STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Relatively Speaking

To finish with Thursday, Don & Lou called about 1500 and said that we should join Judy and Kyle at Virginia’s house. Sis collected owls, and the family said we could come over and select a few as momentos.

There were pictures of owls on the walls.

There were owl lamps.

Even the bathroom wasn’t exempt.

I think she had about 500 Owl figurines at last count. That doesn’t count the stuffed animals, kitchen utensils and towels, and sundry miscellany. I chose a nice coffee mug, a figurine, and a lamp for my momentos.
After we finished there, Don & Lou took me back to my truck to walk the  MMM once more as they were relegated to staying in the truck due to the weather. Larry’s back yard is nice, but it is not heated, and they are not allowed in the house. Dinner was a spiral cut ham, relish tray, an interesting pasta salad with raisins, another interesting pea salad with cheese and bacon, scalloped potatoes, and chocolate brownies with walnuts for desert. All were good and were provided by friends of John and Judy. After dinner, we had a nice visit.



Poor Buffy is exhausted from all the hubbub.
Niece Denise arrived later with a bouquet of flowers and yet another food basket provided by her fellow employees. Time sped by and soon it was 2330. Don & Lou drove me back to the truck & the MMM. One more walk, then off to bed.

Friday:
This morning, Don & Lou picked me up about 0900. We met the family at The Egg and I restaurant. It was good. After a leisurely breakfast, we all went our separate ways. Don, Lou and I went to Kinkos to make copys of a Genealogy book with information on Virginia’s mothers side of the family. We then went shopping for a pair of shoes for me. While out and about, I saw Pepsi products on sale at KMart for 4 for $10.00 ($2.50 per 12 pack), so I stocked up. Then back to my truck, while they went to their RV.
About 1800, Don & Lou picked me up and we went over to Larry’s house for dinner. Tonight, it was deli sandwiches provided by Sue, a childhood friend of Kyle’s. It was very thoughtful and quite good. She also provided another relish tray and more brownies. We also made a small dent in the leftovers from the two previous nights. There is still enough left to feed an army. After dinner, a rousing round of Yatzee, and conversation.
About 2230, Don & Lou took me back to my truck. A good walk for the MMM, then a little geeking, then bed.

Life Day 21809: Chilly Cheyenne

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was very pleasant. Today is just plain NASTY. Snowy, windy & CCCCCOLD. (Springtime in the Rockies). A nice day to stay inside the truck with the MMM and “geek”. I’m not sure that the temperature will climb above 30 degrees. It hasn’t yet.
Let me bring you up to date on my most recent travels. There isn’t too much since I updated about 3 days ago.

Tuesday/Wednesday March 27th and 28th, 2007:
My trek to Cheyenne proved to be a marathon. I was correct in my assumption that I would not get out until today. Last night, I got the PrePlan which picks up at the same customer to which I delivered yesterday (Walmart). It is a “round trip” load, which means that after I make the deliveries (there are 2; Casper, WY and Cheyenne,WY), I return to Walmart here in Corinne with the trailer and any returns it might contain from the 2 stores. Due to my circumstances, they gave me as much time as I need to return. The load wasn’t scheduled to pickup until 1900, but I was notified it was ready about 1600. I picked up the load and departed Corinne about 1700. I began to worry a little about the weather, as it steadily deteriorated throughout the day. I drove to Rawlins, WY where I had a snack and walked the MMM. I only encountered a little bad weather (snow/rain) between Evanston and Little America and again about 30 miles west of Rawlins.
At 2230, I left Rawlins and drove to the first store in Casper, arriving at 0045. Just a little rain on this leg of the trip. Since I was basically working for Walmart on this load, there was no ’set’ appointment time. The store was required to unload me as soon as I arrived, which they promptly did. I left Casper at 0145 and drove directly to the second (and last) store in Cheyenne, arriving at about 0445. No inclement weather on this leg. This stop was a drop/hook delivery. When that was completed, I drove to the Flying J truckstop.
I plan to make this my ’base of operations’ while i’m in Cheyenne. I was fortunate to obtain a parking spot near both the building and a nice MMM walking area. After exercising the MMM, I went inside for breakfast. I called nephew Larry at about 0630 and he joined me. After chatting for a while, we went over to his house, which is conveniently located a couple of miles from the Flying J. After I showered, around 1000, I tried to telephone brother Don and/or sister-in-law Lou who were RVing to Cheyenne from Palo Alto, CA. Most of I-80 through Wyoming is in what I call “Cell Hell”. I got contact briefly (long enough to assertain that they were in the vacinity of Little America, WY and that they wanted information about RV parks in the area), but then lost the connection. There is a nice RV park about a mile from Larry’s house, so we drove over there. They weren’t “officially” open until Apr 1st, but they were allowing people to stay there with limited services. Larry and I then drove back to my truck to get the MMM. He has a nice back yard in which they can stay while we’re visiting. Niece Kyle, who is here from Point Royal, Virginia, was finally awake when we returned, so we visited a while longer. At noon, we drove downtown to a nice little Italian Restaurant for lunch. There we met the rest of the crew; Nephew John and his wife Judy, niece Vicky, and niece Denise. Lunch was excellent.

