Ten on Tuesday

Musings from the passenger side of a semi...

1. I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks, was tagging along with bf in his big ole truck to California and back. Let me just say that I have a lot more respect for truckers than I used to. It's a tough job.

2. There's no way in hell that I could drive a vehicle that huge and still have my nerves intact.

3. I encountered a few female truckers along the way. I admire their bravery.

4. Grape processing plants and beer making plants STINK!! We went to a grape processing plant in Fresno that literally smelled like vomit. I'm not sure how to describe the beer plant smell in Van Nuys. Had a cornish smell. The plant in Irwindale didn't smell too bad, but it was obvious that they made beer!!

5. Truck stops charge a lot for their stuff. 10 bucks for a shower. Really? At that price the shower should include more than the soap dispenser on the wall and a towel. One truck stop in Ontario was going to charge to park the truck. Come on.

6. Found out that GPS can go nuts if the signal is weak. I have GPS navagation on my phone. One day a couple of weeks ago we were on the way back from Fresno looking for a truck stop, so I plugged it into the navagation and the thing went beserk and took us into the middle of an orchard. It was screaming at us to turn right, but right was into a grove of trees. Interesting. So we had to turn the semi around and go back on the highway all along the GPS was screaming at us that we were off track. No silly GPS, YOU are off track. The truck stop ended up being at the next exit about 5 miles down the road. We are still laughing about it.

7. Hey Sprint...put up a couple more towers in the San Joaquin Valley, will ya?

8. Finally found a place hotter than Tucson. The desert in California was murder. The thermometer on the truck dashboard said 120. I seriously believe it. We got out of the truck at a truck stop right before we got to the Arizona border and I thought I was going to melt before I got inside.

9. Speaking of heat, I was very surprised at how hot it was in the LA area last week. I was beginning to think that the Tucson heat followed me to LA.

10. What you've heard about California drivers is somewhat true. I was expecting the drivers and the traffic to be a lot worse, but it really wasn't bad. The highways were busy, but moving. But then again, I wasn't driving...