12/29/09

Dude, where did all the people go? I haven't been to the Los Angeles area very often but, during the few previous trips out here that I have made, I've always encountered at least some traffic. Not today. Ontario to Brea at 6am - nothing. Brea to Fontana at 7:30am - nothing. Fontana to Santa Ana at 8:30am - nothing. Santa Ana to Carson at 11:15am - nothing. From Carson back out to I-10... well, there's more to that story, but I'm pretty sure traffic won't be an issue. So exactly where did everybody go?

The day's first delivery, in Brea, was quick and easy. Once the guys showed up at 7am they did the old 'tag team' forklift routine and sent me on my way. Then my drop/hook in Fontana was at the Con-way yard and it too was quick and easy.

The Santa Ana delivery turned out to be an interesting one...


For starters, I drove past the office park where the consignee was located and missed my turn. As I looked over the addresses on the buildings and saw that I was right where I needed to be, I thought to myself, "There's no way that can be the place." It was the place. I doubled back and then said a quick prayer as I turned the tight corner between a building and some parked cars. I couldn't tell from the street whether or not there would be any way out if it turned out to be the wrong driveway. It was the right driveway though. Things opened up a little bit as I got further from the main road, but not a whole lot. Not surprisingly, there were no loading docks. So the unloading process took a little while, as you might imagine. My customer was in that building at the top of the picture, just right of center. I wound up having to turn the corner between those rows of parked cars (to the left of the building) and set up in the alley on the north side of the building. Fire lane, eh? Hah! We laugh at fire lanes here at Fenian Godfather, Inc... or something. Making my way out through the driveway on the east side was no picnic either, for what it's worth.

Then it was over to Carson for some good old ghetto trucking. Carson is right by Compton, after all. Yeah, I still have a few NWA CD's hanging around in my collection. I know the deal. The drive over, as I already mentioned, was nice and easy. Then I got there and, dude, what the hell? Just a typical suburban industrial park. Nary a gangsta to be found. No freaking L.A. traffic. No freaking rough neighborhoods. I really got cheated on this trip.

I had to park on the street and then check in with the security gal at the shipper. She took my phone number and said that she would call me when my loaded trailer was ready. I'll acknowledge that there's absolutely zero chance that she was hitting on me, but come on. You know what I'm telling myself whenever a chick asks for my phone number. Yeah, she wants me, dude.

And... this is where my day came to a grinding halt. I checked in with the shipper at noon. My appointment time was 1pm. I got my phone call at 6pm. And the security chick was gone for the night so, to add insult to injury, it was a guy who called. I didn't even get to hang on to my delusion for a single night. But hey, my trailer is ready.

The timing has left me in a less than desirable situation. I wouldn't have enough time on today's 14 hour clock to get anywhere useful, so I'm stuck hanging out at the shipper until I've been here for ten hours. I guess I could stay here until tomorrow morning if I wanted to but I really don't want to. I'll head out once my break is up and then take some down time tomorrow. I'm due in El Paso by Thursday morning so there will be plenty of time to catch up on my rest if I end up getting tired along the way. (In case you haven't put two and two together yet, I was only kidding about feeling cheated by the light traffic. I'm expecting that I can keep a good thing going by cruising out of this area in the middle of the night.)

Now let's see if I can catch a little nap before it's time to roll. I doubt it but it's worth a shot.