Cali =)

So here I am in good ol, Hot As Hell, Cali. =) When it gets to triple digits, it's way too hot! Makes me look forward to getting home again even more because my cooler/ac thing was delivered the day after I left this last time. Figures eh? So, I'm settling for idling my engine, especially during the 12PM to early evening part of the day because you know how during the summer heat, the afternoon is the hottest. At least when I have my cooler, I can just fill it up with ice, put the lid on, turn it's lil fans on and it should help for a good portion of the day. Might go through more ice during the hottest part of the day, but that's ok.

So I brought this load down from Idaho (right above utah), and in order to make the weight legal, I had to have my rear axel of my trailer back a little bit farther than the "technical" legal length for california. I had come through cali once a while back with my tandems a little bit further back and I didn't have issues. Luck of the draw sometimes I guess because this time the state troopers were all out in force. In fact! It made me come up with a joke!

How Many State Troopers does it take to pull over ONE truck driver?
Answer: Four! At least according to these california troopers. I swear, I get into californnia, and after a few hours in the state, I go through this "check point" where basically they check your bills and then say "ok have a nice day." By the time I got there, I looked in my mirror and realized I had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR california state troopers all behind me, all with their lights flashing. My first thought? Oh shit! Not sure what I did! But I'm going to jail!

Come to find out, they were all pulling me over because of the tandems being too far back. So I received a "citation," which I'm not sure how much the fine will be because the officer said i will find out through the court. The court date is set for like 2 months from now, but I thought I heard him say I could call too instead of actually having to "be" here in person. I have this "legal" plan I pay for with my other benefits and basically it's meant for this exact situation where I contact my legal people, and i can have a lawyer go to the court hearing in my place so that I don't have to go. So, I'm going to probably be doing that. The funny thing was, I told the officer that with the tandems all the way forward to the cali legal spot, the weight on the back was 2,000 pounds over weight. But he still told me before I left after the citation that I needed to move the tandems forward to where they should be. Sad part was, I was only an hour from where I was supposed to deliver. So, knowing that I was overweight and that if I went through one of the "scales" along the interstate, that I would be stopped 'again' and would get stuck for a while, probably have to have someone from england come out to adjust the load, but I would also probably get a $7500 fine or something like that. I don't think the tandem issue is a wopping fine like that, but overweight is a huge one. So I decided if I saw a scale for the last hour, i was just going to bypass so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. If I do that, there's always the chance that a trooper might come after me, but there's the chance that nothing would happen. So I arrive here in San Bernadino, CA, to my destination 6 hours early and they were like "here's the address to the nearest truck stop. Come back at 1AM."

Of course, I couldn't because my time ran out before that, and I let CR england know the deal and of course they just said "we'll see what we can do. if we can get it covered, we will let you know." Funny how they are very quick to call me if they need a local delivery done but then when I'm here, and cant make it on time, I don't even think they try to find a local guy to come take the load over. Makes me think maybve I should not be very quick to take locals for them. Give and take ya know. If you want me to help you out, help me out too.. or "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." lol.. So I got up early this morning, went over there by 7, and the guard was like "we stopped receiving deliveries by 3 AM." I was like "i didn't get hours back till after 5." So she was basically like "go back to the truck stop, and have your dispatch reschedule for tonight." So i have been hanging out here all day. I left the truck for maybe a total of an hour to go inside, use the restroom, buy another gallon of water (since mine was almost out), some rasberry tea, I payed for another night of parking ($7.00 permit, versus them ticketing me $50.00 if I didn't.) Those little bits are big dents in the bank though when I only have like $50.00 or whatever to last me, and so I might buy a $5.00 sub from subway, and spend the $7 on parking, and then snack and drink water in the truck, and make it last that way. Although I still feel broke, I feel "ok" considering the fact that I 'can' go inside and get something small if I need to. I've noticed as long as I have a bag of chips, some beef jerkey, my peanuts, and water, I'm usually managing ok. I'm not eating a whole lot some days, but i'm doing ok.

So in conclusion, I was hoping they would reschedule this drop for tomorrow night so I could sit for 34 hours and do a 70 hour reset, but they rescheduled it for tonight. So, reluctantly I will go over by 8:30 (its a 9 appointment), and deliver. Then depending on the time on how quick they unload me (also since I already have a parking permit good till 4pm tomorrow), I will probably come back here and see if I can get a space. I've noticed that it doesn't really fill up, I'm thinking that the "having to pay for parking" probably scares people away. It would me too if I wasn't able to afford to pay $7 for a night to park. At some truck stops that charge, especially out on the east coast, they charge you $20.00 per night. With that cost, I usually will just find an open lot or an on ramp or travel plaza and put that $20.00 towards 2 half way decent meals, or 4 smaller ones. ) So on that note, I will call it a night!>

C


PS. I haven't done a "video" journal on my phone for months. Tonight I did one, and it got to almost 30 minutes long, and I had to do a 2nd one because before I could finish, I bumped a button and it ended the video. So I did a 2nd video diary thinking "I'll just cover what I meant to close with," and hell, that video ended up being almost 25 minutes. I just kept rambing and talking, and then I'm like "ok, I'm REALLY going now, although I could go on for the next hour or so." I think that probably is from the fact that I'm out here alone for 6 weeks straight and really don't actually get to "talk" to anyone really. Erin and the girls when I first came out here used to call and video chat a lot, but the past month or so, i mean we "talk", but it's a lot less than it used to be. Sad, but I know that part of it is probably because Erin is busier now with doing cake orders and her job. :)