STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

SEPTEMBER

September 1st (Wednesday): Delivered the load in Salt Lake City, UT. After delivery, I put my truck into the shop at our terminal to get my Qual Com repaired. I also purchased some new wiper blades and a fog light. After that, I went over to the Freightliner Dealership beacuse my “splitter” is not working properly. I can’t get my transmission into “high range”. I also needed my headlights adjusted.
September 2nd (Thursday): Still at the Freightliner Dealership (18 hours; they don’t have a “gear man” on the night shift). I still haven’t been in the shop yet and they are now pulling other trucks in ahead of me with gear problems. They just lost a customer. I’ll live without “high range” for a while longer. At noon, I retrieved my empty trailer and contacted my DM for a load. I got a load from Ogden, UT to Bellevue, WA (32 miles empty and 773 miles loaded). It delivers tomorrow at 7:30 PM. I can make it, but not with much time to spare. The route was I-15 north to Ogden, then I-15 north again to I-84 west through Idaho and Oregon to I-82 west through Washington to I-90 west to Bellevue. The rest of the day went smoothly.
September 3rd (Friday): Delivered the load from Ogden, UT on time. It went well. Due to late hour of delivery, I just went to the truckstop in Federal Way, WA and went to bed.
September 4th (Saturday): Got a load from Auburn, WA to Fontana, CA (24 miles empty and 1161 miles loaded). The route was I-5 south through Washington, Oregon and California to I-210 south to I-15 south to Fontana. The trip went well with no problems.
September 6th (Monday): Delivered the load to Fontana. It was a drop delivery ASAP. Due to the fact that I was out of driving hours for the day. I just went to bed at our Fontana Terminal.
September 7th (Tuesday): Got a load this AM from Ontario, CA to Hermiston, OR (16 miles empty and 1093 loaded). It delivers NLT the 10th at noon (PDT). The route was I-15 north to Las Vegas, NV. I took 1 1/2 days off for “home time” and to re-start my driving hours clock (after 34 consecutive hours off, I can re-start the 70 hour work week according to the new “Hours of Service” regulations).
September 9th (Thursday): Departed Las Vegas at about 9:00 AM. The route for the rest of the trip was I-15 north to US-93 north to NV-318 north to US-6 east to Ely, NV. Then US-93 north through Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon to Hermiston. Just as I was making the turn onto NV-318, I heard a slight “popping” noise similar to, but not as loud as, the sound of a tire blow-out. I checked my mirrors and saw nothing out of the ordinary, so I continued on my way. When I stopped in Ely, I noticed a “baseball sized” bubble in the sidewall of the rear outside trailer tire (obviously the above mentioned “popping” sound). I called the Swift on-road team. They informed me that there was no tire service available in Ely (nor anywhere even close). We decided that I should proceed to Wells, NV which was the closest tire service available on my route (about 130 miles), and I did so. I arrived in Wells about 5:00 PM. By this time, the ‘bubble’ had expanded to the size of a “softball”. I was fortunate that it didn’t “blow-out”, but I also know that we made the correct decision. It would have cost a small fortune (not to mention the extra (wasted)time) to call-out a tire man and have him travel all the way to Ely. It was worth the gamble. I got the tire replaced in Wells, and was back on my way in an hour. As I was approaching Twin Falls, ID I heard on the XM radio that I-84 was closed just south of Boise. Since that was on my route, I tried to get more information. I got a myriad of different stories from the C.B. The gist of the stories was that an “bomb-sniffing” dog had alerted on a trailer at the State Scale south of Boise, and they had closed the freeway down until they had completed the investigation. I continued on my way and sure enough, the freeway was closed at exit 74. Just as I pulled off the road to wait it out, the State Patrol came by and sait that the road was open. He said that they had called out E.O.D. (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) from Mountain Home AFB and they had X-RAYED the tractor and trailer twice and found nothing. I guess that in these times, it is better to be safe than sorry. I continued on my way and stopped at Caldwell, ID for the night.
September 10th (Friday): Finished the trip to Hermiston, OR on time and with no further exitement. Got a load from Wallula, WA to Phoenix, AZ (29 miles empty and 1203 loaded). It delivers on the 14th, so I got another 1 1/2 days at home. The route for this trip was US-12 south to US-730 west to OR-207 to US-395 south to I-84 east to US-93 south to US-6 east to NV-318 east to US-93 south to US-60 east to AZ-303 south to I-10 east to Phoenix.
September 11th (Saturday): Arrived in Las Vegas about 4:00 PM for “home-time”. No problems.
September 13th (Monday): Departed Las Vegas at about 9:00 AM. Arrived in Phoenix at about 6:00 PM. Nothing exciting happened.
