On the Road to Cali

The road ahead would prove to be quite long. First of all we had to dead head about 7 hours to get to Russellville, Arkansas. 

Once we made it that far, we spent the weekend resting, doing laundry, and meal prepping for the next week. We couldn't pick up the load bound for San Bernardino until Monday morning. 

Monday came and we arrived at Stella-Jones Corp., a manufacturer of pressure treated wood products. They loaded a very small, wrapped bundle of wood blocks. We ended up tarping it because some had worked themselves loose and right off the trailer. 

From the quaint little town of Russellville, Hubbs steered us onto I-40, and off we went. 


We made it to the other side of Oklahoma City by mid afternoon.  Mid HOT afternoon, I should say.  It really affected us as our a/c had recently gone out, and we hadn't been home yet to get that fixed. It would definitely need repaired before summer, but riding with the windows down solved the problem at the moment. Jax enjoyed that, as well. 👇🏻

Pushing onward, we got into New Mexico and stopped well after nightfall for some needed rest. Chilly nights follow warm days out on the desert. 🌵 

Early the next morning, wrapped up in our hoodies, we checked on the straps and eased back onto the long road to California. 

Now, when you're on these long road trips, there are some stretches of highway that have very little variation in scenery. Such was the case between New Mexico and Arizona on this particular route. We hit Albuquerque, then Gallop, then Flagstaff. All pretty in their own way, but as we got closer to Kingman, AZ, there were some slight changes. 

The Hualapai and Cerbat Mountains become visible and invite your view to leave the desert floors and take in another form of beauty. 

We took leave of the interstate and meandered through Kingman a bit. It was getting later and we were ready for R&R and supper.  The Black Bear diner, part of the TA Travel Center, was a delightful departure from our wraps and sandwiches. Hubs got a very large Cobb Salad, while I had a French Dip made with tritip steak. Can you say YUMMO?! Needless to say, we dined sufficiently before drifting off to sleep. 

I loved its woodsy atmosphere. The bear decor was inviting and cozy, making me dream of lazy days in a mountain cabin retreat. 

Morning brought us an optimism needed to trek on to busy San Bernardino. Getting there and unloading was the easiest part. Though, we were a little shocked to be told that this tiny load of treated timbers was most likely just going to be tossed. What?  We worked hard to get the load delivered responsibly. I guess we could look at it as having someone pay for our road trip. 😂 

Truth be told, we were not overly thrilled with the remainder of the day. Dispatch had gotten us an order to pick up in Rancho Dominguez, which is pretty much LA. The drawback was that we were told we couldn't load until morning. This meant finding a place to sleep for the night ahead. We prefer not to slow down so much unless the DOT has said it's time for our 34 hour reset. 

Ok. Take a deep breath and find the path we'd need to be on. First, we found a Walmart and got a few supplies. We were told that we should be ok to sleep in their parking lot as long as security knew what was going on. We parked and had a bite to eat while watching some episodes. Up until the loud clamor began nearby we had decided to stay there for the night. However, once the angry screaming from someone started at the security man, we started making plans to go elsewhere. A very big thank you to Home Depot for being so hospitable and helpful. We stayed safely in their parking lot near the building with a quiet night and several rounds of their security personnel keeping watch over things. 

By morning, rain had begun softly falling. We got our load and headed to Mesa, AZ. I remarked to my mother in a text that LA had benefited from a nice shower. 😬 

From then on, after delivering the merchandise to Mesa, we had started having some truck issues that were slowing us down. We made another very small delivery from Mesa to Cochise, AZ, before making the decision to dead head back home. No loads were popping up beforehand that would've gottten us closer. 

From Tucson to El Paso we journeyed, and took rest at a truck stop outside of El Paso for a night. It was good to be back in Texas, although the heat, without our air conditioning, was getting real! 🥵 We ordered supper that got delivered by Door Dash, and settled in as best as we could. 

I get tickled when I see how small our little home away from home looks among the looming semi trucks. 😂