Southern California

We delivered our load finally late Friday evening. We were offered a load for Monday so we made hotel reservations for the weekend. We drove to Oxnard to the same hotel we stayed in last year and checked into our room...two doors down from last year! We got something to eat at IHOP and then crashed for a great night's sleep.

Saturday we walked next door to the market for cold beverages and just relaxed all afternoon. Then Uncle Robert and Uncle John picked us up for dinner at the Scotch & Sirloin. Great company, great food. After dinner we enjoyed a drink in our room before they had to leave. We decided since it was only a week different from our visit last year, we should make this an annual event!

Our hotel.

Love the beautiful scenery.

We ran a short run from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to Marine Corps Air Station North Island and then headed 120 miles north to the truck stop (very few and far between here). Tuesday we got a load and headed 40 miles to East LA to pick up the load and some woman hit the truck trying to pass me on the right as I went through an intersection...no damage to me but she caught her rear bumper on a lug nut on the front tire. It took the cops over 2 hours to show up to do the report. We were only 2 blocks from the shipper and when we finally got there, there was no load for us...they had one going somewhere else and it took 4 1/2 hours for somebody to finally decide we were getting nothing. So we drove 1 1/2 hours back to the truck stop and got one of the last open spaces.

So now we are waiting to get out of California and head toward home for my doc's appointment next week and Christmas with Alex. A truck driver apparently picked up some hitchhikers last night at our truck stop and they killed him in his truck on the on-ramp to the highway. TIME TO GO!!!

Here we are again

So, we had a week off during Thanksgiving, which we didn't actually celebrate this year. Got Alex moved out of the dorm, had a better than expected doctor visit and got to see lots of friends. We left Sunday night for a Monday morning pickup in Haymarket, VA and then headed out to Utah.

Dana hit some really snowy driving during the night going through Wyoming. After we delivered in Utah, we drove another hour, loaded up again and headed for Camp Pendleton, CA.

After delivering in CA, we immediately loaded again and headed for San Antonio. I was so excited....my very best girlfriend, MaryAnn lives there and we haven't seen each other in five years. We made it almost to Las Cruces, NM when the highway patrol began stopping traffic. Not only was there snow and ice covering the road, but there was also a truck jack-knifed. We ended up sitting on the highway for six long hours. I was asleep when we got there, so I slept a little longer and then got up and Dana went to bed. Of course we alerted the company, because our load was not going to get delivered on time but was listed as a "hot-shot" and must be delivered on Friday the 4th.

When we finally started moving we alerted dispatch and they assured us the customer knew and we were to be careful but get there as soon as we could. We arrived about 10:15 pm local time (original delivery was 8 pm) and were informed that receiving closes at 5. Not happy at this point. We spent 3 hours waiting for someone to figure out what they were going to do with us and finally were released to go to a truckstop for the night and return in the morning. And imagine this...when we arrived they said they didn't think they were unloading that morning. Dana started to get an attitude and one girl finally came over to unload us.

So, finally we headed to San Antonio and tried to get an oil change only to find that the last place that changed it had messed up the oil plug and they couldn't get it out. We decided to keep the oil issue until Monday and since we were about out of hours, we checked into a hotel for the weekend.

After a much needed shower, MaryAnn picked us up and we headed out for fabulous mexican food. Mom, La Hacienda reminded me of Abuelo's! Then we headed to her house, saw the kids and met the dogs.

On Sunday, she picked me up and we headed out to find me a new pair of boots. Found a great pair really quickly. Here they are:

We had lunch at "Dum Hoes" (hee hee) and some more shopping. Then we picked up Zeke and took him to meet his cousins, Tony and Fannie Mae. He had a blast running around their back yard and chasing and being chased.
The next day Mikey joined us for lunch. We had delicious Texas BBQ.

Now we're headed to Nogales, AZ. Had a great time guys! Love ya! Hope to see you again soon!