I hauled an over-weight military truck from Wisconsin to Long Beach, California and delivered it on Friday. The trip wasn't without issues. I had high winds across Wyoming and a snowstorm in Utah. My trailer developed electrical problems in California but I managed to get the load delivered before putting it in a shop to be repaired.

Once the trailer was repaired in Carson I made my way up to Ontario, CA to the truck stop. It was only a 46 mile ride but thanks to LA traffic it took 2 1/2 hours to get there.

Saturday morning I made a few calls and found a hotel that claims to have truck parking. Yeah, right. I got here and found that I can get my truck in but there is no place to turn the rig around. I'll have to back out of here, around a corner, and out into the street when I leave. I am hoping that at some point this morning I can go ahead and do that, get turned around, and then back into the hotel lot so I can get out easier tomorrow morning. Not sure if that's going to work out or not.

I hate hotels that say they have truck parking when they really don't.

But I am here now. Last night I took a taxi and had him drop me off in the downtown area here, Claremont. I walked around a bit and wound up at a little place called Espiau's. The food was good and the beer was cold, but one thing really annoyed me about the place. They had patio seating, but you couldn't smoke out there. WTF?

I really wanted to be able to sit and enjoy my pipe while having a few beers, but instead I had to go stand on the damn sidewalk. Anywhere else, the whole point of outdoor seating is to provide a place for the smokers. Not so, here. And most of the people sitting out there were smokers. I know this because I watched them getting up, walking the ten or fifteen feet to the sidewalk, and lighting up. No smoking on a patio. Really, really dumb.

Despite that bit of stupidity I managed to have a pretty good time talking with some of the locals. Most of them were younger people, but there were a few around my age, 

I am now relaxing in my hotel and procrastinating. At some point I'll haul in my printer/scanner so I can do my paperwork and scan it to the office, and print out the paperwork I need to pick up my load on Monday. I'll be hauling a military truck back to WI from San Fernando.

The weather here is really nice, and I suppose I could be laid over in a far worse place. The room even has a sliding patio door and a little sort of patio area with a couple of chairs to sit out and enjoy the weather. I have it open at the moment to allow some fresh air, but the noise from the freeway is a bit loud so I won't be keeping it open too long, I think.