Work

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Racing Deadlines

Whew!

I’ve just completed two huge days for my non-transcription client (my uncle’s company). I haven’t had much work from them this year, partly because I haven’t been available, but also because I do relief work for my mother and she’s always caught in a catch-22 where when she needs me, she’s too busy to have time to put jobs together for me.

I suspected, correctly, that I might get some work from them at the end of this year because that’s when one of their clients updates its forms. I’ve had a few small jobs in the past week from other clients of theirs, but this week the big(gish) one landed, with just a couple of days to complete. It was one of those ‘work till it’s done’ type of jobs with a very tight deadline.

This is the kind of work I love as it’s creative, methodical, and logical. I can lose myself in it for hours. It is frustrating that I have to work in a Windows environment, but that’s my only quibble.

Today, I had to get the proofs out. Exceptionally, I was put in direct contact with the client, so I got to see the feedback for my work firsthand. Only four modifications to make, two of which were changes on their part rather than errors. It was very gratifying!

I might have one more big day on this job because we’re waiting for the final approvals. What a perfect week for this job since the transcription work I was expecting didn’t come in!

As for transcription, my big law enforcement client and I have agreed to go our separate ways. We were not a good fit for each other. I’ll miss the income, but not the ulcers I was starting to get from all the unprofessional emails I was receiving.

Anyway, there are other things in the pipeline. A good paying contract with a US state to do their legislative hearings is starting again at the beginning of the January and will take me through the winter. Also, another client is trying to increase the rates her clients pay her so she can give me a raise, which would convince me to agree to a set minimum of work from her per week. I’m normally leery of promising availability like that because I’ve been burned in the past with the work not showing up and being short in my budget, but this client comes through 99% of the time. This week is an exception and I know it’s because of the holiday season.

Time for supper, then I have to clean up the kitchen, then I have to get a small transcription job out. I feel blessed that I’m not lacking for projects!

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Motel Thoughts

I’m doing a lot of motel stays on this trip so that I can work. I don’t have the kind of work that can literally be done from anywhere. I need to sit at a proper desk and quiet surroundings, so working out of a coffee shop or even my truck isn’t an option. With the way I’m being paid for my current contract, it’s really worth it for me to take a motel room to work. With other clients in the past, the profit margin would have been too slim to make the expense worthwhile.

My motel stays have thus far been at super inexpensive economy places. I could afford more if I needed to, but the rooms I’ve had so far have perfectly met my needs. The most important thing is that the room needs to feel and look clean, especially for an extended stay. I know that a place can be worn and clean, but it’s hard to get past the mental barrier that grunge does not include filth. I have stayed at higher end locations, but, really, I don’t appreciate the difference and I’ve had actually had less for a lot more money. Inexpensive doesn’t have to mean the roach motel. I have in the past only been able to afford something like that, and it’s fine for one night, but I wouldn’t put up with that for an extended stay nowadays.

I’ve stayed in three motel rooms on this trip and they’ve all been very fresh. The two for extended stays have even included a fridge and microwave, which means being able to stay in for some meals, bring back leftovers, and, most important, make my own coffee. These lower end motels have even had super nice pools!

The only thing these lower end motels don’t have that I got at a more upscale hotel in Vegas in ’07 is a cute cabana boy in tight red shorts who hands you towels and margaritas. I only ended up at that hotel because I got an insane online deal. Gorgeous as he was, he wasn’t worth the $100 plus the room would have normally been worth. 😉

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Pocatello, ID to Hurricane, UT

I didn’t plan to do a long day today. So when I awoke at 6:00 to rain in Pocatello, I promptly went back to sleep. The weather had not improved when I finally got up two hours later.

Last night, my GPS insisted that there was a Starbucks near my overnighting spot, by the McDonald’s, but I couldn’t find it. In the light of day, I had an epiphany, the Starbucks was likely in the Fred Meyers (a store like a Super Walmart) that I had spotted. So I headed there in the hopes of getting decent coffee, breakfast, and munchies for the road. Success! I found some nice Oscar Meyer ‘protein packs’ with lean meat, a few nuts, and cubes of cheese for dirt cheap, and one of those was the perfect breakfast, along with a grande dark roast from Starbucks.

