August 14, 1991, 2011

FIRST 5 YEARS:(Wednesday-traveling northern California)my son Bill is with me...
It was about 1:30 AM PST when we got to the "Just a Truckstop" in Corning, California and settled down for the night.

I was up at 8 AM PST because I was concerned about my trailer having no license. I called our permit department and they informed me that I had an expired license plate on the trailer. The permit department--in Joplin, Missouri--had the license plate and registration. They said they would "overnight" mail it to our customer in Santa Paula, California, our delivery goal. This trailer hadn't been through the main terminal--where it would have gotten the plate--in years, according to the records they kept on it.

Since the registration was "bad" for the trailer, I figured I had better check the trailer brakes. I climbed under the trailer and couldn't get the brakes to adjust. I called the company's maintenance shop and told them...I was surprised as they told me not to have the truckstop shop fix them and to keep going with the "bad" brakes. I did.

Bill woke up around 10:30 AM PST and watched me play with the brakes. We them went in to eat and found out that today was "Trucker Appreciation Day" and they were going to have meals outside. I went ahead and fueled(149 gallons) and reparked the truck. We had our fill of potato salad, vegetables, hot dogs and potato chips. After eating--time:1:30 PM PST--we left for Santa Paula down I-5.

I had a little while to decided which I would take: Hwy 99 south or I-5 south. Both rejoin at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley. Both are about the same distance. What made me choose I-5 was that there were far less population centers, and thus traffic, to deal with. So after we got into Sacramento, California I continued to follow I-5 south.

The trip through the San Joaquin Valley was enjoyable as the scenery was that of several different types of crops. I don't know if Bill enjoyed the scenery but I know I did.

Just after Coalinga, California, we stopped at the rest area for awhile. I had my worries about getting inspected at the southbound California weigh station. With "bad" trailer brakes I knew they would nail me. Well, southbounding brought Hwy 99 back into I-5 just before the weigh station. Night had fallen and the weigh station was really full. They just ran us over the scales and we then were south on our way to the Grapevine upgrade.

We climbed over the mountains with no problem, getting to Santa Clarita, Calornia. There we took Hwy 126 west to Santa Paula. It was dark and we couldn't see very much of the scenery. I followed the directions I had been given and found the business we were delivering to.

The time was 10:30 PM PST when I checked in with the gate guard and I was informed to park on the street and come back at 6:30 in the morning...Parked and went to bed...