The first time I visited the States in 2009, My first impression upon going outside in the early to mid afternoon at San Francisco airport, was that I was looking at a TV show. From an overcast Dunedin 24 hours earlier, to a hot sunny day, with cars that were nothing like the ones at home, but had the same look as the television programs that I had grown up watching.
After making my delivery in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington, I went to a nearby truck stop in North Bend, to await my next load.
A few hours later I was dispatched to Eugene Oregon for a load the next day. I needed to get the trailer washed out first, so stopped in Portland Oregon, and after, stayed the night in the attached truck stop.
In the morning, as I was heading down to Eugene, I stopped at a rest area to open the trailer doors, to try to dry out the trailer before loading. As you can see it is very different country, than where I had been so far.
After loading, my route took me back up through Portland again. Having spent the evening before and that morning stuck in the Portland carpark, other wise known as the freeway I decided I should park up for the night, and try to get through it early in the morning, before the traffic built up. So found another rest stop for the night. This one felt a lot like New Zealand to me.
The plan worked really well. The next morning the traffic was light enough to not slow me down. At Portland, I turned eastward, inland, and followed the majestic Columbia river for the morning. Unfortunately I was unable to get any photo's of it, so you will just have to take my word that it was definitely a highlight for me.
The night ended in a South Eastern Washington rest stop. As I was fairly well inland at this stage I was surprised to see seagulls. They reminded me of a traditional film photography saying, regarding colour grading. Do you have Red Indians or Yellow Indians? In New Zealand all the seagulls like this have red beaks and legs. Quite the contrary in Washington. They may be of a different ethnicity.
And couple of other photo's of the rest area.
Back to the theme of it being a bit like a television show here. In Montana I saw this Dog and Cat going for a drive.
Sometimes customers allow parking on site, and sometimes the sites provide opportunities to combat the sedentary lifestyle of a truck driver. For this reason I carry skates in the truck.
And finally to the title of this post. Tonight I am parked in a dock for a morning delivery in Kansas City, Missouri. The dispatcher seemed to have very little information about this delivery, which is unusual for him. He just said that I am on my own on this one. To which I replied that I had seen the Fargo television series. Season four is set in Kansas City, Missouri.