I tried Don/Lou again, but again, the connection was a failure. I managed to find out that they were in a blizzard somewhere between Rawlins and Laramie. Afterwards, the rest of the crew were going to their mom’s (Virginia’s) house to sort through memorabilia they want to use at the Memorial Service on Saturday. Larry dropped me off at his house where I hoped to get a nap (at that point, I had been awake for over 30 hours).
Alas, a nap was not to be. I tried, but was to tired and “keyed up” to sleep. Around 1530, Don & Lou arrived. I took them to the RV park. They approved it and settled in. I went back to Larry’s house while they were ’sprucing up’. They arrived at Larry’s house about 1700. We visited for a while until the rest of the crew arrived about 1800. We had a KFC dinner and a nice visit. About 2130, I began to fade fast. Kyle drove the MMM and I back to my truck. It took 45 minutes for the truck to be ‘warmed up’ enough to sleep comfortably. I then “crashed” about 2245.

Thursday:
I was awakened a little before 0800 by brother Don saying he would pick me up for breakfast at Village Inn with the rest of the crew about 0845. As I mentioned in the intro to this post, the weather deteriorated immensely overnight.

It took every bit of the 45 minutes I had to ‘coax’ myself out of the truck to walk the MMM and perform my AM toilette. Breakfast was good. Afterwards, Larry returned me to my truck so I could “hang with the MMM”. Don & Lou went to stroll through the Mall.

Life Day 21806: Corinne Confabulation

The use of the term “Life Day” may seem inappropriate for this posting since my half-sister passed away earlier this afternoon, but I don’t think so. She was religious and according to her beliefs, she is now just beginning her “new” life. I hope so…….

I did not get a load out on Friday as I had planned. Freight is still abysmal in the Western region. My options were to take a load to LA, Phoenix, or the Bay Area. All had delivery appointments for Monday. That means that I would have been ’sitting’ for most of the weekend anyway. My DM found a load for me that picked up on Sunday and delivered in Fort Worth, TX. I accepted it for the following 2 reasons. 1) I would be doing my sitting at ‘home’ rather than one of the above mentioned locations. 2) When empty on Tuesday, I would be in a much better freight area.

Saturday, Mar. 24th:
Since I found myself with extra time this weekend, I decided to go shopping. (When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping). First on the agenda was to buy a new phone. I went to the Sprint Store, and decided on a KATANA. With the in store discount and mail-in rebate the cost will be $49.99. I chose the Blue Sapphire model. My next stop was the Las Vegas Outlet Mall. My mission here was to purchase underwear and socks. I did a mini-tour of the mall, then made my purchases at the Jockey Store. I spent about $50.00. After that, I went in search of the new PetSmart store at Eastern Ave. and Russell Rd. It is closer to the WWW than the one I had been using in Henderson. The store on Tropicana and Eastern closed recently. All of the MMM’s records are now at the Russell Rd. store. I then went to retrieve my mail, then went back to the WWW to relish my new treasures.

Sunday:
I left for the shipper in North Las Vegas about 0930. Just as I was entering their facility, (brother) Donald called to inform me that (half-sister) Virginia was deteriorating fast. When I checked in, I was told that the product for this load would not even be manufactured until tomorrow AM. I called the DM du jour and told them about the status of the load, and also my need to get to Cheyenne. They gave me another load which picked up at our Drop Yard in North Las Vegas and delivered in Corinne, UT. When I was finished there, I drove to the MMM’s favorite Rest Area in Utah at mm-88. After their romp, I drove to Corinne. I spent the night at a little Parking Area about 2 miles from the consignee. There was a park nearby (200 ft) for the MMM to explore, and a small Convenience Store across the street for me to explore.

