STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21994: “Vegging” in Vegas

September 30, 2007 on 3:03 pm | In On The Road |

Nothing much new since my last post. Since the family reunion earlier this month, I’ve been to a couple of different stores to which I don’t normally travel. Week before last the first load I did (after returning to Corinne after the reunion) was to the store in Mountain Home, ID. After that, it was fairly mundane. Last weekend, I did a 3 stop Vegas load with a ‘back haul’ out of San Bernardino, CA. I stopped in Vegas long enough to do a 34-hour restart. Last week, I did back to back Cody, WY loads. I even got snowed upon a little bit between Thermopolis, WY and Rock Springs, WY. Time to break out the winter clothes again. ALREADY!!
Not much new on the ‘home front’ either. The weather is cooling down. Yesterday was in the mid 80’s. Right now it’s 91 degrees, and it won’t get much hotter.

I bought a new (replacement) radio for my truck (a Pioneer DEH-P3900MP). Nothing wrong with the factory installed radio, except that it is a factory installed radio. It doesn’t have all the “whistles and bells” that the new one has. The new Pioneer plays music in almost any format and is XM ready. Handy for me. I can take the XM unit I have in the truck now and use it in my car. I’ll be “tuned in” to my “tunes” 24/7 now. The main selling point for me was the Aux Input in the front. I can hook up my Zune without having to access the back of the radio. Technology is amazing. Ten years ago, I was just starting my CD collection, now I have 6000+ songs at my fingertips, and completely portable.

Soon, I’ll need to make a major purchase. With the constantly rising cost of fuel, and State Legislatures falling all over each other trying to be the first to enact anti-idling laws for diesel trucks, I’m going to have to invest in an APU (auxilliary power unit) for my truck before too long. There are about 5 different brands to choose from. The two top contenders are the ThermoKing TriPac and the Carrier ComfortPro. Both are of equal quality. I have talked to owners of both, and they swear by them. I don’t know which I’ll buy. Of the two, ThermoKing has the most dealers across the nation. Unfortunately, both are about $9,000, installed.  OUCH!!!  That’ll dent the wallet a bit. Winter is fast approaching so I’ll have to decide soon.