September 14th (Tuesday): Delivered the load. Found that I needed to have a couple of trailer tires replaced, so I went to the Terminal to fuel and get the needed repairs. Got a load from Tolleson, AZ to Vacaville, CA (7 miles empty and 756 miles loaded) It delivers on the 16th at 7:00 AM. The route was I-10 west to I-210 north to I-5 north.
September 16th (Thursday): Delivered the load from Tolleson, AZ this AM on time and without incident. Got a load that picks up in Richmond, CA and delivers in Denver, CO on the 20th (44 miles empty and 1204 miles loaded). The route was I-80 east. Since the load didn’t deliver until Monday, I arranged to T-CALL it in Salt Lake City on Friday.
September 17th (Friday): T-Called the load from Richmond, CA at our Terminal in Salt Lake City, UT. Picked up a load from Salt Lake to Springfield, IL (0 miles empty, 1314 miles loaded). The route was I-80 east to I-74 east to I-155 south to I-55 south to Springfield.
September 20th (Monday): Delivered the load from Salt Lake City on time and with no problems. The Planners gave me a load that picked up in Muscatine, IA and deliverd in Orem, UT, (with 2 stops in Salt Lake City)(172 miles empty and 1265 miles loaded). The route was I-55 north to I-155 north to I-74 west to I-280 west to US-61 south to Muscatine, IA. Then IA-38 north to I-80 west to Salt Lake, then I-15 south to Orem. A peculiar thing happened enroute to Muscatine. I heard on the news that a ‘looney loser’ had entered the Capitol Building in Springfield and shot an un-armed security guard. I was nowhere near the shooting, but it had happened just about the time I left there and it made me feel a little ‘wierd’. Anyway, I arrived in Muscatine without incident. I picked up the load and headed for Salt Lake City (where the 1st 2 deliveries were). I traveled to Council Bluffs, IA and stopped for the night.
September 21st (Tuesday): Departed Council Bluffs. I only had 6.5 hours to drive today. That means i’m having a fairly good week. Keeping busy. I drove to Ogallala, NE. There I had dinner and bought fuel. I then used the remaining hour I had to drive to Sidney, NE and stopped for the night.
September 22nd (Wednesday): Departed Sidney, NE with a full 10 hours available to drive. I used my Qual Com (on-board computer) to get directions to the consignees (recieving customers). I got the first 2 OK, but there were none available for the final drop. I contacted my DM (driver manager). He said that he would contact the CSR (customer service representative) to get them. Later in the day my Qual Com went ‘crazy’. When I stopped, I read all the message
(there were 6 of them). It turns out that the final consignee had been changed from Orem to Provo, UT. No big deal, just 5 miles further. Anyway, I arrived in Salt Lake at about 7:30 PM. After I had dinner, I went to the 1st consignee and spent the night there so that I would be there at 5:30 AM to make the 1st delivery.
September 23rd (Thursday): Made the 2 Salt Lake City deliveries well ahead of schedule. I had time to stop by the Terminal and get fuel before I left for Provo. I arrived in Provo at 11:15 for the scheduled 11:30 appointment. I waited for about half an hour, then called the broker. He said that the crew was on the way. The customers’ name was Lyndon Hitch. There is a small town called Lindon about 10 miles north of Provo, and the crew had gone there looking for the customer. :>} In Utah, most of the addresses are numbered with the Mormon Temple as the central point (ie: 500W 700S would be 5 blocks west and 7 blocks south of the Temple). As a result, there can be any number of towns all with the same address. It’s not really that confusing once you learn the system. Anyway, the delivery was eventually made and the Planners found me a load that picked up in Ogden, UT and deliverd in Henderson, NV with 2 extra deliveries in Las Vegas (73 miles empty and 456 loaded). Picked up the load and drove to Nephi, UT where I had to stop for the night. Once again the “hours of service” rules interveened. I only had 8.25 hours to work for the day, and I used up a lot of them on the unload.
September 24th (Friday): Departed Nephi at 12:30 AM (the earliest time that I could leave after getting my mandatory 10 hours rest). I made it to my first delivery location in Las Vegas at 6:27 AM for my 6:30 appointment. (Whew, just made it). The other 2 deliveries went well, and I began my “home-time” after the last appointment at 11:30 AM. I had some errands to do (eat lunch, buy a few necessities for the doggies, and find a decent computer POOL game for my windows XP.) I did all that and just “diddled” around before heading for the truckstop in North Las Vegas. I played with the computer for the rest of the day and about 8:30 PM I went to get dinner. After that, I went back to the truckstop about 11:30 PM. I laid my head down on the steering wheel “just for a couple of minutes”. At 5:00 AM, I woke up and went to bed. Must have been more tired than I thought.
September 27th (Monday): Alas, time to go to work again. Got a load from Las Vegas, NV to Bolingbrook, IL Chicago area (12 miles empty and 1719 miles loaded). The route for today was I-15 north to I-70 east to exit 181 (a Rest Area in Utah just brfore the Moab cut-off). I got a late start , as the load wasn’t ready until 3:00 PM. I stopped in Beaver, UT about 8:00 PM for a break to walk the “doggies” and took this photograph.

