STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22200: Tremonton Tribulation

As usual, there is little of consequence to report in this posting, except for a little today which i’ll get to after bringing you up to date on my goings about.

After I returned to Corinne on the 16th, I took a load to Casper, WY. It went well. Before I returned to Corinne on the 18th, I had breakfast at the nearby Perkins Family Restaurant. The return trip was equally uneventful.
My next load was a 4-stop load to Orem and Provo, UT, Mesquite, NV, and finally a backhaul in Sugarville (near Delta), UT. The weather had turned cold and windy, and I made most of the trip in an all-out dust storm. I was lucky, because Montana and Wyoming got yet another dose of winter with blowing snow and ice. Quite nasty. Anyway, I digress. I made the first 3 stops, then drove back into Utah where I stopped at the MMM’s favorite Rest Area on I-15 at mm-88. Before I left Corinne, I had put some kraut, potatoes and sausages in the Crock Pot, so I had a nice dinner then went to bed. On the 20th, I drove to the 4th stop, did the drop/hook, and drove back to Corinne. The dust storm was even worse, with gusty winds and visibility of a mile or less in spots. Before I called it a day, I did a local run to West Valley City and Tooele, UT and back. 
On the 21st, I took a load to Littleton, Thornton, and Louisville, CO. All went well both going and coming. When I arrived back in Corinne yesterday evening, I had only 4.5 hours remaining of my 70 for the week.
This morning, I decided to put my truck in the shop for a PM Service and to have my clutch checked out. It was hard to get into gear from neutral. Perhaps a bad clutch brake or adjustment. With only 4.5 hours to work today, there was little that I could do for Walmart. I got into the shop at 0700. The first thing the mechanic found was that the oil fill tube mount bracket was broken and the oil cap was missing. They welded the bracket back together and re-installed it, but the cap won’t arrive until tomorrow afternoon. I used some Ethno-Centric Engineering to temporarily solve the problem. I rolled up a shop towel, stuffed it in the fill tube and secured it with a zip-tie to keep contaminants out of the engine. They found a coolant leak, (the engine block heater gasket). They also found that one of my clutch linkages was missing a rubber bushing, which was throwing the clutch out of adjustment and not allowing the clutch brake to engage. While waiting, I replaced my air filter, which was filthy. Both the coolant leak and the clutch are under warranty, so they sent me to a shop here in Tremonton, UT which does warranty repairs for Kenworth. I arrived a little before noon, but had to wait until almost 1500 before I finally got into the shop. While I was waiting, I went to a nerarby Denny’s (YUK) for a late breakfast. After I was in the shop, I retired to the driver’s lounge with the MMM after a good walk. They settled in nicely, sharing a couch with me one on each side. A while later, the parts man came up and told me that the part for the clutch would have to be ordered and would take a week or so to arrive. I told them to just forget about it. About 1800, it was time for another walk. After that, I checked on my truck. The mechanic was just finishing the block heater gasket (it was hard to reach). When I checked about 15 minutes later, he was adjusting the clutch. I thought to myself that it was a futile effort, since the missing bushing would throw it out of adjustment again. Evidently, he was more informed than the day shift parts man, because he said that he had found the proper bushing in the parts room replaced it. COOL!!! So far, so good.

I’m pleased to find I have pretty good connectivity here with my Sprint Wireless Card. It’s about 13 miles north of Corinne. I may come up here more often. At 0800 tomorrow morning, I will have 34 consecutive hours off duty, so i’ll start off tomorrow with a fresh 70-hour work week. Back to the Salt Mine.

Life Day 22193: Hoopla From Home

Again, there is little to write about. My life remains mundane. We remain in good health and humor.

To begin the update, i’ll start with leaving Billings, MT on the 9th. A Golden Corral shares the same lot, so I had a good dinner. When I returned to my truck , I had messages, both phone and QualCom, asking if I could give another driver a ride back to Corinne. His truck was in the Freightliner shop for some major engine work, and he had to get back to Salt lake City for an appointment. I said OK. After I picked him up, and we got the MMM settled down (they were excited to have company), we left about 1700. He showed me a “short-cut” back to Corinne which bypasses Yellowstone National Park. It is about the same mileage, but there is less wildlife on the road, and less mountain driving. We got back about 0300 on the 10th.
After my 10-hour break, I accepted a load to Grand Junction, CO. Before I left on the 11th, I had lunch at another conveniently located Golden Corral restaurant. If I keep this up, i’ll soon be a blimp. Anyway, when I got back to Corinne, I took another load to Provo, UT. I arrived about 2145. They took forever to unload me, so I had to sleep there instead of returning to Corinne. My 14-hour driving window expired.
On the 12th, I returned to Corinne then took a load with 3 stops, 2 right back to Grand Junction, CO  and the third to Delta, CO. I did all the deliveries, then went to bed about midnight.
On the 13th, I had breakfast at a Sonic Drive-in. I then drove back to Corinne. When I returned, I accepted this load to Henderson, NV. I took about a 3 hour break there for a shower and dinner, then drove to Nephi, UT where I stopped for the night.
On the 14th, I left Nephi after a healthy breakfast of Cereal and Toast. I made the delivery in Henderson about 1530, then drove to the WWW for some time at home.
The weather here has been warm, but not hot. The wind has been about 5 MPH above “balmy”. Just enough to spread dust everywhere. I have done nothing productive on this stay except check my mail and write this BLOG post. I’ll return to Corinne later today refreshed and invigorated, ready to start it all over again.

