1 truck to San Diego CA

... spending the night at Eureka CA

Major change of plans.

We had talked about moving trucks within CA but it wasn't until this AM that we looked at moving trucks TO CA. We have talked about it on previous trips but not this AM until BB brought it up.

We looked at our options, the weather, the holiday and timing.

I called in to dispatch and asked for phone numbers on two trips. The dispatcher I got said both locations were open on Monday so I went with the Portland trip. There was also a truck in Seattle but the weather was worse north of Portland. Now later, we realize that the extra time that the Seattle truck would have taken would have added an extra day to our trip.

I had also wanted the phone number to find out what it was that I would be moving. Dispatch had the trip listed as 'truck,' but when I was talking to dispatch they asked if I towed, because this was a small van truck. So they know what I was going to move, they just didn't take the time to put that info on the load board.

Once I got the paperwork emailed to me, I called the shipper ... and called ... and called. But the calls kept rolling to a corporate call center. One of the people at the call center even recognized me after a few calls. He went the extra mile and called other locations in the area and they were all closed. Likely because of the weather. The call center should have been notified but wasn't.

Breakfast was the same as yesterday. Nuked sandwich and yogurt.

So our vacation was on hold :) and we were back to work. We didn't rush, but we didn't waste any more time. We headed out.

1st stop was Walmart for water and juice. We usually go through a 32 pack of water every trip. Last trip was a short, so we didn't use the whole case and hadn't gotten a new. We usually don't buy water on the road.

From there we headed west on I-80 and then north past I-80.

Opps, we weren't thinking ahead. There are tolls on a few of the bridges one way. Usually out of town and we got to one of those tolls. No toll takers, your plate will be billed. Ouch. With a rental car, the rental company will charge a handling fee. Luckily with this company that charges is only $3.95 per day. We've rented from other companies that are twice that. But we had to choice once we saw the sign, we were past all the exits.

There is a place in Santa Rosa we like to eat, but BB was looking at their website ... and they re-open tomorrow. And we were going to be there before noon today. Next time.

2nd stop was Cloverdale. BB just started looking for towns about a half hour ahead so that she'd have time to look at reviews before we got to the exit. Before we get to the place, we pass a drive-thru food truck area. I was driving so I didn't get a great look but it looked like 20 or so food trucks set up with one path past them. Maybe if we hadn't planned on the Deli.

So food was from Eagles Nest Deli. We each got soup and a sandwich. I wanted a Rueben and that didn't come as a half a sandwich so I had to get a whole one. Plus soup. We each ate our soup and BB had a couple of bites of my sandwich for lunch. Then we split BB's 1/2 sandwich in the evening. That's how big they were. Good food. The temp today was around 60 degrees so it was nice to sit outside. This place had a few tables set out on the sidewalk but hardly any traffic walked past us.

3rd stop was an hour down the road at a Speedway in Ukiah.

After I-580 ended/merged with US-101 the road went from three lanes each way, to two lanes each way, to one lane each way. But so far it has all been paved. :)

For the last couple of hours the road went from 4 lanes to 2 lanes depending on the landscape. A lot of the 2 lane is very narrow and windy through the redwood trees. We didn't do any stops or site seeing today. Hopefully tomorrow. A lot of down trees along the road in places, I'm guessing they had a snow or ice storm that took them down.

4th and final stop is the Clarion in Euraka. Usually BB makes reservations ahead of time but the reviews for 'our brand' of hotels were bad enough that we wanted to look at them first. So we ended up making a reservation from the parking lot. And we had picked this location because it had laundry. And then once we were here and looked at their laundry area we decided to wait.

The worst comments on this hotel was it was not in a good location. And it is not. A lot of street people walking around and the parking and and building have a fence around them. And it looked like the place has a few long term rentals. But the room and everywhere we have looked is clean.

One of the interesting people was reading something as he was walking down the street. He seemed to take one slow step every paragraph or two of what he was reading. Very strange to walk.

And others just seem to walk down the street as people drive around them.

Weather - We are driving up US-101, 1st because we have time to see the sites. But later BB was watching the road conditions and on I-5, chains are required and we don't have any. US-101 looks good until we almost get up to Portland. If I-5 is open tomorrow we will get back on that if this road gets bad.

Holiday - This was also a factor on which trips we took. We don't know if our permit company is open on Monday being a holiday. And most of the trucks would have required permits. I ended up taking a truck that would not require a permit.

The trip is from Portland to San Diego, just over 1,000 miles. We have two days to get to Portland. Then we it will take us two days to get back down to San Diego, so I will have to call the bus dispatcher and tell him that I am now NA for Tuesday night. It will take Wednesday to get back up to Livermore. Which shouldn't be an issue with so many people in motels.

If the weather had been better, we could have each gotten a truck. One from Seattle and one from Portland. I'm guessing they were both going to the same place. I'm not a fan of big cities, but this drop is about a mile off of I-5 on I-8 and then less than a mile from the exit off of I-8. If the bus dispatcher doesn't need us yet, we might just stay south for an extra day.

Because we only got one truck, BB will follow me in the rental. We've got a good price on it. Better than we would get with a 2nd one way rental.

Load board

US - 345

IA - 139

MN - 2

WI - 8

We'll keep watching the load board and see what pays. We aren't going to get rich with this trip, but it will more than cover the hotels and rental car.

And it is not below -0- here.