March 3, 2010

You ever have one of those days when you're absolutely sure Murphy's Laws are piling up on top of you? This week has been like that for us and I have to tell you, I'm not thrilled! After another trip to the east coast and back to Kansas City, we picked up a load in KC headed for Phoenix. Upon arriving at our destination we waited for nearly four hours for a dock, and once in the dock Nathan took Harley and Sonya for a walk. Suddenly, I hear yelling and look up to see a German Shepherd attacking all three. Poor Sonya escaped her collar and ran, so of course the Shepherd went after her. I bailed out of the truck, barefoot, and yelled at the dog, who came to a halt as Sonya dashed under the truck. When I called her name, she jumped into my arms and I was able to put her safely in the truck. Nathan already had Harley in his arms, since Harley is twenty-three pounds of attitude with no fear or common sense, but the Shepherd had gone after Nathan and fortunately only got booted a few times.

First, you have to understand my husband is very protective, possessive and absolutely loves Sonya to death. So  he gave Harley to me, and with his knife in one hand he went after the owner of the dog. The main problem was Nathan has a temper and the dock workers were Asian and didn't speak but a few words of English. After much shouting and a broken table, I finally convinced Nate to call the police and report them for having a dog uncontained in a business area with no collar or leash. The Mexican dock workers ran and the Asian workers kept repeating, "No police. No police."

After Nathan calmed down enough to tell the dispatcher what happened she asked if he wanted an officer to respond and he said no because he knew they would probably take the animal and dispose of him. Being the dog lovers we are, we didn't want the poor animal to pay for having stupid owners. Sonya was a little wet, bruised, and scared, but otherwise unhurt so all turned out well. And we've never had the trailer unloaded so quickly either!

After that little incident, we continued to Nogales where we were to pick up a load of vegetables from three different shippers, all within a block of one another. We had a six o'clock appointment with the first shipper, but didn't get loaded till after midnight, which meant the other shippers were closed. The next morning we went to the second stop and were loaded right away. However, when we reached the third shipper the product still hadn't come across the border from Mexico and we didn't get loaded till after two a.m. Wednesday morning and then the load was over weight and we had to go back to get a pallet removed and the load rearranged so it could be secured.

This load is going to Parma, Ohio and was a relay load since Nathan has to go to court for his ticket on Friday. We were originally supposed to meet the other driver, who had a load delivering in Phoenix in the morning, in Tucumcari, NM, but due to the FUBAR situation in Nogales he had to drive all the way to Las Cruces, NM instead. We met him there and switched trailers, but also got to shower, do laundry and have steak and eggs for brunch.

You may be asking why all the trouble in Nogales? During the winter months the produce you buy in the stores comes from Mexico to Nogales where it is then loaded and shipped. This year however, California has passed some stupid laws about truck's reefer unit engines having to be a certain low exhaust type engine and replaced every seven years. Most trucking companies simply cannot absorb this cost and no longer go into California. So Mexico is now supplying 75% more produce than they were in previous years, and by this summer I'm sure the produce prices will increase.

But the good news is I have new photos from the trip to Phoenix. We deviated from the normal route and went down the Salt River Canyon, which is between Show Low and Globe, AZ. If you ever get the chance to take this trip, it's beautiful and there's plenty of places to stop and take pictures and enjoy the view....just not in a big truck! (Remember these were taken while driving, so some may be a little blurry)

The cliffs are colored rust from iron and green from copper.

Looking back the way we came.

There was plenty of snow when we got to the top on the Globe side. This family was having fun!

This is west of Globe.

West of Globe.