I then hit the road, sticking to I-15 to make sure that I wouldn’t miss the Utah welcome centre. It was very dark almost all the way to the Utah border. It was weird to driven I-15 in that direction, although I do believe I’ve drive the Idaho/Montana portion of the highway as well. I just associate it with the long drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. 🙂

I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop in Salt Lake City or not. When I finally came to the welcome centre, many miles into the state, and got a ‘SLC highlights’ map, I knew that a stop would not be a good use of my time. SLC is a planned community established by the Mormon Brigham Young and the highlights of the city all have to do with the LDS church. I’m all for learning about different faiths, but I’m on an increasingly tight schedule. One thing I can say about the Great Salt Lake, you can smell it from a distance!

I stuck to I-15 through the city (not for the faint of heart and glad not to have done it in an RV!) and then took back roads, most notably route 6. At first, it was painful going, lots of stop and go and slow speed limits, then the road opened up and I was glad to have made the decision. The drive was incredibly isolated, with almost no services, much like the drive through the Sierra Nevadas and the Mojave Desert. I would not recommend getting off the interstate in Utah unless you trust your vehicle! My truck is running great, by the way. 🙂

There really wasn’t much to stop at and the landscape was all the same, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures. I was very grateful to find a small rest area south (or was it west?) of Elberta (not a typo), and I got fuel in Delta ($3.35, I think, compared to $3.19 at Fred Meyer). I didn’t fill up completely, hoping to do so at cheaper prices later.

I had a lot of time to think today, even with the radio blaring the whole way. It’s 10 days to the end of the month and I really want to get to Mexico the first week of November. I have four days’ of work in my queue and ideally need to do another three to be in good shape for November. I hadn’t planned on a canon ball run to Zion, but it suddenly made sense to push on tonight and stay there a full week, giving me time to alternate work and exploring days.

It got really, really hot by mid-afternoon and in an act of desperation, I turned on the truck AC, which has been dead as a doornail since I left Quebec in late 2012. Whadya know, it started blowing cool air… Not super cold, but just perfect! WOW.

I stopped at a McDonald’s in Cedar City to check out the hotel situation in Springdale, the gateway community to Zion National Park. Hotel prices were out of my price range. It makes no sense to sink nearly a day’s income into a hotel room. Might as well not work and truck camp instead! Prices in St. George were much more reasonable, but St. George is a full hour to Zion. Priceline clued me in that there might be a compromise, the city of Hurricane, 30 minutes from Springdale. Online prices weren’t great and I decided to go door to door at each hotel in Hurricane until I found one with a decent weekly rate.

It was coming on seven when I pulled into the first motel on my list. No weekly rates and the daily rate was $50 for weeknights, $90 for weekends. PASS.

Next motel had a weekly rate of about $33 plus tax per night. Amenities included an onsite laundromat and a pool. Suspicious, I asked for a key to a room on the second floor away from the main road so I could inspect it. The room was large, clean, and newly renovated, had yet another super comfy bed, a microwave and fridge, and a decent table and chair setup for work. SOLD. I booked for the week and was assured that I can renew for a few days at the same rate if I want to as I may decide to just hang out if I get work for next week early in the week. We shall see.

I lugged about 50 billion pounds of luggage into the room. I hadn’t planned to get on the road so late and therefore hadn’t expected to be in HOT weather quickly. I really need to switch out the fall clothes with more summery ones!

Dinner was from a well reviewed fast food Mexican joint, Alberto’s. My enchiladas were made with corn tortillas and were not smothered in cheese and sour cream, so even with the beans and rice, it wasn’t a heavy meal. It wasn’t a wow meal, but it hit the spot.

I got some groceries after dinner from a nearby supermarket and noticed a frozen yoghurt place on the way back similar to the one I went to in Salem, OR, where you pay by the weight and can add toppings. I got a small portion of yoghurt with a few toppings and was shocked when it weighed in at over $10! I could have bought several Ben and Jerry containers for that price! It was outrageous and I would have complained had tonight not happened to be ‘fill your container for $3 night’ and my price got reduced to that! Phew! I had a yummy pineapple yoghurt with fresh fruit. Very refreshing!

So now, the plan is to work tomorrow and go exploring on Thursday and Sunday. Andy Baird is camped just minutes away, so I’m hoping to meet up with him while I’m here! This is the guy who gave me a vision of the RV I wanted when I was shopping way back in 2008 and who has been an incredible mentor. It would be the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae to cap off a trip to Zion with a meetup!

