STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22419: Peregrination to Palo Alto

November 28, 2008 on 5:49 pm | In On The Road, Family, Travelblogue |

I found a few minutes to relax and get out of the kitchen, so I’ll try to bring you up to date on my travels since my last post. I’ll be doing it from memory, so I can’t guarantee total accuracy (they say that the memory is the second thing to go). You’ll be able to get the gist anyway. I’m currently in Palo Alto, CA visiting my brother and family for Thanksgiving.

I left off in Bishop,CA on the 18th, so that’s where I’ll begin again. I left Bishop about 1100 and drove to Sparks, NV. Along the way, I stopped to take these pictures. The first stop was a Rest Area about 60 miles north of Bishop on US-395.

My next stop was for some pictures of Mono Lake just north of Lee Vining.

After this stop, I decided it was time to go to work and finish this load. It seemed to take forever to get through Carson City and into Reno. There are too many traffic lights. They should really build a bypass freeway around all that mess. I arrived in Sparks about 1700 and did the drop hook delivery. I had to wait about 45 minutes for an empty trailer. It really didn’t matter because as it turned out, I was done for the day. DRAT!! Had I known that, I would have stopped a few more times for more pictures. I passed right by Topaz Lake, and some other “Kodak Moment” scenery, but didn’t stop because I was in a hurry to get to the customer. I settled in for the night at the Petro truck stop.

On the 19th, I accepted a load to Minnesota. Since I was trying to get to Vegas on the 24th, I was allowed to T-call the load at our terminal in Salt Lake City. I made the drive without incident. It was boring. The drive on I-80 between Reno and Salt Lake City is among the most desolate drives on on the entire Interstate highway system.

The 20th brought me a load to Saint George, UT, with a back-up load to Prewitt, NM. Since the Prewitt load wasn’t scheduled to deliver until Dec 1st, I was told to T-call it at our terminal in Albuquerque. After I made the St. George delivery at 2000, I was told to take my empty trailer to a customer in Cedar City, then bobtail to the customer in Hurricane, UT and pick up the Prewitt load. By the time all this was done, it was midnight, so I decided to call it a day (night).

I drove to Albuquerque on the 21st. It’s a nice drive, but not if you are loaded heavy like I was. I stopped in Jacob Lake, AZ and overpaid for Cheeseburger and Fries. It was pretty good though. I stopped again in Winslow, AZ before I got to Albuquerque about 2200.

On Saturday, the 22nd, I was told to deadhead to our terminal in Lathrop, CA. That’s over 1000 miles empty. Since the route would take me through Kingman, AZ anyway, I suggested that I just head to Vegas from there. I wanted to arrive there by the 24th anyway, and that wasn’t going to happen if I drove all the way to Lathrop first. The DM du jour made it happen. I left Albuquerque about 1030, and arrived in Vegas about 2100. Since I was going to be taking off for a week, I gave my empty trailer to another Swift driver who was desperately in need of one.

The 23rd and 24th were spent preparing for my trip. The MMM were groomed. My car was washed, fueled, and serviced all at the same place. That was convenient. I did a little sorting in my storage shed as well.

On the 25th, I left Vegas about 1130. The WWW was giving away free Apple pies to VIP’s so I waited until I got mine before I left. I had dinner at Bill Lee’s in Bakersfield, then drove on to Palo Alto, arriving about 2130. The traffic wasn’t too bad, but it was noticeably heavier than usual. Shortly after I arrived, we cut into that Apple pie. It was delicious. Then a brief chat, then off to bed.

The 26th was a busy day. I started of by doing my laundry. In between loads, I planned the menu for my stay, and made a shopping list. After the laundry was done, Donald and I went grocery shopping. The stores weren’t too awfully crowded. I made Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes and Sour Cream Green Beans for dinner. It was well received.

Thanksgiving Day.  Click to the left, or scroll down to the next entry below for  todays activities.
 
Today, the 28th, I made Omelets for breakfast along with Fried Potatoes. Donald an I went shopping (ugh!!). I was looking for a particular type of bag called a “locker bag”. We went to the luggage store where I had previously purchased one, but they had changed hands (probably a few times) since then, and they had no idea what I was talking about so I gave up. Next stop was “wally world”. I needed some food storage containers and some dog food. Finding them was a breeze, but checking out was a bit more taxing. While I was there, Donald went to get eggs and bell peppers. The last stop was Safeway for biscuits. When we returned, I started dinner (Porcupine Meatballs in the slow cooker). Little else after that except “geeking” until dinner was ready. I went online and found the exact bag that I was looking for for $52.00 including shipping, so I bought it directly from their site.  The bag I bought from the luggage store previously had cost me about $90.00, and that was at least 5 years ago. I made some fresh Spinach to accompany the meatballs. This meal too was well received. Also, I finally got around to making the Cranberry Sauce as well. It’ll be good with what ever left-overs we have tomorrow for dinner. After dinner, yet more “geeking”. Now you are totally up to date.