Break Down! (again)

We took the week off around Thanksgiving, thinking it wouldn't be that busy, so why be out on the road, stressing?  Well, for future reference, Holidays = bigger pay for the loads that need to go.
We had already decided to put the truck in the shop for its 500,000 mile tune up.  Once we had it in the shop, we started getting calls - lots of them - that we had to turn down.  : (

So we had lined up a string of loads - we were taking a 'quick' load from the OSU Forestry Center up to an Electric company in East Portland, then picking up some aluminum coils in Kalama going to Vacaville, where we were going to pick up another load going to Salinas.

Things started going south a little sooner than we were planning.  The load from OSU - more reclaimed wood from a construction project - took +3 hours to load. Collin was helping to hand stack the wood, and the guys weren't very fast running the forklift. It was just as slow coming off.  What was supposed to be a quick load to help us get up to Kalama with a paying load was taking so long it was cutting into our driving time for the next load. We got loaded in Kalama by 8:30, which meant we weren't going to make a 7 am delivery in Vacaville, since it was a 12 hour drive. Plus we were both tired - I had been trying to sleep, but not getting much rest. We were stressing, because it was raining like crazy and we were expecting snow in the mountains, and we were running late to a customer we had already been late delivering to at least once. What was supposed to be a gravy run was turning into a bit of a nightmare - or at least a bad dream.

Then we were given our excuse for being late - we stopped at the Shasta scales to switch drivers, and Collin noticed that the passenger side of the truck was covered in oil. Um... that's not good. We limped down to Redding, CA, worried about an engine fire, or at least burning up the engine.



All the shiny? That's oil...



To shorten the story, when the shop that did the tune up was putting the valve cover back on, they pinched the gasket, and that's all it took. Our excuse to the receiver was very true - we had to wait for the dealership in Redding to open at 7am. What they didn't need to know is that we only waited about 10 minutes. : )

Even better, because it was a recent tune up at a dealership that caused the problem, we didn't have to pay for the repair. Sweet!

So we rolled in to Vacaville around 12:30pm. We lost out on the load to Salinas, but instead picked up a load of fabricated steel out of Pittsburg, CA that was a 5 drop load. We got done with that in enough time to get loaded with some lumber bound for Somerton, AZ - near Yuma. From there we got a load of hay out of Tolleson, AZ going to Lubbock, TX - where we are right now.

Tomorrow we go pick up some cotton from Plainview, going to the Dallas area. From there we hope to get a load back to Sacramento, or there is a multi-drop load ending up in Portland, OR. That would be ideal, since we need to get to Portland to pick up our TWIC cards (Transportation Workers Identification Credentials) that will let us get into regulated ports around the country.

It has been nice being here where the sun is shining and it is pleasantly warm. I understand it has been raining non-stop at home.