For some reason I missed your latest story. Thanks for sharing! :)

The spartan interior, the harpoon-style steering column, and the hat...that hat...Ralph Kramden would have given anything for a hat like that, and Barney Fife would be jealous!

The Birds
 

I can't do much else while 0327 is in the shop; so I was thinking about a week or so ago when I was driving 0327 at night to fill up on gas and we ran over a skunk. Not intentionally, but the varmint ran out there and despite evasive action it was history (took 3 days for the odor under 0327 to go away).

But that reminded me of the time when 0255 and I surprised a group of roadkill-eating birds in Los Banos. "Surprised" because they weren't expecting a vehicle to roll up on them at the speed we typically operated when doing a beat check.

I’ve racked up a lot of windshield time, on a lot of roads, and have seen plenty of roadkill. There are certain places where there is more than usual and one of those is State Route 152 about 25 miles west of Los Banos, CA. SR 152 comes down from the hills past a large water storage and hydroelectric facility then flattens out for about 5 miles. In one section of this flat stretch there are prairie dog holes everywhere on both sides of the highway. As you can guess they liked to cross the road and some never made it. So there was always plenty of roadkill available for local scavenger birds, and it attracted many. Various birds; the smaller ones would fly in and get what they could until the bigger vultures or hawks, whatever they were, would come in and take over. What always amazed and entertained me was how the birds were quite used to feasting on the roadkill as vehicles approached at high speed and would wait until the last possible second, as if on cue, all flying away at precisely the same time and somehow avoid impact. How do they do it? Is it an evolved feeding skill? Do they like to play chicken?

One hot afternoon 0255 and I were making a beat check. Traffic was very light, we were cruising at 85 mph; mirages danced above the roadway ahead, and the roadkill feeders were out in force. I could see a group of several large birds feasting in our lane ahead; these were big, ugly birds perhaps vultures. We were bearing down on them fast and I marveled at how casually they pecked away at the roadkill, looking nonchalant even as their fate approached at 125 feet per second. Just as we were about to hit them they bailed but perhaps due to our higher speed their calibration was a little off and they were late. They just barely made it over the top of 0255’s hood except for one. He flew right into 0255’s grill. There was a loud bang and a cloud of feathers went up. I looked at the rearview mirror and saw the bird landing in the traffic lane among a swirl of feathers.

When I got back to the office I inspected 0255. I figured it might need a new grill because the impact was considerable. Large gobs of feathers were stuck in the grill, but fortunately there was no damage. After cleanup, 0255 was good to go again.
The irony was not lost: the roadkill hunter had become the roadkill.

The New "CHIPS" Movie
 

This is off-topic so moderators, feel free to delete this post if you wish. I saw the new CHIPS movie last night. Now I remember well the 1977-1983 TV series, and while I thought at the time it was campy and a little goofy, plus unrealistic, it was harmless. And it did nothing to discredit the CHP or its employees. People used to ask me about the show and depending on the situation, I would either say "Well, the unforms are authentic" or "Yes, the job is just like that, one big party, and I can't believe sometimes I am getting paid to have so much fun!" then laugh and tell the truth.

But this mess of a movie, the new CHIPS movie, was the furthest thing imaginable from reality. Nothing was realistic about the movie, not anything at all. Not even the uniforms. Every member of the patrol portrayed in that movie was at best unprofessional, and at worst absurdly disgraceful, including the two stars who couldn't have even passed the written exam (the initial hurdle in the hiring process) let alone last one day on the job.

I watched the movie with my wife and oldest (teenage) son and was frankly embarrassed. Now there will probably never be another production made about the Patrol because this one has likely destroyed the concept.

It was only briefly in the theaters so if you want to see it you can get it on DVD now; at Redbox it's $1.50 but it isn't the money as much as the time you will never get back wasted on viewing it.

I knew it was a comedy and am good with humor but this one wasn't even funny. It was just lame.

Yeah that movie had a lot of people talking about how horrible it was. A big bomb at the box office. Haven't viewed it and don't have any desire to see it.

BTW, excellent progress on your SSP! Keep it up!

I heard nothing good about that movie. :thumbsdown:

The Tomato Trucks
 

Late last night I was driving home on a long, lonely stretch of Interstate freeway 5, which runs the length of the West Coast from Washington State to the border with Mexico. I was just outside Stockton, CA, about 30 miles South of Sacramento and in the heart of the great Central Valley of California. I passed a big rig, a tractor pulling two flatbed trailers. On each trailer was a large, plastic or fiberglass tub, filled with just harvested, ripe tomatoes enroute to the cannery.

Seeing that tomato hauler brought back memories of the tomato harvest each summer in the Los Banos area, where for a few weeks in late July and early August almost continuous truck traffic of tomato haulers dominated highway 5, rushing their loads from extensive fields near Los Banos to the canneries in Modesto and Stockton. Those tomatoes were ripe and juicy, destined to be made into tomato paste or canned.

One early morning 0255 and I were working day shift when we were dispatched to a reported collision on Northbound I-5 between two of these tomato haulers that had somehow tangled up and according to the report had made a big mess. I knew this would be a serious hazard situation and being some distance away, I turned on the porch light (rear flashing amber), activated the wig wags and accelerated to 110, reaching the scene in a short time.

What a mess! Two tubs had broken loose and spilled their loads of about 40,000 total lbs of very ripe tomatoes all over both lanes for a couple hundred feet. I checked to see if anyone was injured, then immediately turned to traffic control and flared off all northbound traffic (fortunately light) into the dirt center divider as these tomatoes were quite slippery when crushed and presented a real hazard. I called dispatch for a medium rig tow to get the trailers back on their wheels then called for DOT to help me figure out what to do with the huge mess. We had to get those tomatoes off of and away from the traffic lanes; a sweeper truck not only wouldn’t be big enough but it would just make a bigger mess. They came up with a great idea: Get the closest available Fire unit to simply hose the mess off the highway. Fire responded quickly and it worked perfectly; in minutes the gooey mess was well off the roadway. Trailers were righted and in a short time the trucks were on their way, limping off missing a lot of product. Someone would have some ‘splainin to do to their boss later that day.

Once again 0255 and I had served the motoring public, faithful to the oath we took: Whether in rain, sleet, snow, or thousands of pounds of gooey tomatoes…

Love hearing the stories:thumbsup:
Thanks for sharing:cool:

Great memory. Those tomato haulers used to also travel SR152 up and over the Pacheco Pass when the canneries were still operating in the Santa Clara Valley. In the early '80s I lived in Sunnyvale and used to commute back and forth to Fresno via that pass on weekends to see my girlfriend. The road up there was still a narrow and twisty two laner back then and those trucks would regularly spill parts of their loads on the corners. Then the critters would come out of the hills to feast on that bounty and a large percentage of them became roadkill. I sure felt bad always seeing all the dead animals but I absolutely HATED having to wash off that god-awful mixture of rotten tomato and wildlife carnage off my car after each trip!

She must have been something special for you to make that long drive from Sunnyvale to Fresno and back! I used to have a girlfriend in Gilroy when I lived in San Jose and I thought that was a long round trip.

SR152 over Pacheco pass was a killer in those days. Narrow, very windy, nothing separating opposing traffic but a double yellow painted line. Since then they have widened it and added a median concrete barrier. Saved many lives no doubt.

The Los Banos area included SR 152 West all the way to Dinosaur Point, the County line. 0255 and I spent a lot of time up there. Perhaps I'll recall some more memories from there.