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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 - Pick-up 171207 - NC to NE - Day 7 Forgot to mention that when I came out of the restaurant yesterday at noon, I noticed my glasses were falling off my face like when I get to sweaty ... or they are broken. Not sure when it happened. They weren't completely broken but the frame was loose. I was able to use them until the evening when they broke and I was trying to sign for our food without glasses. No breakfast at this place, but BB hadn't eaten all of her food last night so we split it. Not nearly as nice today, foggy and cool, but still nice sitting on the deck. We also went for a walk. It was only about 15 minutes because that is all the beach that was sandy, from there we would have had to either climbed on the rocks one direction or walked in the water the other direction. We needed to have one rental car back by noon today so we picked the other one up by 11. While we were there someone came in driving on a flat. Guess something was also wrong with the spare. It looked like they only had a few feet left and they would have been driving on the rim. After dropping the other rental car we headed north to NC. We weren't where we thought we were when we stopped for food. Not a big deal, what was was a lot line for food at Wendy's so we left. Waste of time on this rental. A few miles later we stopped again at a Wendy's, this time no line but the place stunk. When I went to use the restroom, the guy standing in front of it said "You don't want to go in there ... " So I didn't. Not sure what the issue was. Right before we got off the freeway we stopped at a rest area by Ocala. Then it was a few hours on non-freeway before getting back on I-10 by Baldwin just west of Jacksonville. No work yet, we are just heading to NC in hopes ... We had looked at either Atlanta or Charlotte, and decided on Charlotte. So we got a one day rental to there which is why we are pushing it. Once there we would decide where to go. Then at 4 pm a run shows up to Omaha and I grab it. We have work. And it is only 40 miles from Charlotte. At first we were going to use the truck to backtrack but decided to pick up yet another rental to use for a couple of hours, it'll be about $40. Dispatch told me a few times "This truck can not be driven over 75 mph or you will get changed a $100 +." Not a problem, I may not drive it over 60 mph. We have three days to go 1,100 miles. Stopped again at the welcome center to GA. Then didn't stop again until just south of Savanah. Thought we would make it further but the mileage / range kept dropping. Stopped at a Loves in Richmond Hills. Driving in the dark, we don't do much of it and this might be the reason why ... We come down the ramp and stop and the stop sign, I see in the distance someone coming from the right and no one from the left. As I'm taking a left turn BB yells "LOOK OUT." So I swerve into the on coming traffic lanes to the left, thinking that car was coming faster than I thought. Nope, she that I was going to hit the median. By now there is traffic coming so I take a quick U-turn to get going the right direction, then a second U-turn to go where I should have gone the first time. Then we fueled at Love's and got McD's. Then something I had never seen. BB opens her sandwich to make everything fit and finds a 1/2 a chicken patty. Someone had cut a patty in 1/2 and that is what she got. She went back in and it would be another five minutes until they could have one ready so she settled for a hog dog and a banana. ... Then when we get near our motel we are supposed to take 175A ... and the GPS is telling us which lane to be in ... expect it is not there. They had redone the road since the GPS was updated and we had to go five miles down the road and come back. There isn't much for motels and we had already reserved this one, just before we missed the exit. Quality Inn in Orangeburg for the night and then off to Charlotte in the AM. No truck for BB, and we will wait and until Monday and see if we head home from Omaha or we head back out. We still have a week before I wanted to be home for the other company. We already have a fifth rental car lined up out of Omaha, we were able to get one going to Mason City for about the same price as back to MSP so that makes it easier to head out again. Right now there are runs to southern California. We will have to look at the fires before we head. We'd have to be able to deliver by Friday ... 