We’ve enjoyed the last couple of days in Salt Lake City. The view from our hotel is really spectacular. The weather took a sharp turn on us though. When we arrived on Sunday night, it was in the 60’s. Monday brought colder weather and SNOW! It snowed again on Tuesday – almost 2 feet in the mountains. By Tuesday night, it had warmed up and most of the snow had melted.
I was able to get a great deal of work done these last few days. When you’re going all the time – driving and performing – there’s not a lot of time to make calls and complete paperwork. This was a good time to try and get caught up.
And speaking of paperwork, it seems that events of Iowa (read February 8, Waterloo) continue to haunt me. Now that I’ve completed everything for which I was cited by Officer Rheinhardt, I received a letter from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration representative in Ames saying that, perhaps, I didn’t need a Class A CDL afterall. BUT the citation has now triggered a full “compliance investigation” by the FMCSA in Virginia. I got a call yesterday from Special Agent R.C. Rogers telling me that I need to bring my truck to Richmond, along with my “qualification papers” for a four hour review! It’s set for May 16. When I asked him WHAT items are included in this “qualification” folder, he only said, “If you don’t know, then you’re not in compliance.” He couldn’t even tell me specifically what I need to bring. He referred me to the FMCSA website where I should check out “How To Comply.” When I got back to the hotel, I did that. Here’s what it says, ” NOTE: This guide is currently under revision. Since some information may not be completely up to date, please consult the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), which are updated quarterly online.” So, I checked out the FMCSR to see how to comply. Like most government documents, this one was pages and pages long and impossible to understand. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll have to do the best I can and see what happens. This entire experience dealing with the Feds has been a nightmare…thanks to an officer in Iowa with too much time on his hands.
Today, we head up to Logan, UT. We have performances there on Thursday and Friday.