Fantasy freelancers

[krigl]

This is not a digger. It's a harvester.

Yeah, you're right. My eyes aren't what they were

Added in 20 minutes 42 seconds:
Time for one more trip down the centre of N. California, and across to the coast.



Skirting Sacramento with a cargo of wine.



Still raining.



On the highway to Redding now.



The weather's clearing up a bit. I've been seeing an awful lot of Mack cement mixers and dumper trucks lately, I've noticed.
Since starting this N. California tour, in fact.





On the left somewhere near those mountains is the side road we went down in the last set.



Another cement mixer, hmm.



Rest stop and weigh station. Didn't have to stop this time.



Finally, we've arrived at our destination in Redding.



After spending a while getting one final makeover for the last part of this tour, we set off
bright and early for Stockton. Here we are just south of Sacramento, I think.



Picked up some cargo at Coastline.





Heading for San Rafael near the coast.





What the... toll gates. Ah, a bridge.



Haven't seen this one before.



A lake replete with tugboats. Quintessentially American.



Just like this impaled burger in San Rafael.



This place is quite nice, but barely more than a scenery town.





Now heading north along what I expected to be a coastal road to Ukiah. But where's the glorious ocean
that extended all the way up from the south of California to north of San Francisco? Hmm.



More vineyards, at least. Ought to pick up a bottle or two.



It's nice, yes... but it's not the ocean.



Okay, this is just ridiculous. I count SEVEN Mack mixer/dumpers and no other proper trucks at all.
Put that together with some of the wierd problems with some of the trailer skins and it seems I have some
outdated mods. Oh well, too late to change it now.



Well, we've arrived in Ukiah. Another not-overly-exciting place, I have to say. Well, just like real life, no doubt. Not every place can be full of beauty or character.



Well, let's hope the next trip - up to Eureka - gets a bit more coastal and nicer in general.

Bye for now!

Dan

[krigl]

Whoa. Another few months passed in the blink of an eye. What can I say. I bought my son No Man's Sky for his birthday.

...

Anyway, back now to finish this tour. Time is rushing by, and though it seems possible that Iberia will be delayed, rather like Idaho if I'm not mistaken, still, time is running out to tour ProMods' Spain before the SCS version comes out. So I'd better get on with it.

So, Dan's spent a couple of months in Ukiah, cooling his heels and wondering where the ocean is.



He took social distancing very seriously indeed.



And took a few shots of the local area.







Then it was time to head out of town and north to Eureka. Bob the Builder sent the crew out to see him off.



Working for Walmart again, and no ocean in sight.





It was a pleasant, green and not-overly-exciting trip.



Meanwhile, Bob, Wendy and the gang were hard at work.



Towards Eureka the scenery started to improve.



We passed through an area of towering redwood/sequoia trees.







Our mighty Volvo was dwarfed by the giga-flora for a magical minute or two.



And then we were out of there. Cool intersection and lake.



Approaching Eureka. Already visited it a few sets ago, but still found some nice new things to see.



A storm was brewing as we arrived.





Hurried to the delivery point. Didn't want to get a soaking in the motel car park.



Where have my customers gone? O, pray tell, what is that ominous rumbling in the distance?



If y'all think I'm gonna stop groovin' for a tiny little thunderstorm you're very much mistaken.





The wind rises. It will raise the sands.



One of our top-of-the-line products has escaped!! Very dangerous! Please send Rick Deckard over immediately. We'll even give him an ostrich if he manages to 'retire' her cleanly.



Against all odds, a truck that is not a Mack mixer/dumper managed to break into my game. Just look at those clouds. It's gonna be one helluva storm.



Got to the motel in time though, with a fine view of the lighning over the lagoon.

One more set to go from N. California, off to hopefully drive it now...

Cheers

Dan

[krigl]

Back again for one final post from California, USA.



Waking up in Eureka, and heading for the 24-hour Rays for a hearty breakfast.

Upon starting ATS, I found that a lot had changed. (The previous set was shot 2 months ago). Even though I was opted into a Beta version, which should theoretically have been unaffected by SCS's recent changes to the game, nothing worked. I had to remove my mods and update the game. Then my profile worked, thankfully.



Leaving Eureka to get one final load and take it up the coast to the Oregon border.



One positive aspect of this was that the AI trucks returned. And, the sound is much better too.



We also finally got to ride along by the ocean, so a very pleasant trip all round.



