1 Bus, maybe, someday
... spending the night at Santa Nella CA
We were going to be sitting most of the day so I kept a log of the load board. I had expected it to go most of the day without any change. Wrong, other than the early AM it was changing all day. Lots of stuff was coming and going and that does not show on the tally.
IA Load board
8:00 - 87
8:30 - 83
9:00 - 83
9:30 - 83
10:00 - 80
10:30 - 83
11:00 - 84
11:30 - 102 - includes 9 CA, 12 AZ, 5 FL, 5 WA and 1 OR
12:00 - 100
12:30 - 99
1:00 - 104
1:30 - 131
2:00 - 130
3:30 - 130
4:00 - 136
4:30 - 135
5:00 - 133
Looking at the pictures I took yesterday. There are also partially built buses to Johnsonburg PA, (north of Pittsburg,) and San Diego. Plus lots of others that don't have markings that I could ID them from.
Breakfast - we point, they pack. I had a Jimmy Dean sandwich, yogurt and juice. BB had two small boxes of cereal and milk. While we were down, I asked for a late checkout. 1 or 2 PM was as late as they would go. They now know us by our transport company name, not the local shipper name, so there must be a few of us staying there.
Spent the morning on the computer. At 2 PM eastern we listened in to a company meeting. Dash Cams. They even think they are going to find something that works for us driveaway drivers. Anyone in there own truck will not get a safety bonus unless they have a dash cam.
Finally at noon local we headed off, 1st to the PO and then to the closest In-n-Out. The outside post office box was full, I tried pushing my letter in but it wouldn't drop down so we'll mail it somewhere else. In-n-Out. No indoor seating, no outdoor seating. So we ate in our car like everyone else.
And watched the people going to Home Depot. At one point there was a truck making a slow left turn across traffic. There hadn't been anyone coming, but before he got pulled all the way out, someone drove right up to his truck and waited for him to get out of there way. But the truck could no longer move because the pickup was too close. And he didn't seem to understand why the truck would not get out of his way. No shots were fired, no loud cussing. The pickup finally backed up. ???
Once we were done eating we headed past the bus place and then to our walking mall. Not good. There should be 10-12 or more buses each day. Friday was 2, Monday was 6, Tuesday was ... 3.
We walked once around the mall, there were some lines for stores but not like last time. By then it was time to call the dispatcher.
"Stay over one more night. They said they would have a lot of buses today and tomorrow. Not much today so ... tomorrow."
BB goes to reserve a room at the hotel and they are full. At 3 PM, no rooms. We look at the local Best Western and then decide to drive to Santa Nella for a cheaper hotel and some split pea soup.
A little over an hour later we are at Anderson's in Santa Nella. We ordered and waited. And talked. Monday the state shut down all indoor seating. So it sounds like two people work in the AM and two in the PM for carry out orders.
... as we talked. We talked Covid. The person we were talking to had young nieces. One got Covid and got their Mother sick. Another niece got sick and got their Grandma sick. Grandma had had breast cancer so she was at high risk, she pulled through but gave it to Grandpa would died almost right away. He had just had heart surgery last year. After the fact, the nieces aren't taking it too well.
We both got a chicken salad sandwich. BB got split pea soup and I got potato salad. And cookies.
Final stop is at the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Only a couple of cars at a 100+ room hotel after 5 PM.
Instead of sitting around tomorrow we will likely get going earlier and do something. After being broken into we really don't like leaving our stuff in our car anywhere close to the major cities. We are now an hour plus away from the suburbs so we'll risk it.
Load board finals
US - 281
IA - 133
MN - 1
WI - 2
Iowa still has 9 CA, 3 OR, 5 FL, 12 AZ and 6 Carolinas. But nothing that works for us here in CA. 2 going to WA and 2 local but the deadhead on the locals don't make it worth it. So we sit.