A Nice Thought While It Lasted

Tuesday arrived and it was time to make the scenic drive back down the state of Washington on I-90 past the Cascades and the unmistakable Mount Rainer to Ellensburg where the highway splits, forming the southern entrance to I-82 which runs magnificently through apple country in Yakima to the Tri Cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick, Washington. This is where the legendary Snake and Columbia Rivers intersect and become one mighty Columbia. The waterway at that point, makes up the border a short paddle down river between Washington and Oregon and flows west beyond Portland with a prodigious current to the sea.

I found Kennewick, the terminus for my load to the Toyota Exposition Center, to be a tidy and pleasant town filled with interesting places of business along with the usual national franchises. With the goods dropped, I continued on to layover across the Columbia at Stanfield, Oregon. The drive there produced unusual grassy hills without a tree in sight. It reminded me of one of the famous wallpaper photos to the MS Windows system.

My plan was to make my case to the company to move me to Los Angeles, where I was certain there would be ample load opportunities and perhaps a run back east. The last two times I have been in LA, the Q-Comm beeped continuously with opportunities of every description. New York and Chicago are similar in nature. At this point, it had been weeks since I was in the Eastern Time Zone.

The following morning after a good night’s rest, I spoke with Kelly and attempted to “nice” her into finding me a way south to the City of Angels. She said that I should wait for a load opportunity and that I could end up going east. I could see her “winking” through the phone. After literally ending the call, the phone rang with my little automated friend announcing a run from Mountain Home, Idaho to Orlando, Florida. I felt like I hit three cherries on this one and the coins were clinking non-stop from the machine. In an effort to secure the load, I almost punched the number three accept key right through my phone. Success! Three thousand miles paved in green. Pick up was to be at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Mountain Home, Idaho, an empty run of about two hundred miles away. Any of my faithful readers will automatically know how I feel about Famous Potatoland. Based on that fact, I was looking at win-win cards.

Mountain Home is just east of the state capital city of Boise and a charmer of a town. Friendly people propagate this place and good will abounds. There’s a certain laid back atmosphere here and the expansive range landscape is encased by mountains and the Columbia Plateau. Riding around the area, you get the feeling that this is a “close knit” community dominated by the United States Air Force. After loading up, my young 40 something retired Air Force civilian representative presented me with a pen and pencil set commemorating my part in supporting the Eagle F-15 program. I’m proud to be involved in anything for the good of this country. I consider it a privilege to do so.

The ride through the remaider of Idaho, Utah and Wyoming produced breathtaking scenery until darkness blanketed the land. It doesn't matter how many times I travel through the Rockies, the view never gets old. The welcome sign to Wyoming says it all, "Welcome to Wyoming, Forever West".

This assignment was actually split into two parts, with the first part of the load dropping off in Saint Louis, Missouri and a final stop in Orlando. I love driving though the Gateway to the West with its imposing Arch and premier American river, the Mississippi, flowing powerfully to the Gulf of Mexico. One day, I would very much like to have enough time to revisit a city I enjoyed at an earlier time. You can find big steaks, good baseball in the hometown Cardinals and an interesting museum beneath the Arch itself. Riverboat restaurants stand moored along the riverfront and complete the ambiance that this Show Me state scenario has to offer. Like the Terminator said, “I’ll be bock.”

The highway wound down southward in a series of Interstates, all of which I had been on before. Georgia disappeared into Florida and I found myself stopping in my old domicile of Lake City for about the fourth time in recent months. When I stepped out at the beehive of an intersection at I-75 and 10, I suddenly felt over dressed in winter wear. The old man season suddenly turned into spring and the air felt warm and humid. It had a certain feel of being surreal as I had endured yet another snow storm outside of Denver through Kansas on this run. Travelling through so many climates and time zones has confused my body. It was akin to channel surfing on cable TV at fast clip with images flashing by and not really knowing where to land. Snapping back to reality, I grabbed a Java Monster Mean Bean at the convenience store and wheeled the Fat Cat back on the highway to Mickey Mouse Land.

Now at the aerospace company in the big O, I found myself jockeying with security to get my load into the company. No one on the contact list was available to receive the shipment. No answer, not in the building. I was on time, all my paperwork was correct. After a half an hour at the gate, the guard tells me “if there is no one to receive the load, I can’t let you in. You’ll have to come back on Monday.” I countered with “not a problem sir, let’s see, today is Friday...I get a pretty good hourly figure for detention pay. Hmmmm, Monday is roughly 72 hours from now, so I’ll be more than happy to come back. What time would you like me to arrive?” This man started pulling out papers and phone lists from everywhere in a mad attempt to find someone to escort me into the plant. I was hoping he wouldn’t have any success, but he finally came up with someone. About an hour later I was in the plant unloading. If I hadn’t said anything, dispatch would have confirmed my delay with him, so keeping my mouth shut wouldn’t have helped. 72 hours of detention pay, a nice though while it lasted. Ok, time to do an about face and head back to the house for the weekend and catch something heading out of the Atlanta Express Center.