French Camp, CA

The last three days have been quite a challenge, but I'm just off of I-5 just a bit south of Stockton, CA - home of University of the Pacific, Crish's alma mater - at a Schneider operating center in French Camp, CA. Tomorrow I drive the rest of the way to El Monte, CA. I'm hopting to be there by 4:00 pm pst.

Monday, before picking up my current load I was asked to pickup and deliver another in Seattle. That went well, but took up more time than I wanted. I did pickup the current load and got down to Portland in the early evening on Monday. I went to a Schneider operating center there and they needed to do a yearly inspection of the trailer I was hauling. What they found is that it wasn't safe to haul a load. They were afraid that the bottom might drop out of it. So, on ...

Tuesday, I needed to take the loaded trailer to another company and then bring an empty trailer there and they transloaded it (moved the load from one trailer to another). It took until 3 before I could get going again. In the meantime I had my notebook which was full of permits for traveling in different states looked at. Some of the permits had expired, in particular, the one for Oregon. They said if I was checked by the dept of trans I would have had to pay a fine of over $400. Well on my way south on I-5 I was checked and the new permit I was given was inaccurate. Forunately, I was able to call someone at the State of Oregon and get it straightened out. I drove until I was 150 miles from the CA state line.

Today, I started out later than I wanted to, but that was fortunate. If I would have started out earlier I would have needed to put chains on the tires at two separate locations in order to get over two high elevation mountain passes. As it turned out I didn't need the chains. It snowed from where I started out all the way to about 100 miles south of the state line. It was sloppy, slow and mountainous. I was relieved when I got to Redding, CA. The snow stopped, the road flattened out and I could see blue sky.

Tomorrow morning I'm planning on meeting Gene and Neil for breakfast. They live about an hour away and then leaving about 9:00 am.

After delivering in El Monte I may meet Grandma and Grandpa somewhere on I-10. It all depends on where I'll be sent next. If I'm sent back north they will drive to LA. If I'm sent east, I'll more than likely drive close by Phoenix and I can see them there. I'll figure all of that out tomorrow.

I hope you are all doing well. Jenna, Kathy's daughter, my favorite niece in Dubuque will be giving birth on Feb 12th, most likely. I was thinking if it is a boy they should name him Abraham Lincoln Mathew. Jenna wasn't to thrilled with that suggestion.

I'll keep in touch. - James (Jibs - Dad/Papa )