171208 - IA to FL - Day 8 This day did not start out like all the rest. BB has been getting up earlier and earlier and keeps most of the lights off until I am up. This morning she managed to knock her coffee off the night stand and when she went to wipe it up she could find much on the floor ... because most of it ended up in her purse :( Luckily the work paperwork only had a little coffee on it, but one of her notebooks got pretty soaked. Drying out each thing in her purse took until breakfast. We hadn't pushed it to get going, we had two and a half days to get just over 1,000 miles. What could go wrong? We stop once at the welcome center in Charlotte, NC, then again for lunch at Bojangles in Kings Mountain. One piece was pretty crispy but the other was good. We got to Shelby right about 1 pm. We had no idea where we were going or what we would find. Turns out the lot is just off the main drag on a frontage road, and the rental car place is a mile away on the same road. EZ. This is an unmanned lot with a lock box to throw the paperwork before we leave. Didn't realize that a number on our paperwork was the number showing on the outside of our truck. We were told it was a Ford PU with a lift. It's not, it just has a flat bed in the back with a fuel tank and an air compressor. By now it has started to rain, not hard yet but BB held the umbrella while I did some of my checks. After I picked BB up at the rental car place we stopped in Shelby for fuel. I had a quarter of a tank and added 30 gallons so it must be a 40 gallon tank. Range shows something like 600 miles, not likely. We get just a few miles down the road and it starts to snow. This thing gets good mileage when you are only going 30-40 mph. After 50 miles we get to the first real town and decide to call it a day. It is not even 2 pm, but the GPS says traffic is going about 30 mph all the way to the next town, up and down the hills and around the curves. Too many people on the road for me. We checked into the Quality Inn and waited until 5pm to go and eat. Walked to the Cracker Barrel next door "Closing at 5 pm today." Walked to McDonalds "Closed at 5 pm today." So we had to buy stuff at the convenience store. BB bought two cups of cereal and a small bottle of milk, I got a can of ChiefBoy, a couple of donuts and an ice cream bar. Mmmmm. When I looked at our work board later IA and emptied it. So now we can't make plans until sometime Monday. And now we have to kind of push it the next two days to stay on schedule. 171209 - IA to FL - Day 9 Didn't get going at the crack of dawn today. Lots of snow, maybe six plus inches of wet snow. Opps, still had the wipers on from last night so when I turned the key on, they started. The door was open and it dumped snow into every crevice in the door. It took a while to brush as much off as we could. I did pack the ice scraper for the first time this trip, but do not have any type of brush. Not much for traffic and the roads were mostly clear. Around the curves trucks were supposed to stay in the right lane, and they mostly did ... for a while. Traffic was mostly moving around 40-50 for the first hour or two this morning. Once we got close to Knoxville the road cleared and I put the cruise on. Once I had the cruise set at 60 mph, the mileage dropped from 13.6 to 13.1 mpg. Which is still much better the the 6 mpg they are paying me for. So I should do pretty good on this trip. We did stop at a Pilot in Knoxville. This is one of the ones that is just a gas station, not a truck stop. I was only down a quarter of a tank but the fuel was less here than anywhere between here and IL. Went in to use the restroom and had to step back out and re-look at the sign on the door. I don't remember being in a men's restroom with stalls ... and no urinal. Lunch was at Arbey's in Gordonsville. Half hour in and out. Had thought we would have time to do sit downs this trip, but by only getting 50 miles yesterday we need to make up time. Quick break in Cadiz at the Shell station, bought a couple of bottles of liquid. Another two hours and we were at Benton. Cheapest fuel on this trip. Fuel had gone up three cents since updated on GasBuddy but still the cheapest. Another half hour and we are at the Comfort Inn in Mt Vernon. Food is next door at Agave Mexican Restaurant. Food was good. BB couldn't finish hers so that might be breakfast for both of us. Breakfast here is not until 7 am and sun up is at 7:03. We've got just over 500 miles to go tomorrow. 10 hours of daylight, two hours of non-driving, 8-1/2 of driving so we will likely be driving in the dark again. 