STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21518: Oompah Encore

June 11, 2006 on 6:05 pm | In On The Road |

On the 7th, I began my day at 0600. I checked in with Recieving and was immediately given a door. Enroute to the dock area at the back of the building, I couldn’t resist taking this photo of a Roadrunner. Wile E Coyote was nowhere in sight. Probably at home waiting for his next delivery from “ACME”.

After delivering my load, I drove to the shipper in Tempe for the North Las Vegas load. It took a couple of hours to get loaded. I then drove to our terminal for fuel and an MMM walk. From there, I drove to Kingman where I stopped for lunch. About 1600 I drove on to NLV. I spent the night at the Flying J, which was about a mile away from the consignee.
On Thursday, I arrived at the customer a little before the appointed time of 0800. As I arrived, there was another Swift driver backing into a dock. I checked in with Recieving. I was told to just drop my trailer in place and go to their satellite location for my empty. When I left, the other Swift driver was still trying to back into his assigned dock. I arrived at the satellite location and found that there was only one empty Swift trailer. I hooked to it, then did my E-Call and updated my Driver Stats. As I was preparing to leave, the other Swift driver finally drove by looking for his empty. I guess he was disappointed. I then drove to the WWW to begin my much deserved and needed time off. After I arrived, I gathered the necessary paperwork to begin the process of obtaining the HAZMAT endorsement for my CDL. My license expires on my birthday next month and because of the new DOT requirements, and Homeland Security, I need to have a “background check” before I can get the endorsement. Part of this process was to go to a “quick care” medical facility to be fingerprinted, which I did. I just ‘vegged’ and ‘geeked’ for the rest of the day.
Today, I did more ‘vegging’ and ‘geeking’. After sunset, I decided to re-visit the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. I had Schnitzel Weinerart which is a huge breaded pork cutlet. It came with Bavarian Potato Salad and a miniscule portion of Cranberry Sauce. I also ordered a side of Mashed Potatoes and a side of Saurkraut, which I prompty mixed together with lots of butter. It was yummy as usual. When I was done, I returned to the WWW and went to bed.
On Saturday, surprisingly, I did yet more ‘vegging’ and ‘geeking’. Again, I waited until after sunset before I ventured out. For dinner tonight, I went to Bootleggers Bistro. You would never guess by it’s name that it is one of the best Italian restaurants in Las Vegas. I had Minestrone Soup and Chicken Fettucine Alfredo. It was ‘top notch’. I can’t say as much for the entertainment. If you combine all of the bad stereotypes of Las Vegas Lounge Acts, you have Frankie Bells’ Round-up Show. I’ll definitely return, but i’ll make a conscious effort to time my visit to avoid this floor show. To be fair, I cannot pass judgement on any of the entertainers who perform on other nights of the week. I’ll have to check them out and render an opinion later.