1 truck to San Diego CA

... spending the night at Roseburg OR

Breakfast. We point, they dish it up. Scrabbled eggs, but no sausage out. And I had yogurt and juice.

We got going at 7:30 AM just as it is getting light out.

The temps did not drop below 45 degrees all day, but rain. Lots of rain. I don't think we went a half hour without having the wipers on all day.

1st stop was the rest area near Creek Hill.

2nd stop was going to be the 1st rest area south of Portland but it was closed.

As we got closer to Portland we started seeing ice piles under the trees. Then the ground was still covered with snow and ice. Lots of branches and trees down because of the ice.

Once we got on I-205, traffic was backed up a little. The highway department had workers going along and just cutting the debris in the road back to the edge of the pavement and they would leave it there. Then a huge front end loader would come along behind them and push it off into the ditch.

When we got onto the side street, the road street wasn't even plowed full width. The branches were laying too far out into the street.

When we first exited the freeway, traffic was backed up out onto the street with people wanting to get gas.

When we got to Wendy's, the same thing. The line was out onto the street for the drive thru. We didn't get close enough to see if we could walk in or not.

So we drove a few feet further and went to Subway. Parked and walked up, closed. Then drove across the parking lot to Taco Bell, closed. So we went across the street to a Fred Meyers. I thought they were a grocery store but they are bigger than a super Walmart.

As we were walking across the store we heard someone ask the help something. Don't know the question, but the answer was 'We just got our power back on.' That would explain the other places being closed.

Because the last rest area was closed, the first item of business was the rest room. Then we went to the deli. It looked like they had pulled all the food from the open refrigerated cases. We found a couple of pre-packaged salads and at couple of ?? and crackers. I ended up with a small cup of chicken salad and peta style bread circles, with grapes and cheese. BB got fresh veggies and something.

Their lot was a mess, a huge tree had fallen in front of the store mostly blocking car travel. Other places there were smaller branches blocking parking spots.

Another two miles and we were at my pickup. The person at the front desk knew I was coming and where the truck was going. He took me to someone else who in turned pawned me off to a 3rd person. He was the one that found the keys and my truck. I thought it might be a van, but it was a stake truck weighing 26,000#'s. One more pound and it would be CDL. I didn't measure but I am guessing there was about six inches of ice on the bed of the truck.

When I went back in to get my paperwork signed, another person was there wanting to look at my paperwork. He had overheard us talking and his paperwork said this truck was going to Santa Rose CA. So we re-checked all the numbers and each made phone calls. Before I could get back to the building after making my calls, someone came out and said the truck is going to San Diego. Originally it was set to go to Santa Rosa, but that got changed since their report had been run.

The truck was too wet to for tape to stick to the doors, so I put my placards in the window. Not a good place, but better than loosing them.

I had hoped it would be the drive thru at Wendy's and then, because I had called ahead to the pickup, a quick grab and go. Instead we took 45 minutes getting food and another 45 minutes getting the truck. A good hour lost.

Good news. The truck has 3/4 of a tank of (free) fuel. I should do pretty good on this run.

Oh, it sounds like they have another six trucks that are going to be moved from this location. I haven't seen them on the board yet. If this trip goes OK, we might do another trip.

... and back to yesterday. US-101 did open late yesterday so we wouldn't have been too far behind if we had just waited for it to open. Not sure what happened, but by noon today it was closed again.

I had been reading comments about the road closure on one article yesterday. Then this AM when I searched for that article, I found a 2nd article that had more current comments.

I-80 in WY was closed today too ...

Heading south with the truck, the scale on the south end of Portland is closed. It had been open this AM when we headed into Portland.

My next stop was back at Creek Hill for the rest area. BB stopped somewhere before that to fuel at a Loves.

We are running too late to get back to Medford, it will be too many hours in the dark. In the rain. And up and down mountain passes. And it will not gain us anything.

So we decide to spend the night in Roseburg, 15 miles down the road.

Final stop is at the Sleep Inn in Roseburg. Areal photos show a huge parking lot. And it was.

But still no where to park. I drive through one end of the parking lot first, then head to the other. 1st was was going to try to stay to the outside of the canopy. Then I realized I wouldn't fit. So I adjusted and went under, but a van was almost in the way so I got by with about two inches between the truck and the post and ??? enough room that the van didn't move so I must not have hit it.

Then on the other end of the lot there wasn't room enough to get into any spots that were open. There had been a spot but someone took it as I was back up to try to get past cars. (by the time we walked in, there was a spot I could have driven directly into) So I go back and park near some of the bigger trucks, I could have before but it took some back and forth to get lined up with them.

There also was one easy spot to get into but a car was parked in that spot. Someone was sitting in it when I was heading that way and it would have been an easy one to get in and out of. By the time I was parked, the car was gone and I walked through the empty spot. Only then did I realize that the bottom of the overhead billboard was lower than the top of my truck.

We check in and then call next door to Applebee's for food. BB orders online, a half hour later we walk in the rain to go and get it. Once back in our room, we realize that the tip she thought she added was not on the receipt. So no tip for them.

I did walk back an hour later and find the person who handled our order and gave them a bigger tip in cash.

We did less than 200 miles today with the truck. Without the ice and the mud slide, we should have gotten 500 miles today.

So now we have 500 miles to Santa Nella and then almost 400 more for Wednesday to San Diego. Thursday will be another 500 miles back to Livermore. And then we are out of clean clothes :)

I think most, if not all, of the freeway out here has the truck speed lower than the car speed. So BB and I will just meet at noon to eat and then for the motel. Other than that we text each other from our stops so the other knows if they are ahead or behind.

Load board

US - 383 - (I don't remember ever seeing it over 400)

IA - 151

MN - 2

WI - 9

Nothing out of CA right now. But there are three in OR coming back to CA, plus 1 in WA and 1 in AZ coming back to CA.

It is -10 degrees at home at 10 PM tonight, and 46 here in OR. Same temp it has been all day.