STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22186: BLOG update from Billings

April 9, 2008 on 9:20 am | In On The Road |

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.