Fontana

Did you know that the three major semi tractor manufacturers (Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Freightliner) all have historical origins in the Pacific Northwest? (Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland respectively) Kenworth and Freightliner are still made there (at least some of them), Peterbilts are built in Denton, Texas.

So Jose and I dropped that last load, the 18 tons or so of maxi pads in Redlands and then headed over to the terminal in Fontana. Fontana is essentially the Gary, Indiana of southern California. Starting like most southern California towns as a rural community of orange and lemon groves it was destined for glory because through it plowed old US 66 and a bunch of rail lines. In the 50s they built a steel mill there and it became a center of heavy industry and thus trucking. It really is a miserable pit of a place. If you haven't ever I highly recommend taking the metrolink (LA's commuter rail line akin to the Metra in Chicago or the non-subway trains of the MTA in NYC) from LA Union Station (which is a marvelous mission deco building) out towards San Bernardino. You will find an impressive amount of materials. New stuff, steel and concrete (there is no wood in LA) and old stuff, scrap metal and rubber and smashed cars.
Behind all of this rise so suddenly the San Gabriel Mountains which are spectacularly beautiful and sometimes capped with snow (the highest one, Mount Baldy, is over 10,000ft.) Cool breezes coming in from the ocean are generally warmed by the time they get out here and with them they bring along all of that smog. It gets blown right up to the mountains where it stops. and hangs, a beautiful hazy yellow. Actually it is not beautiful at all.
Along with Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino and a bunch of other places it makes up the Inland Empire which i think is a grand name for a thoroughly uninspiring place. Really it is just a way to differentiate itself from all those fags in L.A.

All the major trucking companies and a number of minor ones have terminals in Fontana. Werner is no exception. So here we were. Jose's fourth truck, a Freightliner Classic, was sitting in the lot there to have repairs made but since it was unassigned it was priority zero and after a month it had not moved. We woke up, started it up and drove it over to the Three Sisters car wash (next to the DOT clinic that I got a physical at when last I was in California) A bunch of Mexicans cleaned both trucks and we rolled over to another diesel shop where we left the truck (which needed AC repairs.) Then we drove to Wal-Mart. We were trying to kill time driving around since i needed to log in one more hour to complete my 105 hours of driver training. After that we headed to FarmerBoys, an Inland Empire semi-fast-food chain that serves high quality burgers and salads and delicious fried fish.

Then we returned to Werner where went into the terminal so I could "Test out" I was told I had some more "CBTs" (computer based training) to do. these are course and touch screen multiple choice tests that you complete in little rooms full of people who are not shutting up for some reason. i did this quickly and then was told by the apathetic Hispanic secretary that i would be seen shortly. Meanwhile I went to tell Jose that he could drive up to San Jose. He gave me some money and said he was looking forward to working with me.

Then I waited and waited and waited. I took a shower and then enjoyed the overwroght miseries of the other drivers. One, who had to be at least 6'6" and edging on 400 lbs. was having some trouble. Apparently he was transferring to the flatbed division. This required taking a trip to omaha to take a course in how to tie down frieght and get a new truck. The hitch, however, was that a.) he had a lot of stuff and b.) his wife was with him. His wife was his female equivilent. tall and fat and with one of those permanent ugly frowns. She was also wearing a camisole and black shorts which was ugly. Ugly, Ugly, Ugly.
pparently she lived with him in the truck (they had no other permanent residence) and they were miffed that Werner was willing to pay for his bus ticket to Omaha but not hers. Eventually the bitched and moaned enough to get a rental car. they were awful.

Finally i was called back to meet with the terminal manager who passed me my Drivers test evaluation. This is a bad xerox of a list of all the skills that truckers need to know and your triainer is supposed to take time to observe your driving and fill out the form. the directions state that any "areas of concern" should be underlined. The terminal manager passed me this sheet and repeated this rule and said that this sheet was inadmissable because, in filling it out, Jose had put a check mark next to each item implying that all were satisfactory. the terminal manager didn't think so.
"The folks in Omaha, these guys aren't going to accept this"
"What?!"
"yeah it says here you gotta underline any area of concern and since jose there put a check next to everything it means that you failed everything."
"are you kidding me? Isn't it obvious to you that he wouldn't send me in here having failed evry single item and then signed the bottom saying that i had passed?"
"Well yes, it is obvious to me but they won't accept it in Omaha. and besides we can only test out a certain number of people each day and we have already reached are quota today so we won't be able to anything until monday."
Jesus fucking christ.
I did not understand why the people in omaha were aparently such humourless robots. i did not understand why I was told that it would just be a short time until I would be seen and a short time ended up being 5 hours. I did not understand why they couldn't have forseen this coming and told me to go to the hotel.
I was pretty irate.
but I kept it all inside. more or less.
the damn bus wasn't coming to take us to the motel until 7:00 and it was only 4:45.
So I had to kill more time.
eventually it came and whisked us off to the La Quinta Inn in San Bernardino. This is about 18 miles from Fontana. I suppose this is southern california, land of the automobile. anyway. it was good to be far away from Fontana. i am not so sure i would like to stay in a motel in Fontana.
and the La Quinta inn is very nice.
I went out and bought some chinese food and two tall boys of miller high life and, having not had a drop of alcohol in the last 2 and a half weeks, i did not enjoy it all that much.