June 30, 2008 Beerly alive

Still in St Helens. No preload or anything. Buzzed up road a bit for breakfast. Trainer hit McDonalds - I went to Safeway. Out of grapes.

Went back to empties lot to wait. After hour or two, got a load from Portland to Medford, OR. Beer, again. Pickup at 13:00, deliver at 11:00 tomorrow. Short run, but a lot of up and down.

Arrived at shipper a half hour early. Nobody ahead of us, so they put us in the dock and started loading. We were out of there in about an hour and a half. Fun watching the guys show up on time (or a little late) for their appointments - they got to wait until we were done.

South on I-5.

Stopped in Eugene, (well, Coburg) OR for a Trainer shower. I opted to wait until tonight. If the stop in Medford lacks water, I'll just have to deal with it.

Traffic out of Portland was a mess - partly because of people leaving early for the 4th of July weekend, and partly because some lady's car burned to the waterline on the highway. She looked to be ok, though.

One thing I've noticed among the female drivers (4-wheelers) today... a lot of them are driving with their left foot tucked under - basically sitting on it. I KNOW they didn't learn that in driver's ed. Stupid move, ladies.

As for truckers. so far, only 20% return my wave or give me a 'thank you' flash of the lights when I flash them back into the right lane. I dont' recall it being much different in the east, but in betwen Indiana and Portsmouth, percentages were much higher. Closer to 60%

Load is kinda heavy... 43.6K pounds of beer. I-5 south of Roseburg OR is all up and down. On the inclines, I was screaming along at 25mph. On the decones, I had to be careful or I'd be doing 125. Fun. Helped with my shifting, though.

Stopped for night just north of Grant's Pass. Stupid bathrooms are locked, but they at least provided porta-johns.

First truck in line (closest to exit) has a flat left steer. We were wondering if the driver knew, and if he'd do a pre-trip and catch it. Then a service truck showed up - that answered that.

Cops are spending a lot of time talking to the guy parked near the entrance. No idea what it's about, of course. If I were a guessing type, I'd guess it was something to do with speeding. Saw a trooper in the median a few miles back. Driver may have picked up too much speed in anticipation of climbing the next hill. Just a guess.

21:00 local. still 80 degrees outside and muggy. Night's gonna suck.