Here is a compilation of 10 trucks that I made roughly two years ago of how the WM San Gab crew was handling Arcadia over summer 2016. This video stands out a little more to me than the other Arcadia videos just because of how many different things happened in such a short time. It was a fantastic summer full of fun local adventures and many great memories. Back then, there were still a few Curotto Cans running regularly with the "Think Green, Think Clean" trucks, which was good. Below is a brief summary of a few points in the video that stand out.
(0:00) - 263267, 103860, 103862, & 673246: In August 2016, I started an internship with Waste Management in the shop. One of my favorite parts of the job was seeing the activity that went on in the shop during the morning, such as road calls. On this day, I remember going out to Azusa MRF with a mechanic to help Mike out, as his usual truck was having some issues. He ended up going back to the yard to swap out trucks, so on the way home, I went out to his route to see what truck he had. Mike was in 263267, which is usually the MPU/bulk truck the rest of the week so its arm is pretty slow. Unfortunately, when I found Mike, he was down once again! I hung out with him for a bit and we waited for mechanic to come. In the meantime, Larios and Enrique Bueno were sent over to help collect some of Mike's route. It was awesome seeing four WM vehicles parked together!
(0:29) - 263452 & 105338: This was the first summer Fili was supposed to be in his new ASL. Luckily for me, they decided to switch around trucks on Wednesdays, so for most of the summer, Fili was driving 263452 while his ASL was used to train other drivers. Once in a while, he did show up in 105338 so I got a little footage while it was still shiny and newish.
(2:02) - 103860: This was fun to film! I heard Joe was covering a trash route up in the hills of Arcadia by Sierra Madre, and so I told Kevin to check it out and see if he could catch him. Sure enough, Joe was hustling through the area and Kevin made that awesome video of him in North Arcadia. That same afternoon, Joe came down by me to help on the huge open route, and so I went to visit. This was the first summer that the Ottos were rolled out, so I remember I was pretty interested to see them get collected. Always a blast following Joe!
(7:38) - 264515: Another truck that I often saw helping on the open route was this McNeilus. Mentado had a set route every day except for Wednesdays, so he was all over. I had just gotten my license, so I was eager to finally film him in Arcadia wherever he was. For much of the summer, though, he ended up working just 5 minutes from my house! So after filming Joe, I drove over to this area and found him finishing the rest of the trash route. It was fun seeing the old Turn Keys get collected so I'm glad I got this when I did. Mentado is now at Republic Sun Valley, and is actually the same driver seen behind the wheel of the Peterbilt 320 Rapid Rail in Kev and Sean's videos.
(10:05) - 103857 & 103705: We were taking down a basketball hoop, and we were fortunate enough to get rid of it in one day thanks to these two guys. Pascuali usually did greens in a different part of the city, but they had him covering my recycle route for the day so I was very excited to see him come by. As always, Plazola was happy to help me out!
(12:03) - 263524: I was expecting Fili to roll up in a different truck so this was a nice surprise since I hardly ever saw 524!
(14:35) - 103860 & 264515: I believe this is when I found out Joe was doing trash. Both trucks looked extremely clean that day compared to usual so that's always nice! Think this was the last trip I made on bike before getting my license.
(15:15) - 103860: First truck I filmed that summer! I remember finding Joe in his usual area and he was going the usual speed that I was used to seeing him operate at back then. He collected the last cart in that area before telling me he had to go do an open route. I biked after him and by the time I caught up, I noticed he was whipping back lids which was completely new to me! I had never seen him operate so fast! You can hear him say he had to get to the MRF by 5:15, so he was really hustling. I think this was the last day I ever saw him operate "slow", as he's always moving fast nowadays. Lots of cool carts in this area. I was able to catch 2 Zarns & 1 old Toter which I hardly ever see in the city.
(18:46) - 263451: Mikey in his usual truck at the time. I'm not sure why but I never went back to get more of this truck while Mike had it even though it's always been one of my favorite Curottos. It kind of sucks because 451 hasn't seen route in ages now. You'll see him collect a rare Dura-Kan and FA Toter before finishing up.
Thanks to all the guys here at WM San Gab! I'm really fortunate to have such a great crew.