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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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We were up before 8 AM so we could grab a run as soon as the office opened ... and then didn't. We decided to wait for something that got us out of the snow, like southern CA. Within the hour, they added two going to El Cajon, down near San Diego. I called, and they talked us into two going to Davis up by Sacramento. They are for a show and are 'hot,' no bonus for us be we do like being nice once in a while. Davis and French Camp were the two we had looked at last night. French Camp is a little closer to the buses that come out of CA. I will call him tomorrow or Friday about a run on Monday. Then I called GA who had dispatched our trips last month. I had three issues. One order is not showing up as it should and after talking to three people, I still think it is an issue, but they say no problem. Two was a break down that I left with a 1/4 tank of fuel. It should have been taken care of at the time of the break down. But what they would need would be my fuel receipts. I decided not to send them because I had made $70 on the fuel even with leaving a 1/4 tank. Leave well enough alone. But I also found out that they will pay down time if it is over 2 hours. I was less than 2, so no extra pay there either, but nice to know. Three was where they had only paid me $.18 a mile for fuel, about 1/2 what we usually get on those runs. They were wrong and I will get my other money. So not a complete waste of an hour. Mid-afternoon we head down to Albert Lea, end up at the Comfort Inn again. Ate at the Iron Skillet again. Their soup spoons were dirty again ... Safety meeting in the AM tomorrow and then we hope to get as far as Omaha on day one, Cheyenne day two, Wendover day three, and near Davis day four with delivery Monday. 20180201 - IA-CA Up and go. It's -1 when we get going this AM. An hour later it is up to 0, by the time we are done with our meeting it is +1. Great warm up. Safety meeting was about two hours long. Lots of the same old, same old we hear every time. This time I noticed as they were showing data that the total units shipped from IA was stayed in the mid 8,000 for the last three years. I would not have guessed the numbers would have been that close. They also talked about the accidents and how the OR location is not getting up to speed. Also they mentioned going to electronic logs ... and talked about two people taking units to the wrong location. CA vs NC. Not only did they have to move them to the correct location, our company had to pay the dealers, because they now had to be sold as 'high mileage.' Once the meeting was over we got to the lot and grabbed our paperwork. I started my inspection and when I went to start it, I turned the key on twice to let the diesel glo plugs warm but ... and then nothing. I couldn't even turn the key. I had BB try it, I tried the 2nd key then went and got the yard person to try it. Nope, nothing. So dispatch gave me another RV. I mentioned that going to Davis was not my first choice when I called in, the dispatcher was quick to say that they had just 'offered' these instead ... The windchill today is between -10 and -20. Nice in the shade, but freezes your face in a few steps in the open. Because of all the delays it took about two hours today so that's an hour less drive time. We had looked up fuel in Clear Lake, so when I saw it for $.5 cheaper in Garner I pulled in. Then was stopped again 15 minutes down the road for Subway at Pilot in Clear Lake. There was a Subway in Garner where we fueled but not much place to park. Rest stops today are in Ankeny/Elkhart and Adair. Lots of buses heading north, empty. Must be for moving the crowds this weekend with the football game in town. I read that there is a demand for AB&B but we didn't get our house set up for that ;) Made it to Omaha right at dark, Quality Inn and the Mexican place next door to eat. We will either make it to Cheyenne or Laromi tomorrow. Still lots of RV's on the board out of both IA and IN 20180202 - IA-CA Left out of Omaha a little after daylight. Some of the trucks in the lot had been running all night. But not MN weather. We fuel at the BP/Buckey's next door, cheapest fuel we find for a ways on Gas Buddy. 