The moon behind some clouds. Beaver, UT {Taken 09/27/04} What do you see in the clouds?
Departed Beaver and continued on to the Rest Area. Arrived about 11:30 PM.
September 28th (Tuesday): The route today was I-70 east to I-76 east to I-80 east to Ogallala, NE. Before I left I took these photographs.

View from Utah Rest Area I-70 east, exit 181. {Taken 09/28/04}

View from Utah Rest Area I-70 east, exit 181. {Taken 09/28/04}
Departed at about 10:00 AM. Stopped at a Rest Area in Eagle, CO. They used to have a place there where you could walk along the White River, but they had the gate to the path locked :>{. The “doggies” were unhappy. They like to splash and play in the river. I took these photographs

Eagle, CO. The Aspens in their Fall splendor. { Taken 09/28/04}

Eagle, CO. The Aspens in their Fall splendor {Taken 09/28/04}

Eagle CO. A storm on the horizon. {Taken 09/28/04}
Continued the trip. Stopped in Denver for fuel and dinner then drove on to Ogallala.
September 29th (Wednesday): Departed Ogalla at 10:00 AM. The route today was
I-80 east to Davenport, IA. Arrived in Davenport at about 9:00 PM. Will take tomorrow off because the load doesn’t deliver in Bolingbrook until Friday AM.
Comments: This month I had 10 trips totaling 409 miles empty and 10868 loaded (11277 miles total). The deadhead percentage was 4.5% which is good for me and the Company. I benefit because I recieve 19.5 cents less for every empty mile that I drive. The Company benefits because they can only bill Customers for laden miles. They have to “eat” any un-laden miles they incur. All in all an average month. I would have preferred about 1000 more miles, but ‘what the heck’, it could have been worse.

THE BEAR FACTS

Forest Ranger, Ima Treehugher, recently gave a lecture to a group of tourists who were planning a wilderness hike into the back trails of Yellowstone National Park. The following is an exerpt from that lecture.
Ms Treehugger: “Recently there have been signs of Brown Bear and Grizzly Bear activity within your proposed hiking area. Therefore, it is recommended that you exercise extreme caution and and vigilence while on your hike. You should equip yourself with orange safety vests to ensure that you can readily keep visual contact. Furthermore, it is advised that you attach small bells to those said vests so that you can audibly warn your fellow hikers should you encounter a Bear. It is imperitive that you learn to distinguish a Brown Bear from a Grizzly Bear. The Brown Bear, although not docile, poses little threat to hikers unless they are threatened or alarmed. You should walk quietly and unobtrusively around a Brown Bear at a minimum distance of 100 yards. The Brown Bears diet consists mainly of nuts, berries, small rodents and fish. The Grizzly Bear is far more aggressive, and should be avoided altogether. The Grizzly bear is a carnivore, and while it occasionally eats nuts and berries, its primary diet is fish and small game. The U.S. Forest Service guidelines indicate that the preferred method of distinguishing between a Brown Bear and a Grizzly Bear is to examine the fecal matter. The fecal matter of the Brown Bear is medium brown in color and and will contain minute particles of un-digested nuts and berries. The fecal matter of the Grizzly Bear is dark brown in color and will contain chunks of orange material and small bells.”