Saturday, August 15, 2020

 Left this morning about sunrise.  Very uneventful day on the road.  Had no traffic issues anywhere.  Here is the way we had to go in Colorado.  

Stopped for the night at the Pilot in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Friday, August 14, 2020

 We left this morning and drove to a place west of Laramie.  Waited there for about an hour and fifteen minutes for our new pilot escort car to arrive. On our construction re-route we passed The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Quite a place with a rich history.

Internet Photo

Stopped for the night at the Flying J truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

 Yesterday I had two great escort cars.  One of them had to leave so they sent another to replace him.  We left a half-hour before sunrise this morning.  Had a good day on the road.  Started off on a 2 lane road.  Made it tricky being as wide as I am.  Really needed those two escort cars.  Found out real fast the replacement was not good at all.  In fact, he was horrible.  Tried to give him some instruction, but none of it worked.  We stopped at the Wyoming Port of Entry.  There were only 2 of them working and doing the job of 6.  Took a half hour to get out of there.  Finally made it to the Flying J truck stop in Evanston, Wyoming for the night.  There I fired the horrible escort car and sent him on his way.  The other escort driver (the good one) called his company and they will have another one sent.  Won't need a second car until we get to Laramie.  Have a detour there where 2 are required.  In spite of that, we got 542 miles under our belt today.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

 Left this morning at 9 AM PDT with most all my new permits. We made excellent time today.  Didn't have to stop and screw with the tarps at all.  The only traffic slow downs were going through Las Vegas.  Hard to go through and not stop.  Anyway, continued on past the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nellis Air Force Base.  Stopped for the night at a Love's truck stop about 20 miles north of Las Vegas.  Lots of these flying around here.

Internet Photo

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Drove the rest of the way down to Chula Vista early this morning.  Loaded a Flange that is going to Lansing, Michigan.

While loading found out that it was wider than we thought.  All my permits were ordered with a width of 15 feet.  After measuring it found it to be 15 feet 4 inches wide.

With that revelation, had to reorder all my permits.  That also meant I couldn't leave until my new California permit came in.  Now, this thing is a big round circle.  The geniuses at the California permit office wanted me to turn it on the trailer to make it narrower.  Obviously, you don't have to pass an IQ test to be a Government worker.  My new permits started to come in this afternoon.  By that time I only had an hour and twenty-seven minutes left on my clock.  Not enough time to go anywhere today.  I let my two escort cars know that we weren't going anywhere today.  Then dropped my trailer there and bobtailed over to the Pilot truck stop (that was not on my permit route) for dinner, a much-needed shower, and sleep.  Will be leaving at nine am when the San Diego curfew is over.

Monday, August 10, 2020

 They opened at 6 am PDT and I went in.  They were pretty good at getting me unloaded quickly.  From there I headed toward Chula Vista, CA where my next load is.  Did real good with traffic until I got to Los Angeles.  The first area of bumper to bumper traffic was caused by the lookie-loos slowing down to look at this wreck.

After that, there were several more areas of bumper to bumper traffic.  Finally made it through L.A.  and continued south on I-5.  Went past the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.  Right after the tsunami in Japan that wiped out the nuclear power plant there, that was right on the ocean like this one is, it spooked the folks here so they decommissioned this one.  

Continued on past Camp Pendelton.  They were doing some training as I went past.  There was a ship in the ocean and troops on the beach.

Stopped for the night at the southbound rest area at Camp Pendelton on I-5.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

 As soon as my 10 hours was up, I left.  At 1:30 am PDT I was on the road.   Drove to where I deliver tomorrow in Pleasanton, California.  There is plenty of room to park out front, just hope the cops leave me alone.