Back to work . . . well, sort of.

I left home yesterday morning headed to Salinas, CA, with an empty trailer to pick up a load headed for a grocery distribution center somewhere in America. Then yesterday afternoon as I was approaching the end of my run for the day I received a new destination, Riverside, CA. So, I wasn't going to pickup salad, after all. It's not that I don't like hauling salad, but I don't like going to Salinas. You can't like everywhere and Salinas is one of my nowheres.

Today I'm all focused on determining where I'll stop for the night so I can shower, whether I'll go into the yard tomorrow or stop short at Frazier Park, and all the other details of getting the big truck from here to there.

As I was passing Dunnigan, I noticed the QualCom had a new message (the bell on mine doesn't work so I have to keep looking at it to see if someone sends me a message). The first message is from my dispatcher telling me not to go to Riverside, but to go to Linden. Okay, fine by me, but where in California is Linden. So, I pulled over to the side of the road and found Linden. It's just up the road from Peters. More importantly, it's in Northern California so I lose out on a bunch of miles.

As a result, I'm spending the night at the Pilot in Dunnigan. Tomorrow I'll drive to a small truck stop the other side of Sacramento. I was planning on simply staying here until Saturday morning, but CalTrans is shutting down I-5 through Sacramento Friday night and who wants to try out the new detour while trying to get to a customer location by the appointment time; I don't.

Hopefully, my load will be going somewhere east just for the miles I'm not getting by sitting in the middle of the Central Valley oven. Did I mention that it was hot? Did I mention that California's new idling law has taken affect and I can't idle my truck for more than 5 minutes? Did I mention how hot a black Volvo 670 gets while sitting in the sun? Did I mention how I've suddenly taken a strong dislike for California?