Monday:
I woke up about 0930. After walking the MMM and sprucing-up in the C-Store, I took a stroll with my camera. The Parking Area has a small area which gives a brief history of Corinne. I took these pictures.


At noon, I drove to the consignee and did the drop/hook delivery. After I fueled, I drove back to Parking Area to wait for my load to/thru Cheyenne. It looks like it will be tomorrow before I get one.

Dearly Departed

Just a few minutes ago, I recieved a phone call from my nephew Larry. He told me that my half-sister, Virginia had passed away about 1:30 this afternoon. She was 86 years old. She had been ill since around August.  According to Larry, 4 of her 5 children; Larry, John, Vicky and Kyle were present at the hospital and had visited her just before she passed. She passed while they were in conference with the doctor. Her funeral is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Mar. 31st.

Life Day 21802: Lackadaisical in Las Vegas

Hopefully, i’ll get a load out of here tomorrow. I arrived Tuesday night, but the load that I brought here didn’t deliver until Wednesday night, so I have to wait until tomorrow AM to re-start my 70 hours (34 consecutive hours beginning at 2130 Wednesday). I’ve been just “kicking back” and enjoying my stay at home. The weather is perfect. High 70’s or low 80’s during the day and low 60’s at night.

Sunday, 18 Mar, 2007:
I recieved a message from Phoenix from the “trailer tracking guy” about 1100 asking if I would drive over to the local Freightliner Dealership and bring a trailer that had been dropped there and bring it back to the terminal. Since it was only about 5 miles away, I accepted. I drove over there, hooked to the trailer and brought it back. When doing the ‘walk around’ inspection, I noticed that the trailer had a wheel seal leak. When I got back, I messaged him that I was finished and informed him of the discrepancy, and that the seal on the load was still intact (it was a loaded trailer). He thanked me and sent me $26.00 for my time. Not bad for 1/2 an hours “work”.
About noon, I recieved and accepted a Preplan which picked up at the terminal and delivered in Commerce City, CO (Denver). I hooked to it and departed about 1430 after one more good romp for the MMM. I drove to Pueblo, CO and took a break here. At 2030, I finished the drive to Commerce City.

Monday:
I made the delivery at 1100 then drove to our terminal in Denver for fuel and to wait for my next load. It was less than 5 miles away. I recieved a PrePlan which picked up in Denver and delivered in Salt Lake City, UT. I accepted it and drove over to the shipper about 1400. I did the drop/hook pick-up and left denver at 1430. I drove to Rawlins, WY. I had dinner here, then drove to Salt Lake City. The customer was directly across the street from the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop, so I spent the night there.

Tuesday:
I made the drop/hook delivery about 0930. I recieved and accepted a PrePlan which picked up in SLC and delivered in Henderson, NV. I drove to the Shipper, did the drop/hook pick-up, then drove to our terminal to fuel and weigh the load. I made an adjustment to the tandem axle, and then was on my way. I drove to St. George, UT. I took a break here for the MMM, then drove on to the WWW in Las Vegas where I stopped for the night.

Wednesday:
All I had to do today was drive from the WWW to the customer in Henderson (about 10 miles), make the delivery at 2100, then drive back to the WWW. I relaxed all day in preparation for this daunting task. I left the WWW about 1945 and drove to the consignee. I arrived about an hour early for the appointment. Sometimes these are drop/hook deliveries, and sometimes they are ‘live unloads’. When I checked in, I was told that it would be a ‘live unload’ at the appointment time, but 30 minutes later the clerk came out and told me to drop my loaded trailer in a door and pick-up the trailer next to it that he had just finished unloading. Worked out nice. I left Henderson at 2100 and drove back to the WWW. Amazingly, the same parking spot I had vacated earlier (pole position right next to the area where I walk the MMM) was still empty. I, naturally, re-established my position there, and started the 34 hour clock at 2130. Tick, tick ,tick. I’ll be available for work again on Friday morning.