Pilot/Flying J

 Just a short blog entry about  the truck stops - which are owned by the same company - listed in the title of this post.

First off, I have never liked either one, even before they combined together.  Pilots are trashy and cheapskates.  Flying J's have Dennys a lot of times but that's the only redeeming factor.  

Our company recently forged some sort of contract with them for purchasing all of our fuel from them exclusively.  I despised the idea of being forced to either of them. 

IN my route, there is only one of each, Flying J on exit 7 off of I-30, which has a very bad reputation for a variety of things and Lufkin off of 59 for the Pilot. 

I don't care how much fuel you buy, you aren't getting a free coffee from them. You can use your points to get it, yes, but the extra free coffee on top of that if you buy enough gallons of fuel the previous month? Nope.  Truckers from the golden age of trucking don't call these places truck stops. The era of free meals, drinks and perk  are over for the most part. 

Anyway, I go into the Pilot in Lufkin.  It's easier than going into the Flying J on 30 - that place is always busy and you can expect to wait for a while to even get to the pumps.  

I've been getting water refills since I was forced to go back in there.  Free, of course, most of these travel centers give free tap water regardless of fuel purchase. 

Imagine my surprise when I took an over-priced salad - $7.99 for this little thing - and a refill cup of water to the checkout and the dude charges me $2.08 for the water.  When I saw the total of over $10 I was like, what? He told me the price of each and I just said no.   We went back and forth, I told him I've been getting free water here.  Nope, he says, they are wrong and should have been charging for it.

At this point, I asked for a manager and told the guy behind me he could go ahead of me.  He just shook his head and stood there, apparently interested in seeing what was going to happen next.  If they were going to charge me for water, I would have just left my cup there and the salad, they can keep it, I'll forego the water.  

It took a minute, but the manager finally comes out.  She smiles at me and asks me how she can help me?  Yes, this guy is trying to charge me $2.08 for this cup of water. I brought this cup in with me, it only has ice and water in it.  The man interjects, yes, it's a fountain drink. The manager gives him a pretty interesting look and then back to me: did you tell him there is only ice water in here? YES, SEVERAL TIMES.  

She looks back at him: You KNOW this, we don't charge for water?!  He objects and she corrects him again!  What an @$$!  He finally threw his hands up in there, declared "WHATEVER!" and took the drink charge off of there. No apology, no I'm sorry sir, just pure attitude. Just another reason to despise this horrible chain of travel centers.  

 Wednesday - late night

I look at the pile of junk tablet  frequently to ensure things are right. It malfunctions frequently, they won't do anything about it, I'm tired of dealing with it. This morning, headquarters in Oregon sent out a statement that literally no one had done their DVIR's - Driver Vehicle Inspection Report - and chastised all of us, quite stupidly I might add.  The idea that over 100 drivers wouldn't do what the feds require you to do is ridiculous and asinine.  OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH THEIR TABLET SOFTWARE, AGAIN.  

Anyway, as of this morning, I was working tomorrow.  As of this afternoon? I am not working tomorrow, I am working Friday and Saturday. I do hope that is setting me up for Sunday off, for if it's not, I"m taking Sunday off anyway;  Don't really care, have worked 2 weekends in a row, I'ma get a day of rest.  Anyway, I'll take tomorrow off with no complaints whatsoever, stay up a bit late and get up late.  

I am going to continue work tomorrow on the driveway. I'd like to get it as good as I can with that tractor and then have some fresh - expensive - gravel brought out.  Just for next to the RV lots, not the rest of the driveway to keep the dust down. The price of gravel delivered nowadays is absolutely ridiculous.  $850 per load. I can remember it being $200 per load.  Don't have much choice, have to keep the peeps happy. A bunch of dust flying up every time someone drives through there is unacceptable.  About 300 feet of driveway covered with 2 truckloads of gravel should do it and keep it good for a while to come.  

Wish I had a trackhoe to dig out the side of the driveway and create a fresh path for rain runoff to flow through. I don't and I'm not doing that tomorrow - renting a machine and spending all day working on that.  There is a monopoly on gravel in this town. I can get gravel from out of town but the distance is too far and even with reduced gravel rates, the trucking costs go way up and you save nothing and actually lose.  

The kid wanted to mow the grass today, I told him to have at it.  He got back to me later and said the mower battery is dead. Not surprising, it hasn't been run in a while. I'll charge that tomorrow as well if I have any extension cords left over there - the thievery from "guests" is amazing.