Life Day 22186: BLOG update from Billings

The reason that I haven’t updated in a while is because there is nothing of consequence going on with me. The weather has been cooperating nicely. “Old Man Winter” still rears his head occasionally, but he’s like a toothless hound now. The MMM and I are enjoying good health, happiness and prosperity, at least as much as one can expect in these times. I’m still with Walmart. No further mention of scheduled days off.

Now for the update. I’ll begin with St. Patrick’s Day. I put a corned beef brisket in the slow-cooker and set of back to Corinne. When I arrived there, I had my St. Patrick’s Day feast, sans cabbage, which I don’t eat in any form except saurkraut. The next day, I took a 4 stop load right back to Vegas, with one stop being a San Bernardino, CA back-haul. All went well, but with all the stops in Vegas, I was only able to make it to Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, NV (at the NV/CA border) before I had to stop for the night. Before I left the next day, I took the monorail across the freeway to Terrible’s Casino for Breakfast.


I then drove on to San Bernardino. This time it was a drop/hook, so it went smoothly. When finished, I drove back to Primm where I took a quick MMM break. From there, I drove to the other end of Nevada, stopping in Mesquite for the night. The next day, the Vernal Equinox, upon my return to Corinne, I recieved yet another load to Vegas, this time with just one stop. I drove to Beaver, UT where I stopped for the night. On Good Friday, the 21st, I delivered the Vegas load, then drove back into Utah. I stopped at the MMM’s favorite Rest Area at mm-88 on I-15. I decided to call it a day there. No sense exerting ones self needlessly so soon after a change of seasons, especially with a weekend fast approaching. The next day, I finished the Vegas load, and accepted one to Ephriam, and Richfield, UT. All went smoothly with both stops, and after finishing in Richfield, I drove to the Flying J there and retired for the night.
On Easter Sunday, I left Richfield, but not before taking the MMM on an Easter Egg hunt. (the Flying J sold dyed, peeled hard boiled eggs for Easter). They found them easily, although they were disappointed that they didn’t get to see the Easter Bunny.

I spent the rest of Easter Sunday driving back to Corinne, then doing a quick load to Blackfoot, ID and back. By the time I returned to Corinne, I had used all of my alloted 70 hours for the week, so I had to do a 34 hour re-start.
My next loads were to Grand Junction, CO, Cody, WY, Saint George, UT, and finally, on April Fools Day, to Las Vegas, NV for some much needed time at home. This time , my stay was productive. The permanent License Plates for my Cruiser were ready, so I picked them up at the dealer. I also made my first payment (3 weeks early) there as well. I also received and paid the bill for my car Insurance. The main thing though was that finally, over 4 months after winning it on New Years Eve, I picked up my Video Poker machine. (They lost the paperwork a couple of times and it had to go through Legal to be approved). It was easy loading it into the back of my Cruiser with a forklift (the thing weighs about 300 pounds). It didn’t quite fit so I had to tie the hatch down with some twine and drive the 3 odd miles to my storage shed (with the “door ajar” beeper beeping all the way). When I arrived there, I realized I had a daunting task ahead of me. How do I get this 300 lb monster out of my car and into my storage shed without damaging the Cruiser, the machine, or yours truly. Fortunately there was a nice young man working in his space a few down from mine who offered to help. It was easy then. Once we got it out of the car, I used my dolly to put in it the shed. I offered to buy him lunch, but he declined.
I returned to Corinne on the 4th. Since my return I did loads to Price, UT and Nampa, ID, as well as a couple of local loads, before taking this load to Billings, MT. I’ll return to Corinne today.

P.S. I’ve missed a couple of “Kodak Moments” recently. The first was a Prong-horn Sheep grazing along the shoulder of the road near Cody, WY. The second was a Buffalo, also grazing along the shoulder of the road, near West Yellowstone, MT. DRAT!!!! In both cases, it was unsafe to stop for a picture.