I-5, The Golden State Freeway!

I had a few days off after my last sortie, if you will, to spend in Seattle, and Seattle decided to woo me with clear skies and fair temperatures (but I know better.) I spent the mornings biking around my knew environs and the afternoons eating rich foods and drinking ciders and beers of local origin, which, coming from a place where this is less possible (the local part, not the drinking, we drink plenty in maryland), is really great. On the last night we ate salami from Salumi, Made hamburgers topped with thin slices of green apple and sharp cheddar cheese and made this:





Needless to say the next day i felt like shit.








This week has been, thus far, more what I expected from this new Western gig, I picked up a load in Seattle, also from NYK logistics which you may remember from the previous post, and took it down to Woodland, California, where there is a large and delightful Target Distribution Center. Then, it being sunday, I sat all day and then was assigned a load to pick up the next day in Folsom, east of Sacramento (indeed home of the eponymous prison of Johnny Cash fame). The load had nothing to do with prison but more with soy sauce, in big 5 gallon buckets from Kikkoman. This Soy Sauce was headed to Irving, Texas, but I only took it as far as French Camp (near Stockton) and dropped it for another driver to take the rest of the way. I, meanwhile, picked up a trailer load of Robert Mondavi Wine from Lodi and took it to the Vons warehouse in Santa Fe Springs (So.East LA). Vons is a LA area grocery store owned by Safeway.
Central California is alternately duller than dull and bizarrely wondrous. There are the parts that are unending fields or orchards and there are the parts that are surreal steep green hills folding into themselves, hiding other worlds, possibly, and then you're back in Illinois again.

From there i had a short load picking up a load of Target brand bleach cleanser from its manufacturer (also in Santa Fe Springs) and took those up to yet another Target dc north of Bakersfield.
And as of now I am sitting at a flying J in the central valley breathing in the sometimes lovely, sometimes, repulsive smell of almond trees in bloom. Tomorrow I pick up some sears crap to take to Everett, Washington. Oh the life.










Endless almond trees in the central valley, i had no idea we ate so many almonds.






As a side note, I have started a project of taking portraits of truckers and their dogs. here is one of the first, this is Dennis and his dog, Baby: