Saturday, January 20, 2007

It's a long way from Grand Prairie(Dallas), TX to Auburn(Seattle), WA especially when the route
is under the gun of a winter storm of such magnitude. I camped for the night in Nacona, TX.
When i got going early the temp was comfy 50 degrees. In first 100 miles the temp dropped nearly
30 degrees. By the time I made Amarillo the temp was 20 something and raining and that was
freezing on contact. I never made it out of the 20 degree weather till I got closer to Albuquerque.
I narrowly escaped a sleet shower at Clines Corner, NM. I awoke under cold but starry skies and
set out for Gallup. The temp rose briefly to the 40's in Albuquerque. Back to the 20's soon thereafter
under partly sunny skies. Up accross the Navajo Nation into Cortez, CO. Snowpacked roads until
I arrived at the UT state line. Utah does a great job clearing it's roads but then they do have tons of road
salt. Good dry roads from Monticello to Green River, UT. No -Beaver was not on route this time
except as a alternate in case weather made Soldier's Summit impassable. The next day I tackled Soldiers
Summit. At times I could not tell if I was driving on snow, ice or salt. I concluded since I was not
sliding at 65mph it must have been salt. A cold trip up through SLC and into Idaho. Camped at
Truckers Oasis-Twin Fall, ID. My final push to Seattle was great. Sunny skies when I got to Boise adn
into Oregon. Turned ugly cloudy as I reached the Columbia River crossing at Hermiston, OR. I was fine
however all the way to Yakima. Spent night there then tackled last 200 miles next day. Snowing on me
from Yakima to Ellensburg as challenged the three nasty wenches. Fueled in Ellensburg and then headed
up Snoqualmie. Was making good progress past the wiegh station at Cle Elum, WA then traffice came to
an abrupt halt. The mother of all traffic backups. Hundreds of big rigs and thousands of cars shut down
after a multiple vehicle accident closed I90. By the time the WDOT got the road cleared the snow cover
adn ice made it nescessary to chain up . Less than 160 miles in 6 hours. Delivered one day late.
Following delivery the next day, I discovered Mocha GIrls-but what happens in Seattle stays in Seattle.

Picked up current load in Everett(toilet paper) and I now blog from Ontario, CA

2 comments:

Stan Harrington said...

Forty miles from Beaver, Utah and you pick the Soldier Moutian route, which happens to be the highest pass in Utah and saves you 71 miles. You could have had a flat land trip and a layover in Beaver, Utah. Somewhre in my blog comments, you will find a note that I posted concerning the pile up on Snogaulmie Pass - I most likey knew about it before you and wondered if you were involved. Since I am privy to information that you share with me on the phone, what happens in Seattle goes to Blog land - the only city where this principle is up held is Las Vegas. For those reading these comments, Mocha-Girls is a espresso stand. I understand it is a chain. While getting his rig unloaded, the Ranger noticed the espresso stand across the street and decided to have a cup of coffee while he waited. Reaching the stand, he walked up to the order window and ordered his stright coffee, then he noticed that the three girls inside were dressed only in bra and panties! With trimbling hands, he paid for his coffee, peeked as much as he dared and ordered his truck dog "Spike" a cup of coffee, just to kill a little more time. He returned to his truck, got his themros bottle and returned to the stand, to get his thermos filled. Took another long peek and returned to his truck. By the time they had unloaded his truck, he had two cups of coffee, a thermos full of coffee, two irish cream lattes, three hazel nut lattes, and a five pound bag of chocolate covered coffee beans. He did consume most of the coffee and lattes and has been awake for the past 34.5 hours and still driving southbound with a load of toilet paper. It seems like all your loads coming out of Washington to California is toilet paper - don't they have any toilet paper trees in California? Drive safe and make sure you enter all the the Mocha-Girls Espresso stands into your highway navigational system, would hate to see you go through a town and miss an opportunity - you can download that kind of information into your Tom-tom can't you? Just tap your Tom-tom and the next Mocha Girl Espresso Stand will pop up on your screen. Perhaps, Beaver, Utah would be a good location for one if they are a franchise. If so, can you spell r-e-t-i-r-e-m-e-n-t?

RangerBill said...

Studying the market potential of
a Mokka Girls Espresso Stand here
in Beaver. Products under consideration-Beaver Breves,
A Lait a Beaver, Juan Valdez's
Beaver Espresso