STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22302: Corinne Conundrum

August 3, 2008 on 2:22 pm | In On The Road |

On Tuesday, July 29th, an incident occurred at the Corinne terminal which didn’t involve me, but does effect me. It is in regards to pets. It seems that a driver had his truck in the shop for repairs. He had his dog(s), on leash, outside the shop, waiting for his truck to be repaired. The dogs were incessantly barking. This caused the Walmart Site Manager to, once again, start enforcing the “no pets outside the vehicle” policy.
I was en route to Las Vegas & San Bernardino with a load when I received the message via QualCom about the change in policy. After considerable “naval contemplation”, I decided to end my affiliation with the Corinne facility. Remaining there would involve too many hassles. First, I would have to stop somewhere before I enter the facility and exercise the MMM. Next, I would have to depart as soon as I dropped the trailer and drive 10 to 15 miles to ‘hang out’ until my next load. The choices are limited. Tremonton is the only place with a restaurant (if you consider Denny’s a restaurant). Perry has the Walmart and a small truck stop, but only has “fast food” available. The town of Corinne ‘rolls up the sidewalks at 9:00 PM, so that is not a viable option. Anyway, after I recieved my next dispatch, I would again have to walk the MMM, then drive the 10 to 15 miles back, pick up the load, and leave. Like I said, hassle, hassle, hassle. That 20 to 30 miles (round trip) will add up to well over 100 extra, unpaid, miles per week, so there is the added expense to consider as well. Since I was planning on leaving around the middle of October anyway ( I had no intention of driving another Winter here), all this did was expedite my departure date by a couple of months. 
At any rate, I’m currently sitting at the truck stop in Perry just hanging out until tomorrow (Monday the 4th). I’ll get myself re-instated at the Salt Lake City facility, and go back out ‘over-the-road’ for now. Dedicated runs that will get me to or through Las Vegas are few and far between, but I’ll keep looking.
Now for a quick ‘catch up’ on what I’ve been doing (besides the above) since my last Post; which is actually very little. I took that load to Las Vegas on the 26th, and did, in fact take a couple of days off. I returned to Corinne on the 28th. On the 29th, I took the above mentioned load to Las Vegas/San Bernardino. When I returned in the wee hours of August 1st, I agreed to take one last load (after taking a 10-hour break) to Grand Junction and Olathe, CO as a favor (they had 50 more loads than trucks available). The Olathe stop was a back-haul of ’sweet corn’. I arrived there (Olathe) about 0730 yesterday morning. As I drove through town to the customer, I noticed some “big doings” happening a half block away. It turned out that I had arrived right at the beginning of the Sweet Corn Festival. A FREE pancake and ham breakfast had just begun. You know me, after I was loaded, I strolled over for the free food. It was quite tasty, especially for the price. I also purchased 1/2 dozen ears of the local treat to take with me. They cost me a whopping $2.00. They were excellent. (Hint: 2 ears + 3 minutes in the microwave = Corn perfection)  :=} 
   
I left about 0900, just as the Parade was just beginning. I turned right to connect with the main highway (US-50) just as the first floats were 1/2 a block away heading towards me. I’m glad I left when I did. Had I stayed any longer, I would have been trapped for quite a while. The rest of the trip was uneventful. When I arrived back at Corinne, I dropped my trailer, left the facility and came here to ‘vegetate and geek’ until tomorrow.