Delano, CA

First an update on the New-Skin repair to the truck speaker. So far I would call it 90% effective. At the same time the results were a vast improvement. When a speaker is "blown" usually, from over powering it, there is a tear somewhere on it. This speaker had a tear about 3 inches long around the perimeter where it joins the frame. The intent of using the New-Skin was to keep it from vibrating. Most of it worked, except one small piece of the speaker warped a bit from the wetness, but it does not vibrate against the frame so it doesn't seem to be effecting the sound. I previously had to adjust all of the bass out of the sound to make it tolerable. It is much better now. Though I will probably just stop by a Freightliner shop some day and buy a new one.

Of course Wednesday we changed our plans once again. Since we were carrying a "high-value" load of shop vacs for Sears we were reluctant to leave the truck sitting while we would be moteling. We stopped in Tonopah, AZ for the night.

We enjoyed the sunset and sunrise in the desert and the stars out there were like a blanket on top, so close it seemed you could touch them. With very little light polution there were really immense.

While fueling in Quartzsite, CA. A fellow named Scott came over and introduced himself. You never know who you're going to run into... He runs a little shop across from the Pilot there and wanted to personally invite us for breakfast. He and his wife run a place called the Desert Rat Cafe. After fueling and getting coffee I stopped in and had a chat and got a burrito for the road, Chorizo and egg. Pretty good.

We passed the plane bone yard north of Tucson.

And passed Picacho Peak. At this point we could choose to go I8 west and around Phoenix or continue on I10 through. Since it was about 1400 there I wanted to go through.

Across the way from the truck stop was what looked like a little abandoned place. We walked over to investigate. It was Eldorado Hot Springs. The brochure said "like bathing in silk." They even had a nude section for a maximum of 16 people, and a family section - not together. We passed but enjoyed the walk.

Thursday we headed on. There were thousands of wind turbines in the Twenty-nine Palms area, and let me tell you they have wind...

We made it pretty easily over the I5 Grapevine - we only had 15,000 pounds on. But you could see the trucks loaded with 44,000 pounds of bananas were having a rough go of it.

We delivered at the Sears distribution center at 2:3o in Delano and headed into town and found a quaint motel, the Coachman, seemed to fit us and stayed. We were looking forward to pool and jacuzzi. Of course they didn't tell neither were ready for visitors until after we were in our suits ready to dip in. No worries.

Dinner at Kong's and a nice big bed and we're ready for our next w/a.