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Wherever I May Roam.
May. 17th, 2010 02:58 pmWent in to work today expecting big changes. Last Friday we had a meeting where it was announced that, among other things, my route was finally being cut into halves. Yay! I was ready to learn the timing of the new way of doing things when I was told that today I was doing Santa Cruz. See, the guy who normally does Santa Cruz on Mondays and Wednesdays is covering Local 1 while that driver is out on a medical leave. So we need to find a way to cover that route. Up until now it's been the Will-Call guy who also drives, but today there was so little to do on the combined halves of my route that they sent Other Juan out to do the whole thing. (Other Juan, as opposed to Local Juan, who is the guy out on disability.)
So with some help in routing from the usual SC route driver, I headed out. and immediately ran into a problem. The Thomas Guide issued to all drivers is the Bay Area Metro edition. We have a Santa Cruz/Monterey book for this route. The problem? Neither of these books cover Gilroy (Garlic Capital of the World!) I had two stops in Gilroy. Drove back to the warehouse from the fuel line hoping to Google Map the stops; but ran into Raul on his way out and he gave me directions to the two stops. Problem solved.
I had forgotten how beautiful Highway 101 is down through the Salinas Valley. It's a great drive, even on a gray day like today. Kirsten and I decided over the phone that we had an overly emotional teen-aged rainstorm today. "I'll rain, but you can't make me like it!" drizzle "There. I rained. Happy now?" My only real stumble came leaving Salinas when my route back to the freeway was blocked by some sort of police action. Try to franticly read street signs and a Thomas Guide while not killing anyone with my 7.5 ton truck meant I took a wrong turn and had an unplanned inspection tour of the lettuce fields. The migrant workers seemed amused.
Eventually got back on course and finished out the day in pretty good time. I'll admit this was not a heavy day for the route. Raul goes as far south as Monterey on a regular basis and can often have seven or eight stops in Santa Cruz alone - I had three. But I made it clear I would not mind doing this route again. A big part of it was being able to listen to KPIG pretty much all day. KPIG is the coolest radio station in the universe and I weep for those of you who spend your lives out of range of the Pigsty.
Until things sort themselves out, I'm bringing the GPS to work with me.
So with some help in routing from the usual SC route driver, I headed out. and immediately ran into a problem. The Thomas Guide issued to all drivers is the Bay Area Metro edition. We have a Santa Cruz/Monterey book for this route. The problem? Neither of these books cover Gilroy (Garlic Capital of the World!) I had two stops in Gilroy. Drove back to the warehouse from the fuel line hoping to Google Map the stops; but ran into Raul on his way out and he gave me directions to the two stops. Problem solved.
I had forgotten how beautiful Highway 101 is down through the Salinas Valley. It's a great drive, even on a gray day like today. Kirsten and I decided over the phone that we had an overly emotional teen-aged rainstorm today. "I'll rain, but you can't make me like it!" drizzle "There. I rained. Happy now?" My only real stumble came leaving Salinas when my route back to the freeway was blocked by some sort of police action. Try to franticly read street signs and a Thomas Guide while not killing anyone with my 7.5 ton truck meant I took a wrong turn and had an unplanned inspection tour of the lettuce fields. The migrant workers seemed amused.
Eventually got back on course and finished out the day in pretty good time. I'll admit this was not a heavy day for the route. Raul goes as far south as Monterey on a regular basis and can often have seven or eight stops in Santa Cruz alone - I had three. But I made it clear I would not mind doing this route again. A big part of it was being able to listen to KPIG pretty much all day. KPIG is the coolest radio station in the universe and I weep for those of you who spend your lives out of range of the Pigsty.
Until things sort themselves out, I'm bringing the GPS to work with me.
