STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22024: Flocking Road Hazard

On my first trip out after returning to Corinne from Las Vegas last week, I encountered this flocking road hazard. I was just entering the freeway (I-15 southbound exit 365, from UT-13, the highway to Corinne). I made the turn to the on ramp mere moments before it was blocked. I just had to stop briefly at the top of the ramp to take these pictures.

I don’t know how long the road was blocked, but the sheep seemed in no particular hurry. Ah, rural Americana.

Anyway, this was a short week. The trip mentioned above, was to Page, AZ, a bit over 800 miles round trip. When I returned from Page, I took a load to Billings, MT, a round trip of around 1000 miles. I returned from Billings late Sunday night. Yesterday (Monday), I took this load to Vegas, about 950 miles round trip. After bringing my Log Book up to date this AM, I decided to stay here in Vegas and do a 34 hour re-start. I’ll leave about 0900 tomorrow morning.

Nothing much exiting happened this last week. I did create a bit of a ’stir’ in the Driver’s Room in Corinne last Friday. I took my dinner in to eat it. While everyone else was having Top Ramen noodles or soup, I had left over Prime Rib with Potatoes Au Gratin (which I made in the microwave there in the break room), and Broccoli. Needless to say, everyone was jealous. Hey, I like to cook, and I like to eat. What’s wrong with that??

Life Day 22016: Neither Rain, nor sleet, nor Gloom of Night (nor Wind nor Fire) Shall Stay this Courier from his Appointed Rounds.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I left Vegas at about 0800 to pick up a back haul in San Bernardino, CA. There was a mild breeze, but nothing to worry about. Just before I got to Zzyzx Rd, traffic came to a complete stop. It was only a brief delay while an ambulance picked up an elderly man who was evidently having some sort of medical emergency. At least, there was no apparent damage to his vehicle when I passed. It was just parked on the side of the road. (I have provided a link to the History of Zzyzx Rd. mainly because I was curious about it myself). Things progressed nicely from there until I got to Cajon Pass. There the wind picked up dramatically. By the time I transitioned from I-15 to I-215, the winds were fierce. Just after the transition, traffic came to a complete stop again. I thought that Cal Trans or the CHP had closed it because of high winds, but it turned out to be a tree blown down and blocking the left lane and a car that had hit the center divider trying to avoid said tree. About 1/2 an hour delay this time, but I still arrived at the customer by 1300. The load pick-up went smoothly. I left for the return trip about 1430. Just north of San Burdue, Traffic was stopped again. This time it was a real mess. The back up was about 6 miles. I could see a fire out on the horizon, so I thought they had closed the road for that.

They were routing everybody off the freeway and sending them back toward San Bernardino. While in the tie up, I saw every sort of emergency vehicle struggle past on the shoulders of the road (people are such pinheads when traffic is backed up); CHP, County Sheriff, Ambulance, and Fire Trucks from both San Bernardino and the US Forest service. But, just as I was approaching the exit where they were detouring the traffic, the road opened again. Thank God!! This delay was about 2 hours as it was. Having to take the detour would have been even worse. I also discovered the true reason for the delay. An 18 wheeler had been blown over onto his left side due to the winds. There were also smoldering embers on both sides of the freeway at the I-215/ I-15 junction, so maybe it was closed for both reasons. I have no Anemometer, but I would estimate the wind speed at a constant 50 mph with gusts over 70 mph (if you look at the palm trees in the picture, you can get an idea of the intensity of the wind. Palm trees usually have fronds on both sides). Now that’s breezy. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I arrived back in Vegas about 2030.

Life Day 22010: New Arrival in Cheyenne

Yesterday, I had some time to kill in Cheyenne, WY. I was returning from a trip to loveland, CO and had stopped there for the night. I contacted the “home base” in Corinne to see if they had another trip for me to do when I returned (I would still have about 3 hours remaining upon my return). They sent me a PrePlan which picked up at 0300 this AM, so I had some time to kill until about 1800 when I could leave Cheyenne and still make the delivery on the other load. I called nephews John and Larry to see if they wanted to have lunch or dinner. John returned the call and we arranged to meet for lunch. He said that Larry was probably out hunting.

He and Judy picked me up at the Flying J where I was located. We went to Applebee’s. I had a good lunch of Chicken Alfredo with a Ceasar Salad. I’m not a big fan of Applebee’s, but this was good. I may have to do a re-apprsaisal of them.

Anyway, I digress. They informed me that they were new Grandparents again. So, after lunch we went to Matt and Angie’s house to meet the new arrival, Derek Matthew Wood (born 10/09/07 @0800, 9lb 4oz, 21 inches long).

Matt and Angie are as happy as can be. I don’t envy them the sleepless nights that lie ahead though. We had a nice, but short visit because Derek had a doctors appointment at 1400. After meeting Derek, I went back to my truck and took a nap so I could be fresh when I left Cheyenne.

Life Day 22000: Milestones

This month (October, 2007), is a month of milestones for me. First, as you can see, I am 22,000 days old today (please no accolades, I did nothing to achieve this except exist). New viewers of this BLOG are probably wondering how I keep track of my days on this planet. Brother Donald sent me a link to an interesting website a few years ago, (Paul Sadowski.com). That is the secret. 

The next milestone is that as of 1 October, I now have been retired from the Air Force for as many years as I served (20 years).  I am just simply to young for this to be possible, but it is true nonetheless. I guess that there is a lot to be said about a “footloose and fancy-free” existence. It has kept me young (at least at heart).

The third (and last) milestone I share with my truck. Somewhere around Evanston, WY at about 2300 on the 2nd, it turned over 100,000 miles. It was on a trip fron Corinne, UT to Cody, WY. There is nothing really significant about this except that it serves as a reminder that I need to have another PM Service (lube and oil change) done, but it was yet another milestone.