These people weren't so lucky.



That's the ocean right there.



Passing the Elk Country resort, here 'Elk County'.



Once again, there are many details here that you'd never catch if you just drove by. You've got to get out the cab, look around.







Continuing north, we passed through areas where sequoia trees should be, but they never reappeared. Shame. Still, the scenery was awesome anyway.









Here's Klamath's Trees of Mystery, styled Magic Trees in the game.



It offers aerial walkways and cable cars among redwood trees, and giant statues of fabled lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his favourite ox Babe, here Ball the Bull for some reason...



Picturesque motel. Considered staying here myself, but wanted to reach the border before nightfall and wrap up California today.



The car park sported two extremely chipper-looking LoneStar trucks. Haven't seen them or the new Mack in traffic though.



From Klamath we set off on the final stretch north to Crescent City, the last port of call before the Oregon Border, midway between Eureka and Coos Bay.





Made it before sundown.



Parking up by the marina.



Beautiful nearby beach.



Headed for the marina with a cool one to watch the sun go down.



The lights came on over Crescent City as I celebrated completing what one could say is the ATS base map - Nevada, Arizona and California. It's been a great journey, and I hope there will be many more to come.



We'll leave Dan here, wandering among the yachts at the northern tip of California. Next stop - ProMods' take on southernmost France, Andorra and NE Spain.

Bye for now...

[Claverx]

Beautiful shots and interesting trips Dan!

[krigl]

Beautiful shots and interesting trips Dan!

Thanks very much!!

Added in 39 minutes 57 seconds:
Back in Europe again with Henri. I didn't even bother trying to start my profile with all the mods - just removed everything. I see ProMods has brought out a new version which includes Road to the Black Sea, so I bought that as a belated Father's Day gift to myself and then installed PM.
And now Henri can commence his investigations of PM Spain (and Andorra + the French/Spanish border area) before SCS get their version out...



We kick off in Bordeaux. Spain seems to me like an 'IVECO country' so we'll be using the Stralis for this tour.



I know, I know, Bordeaux isn't in Spain. There are a few remnants of early ProMods France (version 2.10 - not sure when that was, my guess is 2015, made with base map/Going East/Scandinavia (??)/home made (??) assets). I'd imagine that SCS will release an update
to the France DLC that includes these border regions sometime soon in preparation for the Iberia DLC, but who knows.



Heading south towards PM Bayonne. If SCS do release such an update to France, I bet they do it just after ProMods release 2.50 with the new Spanish and other content, thus rendering PM out of date once again. The fact that PM is planning to release stuff for Spain in the next couple of months when it will be obliterated shortly is a little puzzling, but ours is not to reason why, ours is but to load and try. I hope I manage to catch the short window in which it will be available, I'm sure it will be very good...



Actually, I expect I'm not the only one that will hold off on Iberia until PM brings out a version that's compatible with it. The new content will probably have at least 6 months of life in it - enough time for thousands of people to enjoy it. That's enough punditry, let's get on with the tour.



Here's Bayonne, looking as one would expect given the time it was created. Those are some very red roofs there...







Dropped off the cargo, added the PM trailers and companies pack and started a new job, heading for Toulouse.



The new sound... thingy... that SCS added has done wonders for the... sounds in the game. The IVECO sounds much better
than I remember, very harsh and brutal. With the hard textured plastic dashboard it has a great no-frills feel about it, almost like
a military machine.



Heading along PM's roads to SCS'sToulouse.







It's getting dark, and the 'don't be late' music is playing. There's no time to lose. No time Toulouse!!



Come on! Come on!



I think we're back in SCS country now.



Let's get that cargo dropped off and head out for a delicious meal.



The next day we got an early start on our trip from Toulouse to Narbonne. The road is from the DLC, I think, but PM must have reinserted Narbonne there.



The IVECO does have an 'army truck' look to it with this paint job. It's not the most attractive of trucks, but it looks okay here, I guess.



Tollgate. It's France, innit?



Here comes the sun...







Heeere's Narbonne.



Grimy industrial feel. Doesn't really say South of France to me, but I'm sure such places exist even there.



Three generations in one picture.



Heading out of town for Perpignan and down towards Spain. Thought it was about time to add a weather mod. The only one I found for the latest version of the game was Brutal Weather. It certainly makes a difference.

Thanks for taking a look!

