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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Left out by 8 am, quick stop at the bank and a rest area and we were in Forest City. Getting better at check our RV's out, we are getting down under an hour. Much nicer weather today. Both of us are taking small none towable units. Both gas and we will run them at 60 mph and see if that makes a difference in mileage. We have enough fuel to get to Clear Lake where gas was a little cheaper. We are trying to minimize our stops so we also eat at the Pilot, Subway. Another ruben, just had a foot long on Sunday to split between two meals. Quick stop at the Caseys in Urbana then on to the Quality Inn in Moline. Walk a couple of blocks to Montana Joe's. This time we split a pulled pork and each got the salad bar. This place is good for not charging us for everything we order ... The front desk at the Quality Inn warned us it might be warm in the room as it had gotten up to almost 70 today. Room seemed OK so we kept it. Did notice early noisy kids in next room but it didn't last long. But ... About 1 am we could hear the people next door but thought it wouldn't last long ... after quite a while I did go back to sleep and woke up again at 3 am to the noise. It kept on until we got up at 5 am. I thought it was a mother yelling at her kid, BB thought it was a sibling yelling at the younger kid. We saw them at breakfast and it looked like siblings ... and no adult in the room. The TV was also on loud enough so we could hear it a few doors down when we walked down the hall. Not a good nights sleep, should have called the front desk at 1 am. 171125 - IA to IN - Day 2 Break at Gilson rest area Fuel in Le Roy (it would have been cheaper at Shell) Lunch at Pilot/Subway in Crwafordsville Break in New Paris rest area Eat Sleep in Chillicothe OH 171126 - IA to IN - Day 3 We have less than 500 miles today, but we are still up and rolling at first light. They just turned the lights on in the breakfast area when we got down there. The usual for each of us, BB noticed there was oatmeal ... after she had her food. Not too many up at 6 am on Sunday morning. One lone guy and another with very young kids, but without his wife (I'm guessing she was sleeping in) We stopped at the next exit for fuel, cheapest until VA. Fresh meat almost right away this AM, I've never seen it before where both the carcass and the spewed blood were both steaming off the highway. Lots and lots of carcass' on the road this AM. First stop this AM was after we were back on the freeway, at Cross Lanes, WV. At Sheetz, they are like a large Holiday or Super America with a MTO / Made To Order food place inside. Burgers and Subs I think. Our first taste of holiday traffic was east of Charlotte, WV, there was a guy on the side of the road holding a 'slow' sign ... a mile around the curve traffic was backed up for the toll booth. Another guy standing there, likely to keep all the lanes full. One of the three toll booths we went through today had a semi backing up traffic, 3-4 cars pulled out of his lane into mine and I still got thru by the time he did. Must have been counting his pennies. Lunch was in Princeton, I had mentioned Wendy's because that was the one I remembered being there. But looking at the clock it was not even 10:30 and if they weren't serving breakfast they wouldn't be open yet. So I decided at McDonald's before we pulled off the freeway. By the time I noticed there were cars at Wendy's I was in the wrong lane and already past. Drove thru McDonald's but there was no where to park so we parked at Bojangles. Then decided to eat there figuring if there was no where to park it might take a while to order. Bojangles was quick, all the chicken is already under the warmer by the time you order so quick. Oh ... and we are now in eastern time so it was 11:30 here :) Before we got to the WV/VA line the traffic was at a dead stop, right before the tunnel. Something must have happened in the tunnel because both directions were backed up ... for miles. Many places. Worse in the on coming traffic. Gas was cheap again in Wythville, but we didn't need any yet. Our next stop was Mt Airy at another Sheetz. Opps. There was a line in for the women's rest room so when I came out I stood nearby waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting. Finally I start seeing people come out that I watched go in, looked at my phone and BB had texted me a while ago ... 'in the RV.' Guess we don't always recognize each other. Miss leading signs, the kind where it says two lanes go straight and when you get there three of them go straight. Makes for extra lane switches and almost lost BB near Greensboro because of one of those ... and someone wouldn't let her over. Stopped for fuel just east of Greensboro, put in $7 to get to the drop. Then we got stuck in traffic, four lanes down to two. We were in the fastest lane but it still cost us close to an hour ... and it was getting dark. That extra hour we had this AM was gone. Finally we clear the accident and still have an hour to go. By the time we got on the beltway, I realized we had been here before. Later BB told me she realized it then too. It was about a half hour after sunset by the time we got to the motel. Comfort Suites, it is two blocks from our drop so we can go get the rental in the AM, come back and drop the car, take both RV's to the dealer, walk back and pick up our rental. No place close to walk to, had been a place across the side street but it isn't open any more. Didn't want delivery so we went to Jersey Mikes ... but there was an Asian place next to it that got our business tonight. To go. Ate it back in our room. The two RV's were pretty close in mileage. I spent $1 more than BB did on fuel and still had a range of 34 miles while she had less than a range of 25. So no extra fuel left this trip ... and we made $125 on the fuel, thanks to Gas Buddy and 60 mph. Instead of writing about our plans, I will wait until tomorrow and write about what really happened. 