1 bus to Santa Ana CA (delivered)

1 bus to Duluth MN (Wednesday)

... spending the night at Santa Clarita CA

We are up too early for breakfast, but we planned ahead and got large philly's last night and saved half for this AM. Still a lot of food for that early.

I take the city streets but find out later that the freeway would have been faster. We may have lost a couple of minutes.

Our bus is first in line. While we are inspecting, another driver stops to talk. He has been driving for 20 years, six months. Just a few more months than me. He now drives mostly buses. Today he is heading to GA. (not a bus I was offered) We don't talk long but he has to show us how he has a hammock set up in his bus. It is already set up so I'm guessing that is where he slept last night. More money to pocket for him. (but more time wasted for us)

... and that philly is catching up to me. I need to use the restroom again before I leave. So I leave the bus blocking cars in the lot and run in. A few more minutes gone.

Traffic is not bad and the bus runs at 65 mph on most stretches.

BB had planned on stopping at the first rest area but the first two were both closed so she ends up at a small gas station. Somewhere about an hour into the trip I finally realize what I am sometimes seeing in my peripheral vision. One of my windows is swinging up with the right breeze. So I pull off at the next exit and park on the ramp. BB is following in the rental car and her first thoughts are it is a breakdown.

Almost four hours later we are at the TA / Blue Beacon wash in Lebec. Three trucks ahead of me in each line. We should be OK.

... I had contacted one of the other drivers last night via FaceBook and they had left at 6 AM, we left at 7 AM and they were not able to make it to the drop the same day so we were expecting the worst. We should be OK with this few of cars. But it does take 45 minutes instead of under five minutes.

Up the Grapevine Hill the bus is down to under 45 mph. But traffic is not until we get must close to LA.

There is four turns before the drop and I have those written down. But I had looked at the map wrong and wrote down the wrong exit number. Not a big deal, next exit. But going this route there is a RR crossing sign. But all that is left is the RR ties. No rails.

As soon as I get on the property, I call my contact. This time he picks up and tells me where to park. It wasn't quite clear to me so when I do stop I ask two guys if I am in the correct area. By that time, my contact is walking to the bus. He does a quick check and I am in and out in 15 minutes.

By now it is time to call the bus dispatcher back for more work. He wants to know if we can come back to Santa Ana again tomorrow. BB says no, she has not had as much fun as I have. We never take RV's to LA for this reason. Too much traffic.

'My bus' heading to Duluth is ready. We talk but dispatch says for me to call back in the AM which is rare. He does not give me the bus number as we are still 5-6 hours from the shipper.

It is 3 PM here and I haven't eaten today so we stop at one of the first places we see. Jimmy Johns. Instead of the usual small I get a regular sized. I didn't need that. We do eat and run ... or crawl.

We figure we spent about five hours traveling about 120 miles. We prefer the open road. No accidents, just traffic.

We finally decide to just shut down as soon as we cleared the heaviest traffic. A hotel in Santa Clarita. Right near Six Flaggs. Large lot, I think this is where the other driver parked once she knew she wouldn't make the drop. Other hotels beyond charge for large vehicles. We had looked at one close to the drop just in case. We had stayed there before with just a car and it was a nice place. Don't remember why were were there but that time we ate at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor.

We did walk the parking lot for about a half hour. The sidewalks were all hills.

8 AM - Livermore CA - Quality Inn - leave hotel

8:30 - Livermore CA - leave shipper

Noon - Buttonwillow CA - Sinclear - CNG fuel

2 PM - Lebec CA - Blue Beacon - bus wash

5 PM - Santa Ana CA - drop bus

5:30 - Santa Ana CA - Jimmy Johns

8 PM - Santa Clarita CA - Comfort Inn

Loadboard

US - 196

IA - 21

MN - 14

WI - 1