STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22589: Saturday and Sunday In Salt Lake City

May 17, 2009 on 3:03 pm | In On The Road |

Since I recovered from those back to back all nighters, I have done only one trip, and it was a pretty easy one. Things are going well for both the MMM and yours truly. The MMM are slowly catching up to me (age wise). On or around Memorial Day, they will be 9 years old (that’s either 63 or 54 in ‘dog years’ depending on which method you use to make your calculations). In case I haven’t covered it yet, here are the two methods of calculation: First is the old standard, 7 years for every ‘people year’. The second method used is 14 years for the first ‘people year’, plus 5 years for every ‘people year’ thereafter. Many Veterinarians tout the second method as being more accurate. At any rate, neither show any signs of becoming aged (unlike their ‘daddy’).
Now, on with the chronicles.

Thursday, May 14th:  Rested and recuperated from the prior arduous journey, I awoke about 0700 with a PrePlan on my QualCom. It picked up in Spanaway, WA and delivered in Draper, UT. I dinked around until 1100, then drove over to the shipper which was about 20 miles from Sumner. It was a drop/hook pick-up and it went well. I left the customer about 1230 and drove back to the terminal in Sumner to weigh the load. It was a good thing because I had to make some minor adjustments to get the load legal. I left Sumner about 1400 and drove to Umatilla, OR. I took a quick break, then drove to Baker, OR where I stopped for the night.

Friday: I left Baker at 0730 and drove to Eden, ID. I took a quick break, then finished out my day by driving to Salt Lake City, UT. I wanted to get my DOT Physical done, but alas, I arrived about 5 minutes too late. To compensate, I bought a set of steer tires instead. They were below the 50% wear limit. I was beginning to feel a slight vibration and they were showing signs of excessive wear (cupping) on the outer edges as well. All that killed about an hour. The new tires I bought are 16 ply, rated for over 14,000 lbs, rather than 12 ply, rated for 12,250 lbs of the ones I replaced. They are also “green” (which means they are environmentally friendly, not their color). After that, I dropped my trailer in the yard and drove to the Sapp Brother’s truck stop to veg and geek for the rest of the day.

Saturday:  I spent the morning and a good part of the afternoon vegging and geeking again. About 1500, I ventured out. I had no particular destination in mind, I just had to DO something. I wound up first at a Camera Store. They didn’t have anything to “catch my eye”, so I drove across the street to a K-Mart. Here I was looking for some food storage containers, but I couldn’t find the ones I wanted. I found a “George Formanesque” grill for the microwave, but it was out of the box and the instruction manual was missing, so I passed on it as well. Alas, my quest for a product that will “brown” food in a microwave continues. On the way out, I noticed Pepsi for on sale $1.50 a 12-pack. I bought 4, so the afternoon wasn’t a total waste. That’s about ½ the price at Walmart. Next, I went looking for something to eat. I, again, had no particular destination, or cuisine, in mind. I came across a Golden Corral, so I stopped there. It was good, as usual, and, as usual, I ate too much. After dinner, I drove back to the terminal, hooked up to my trailer and went to bed.

Sunday:  I was up at 0230 this morning. My load delivered in Draper, about 20 miles south, at 0345. After I walked the MMM, I drove to the consignee. I arrived a little bit early, but not much. They arrived a little late, but not much. It took them a little over an hour to unload my trailer. I then drove back to the Sapp Brother’s, arriving about 0600. I had a Strawberry Waffle and some Bacon for breakfast, then began vegging and geeking again. There is little chance of my receiving a PrePlan today. Freight is still pretty sparse in this area. Hopefully tomorrow. Maybe I’ll finally get my DOT Physical out of the way before I leave. I only have until the end of the month to have it done.