1 truck to San Diego CA

... spending the night at Santa Nella CA

Breakfast. We point, they bag. I got juice, yogurt and a breakfast burrito.

When we leave in the AM, most of the trucks have left so no issue pulling out. When I am doing my morning inspection, BB notices that I have taped over/covered my trucks weight, not the DOT # like I should have.

It is not raining, but the truck is still too wet to put my placards on the outside of the truck. Even the tape over the weight has come loose.

The cheapest fuel of the trip will be a few miles down the road in OR.

1st stop is when I am still in Roseburg at the Loves. I can't get the pump to start so I have to go inside. They ask for my PUC #. I don't have one, that's why I couldn't start the pump. Then they ask how much my truck weights. Whew! The PUC only applies to trucks over 26,000#'s. Now I remember why I don't like to fuel in OR. I am OK this trip. Fuel here is almost $1 less than in CA.

I have now looked up what a PUC is. Trucks over 26,000# pay the posted price for fuel. THEN they have to log their miles, record their number of axels and truck weight and pay their state tax directly to the state.

At some point early on the trip I noticed my teeth didn't feel right. I am pretty sure that the filling in my front tooth is loose and is only staying in because it has no where to go because of how it is located. Now I need to be very careful until I can get in to my dentist. My next appointment is in April. I'm guessing it will last a week? Maybe?

Last night we had looked online because there should have been a weight scale right before Roseburg where we shut down. We found a couple of places where it might have been, but it is gone now.

Or it was just wrong. Because now there is a scale just south of Roseburg and it doesn't look new. I cross without any issues.

A few more passes this AM. The highest one was is about 4,000 feet and had thick fog this AM. And it looks like they had snow overnight. When we went through it was 34 degrees. When BB looked earlier this AM the temp was at 28 degrees.

When I went through Medford I had noticed a mobile home park on the east side of the road. Then I noticed construction equipment in what looked like would be a mobile home park on the west side. I looked to the west again in less than a mile and realized it wasn't GOING to be a mobile home park. It had been a mobile home park. Before the fire.

Lots of partial shells where they hadn't been cleared off yet. And that fire had followed the river for at least a couple of miles.

Also I was surprised as to how many homeless were in Medford. It gets cold there. 100's and 100's of tents/shelters in sight just from the freeway.

2nd stop was near the 1st rest area in CA. Near, because I thought I was going to have to cross the freeway to get to the rest area and all I wanted to do was text BB to let here know that I was 'safe' into CA. Turns out the rest area was on my side of the freeway. Those heading northbound were the ones that had to cross the freeway to get to it.

A few more passes once we are into CA before stopping for lunch.

3rd stop is in Redding at the TA / Pizza Hut for food. We got with their macaroni dish again. They have to make mine so it takes seven minutes. BB took the last one off the shelf.

When we stop, I call the drop. It takes a long time for anyone to answer but when they did, I explain that I am brining but they say I have to deliver it full of fuel. That is not on my paperwork anywhere so I call my dispatcher for this trip. Nope, deliver with 1/8 of a tank of fuel. So I call the drop back. This time someone picks up right away and they don't know who would have told me that the tank needed to be full as there is only two people there and they both know. Then we realize I must have been talking to someone at the rental desk. THOSE trucks have to be returned full, and have to be returned before 6 PM. I will be delivering to the service department and they are open until 10 PM.

Then I call the bus dispatcher and tell him that I am 'still in CA, but delivering a truck so I will be available on Thursday.' I didn't let him get a word in right away. He seemed to 'perk up' when I said Thursday. Didn't ask how things are going yet.

I am still not sure if I will call him Weds or Thurs. I'd like to call Weds and if he doesn't have work, just stay south where it is warmer. But I would also like to leave with a bus, and I may be more likely to get one if I am there and waiting. If I don't give him the option of saying no. (He still would have the option if there weren't any buses of course.)

Where we are parked when we eat, there is a old full sized 70's or 80's car with no trunk on it. They do have stuff in their trunk, but no trunk to close on it. Instead they have two 'bull dog' type dogs tied to one of the hinges that are chewing on a huge bone. A cow hip bone or bigger.

Plan was for us to meet up again at a rest area 120 miles, two hours down the road. But most all of the rest area's are closed including the one 120 miles down the road. So BB pulls off the highway at the next truckstop. She was following me so I kept going.

4th stop is the Flying J in Lodi for a rest room break. When I pull in, I first wash my windows. The early fruit trees are already blooming and it seemed that every time we went past a field, I would hear PING, PING, SPLAT. PING, SPLAT. Something was hitting the truck and the windshield. It was either the bee's or other bugs that like the fresh buds.

BB pulls in to the Flying J before I get in the building. She makes a reservation in Santa Nella and checks fuel prices for my fuel. I should be able to fuel in the AM and have enough fuel to make it to my drop. I am guessing I am getting about 10 mpg. Only a guess as I have only filled the truck once. I suppose I could have fueled again after a couple of hundred miles so I would have had a frim number.

5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Food is from the Mexican food truck across the street.

BB takes advantage of the extra few minutes (?) we are in early and washes a load of clothes. We have been on the road for 10+ days and we haven't started heading back.

Load board

US - 418

IA - 155

MN - 3

WI - 10