171127 - IA to IN - Day 4 Nice motel last night but the breakfast was bad. No yogurt, scrambled eggs, sausage, hard boiled eggs were all 'room temperature.' Most of the plans we thought we had yesterday were gone this morning. Called at 8 AM to get a trip from NC to OH, it was gone on Saturday but they forgot to take it off the board. So we will deadhead back to IA. It was about 2 miles to the rental car pickup. Traffic wasn't too bad for rush hour. We both came back to the hotel and moved our stuff to the rental car, then fueled and drove to the RV dealer. Two guys came out to look at the units so it took about 15 minutes, no issues. Then it was about 2 - 10ths of a mile back to the motel. Should have left more stuff in the rental car, I had to carry my backpack plus my 'triangle bag,' which also includes a lot of juice, water and other heavy things that I didn't need to be carrying. So the new plan is to drop the first rental car at the airport then pickup the 2nd / one way home rental car there. We had thought of dropping the first car back at the pickup, but it was only about $15 to more to leave it at the airport. It was only a couple of blocks walk between the two car rental places but there was no sidewalk and this time we were hauling all our suite cases and stuff. So these were my two walks for the day. BB always puts the cars in her name, it works out best for most pickups. But this time we had issues. This places lists off all the worst case scenarios trying to get you to buy their protection which basically doubles the price of the car. She does the inspection of the car, notices a dent which we have to let the exit people know about. Before we even get to the freeway she also notices it is not the same size we had reserved and it does not have cruise control which the person at the rental counter said it did. Back we go, we get a bigger car with cruise ... all is good except they didn't change the time so we have one less hour to get back to MSP. And it was going to be close anyway, now we will have to push harder. First food we find it Bojangles but right next door is Arbey's, Arbey's it is. Traffic is much less today heading home, the holidays are over and the trucks are back on the road. First rest stop is in Rural Hall, no rest area's so we drive through town until we find an SA, lots of times the smaller stations don't have very clean rest rooms. We had thought of stopping in Wytheville for cheap gas but we were only down to a quarter tank of fuel so we didn't. It's going to be a long day ... fro us. Long as in past sun down <> past 5 pm :) Next rest area was Beckley, then on to Charleston for food. Honey Baked Ham ... a nice change of taste, but wouldn't have needed the brownie. The gal behind the counter asked what else 'I needed.' "I don't NEED a brownie, but I want one." Now it's dark and we have miles to go. We end up stopping for the night in Chillocothe and the same motel we stayed at two nights ago. First stopped and fueled at Pilot, then Quality Inn for the night. Nothing on the board that we will grab first thing in the AM, so not sure why we are rushing back. If there is work, we plan on being back Weds AM and leaving in the afternoon for the next trip. 171128 - IA to IN - Day 5 Rolling again before sun up, heading away from the sun, but it was still shining in my eyes via the mirrors. Two hours on the road and we stopped at a rest area near New Paris. Then by 11 am eastern, (10 central,) BB was hungry so we stopped at McD's in Crawfordsville. After a couple of hours, I was hungry so we stopped in Bloomington at Taco Bell. From here BB drove while I ate. We had mis-judged what hour range was and she go nervous before we got to the cheap gas so we stopped and put in one gallon. While we were there, she cleaned out the garbage out of the car and when she was done she couldn't find the car keys. I finally found them in a cup at the bottom of the garbage can. :( Then we drove four miles and but in cheap gas at a BP in Galesburg. From there it was about another two hours to Waterloo where we stopped at a Arbey's. We weren't going to make it home on the fuel we had so we stopped at the Pilot in Clear Lake, the gas is cheaper there than anything we will find in MN. Car is due back by 9:15. Guess we had rented it for three days, but will return it a day early. Got to Forest City about 7 pm, staying at the Super 8. Rates went up $20 from the time we first looked online until we made our reservation. Plans? Nothing good was added to the board today. Mid-day they were adding a bunch of stuff out of Indiana, but we would have had to make a quick decision without doing our math so we passed. Hoping work shows up so we can head right back out. Kind of jumped the gun by heading back. The board dropped from 70 to 10 units in two days. We did look at a trip to Seattle, but between high costs and bad weather we opted not to take them. Lots of time crunching numbers and second guessing today ... 171129 - IA to IN - Day 6 We were up before daylight today to get the rental car back before 9:18 AM. If we had noticed the pickup time didn't get changed when we switched cars we would have had another hour. Lot is very empty of RV's this AM. We quickly move our stuff from the rental to the van and we are out of there. Just a quick stop for each of us and we are dropped at the airport, with less than five minutes to spare ... and we got going about a half hour earlier than I had planned. No good pairs on the board so we sit. Last year there was almost nothing on the board until the middle of the months so we want to get out of town to where there might be work, should have sat in NC until there was work, but that is the chances we take and this time we lost. There was two to FL for a few minutes, but by the time we looked them up one was gone. |
