forward to that.

I guess I should mention that I drove down from Central WA through Oregon, Idaho, skirted Utah into Nevada then down through Laughlin east into Arizona and eventually Wickenburg. There is just no good way to get here from there. That darn pesky Grand Canyon is in the way of a direct route. I pretty much followed State hwy 97 and 93 all the way down, with a little short cut here and there like hwy 6 and I think 318. I don't have the map here with me. I am on Scotts computer. Anyway, you sure don't want to break down out on those roads. There is some pretty desolate country there. Signs like next gas 79 miles and no services are not real encouragements. But some of it was quite pretty. I am still quite surprised at the amount of snow still on the mountains and hillsides. Even coming down through northern Nevada there was snow on the foothills. I think it must have been a heavy winter most everywhere and the cooler temperatures everywhere have slowed the melting. With the rivers and lakes full, it is probably a good thing. Anyway, I will try and get that other entry posted soon and get home too. Hope all is well with anyone still listening.

Take care,

Larry

Back out on the road again after a much welcomed week off. Got to spend some time with friends and family camping out in the mountains and at the beach. It was good having friends around and just bs'ing. That is one thing about being on the road. Nobody to talk to. I am on my way to Wa. And they want me to work a couple of days running into Canada. So, probably won't make it home till Sat or Sun. I am trying to slow down a little and not push so hard. A few less 14 hr days will be good for the soul. Get a few more hrs of sleep and feel better. It does no good to push to get home, cause they just find something else for me to do and I don't get home anyway. I have noticed a major increase in traffic since Memorial day. Vacationers!!! Lots of motor homes, trailers, boats, and cars stuffed with luggage. A real PIA. Well, got to get some of that rest I was talking about. Going to be running to Canada in the morning. Later, and take care everyone.

Took a week off work starting Monday. Went up to Kennedy Meadows on Saturday. It is a remote area in the mountains between Kernville and Ridgecrest CA. Myself and some guys have been riding our motorcycles up there and camping out for 10 years now. There is no power, running water, gas, toilets, or tables, fire pits, or any "luxuries". There is just one little general store there for necessities. Not for everyone, but we enjoy it. This year was a little cold. We got rain almost every morning, or early morning. By 7 AM it had always stopped. But it remained partly cloudy and windy much of the time. It only hindered us a little bit. But at night, it was a little cool. Definitely needed to keep limbs and head under cover to stay warm. Came back Tuesday, and have been trying to catch up on bills, and other things that get postponed while on the road. I am getting ready to take the RV down to Camp Pendleton this weekend camping. This will be much more comfortable. Going with some of my family and should be a great time. I will get a call Friday telling me where I am going next week. I am assuming it will be another trip to WA, but you never know.I will keep you informed as much as I can. In the mean time, be good.

Larry

Trip continued

I'll try it finish up that last post. Had to stop in Stockton to drop off about half the trailer and load up a bunch for WA, and a stop in Yreka, CA. They wanted me to deliver that on the way up to WA. The problem being that it was 2:30 in the afternoon before they got me loaded up, and Yreka is 5 hrs away. I called the store and arranged to deliver it the next morning. That was not what management had in mind, so after a bunch of going back and forth they decided that I would bypass that stop on the way up, load 6 stops for OR on the trailer coming back to Riverside, then put the Yreka on from my trailer when I get there. So, now I have 6 stops in OR on the way back, plus the Yreka I have to work around on the back. I'm not happy. For one, this makes another full day on the road to deliver this stuff. I don't know where any of the locations are, or what it is going to be like to deliver to them. Now, in my experience so far, these stores are in downtown areas, stripmalls, or shopping centers. I have a 53 ft trailer, and my tractor is about 23 feet long. Not exactly a delivery truck. So it can get exciting from time to time. I was asking them what the procedure would be if I could not make Yreka again. Our yard is 143 miles from the OR border, plus OR is 309 miles long. 6 stops, figure 30-60 min per including travel to and from the fwy, and 6 hours driving through OR. Yreka is about 40 miles over the border. Not looking too good. But, I try to keep a positive outlook. Got to Puyallup as early as possible, which was about 1:30. took me about an hour to get everything done, and I do mean me. Everyone was apparently gone for the weekend. Got back to the fwy about 3 o'clock. DEAD STOPPED. Oh yeah!! Memorial Day weekend. First big holiday of the summer. RV's, trailers, boats, dirt bikes galore. Wonderful. Did I mention it is pouring rain?? Swell. I managed to get back down to Portland around 7PM and had a wonderful dinner with Brittney and Brian. Plus had a couple of micro brew Porters to relax. :-) Got up early, was at the first delivery before they opened and busted ass all day in OR making those deliveries. Was on the phone with the nice lady in Yreka a few times, and told her when I was on my way to her place. She waited for me, bless her, and I was done at about 5:30 Sat evening. Hopped in the truck and headed for Corning. The halfway point between Puyallup and Riverside, more or less. Slept in a little late Sunday morning, had some breakfast, and headed home. Ended up getting home about 8:30 PM. What a week. Went about 3500 miles all told. Had a little bite to eat, watched a bit of TV and crashed out about 10. Got up Memorial Day morning hussled out the door to attend a MD ceremony with the American Legion Riders group, then headed out for a ride to Lake Elsinore. What a beautiful day it was. Perfect weather. Good friends, my girl on the back. Pure heaven. Got back home about 7:30 that night and was so tired could hardly sit up. But it was a good tired. Slept about 10 hrs, got up did a few chores and got the call to go back to work. Packed up, showered, made some sandwiches and coffee, grabbed a hour or two of sleep and headed out North again. But that is for another post. :-) Oh, wanted to add some pictures I took last time I was out but couldn't get them to load. Will try here. Wish me luck, travel wireless is not the greatest.