Pittsburg,CA

It has been a few days but we were on another one of those hurry and get there loads. We picked up in Rocky Mount,NC on Tuesday evening and had to be in Tracy,CA first thing Friday morning. After a couple of 1150-1200 mile days, I made it to the receiver this morning about 40 minutes early.

We only made one lengthy stop enrt and that was yesterday in Flagstaff,AZ. Some friends of ours that drive for Schneider called and they were about 20 miles west of the CA border on I-40 headed to NY. I was about 20 miles east of AZ on I-40 headed west. They had a few miles further to go than I did, but I made a stop to walk Smokey along the way. As luck would have it, when I took the exit where we were meeting, I made a left to head under the interstate, and as I came under, there was a Schneider truck waiting on the light to turn and it happened to be them. We couldn't have planned that kind of timing! We spent about 2 hours there at Little America in the restaurant visiting and the we headed back out to make our appointment time this morning.

J stopped in Bakersfield last night. He made good time and since I didn't have to hit the road until 0500 to make the appt, he had a few extra hours to spare. So being the awesome husband that he is, he grabbed the laundry and went in and did it while he let me sleep. The girls in there were jealous he said because he was letting me sleep while he did the domestic chores. They wanted to take him home. LOL One of the girls said that she has been married for 14 years and the only thing her husband makes for her is a mess! Luckily he wasn't pursuaded by their charms and around 0445 he came and woke me up so I could get going. I didn't even feel him stop the truck last night, or get in and out walking Smokey and doing the laundry. I put in a long day yesterday.

This morning when I took off it was super foggy. I drove through fog, at points extremely thick, for the entire 232 miles that I drove this morning. I was so happy to see the sun come up for the last 30-40 miles just to make the visability a little better. At one point, when I was coming through Bakersfield on CA58, I was stopped at a light. It turned green and I started to go but heard a siren and looked to my left and an ambulance and squad car were coming running code. So I stop to see if they are going to turn or go straight. Because the last thing I want is to pull out and have an ambulance t-bone my truck or trailer. At the same time, I looked up in my mirror and heard a horn and there was another semi swerving to get around me. I knew why I was stopped but he didn't and I am sure he was cussing at me. But I mean the light had been green for all of 5 seconds when I determined the emergency units were turning so I took off. I caught back up with him and he had slowed down and put on his hazards. I wasn't sure if it was because of the fog or if he was looking for something. I never run with my CB on but I decided to turn it on and sure enough he was calling me. It seems he was looking for a turn and couldn't find it with all the fog but he was telling me to go around him and that it was clear. I say sure thing and apologize for being stopped back there. And you know what? He actually apologized to me. He said it was his fault and he didn't see the emergency units and he was sorry about that. I thought that was really nice. I got around him and told him to have a good one and he said the same back to me and I took off.

After I got unloaded this morning I headed to the truck stop in Tracy,CA. J had woke up as I was pulling out of the dock and that is a good thing because it was shower time! I didn't complain too much about the shower because I wanted one so bad, but it had to have been one of the dirtiest showers we have been in. On the bright side though, they make burgers there and they had really good burgers and onion rings.

While we were inside the store, our FM called and he had a load for us. We are currently sitting in Pittsburg,CA at General Chemical picking up a hazmat load with 4 stops. We love hauling out of this facility because it pays awesome! And this time, we won't have to run 70 to make delivery ontime like we had to the last time we pulled a load out of here. Our first drop is Monday morning at 0700 in PA and it is 2562 miles. Should be pretty easy. If J can get 300 miles tonight, then we only have to do 550 each shift and that would leave me about 62 miles to do on Monday morning by 0600 our time. Piece of cake! And the 4th and final drop is before 1430 local time up in Maine on Tuesday. So that means that this load will go on our paycheck next Friday! WooHoo!!!