171210 - IA to FL - Day 10 Last night they told us that breakfast wouldn't start until 7 am, so BB ate the leftovers and I was just going to skip it. When we went down to check out at 6:30, a number of people were already eating. So we grabbed a couple of things before heading out. Had to scrape the windows again this AM. On the road before sun up, sun in my mirrors for a while. First stop was in St Peters, MO this AM at a QT. Not much traffic at that time of the AM on Sunday. Lots of vacant, damaged, neglected buildings on both sides of the river in St Louis. The computer gave us a choice of either going thru Kansas City or Hannibal. I chose Hannibal because there was a football game in KC and the stadium is right next to the freeway. The only way to avoid it is city streets. Lunch was well before noon at Shelbina at a Subway. Not too many choices with the towns this small. We had planned on doing a sit down for lunch today but didn't see one ... until we were leaving town. Cameron is another two hours. Had issues with the pumps and had to prepay inside. They don't have a way of setting pumps to gallons, only dollars. So once they had nine gallons figured out they turned on the pump. But I was getting a discount so I put in more fuel than I planned. This should get me to my final fuel before I drop. Mileage continues to drop, it has gone from 13.6 down to 12.6 today. It's over three hours to the motel so we split it and stop in Percival, IA at a Sapp Bros. We made reservations early, had looked at our usual stop in Omaha but it was extra miles so we ended up at a Best Western to use perks dollars. Except they are spent, but we never got the credit. So now I have that to figure out, deal with. We walked across the street to a Sapp Bros Apple Barrel. In the past I've read really nasty things about them but this one had good reviews and we didn't have to drive so we tried it. Food was good. If they would have had different soups I would have gotten the soup and salad bar, instead I got a pattymelt and BB got a chicken wrap. We are about 10 miles from my drop. I have a range of 40 miles and am making really good money on the fuel. Not sure if it is a mistake or they just pay this well. Plan for tomorrow is to get a rental car and head back to Forest City then Mason City. We will be watching the board to see if we head right back out. 171211 - NC to NE - Day 11 Breakfast this AM and out out the door by 7:30. We stopped at the first fuel station across the NE line. BP, it would not give me my discount and then once I got it started without a discount, it would not give me my receipt. Next stop was picking up at the Enterpise rental car. We had to cut across two lanes of traffic in a half a block but there really isn't much for rush hour traffic, at least not today. One of the office guys went out to get our car and came back without it ... sounds like the prior guest had left some ammo in it and the car had never gotten cleaned. So they found us another car. I had to call my drop from their driveway. I thought I knew where it was but when I got there the cars were parked making it look like I could not get back to the second building. I could, I just had to a few inches to spare to clear the cars, piles of wood, etc. There had been 7-10 loads on the board Friday when the office cleared the board. Those all were taken within an hour this morning as were the next two they put out early. Total they put about 10 new orders out and none stayed more than a few hours. People are looking for work. IF we had done like last trip we would have work. They did put three from FL but one at a time. Last we we grabbed one early and another one later. First stop was a Casey's in Minden for a bathroom break. Lots of wind today, but it didn't help the gas mileage. Next stop was at the Pizza Ranch in Ames, I think I ate a whole one ... never know when the next time we'll eat ;) ... after eating we put in enough fuel to get to Clear Lake at the Philips. Plenty of fuel so we go to Forest City to pick up our car. As long as we are there during working hours we ask about two trips we haven't been paid for. Mine was from three days ago ... the only thing that was a maybe was the customer had signed in the wrong place. Now I've been paid (I had looked back and customers have signed in the wrong place other times and it was not an issue) Finally got BB's settled too from Aug? Not sure what the delay was on either, we didn't give them anything today. Just talked to them. Now we need to talk to them again, they don't seem to have paid it correctly. We stopped in Forest City and put in the E85 being it was $.40 a gallon cheaper. Returned the car in Mason City, but still no work. Not much in the lot but a lot still staged waiting for a ship date. Forest City was the cheaper motel but we weren't sure we'd need to go back so we are staying in Clear Lake at the Microtel. First room had a 'card in the bicycle spokes sound every time the wind blew ... and it is blowing. So we got a room on the opposite side of the motel and it has been fine. We could have walked next door to Culvers or Perkins and gotten a room discount but we ended up at the 'Other Place again. I had lasagna and BB had a chicken sandwich. We each brought half home. Home as in back to our room. Tomorrow we will watch the board until about noon for work and then head home if still nothing. Prior to tonight's stay we did good for our 10 days on the road. |