Henri

[Claverx]

Beautiful this Iveco, almost vintage!

[krigl]

Beautiful this Iveco, almost vintage!

Yeah, it's growing on me. I think the bull bars and dark colours help.

Added in 15 minutes 54 seconds:
Hey there, Henri's back with a second jaunt through the sunny south of France.



Not far from Narbonne we reach the coastal village of Leucate (I think, it's an unnamed scenery town).





After putting that behind us, we head south for the large urban area of Perpignan.













Perpignan. It's quite a complex scenery area, being split into three parts. This is the city centre.







Out into the outskirts, making for the Zone Industrielle.









We drop off our cargo there and then head to the third 'part of Perpignan', Port-Vendres.



This is a picturesque scenic gem, and well worth a visit while it still exists.



I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.







Fort Saint-Elme sits on the hilltop.





Rather bland cargo acquired, we head out of town for the Spanish border and the town of La Jonquero.







Spain awaits in the next set...

Henri

[krigl]

Hi there - today it's time for our first foray into ProMods' Spain.



But first, just a couple from beautiful Port-Vendres and the countryside approaching the border.











The bridge that marks the border between France and Spain.







Here we are. Hola Espana!



We're making for the town of La Jonquera.





Arrival in our first Spanish town.



We dropped off our cargo and went for a tour, followed by tapas and beer. It wasn't an easy awakening, but we were up again at dawn.



Elon Musk hired us to deliver a rocket stage to Manresa. Launch before lunch, so we had to get a move on.



The countryside along the way was pretty nice.











With a little imagination this could be an ICBM launcher.





Approaching Manresa.







Approaching the Launch Terminal in Manresa.



Manresa.

The next thread will see us heading up to Andorra - and down the other side back into France.

Until then, adiós...

[krigl]

Hi there - as it says just above, today we're travelling from Mendesa in Spain north to Andorra La Vella in the Pyrenees. And then down the other side into France once again. A nice, albeit slightly lo-fi trip.



Spend the night at a hotel in Mendesa.



Seems quite a rural place.



Just outside town the scenery takes a DeLorean ride a few years into the future.



We're off to the farm to pick up something or other. 700 tons of pate, let's say.



Hmm. Could it be cheese again? Ox tongue?



Back to Mendesa.



Through the centre. Spectacular mountain scenery awaits.









Oh look, a fork-lift hitching a ride on the back. Pulled one of those trailers in my very first post in this forum.





Andorra lies ahead.



Through the checkpoint, and we're in the capital of the 16th smallest state in the world.



A lot of high-octane map-making effort went into this place. A little dated now, but still well worth the visit, especially for the climb on the other side.







We partook of a fine luncheon of the quince all-i-oli, the duck with winter pear, the lamb in the oven with nuts, pork civet, the massegada cake, the escarole with pear trees, confited duck and mushrooms, escudella, spinach with raisins and pine nuts, jelly marmalade, stuffed murgues (mushrooms) with pork, dandelion salad and the Andorran trout of river.



Then, feeling pleasantly full, we loaded up with thin-walled concrete profiles and headed out of town for the tortuous climb down to France.





A most precipitious drop yawned below us. Gibbering with fear, I clasped the sweat-slicked steering wheel and uttered a silent prayer...



Actually, I don't know. Could someone actually utter a silent prayer while gibbering with fear? I don't think so, somehow.



Well, the main thing is we got down the mountain,



through the serpentine coils of foam-flecked asphalt,



(Foam-flecked asphalt? It's Friday night. I'm drinking. Just a little. Could be Beer Foam.)



...and everything turned out alright in the end.

Next time we pass through the spectacular Pyrenean foothills to Pau.

Henri

[krigl]

Having descended the mountainside from Andorra, we now reach the picturesque French town of Ax Les Thermes.







Looks like a beautiful place. Our destination today is Pau.





The journey there is very attractive, especially the first, ProMods part.









We passed through the town of Tarascon - Ariege...





...and into an area of grassy hills.



Horses right next to the road... better drive carefully to avoid spooking them.



O horse. May I pass in peace? Give me your yay or neigh.



Looks like it gave me carte blanche to continue.





Another picturesque town en route - Saint-Girons.















Nearing Pau now. Pau now brown cow.



Spectacular sunset.



Pau.



We dropped off the cargo in the Zone Industrielle and then pulled in at the hotel for a great night's sleep.

Bye for now.

Henri