So Zion… The LAST item on my American bucket list! Sure, there are other things I’d like to see, volcanoes in Hawaii, the Everglades, the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley come to mind, but nothing absolutely pressing that I’d want to make an express trip to (post edited on July 20th, 2017, to note that I’ve been to the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley since then!). I started traveling as a grown up at the age of 17, starting with my trips to Colorado and NYC in the fall of 1996, and it has taken me less than 20 years to make my way through my list of must dos. My Canada list has only two things left on it. I think it’s high time for me to get to Mexico, and then the world beyond, no? 🙂

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Displeased

The cheque I’m waiting for, which should have been mailed on the 3rd at the latest but did not get to the post until the 6th at who knows what time, is still not here. It’s a substantial cheque and I really don’t want to leave without it being in the bank. So I am stuck here until Tuesday at least since this is a long weekend (Thanksgiving).

I have no food to speak of and the kitchen is packed and spotless. So now, I have to make a run to Willow Bunch to get non-perishables (fridge is off) for the weekend, unpack, and plan to reclean the kitchen on Monday.

For November onward, the cheques will be sent to my mother in QC for depositing, but I thought that I could wait here for the October one to arrive. What a mistake that was! 🙁 The delay is such a snowball in that even when the cheque does get it, the bulk of it will be frozen for up to two weeks. I can still take off, but my budget for the first bit of my trip will be much tighter than it would have needed to be.

I’m glad that I accepted as much work as I did for this past week, otherwise I would be quite angry today!

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Town Run

One cheque I’ve been expecting was here today, but not the one I was hoping for. The one I got was for 198USD from Amazon (thank you again to everyone who uses my affiliate link!). I wanted to buy 200USD, so I thought I could just get the 198US straight up. Nope! I had to convert the cheque to CAD and then back to USD. I lost 15CAD in the exchanges. Based on my banking history, I was advised that I should open up a USD account. I’ll investigate that next year.

I then went to the SaskTel dealer to unlock my cell phone and was told that I needed to call the toll free number to do that. I informed the clerk that the toll free number had told me to do it in person and was haughtily told, “Yes, I can do it for you, but you still have to pay the $50.” Nowhere in the exchange we had previous to that did I even mention the $50 unlock fee, much less that I had any issue with it (for things like that, choose to just accept rather than fight). So now the phone is supposed to be unlocked, or at least it will be once I go through some steps to reset it.

I was also told that I can call SaskTel on Friday, or whenever I’m ready to leave, and they will suspend my account for three months. My monthly fee is $70 plus tax and I was resigned to paying that for eight months, so I’m glad to save the three months!

I had some bottles and cans to return and got $11.40 from that. Lunch at the buffet in town is $11.45 with the tip, so I took that as a sign to go have lunch even though I hadn’t planned on it! As I’ve been posting on Facebook, I’ve been keeping myself rather creatively fed as I work through my stores, but I’m really due for a ‘proper’ meal. So lunch was rather appreciated, especially since they had baked ham as a special item (no extra charge) and it was cooked and seasoned exactly the way I like it. Yum!

I also stopped at Peavey Mart to buy a good quality tarp to cover the front part of Miranda’s roof. I haven’t had a leak in several rainy days, so I’m thinking the caulking I put up there finally cured, but I don’t want to take a chance with the snow melt in the spring. I have no idea yet how I’m going to secure the tarp, but I’ll figure something out. 🙂 While at Peavey, I also bought a better, weatherproof, lock for my breaker box. The one I’ve been using is incredibly stiff and no amount of lubricant is helping.

Gas was ‘only’ $1.23 today, so I filled up, not being certain of how soon after the border I’ll hit a gas station. I hoped to find a map book or at least a map of Montana at the gas station, but there was nothing. I’ll pick something up in Billings because I like to have the paper as a backup. I’m also going to buy a new GPS. I’ve been using an app on my phone that isn’t bad, but it’s just not as user friendly as a dedicated GPS. I also need to have some work done on the truck (oil change and possibly the brakes), so I might end up in Billings for a few days.

I should be done with my work by tomorrow night and then I can spend Friday morning getting the property closed up. So I’m guessing I’ll be on the road by early afternoon Friday, as long as the cheque is here by then. I’m going to ask about when it was sent if it’s not here tomorrow.

Driving my truck into town today, I couldn’t help but be eager to take her out for a long stretch. My Moya’s happiest on the long hauls. We’re a good match. 🙂