90 miles later we stop at a rest area near York. No water, no signs that say no water, the only water is from the drinking fountain so BB has to wash the soap off her hands that way. Lexington Arbey's is where we stop for lunch, looking on line last night I couldn't find the Wendy's I thought was there. I found out why, the vacant building is still standing there. We wanted to get to Laramie, day two this trip so we kicked it down to 65 mph for a while. Then we pulled off at a rest area because I didn't think I had enough fuel to get to Ogallala. I had 15 miles to spare when we stopped at the rest area, 45 miles to spare when we got to Ogallala. The difference of running 60 vs 65 for 30 miles. Fueled at Walmart in Ogallala. From here it is over two hours to the scale so we stop at the Welcome center in Pines Bluff. We are still ify if we can make Laramie before dark. 20 miles later we are at the POE to get our WY permits. I'm not as prepared as I should be, but we got it done. Right before the POE was an overhead sign saying 'road closed to high profile units (campers/etc.)' So that was decided for us. We stay in Cheyenee at the Quaility Inn, food at the Denny's across the street. Good food and quick when you aren't in a rush. By shutting down here will just make a longer day for tomorrow. But we can get up earlier and stop less times. Did notice one of those wind mill blades pass us yesterday. But it was on a short truck ... in pieces. Today I saw a long one being hauled, and for some reason the pilot person following them was right under the blade. Not sure the point of that. 20180203 - IA-CA BB was up before 5 local looking at the weather. IF'y. We had planned on heading out by 6:30 but decided to wait and call dispatch to see what the guidelines were. I did that at 7 AM. We are to shut down with winds at 30 mph. Forecast is for gusts up to 60 mph but the weather stations are all reporting 25 mph or less so we head out. Stop for fuel across the freeway at Sinclear, fuel is $.20 cheaper than at either Flying J or Loves at this exit. It was even cheaper last night at a Walmart we past, but not enough cheaper to pay for the gas to drive back to it. Looking at the weather now, we passed the 'road closed' signs about 15 minutes or less before they went up. The first 10 miles were ok, I used the cruise until the computer kicked it off. The road became ice packed and the 'variable speed limit' signs got us down to 45 mph. For most of us, there is always those it doesn't seem to apply to. Those are the ones I am afraid of, not the roads them selves. At one point a semi past me and then I was looking at the side of his trailer as it wasn't directly following him down the road. He didn't get too far ahead of me for quiet a while. Saw the side of the trail a few more times. Felt the tires slipping a little on my unit too. After we got to Laramie we saw that there was an accident behind us, likely less than five minutes behind us at the top of the pass. It had to road closed for most of two hours. AND now the road is closed to 'high profile units,' both backwards and forwards. So here we sit. As we sat, they just added more and more warnings. Now they look like until 11 pm tonight. Finally at 10:30 we walked into the Iron Skillet to eat the buffet. When we were done we made a reservation at the Comfort Inn and they let us check in early. But the wind whistles through the windows ... Getting to be quite a few RV's at the truckstop by the time we left. Some are still going. They may not have seen the online warnings, but now the road signs are up so no excuse. $750 fine. So we are not going to make Monday delivery and will have to get a new NV permit. Fuel, we are not making any money and are likely going to loose money on the fuel. Last night I looked at the RV trips I did this year. 21 trips. 5 of the worst 7 trips I did were diesel, and 11 of the 12 best trips I had were gas. Need to stay away from the diesel. IF we get going tomorrow we can still make it to Wendover and then near delivery Monday night. We were still full from the noon buffet so tonight we had a couple of motel cookies, and a vending size bag of chips. We also looked through the food that has been collecting in my backpack and it is now 'emergency food.' No one is going to eat it unless we are starving. 20180204 - IA-CA Usually BB is pretty quiet when she gets up, not this AM. Yesterday we were shut down because of the wind. Forecast was for the roads to open sometime mid-Sunday. We had finally checked in after noon and at about 4:30 they dropped the restriction so we would have been free to go. But we were already in the motel and wouldn't have time to get to the next town, Rawlins, before dark so we stayed. So this AM when she gets up, BB looks at the restrictions. None. Then looks at the map, CLOSED. They had just closed them again as she was opening the website. So here we sit. We would have liked to have gotten going by 6:30 local to make up for lost time. Instead we sat in the motel room hitting refresh for the next 2-1/2 hours. Finally at 9 am they took the restrictions off and we were rolling within 15 minutes. We thought we'd run 65 mph today to make up time but the wind was still strong, just not bad enough to close the road. We were down to 45-50 for the first 100 miles. We stop at the Flying J in Rawlins for a break and everything is still open. To early for lunch so we drive another 45 minutes to the next fast food. Roads are closed again behind us. So the roads were open for about an hour longer than we needed and then have been closed again the rest of the day. Lunch was