The company sent me a pre-plan Saturday to rescue a load of chicken from a broken-down truck in Hesperia, CA. I quickly packed and bob-tailed over to meet a team whose truck was ailing. They had a nice trailer to give me complete with full fairings, and I headed up to Tracy getting over 8 mpg. On the way there I got a new pre-plan to pick up Sunday at noon there in Tracy and deliver in Laredo, TX. Nice!

This load was scheduled for Saturday at 04:00, and the planner thought that I might be able to deliver it Sunday morning. No dice. The Safeway DC doesn't receive meat on Sundays, so they suggested that I get a new appointment for Monday morning. I was prepared to spend the rest of the day at a truck stop, but the planner sent me a message saying to drop the trailer at a cold storage place in Turlock and grab an empty for the Laredo trip. They have some local drivers there to deliver the Safeway load.

Picking up at Leprino in Tracy was pretty routine, and I was soon enjoying cruising down the valley getting 8.3 mpg at 76,000 lbs. Sometimes this truck is pretty awesome!

Tonight I'm in El Paso debating how I want to finish this load for a Thursday afternoon delivery. I think the plan is to spend tomorrow night somewhere around Eagle Pass after an easy day of sight-seeing. I'm looking forward to having time to try out my new camera. Thursday I'll pull into the Laredo Flying J in the morning early enough to take an 8-hour split sleeper berth break. Hopefully the company will get me a plan tomorrow to help me decide how to run. Finding a place to park in Laredo after dark can be challenging!

This trip is 1,740 miles, which will help me keep my 1,425 mile average up. Some of the loads coming out of Laredo are pretty good. My favorite is empty wine bottles going to Napa, CA.

Whatever it is, I hope that I can stay in the South! I got my A/C fixed last night (free under warranty, YAY!) so delaying my return to the winter is, literally, no sweat.