Departing SoCal

As soon as I put in my empty call at the Ralph's DC a new mission presented itself: head 45 miles southwest to Irvine, California and pick up a load of clothes going to Kearney, Nebraska for Wednesday morning. About 1,360 miles and less than two-and-a-half days to get it there. Groovy.

Afternoon traffic heading south and west along 71 and 55 was surprisingly light and I made the trip in under an hour. If you had told me I would do 45 miles in under an hour in Los Angeles on a workday I would have called you insane. Ah well.

The shipping people for the load were frantically finishing up some FedEx and UPS loads when I arrived but I eventually was waved into a dock. Then that was changed and I was waved into another dock. Whatever, I just drive.

The usual bumping motions commenced with the pallets being moved on one by one. Then that ceased and I went in to see if the paperwork was ready. Only, someone hadn't counted the actual boxes on the pallets and they only thought 498 boxes were aboard and there were supposed to be 503. Heads were scratched, people consulted and eventually the entire freaking trailer was emptied and everything counted. The box count was right this time and everything was moved back into the trailer. Not a very organized place.

Good news: the load only weighs 15,000 pounds so heading back over the Rockies won't be a huge deal.

I only had enough time to run to the Pilot in Hesperia, California then it was lights out.

Today's trip started mid-morning after a refreshing shower. After three or four hours I pulled into an incredibly backed up Pilot in Las Vegas, Nevada (cheaper fuel there than the one in California) and managed to waste a lot of time before I ever got to the pump. Nevertheless, I got in and out as soon as possible and continued northeast along I-15 until reaching I-70 where I turned east towards Denver.

Tonight finds me in Green River, Utah with exactly 700 miles to go to my destination. I may knock all that out tomorrow, or I may leave an hour or two to finish up on Wednesday morning. Dang lazy bug, never gives me any warning.