at the Love's, Chesters Chicken for me, Subway for BB. Low fuel light comes on as we enter Rock Springs. Gas Buddy is mostly not working so we take a guess. Could have stopped back in Rawlins for a half a tank at Walmart. Ended up at a Shell in Rock Springs. Fuel is $3.09 so about ten cents less than average. Lots of white knuckle driving today. When you are watching the weather and the wind drops from 60 to 30-40 it seems like it should be easy. The only good part was the roads were dry. So when the wind would catch a semi in front of me I could only see a little of the side of the trailer instead of the whole side of the trailer. The usual traffic, people passing without getting completely in the other lane. Coming over when they are only half way past me. Lots of leap frogging. Passed a couple of RV's a couple of times. They are running for another company and were only running about 55 mph. They pulled in for fuel at Evanston when we were there but were having issues trying to get into the pumps so we didn't get a chance to talk to them. From Evanston to Salt Lake City is almost all down hill so we did run at 65 mph where we could, but lots of curves. Somewhere today we saw someone trying to herd sheep, I thought you were supposed to lead them ??? Not too much sight seeing with winds like today. All the way across WY, once we get to UT we start to drop between the hills. Tonight is a Comfort Inn on the west side of Salt Lake City, we walked across the street to the Flying J and Denny's. Tomorrow I will need to call and get new permits for NV, not sure who eats the cost of the ones we didn't use. Also need to call dispatch for this trip, the drop and dispatch for the next trip. We should make it to Verdi, just past Reno by tomorrow night. So about one day late. Donners Pass says no snow for the next two weeks ... :) 20180205 - IA-CA Up and going at very first light, just enough to see the outline of the mountains against the sky. Gets light very quickly though. Stopped after an hour at a rest area to order our 2nd NV permit. Wasn't sure if there would be cell service in the middle of nowhere but there was. Someone has to pay double, no discount for the permit we didn't use. Also called dispatch to let them know we would be a day late so they could update their reports. Another hour and we are at Wendover, the Bonnieville Flatts Sinclear to fuel. As soon as we were done fueling it showed we would have enough range to get to our drop, not likely. We have to wait a few minutes to for our permits to come in, I had also ordered them (by mistake) to start at 8:30 forgetting bout the time change. But it all worked out. Diesel here was 30 cents cheaper than two miles away at Pilot, but gas was 40 cents more than Pilot. A little over an hour we stop again in Wells for a rest break. It was either Wells or Elko, one split the next leg 1 hour then 2 hours, the other split it as 2 hours then 1 hour. While we were stopped I called the drop to tell them we'd be a day late, and the CA dispatcher that we'd be a day late. No promise of work but he does want me to call him back. Battle Creek should be our last stop for fuel, the Wendover fuel no longer says we will make it. Now I'll be 11 gallon short ??? But first we stop at Port O Sub's. While they are making my sandwich they have a series of events that looked like right out of Laurel and Hardy. One event caused another event, which caused ... We also fuel here, Shell on the north end of town is usually the lowest price and is again today, and we also get $.05 discount. After we fuel it says we'll have a lot of range left over but that changes once we are moving again. Stopped one last time at the Gateway in Lovelace for a break. Fuel at the Chevron was $3.23 for regular. That's the highest I've seen gas. $2.29 back in WY. Saw more sheep today, at first I thought it was a whirl wind because of all the dust, but no, just hundreds of sheep being rounded up. Did see a whirl wind later, it crossed the highway right in front of me. No traffic issues today, dry roads. Someone did go past us blowing their horn ??? Four lane highway and almost no traffic so I don't think we slowed anyone down for more than a few seconds today. Three seems to be the number of squad cars that show up when they are going to search a car. Seen a few of those on this trip. Had to drive through a highway inspection area, but we didn't get stopped. The driver towing an RV that we've been running near since Wendover did get pulled in but he pulled out again right behind us. Looks like I will make almost $20 on fuel this trip, BB will loose a few dollars. Company is charging her for a half a tank of fuel ... but if there is only a 1/4 of a tank you get that much for free and I did. We are about 2-1/2 hours from the drop tomorrow. Should be able to get that done by noon. Stopped for the night in Verdi at the Best Western, food at Mel's Diner. Good but more than I needed. Need to start splitting meals.  |
