1 Bus to Austin, TX

... spending the night in Blythe, CA.

Trying to get delivered by Friday, on limited hours. Every minute counts, so far so good.

Still writing these up a day after the fact.

Breakfast was the basic.

We were up and ready to go so we didn't wait until our planned time. Almost still dark when we left, no issue getting out of the parking lot. We had used BB's glass cleaner on the front window and it was much easier to see :) than last night.

It is spring time in CA already. Cattle is grazing on new grass, trees look like they are going to bud out in the next week or so. Lots of work being done in the fields already.

Mostly was passing trucks today. Should have been passing more of them. The speed limit for trucks in CA is 55 mph. As a bus, I can run at 65 but they must use different speedometers.

Plan was to stop after a couple of hours at the rest area near Avenal. It is closed for the next six months. So instead of stopping at a truck stop, we kept going to the next rest area.

1st stop - The rest area near Buttonwillow. If we are going to make delivery on Friday, we have to manage our time, and for the next three days we are going to do that.

2nd stop - But we are also going to mostly stick to our plan. So our next stop ends up being only 40 miles down the road because of our long first leg. The Iron Skillet / Petro in Morgan Ridge. Today there was so little good food that I just got the salad bar. Salad bar includes the soup and that was potato bacon. I'm good.

From here is another long leg, should have been two hours, ended up being three. First we go up and down the passes, then we are in north LA traffic ... and then the rest area is closed. This bus doesn't have much get up and go once it looses speed. I does great on the 2-3% grade but 5%+ grade it is down to 35-40 mph with the trucks. Plus is I am not a truck so I get to run in lanes that they are not supposed to. And the speed governor does not hold the speed coming down the hills, every time I would get three mph over I would get an alarm.

Lots of people with their hoods open on the up hills. Also got to see the river/spill ways in action. Water moves a little faster than in the canals. Over all not bad for LA traffic.

Did have one place where I needed to move over one lane and no one was letting me in so I came over on the white line. Someone laid on their horn and hit the breaks. Like my cousin has said "My blinker is not a question, I AM coming over." And in this case it was in road construction and because of the trucks ahead of me, I couldn't see there was a stalled car in the travel lane. Once I was past the stall, I got back over and when the car went past I thought they were giving me the one finger salute. When I looked closer I saw it was the remains of their Christmas antlers on the drivers side.

In this area there are no truck stops so we kept going to the next rest area.

3rd stop - White Water. Took another long break so we've had two 15 minute walks today. BB likes the longer breaks ... as long as she isn't driving.

4th and final stop - Another two hours across the desert and we are in Blythe. I think at one place it is 50 miles between services and longer than that between motels. And we want to get close to 500 miles each day.

So in Blythe we stop at the Quality Inn and eat at a Mexican fast food place. I couldn't picture this place until we got here. We've stayed here ... and most places ... a couple of times before. Parked in the back with the trucks and checked in. Old person ahead of us checking in was having a problem with even the most basic questions ... what color is your car? What kind? He had to go out and look. And he had all the motel info written down. King bed, etc.

As soon as we checked in we walked next door, we had made it before dark but 15 minutes later it was already dark enough that pictures weren't turning out. We walked past the sit down Mexican place we have eaten at before to get to the fast food style place. Good food. They had some different kinds of drinks so I tried the pineapple, it was good. Later I was worried it might have had caffeine in it. It must not have.