STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21772: At Leisure in Las Vegas

February 20, 2007 on 10:52 am | In On The Road |

Here I go again playing “catch up” on my daily diary. It was pretty uneventful. Unseasonably cold weather was the dominant factor. I did remain far enough south to avoid the snow related traffic problems in the northeast.

Monday, February 12th:
As it turned out, I did manage to accumulate enough time off to re-start my 70-hour clock, but not by choice. There was no freight available in Memphis either. After sitting most of the day, I finally recieved a PrePlan that picked up in Memphis and delivered in Jefferson City, MO, a whopping 330 miles.

Tuesday:
I picked up the Jefferson City load and departed  Memphis at 0930. I drove to Matthews, MO where I took a break for lunch. I then drove on to Jefferson City. I spent the night at a tiny truckstop a mile or so away from the consignee.

Wednesday:
I did the drop delivery at 0900. They had no empty trailers available. Fortunately, after about 2 hours, I recieved and accepted a PrePlan which picked up at the same customer, albeit at one of their satellite warehouses, and delivered in Mesquite, TX. I didn’t need an empty because I had delivered earlier. I drove to the satellite warehouse and pick up the load. I left Jefferson City at about 1130. I drove to Chouteau, OK. I had lunch and fueled here, then drove to Mesquite, TX where I spent the night at the customer.

Thursday:
At 0900, the scheduled delivery time, I was unloaded. They were efficient and promt. While waiting, I recieved and accepted a PrePlan which picked up in Grand Prairie, TX and delivered in Henderson, NV. After the unload, I drove to our terminal in Lancaster, TX for fuel and to turn in paperwork. After fueling, I had some lights on my trailer repaired. They worked, but there was some “ethnocentric engineered” wiring which  caught in the door latch whenever the doors were latched. It was only a matter of time before they would have been a problem: if not for me, then the next poor driver. Better to have it repaired now while I have time. This took about an hour. I then drove to the shipper in Grand Prairie. This was a live load, but it didn’t take too long. I left Grand Prairie around noon and drove to Big Spring, TX. I had lunch/dinner here. At 1700, I left and drove the rest of the way to El Paso,TX where I planned to stop for the night.

Friday:
I took the day off today. I got a PM Service done on my truck, it’s first scheduled service. It took almost 2 months to reach 20000 miles. That’s bad, it should take about 6 weeks if freight is good and i’m running steady. I then just messed around the rest of the day. I went to “Wally World” for a while. That was the highlight of my day.

Saturday:
I left El Paso at 0930 and drove to Willcox, AZ. I had lunch here, then drove to our terminal in Phoenix for another break. At 1600, I left and drove to Kingman, AZ where I stopped for the night.

Sunday:
After messing around most of the morning, I left Kingman about 1100. I drove the consignee in Henderson on the “off chance” they would unload me today. The scheduled appointment is for tomorrow at 1000. The consignee did unload me early, but I had to wait a while (about 2 hours). After unloading, I drove to the WWW to begin my well deserved time off.