Guess who came to dinner

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:49 am

Jayhawk (along with a work associate of his) happens to be in my neck of the woods and we got together for some local cajun food last night. We talked about Shopsmith, wood, other forum members, and other topics. We had a nice chat and I had a good time.

Jay, I hope we can do it again if you come back to this area. And I hope you found your way back to the hotel from the restaurant! I didn't think about that until after I had left and no longer had a cell signal.

mrblanche · Post by **mrblanche** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:01 pm

What do you regard as "central Louisiana?"

If you're talking about Alexandria, I go through there on a regular basis!

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:12 pm

mrblanche wrote:What do you regard as "central Louisiana?"

If you're talking about Alexandria, I go through there on a regular basis!

Yep, I work in Alexandria and live about an hour north of Alex. What brings you through here? And more importantly, does this mean I can expand my Craig's List searches to Dallas?

:p

mrblanche · Post by **mrblanche** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:57 pm

heathicus wrote:Yep, I work in Alexandria and live about an hour north of Alex. What brings you through here? And more importantly, does this mean I can expand my Craig's List searches to Dallas? :p

I drive a truck for Toys R Us out of Midlothian, TX, which is a southern suburb of Dallas. We go through Alexandria to deliver in Lafayette, Houma, Baton Rouge, Metairie, Marrero, Gonzales, and Slidell.

Oh, and Alexandria, too, although I've never delivered to that store.

So, I was through Alexandria Tuesday night about midnight and Wednesday afternoon about 5. This next week my first load is to Slidell, so I'll be through Alexandria about midnight on Monday night and Tuesday night about 8.

We bid our weeks, so we never know until Thursday night what our next week will be.

I can carry down from Dallas only what I can put in the cab, and that ain't much. I have no access to the trailer, since it's sealed when I hook up to it.

I also have a good friend there who has a 1923 (or so) Model T C Cab hot rod and works for the fire department.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:30 pm

Oh, I was just kidding around about the Craig's List thing.

I know you're on a tight schedule with your truck, but if you're ever through town during regular business hours, and you want to stop and say hi, just let me know. My office isn't far off I-49 and I could meet you at a truck stop there or something.

The TRU store in Alex closed about 8-9 years ago. I was sad to see that happen as it was my favorite store. That building is now a medical office. I think they set up a small temporary TRU branch in the mall for Christmas.

mrblanche · Post by **mrblanche** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:58 pm

Here's a shocker.

There is a Toys R Us store in Alexandria right now, I believe. It's not a full-fledged store, but rather one of our "express" stores that we opened for Christmas and they decided to keep open. At least, it was still open the week before last, because I was in the office when they were juggling trailers to be sure their stuff got on the back of another trailer.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:03 pm

Wow, I did not know that. That must be the one in the mall? Of course, I haven't been to the mall since well before Christmas.

mrblanche · Post by **mrblanche** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:45 pm

I think it's still open.

We only deliver to those stores like every other week. I've never been to that one. I've been to the one in Gonzales once. I'm going to the one in Grapevine next week for the first time, and it's been open over a year. Haven't been to the one in Houma, either. Most other stores get two deliveries per week, so there are 4 trucks per week to Metairie (two stores), 2 to Marrero, 2 to Slidell, 4 to Baton Rouge, 2 to Lafayette.