The first week of my vacation was a real whirlwind. Still, I love a good road-trip, so when I had the opportunity to go truckin’, I couldn’t pass it up.

I flew into Sacramento in the evening. Cindy picked me up and drove me the hour or so north to where they live near Orland. Even that first bit of freeway was a blast, after a couple years on the island where you seldom get any car above 40mph. Tracy showed the following night in the Kenworth with a load of orange juice from SoCal, and early the next morning I saddled up with him.

The trip, roughly: Orland CA, up the I-5 through Oregon to Puyallup WA, where we dropped off the orange juice and caught a few hours sleep. The next day had us in Tacoma and east over Snoqualmie Pass on the 90 to Ellensburg. East across the Columbia River, then north on 28 to Wenatchee, where we loaded up nearly 38,000lbs of apples, then caught a few Z’s. The next day, back across the Columbia and northwest on to Dryden, then looping south again on 9 to Ellensburg again. South on the 82 to Yakima, then onto 97 all the way south to Biggs, crossing the Columbia again, and into Oregon.

Then the tour of Oregon, on the 9; Redmond, Bend, Shaniko, and on to Klamath falls, before crossing into California once again, and rejoining the I-5 at Weed, just north of Mt. Shasta. Back to Orland late that night to sleep in the house, then out early the next morning to South San Francisco.

Our two stops in SF were re-scheduled, so we found ourselves with plenty of time to spare. We found a back street near the terminal and dropped the trailer. We took the tractor right into downtown SF, down to the waterfront, parked it, and strolled along the piers and tourists for an afternoon.

After returning to the trailer and catching some sleep, we finally made our two SF drops and made tracks for Sacramento, then Stockton for the final two. Then a last light-trailer blast up the 5 to Yuba city to drop off the truck, pick up the car, and home to Orland.