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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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DOT Physical 2 - New RV's 20180310 I had taken the week off in case there were any issues with my DOT physical. We got back Sunday night, then spent Monday just running errands. Tuesday morning was my physical. Passed both the blood pressure test and the eye test that I failed last year. The doc said I was good so I spent the day visiting an uncle and then my Mom. Sometime on Wednesday I drop off my results at the local company I work for and they say no. The Dr was wrong to pass me for my eyesight. Later the clinic calls and agrees they were wrong and says I have to go back in. I wasn't in the mood for that answer so I told them I would call them Thursday. Thursday I called them and went back in and failed the eyesight test again. Now I have to scramble if I still want to work this weekend. I am able to get an eye exam set up for Friday morning. I pass the exam at the eye dr, no glasses needed. So back to the DOT clinic. It takes them three times, plus their lunch hour to get the paperwork right. We call and get a trip to CA then head back to my local work who will accept the DOT test now. The 2nd company is out of town so we have to fax it to them. I try to call the person but they don't answer and don't call back. The computer still shows they have not gotten it. By there records I am still good through Tuesday so I have two days to get this straightened out. I told dispatch the situation before I took the load. But nothing in the system said they couldn't dispatch me so they did. So it did take up the whole week again. Next year I will go and get my eyes tested first. 20180311 - IA-CA Daylight savings time. It didn't make us want to get up at what would have been 4:30 AM yesterday so we slept in. Also ate breakfast before we left so we didn't leave the house in MN until 8 AM. Made one rest room stop in Albert Lea and also fueled at the same Loves. Got to Forest City about 10:30. Usually the paperwork is in a drawer in alphabetical order, for some reason both hers and my paper work was right in front. ??? Lot looks about right for 150 on the board. Still have the 200+ sitting in the adjacent parking lot. Found our RV's right away, no issues. Only issue is that I am getting $.10 less per mile than BB. Two weeks ago we moved the same two units and got paid exactly the same. That is a $200 difference so I have already placed a call to dispatch. Same as usual, we stopped in Clear Lake to fuel. Then ate at the Subway at Pilot. Another 100 miles down the road we stopped at the rest area near Elkhart. Then a second rest area near Underwood. It was only 4:30 so we decided to go as far as Lincoln. We got to Lincoln at 6 PM and it won't get dark until 7 pm. Guess we aren't adjusted to the new time, we could have kept going but it wouldn't gain us anything. Not much for excitement. Did see one white field, it was all birds. I'm guessing it was the only one in the area that hadn't been worked up so there was still grain from last years crop on the ground. Also saw a couple of swans this morning. Pretty quiet day. Plan is to make it to Laramie Monday night, Wendover Tuesday night and either Reno or further Wednesday night and deliver Thursday morning. We would have had to have stayed in Forest City and pushed every day to have delivered on Wednesday. Once delivered we will see if there is a bus going back to the midwest or we will just take a rental car home. We do need to be home on the night of the 22nd. They've just added snow the forecast for Donners Pass near Reno. That might make things interesting. 20180312 - IA-CA Pull out of Lincoln about sun up. First stop is in Wood River for fuel at a Pilot. I'm using a gallon or two less than BB on 400 miles. Second stop was at Denny's at a Flying J in North Platte. As usual it takes about an hour. Wouldn't have this time but the cashier started talking trucking ... Food was good, got a whole bowl of soup with my Philly. Some Denny's will not sub soup for fries because of the cost. Quick stop at a rest area in Sidney before we stop at the Port of Entry near Cheyenne for our permits. Finally have the WY oversized permit marked in my book, now I need to put my plate number on that page. That's all they want to see, that and $20. Plenty of time to make Laramie tonight, could have stopped for fuel tonight but will do it in the AM. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and walked the few blocks to the Iron Skillet for their buffet. I ended up just getting the soup and salad bar. A couple of things on the main food area said 'spicy,' that was a warning to me. Now I'm getting in the habit of taking the stairs at the motel even when BB uses the elevator because of her luggage. Have seen lots of birds, lots of white ones. Also saw where someone had lots of white decoys set up. And a few cranes but not very many. Did see a few turkeys the first day. And a few dead skunks, luckily they have all been laying on the shoulder. 20180313 - IA-CA Not a big rush to get going this AM. We only have 500 miles to go today. I have to scrape frost for the 2nd morning in a row, BB has not had to either morning. We did drive 60 mph for the first two hours as we thought it might be a bit windy. That kept the rpm's down to 2,100. First stop was Rawlin's at a Flying J. Easy in and out, but when we went to get back on a semi that had pulled into the left lane to let me on decided to come back over on me. I had to hit the shoulder. No other traffic, no reason for him to do that. Then a mile or so later he has half his truck on the shoulder of the road before getting back in his lane. We both passed him very carefully. Doesn't happen often, but today I saw another semi make a u-turn on the freeway. He had a rented trailer and I was too far away to see the name on the cab. Still look for the huge digger east of Rock Springs. Couldn't see it anywhere anymore. This might be the first time I haven't at least seen the boom. Past Rock Springs we stop at Green River at Penny's Diner. Food was good, I had a philly and BB had a BLT. Penny's Diner's seemed like they were only adjacent to Oak Tree Inns. Now the Oak Tree Inn is a Baymont here, and something else in Grand Island, NE but that Penny's is still open also. I was going to ask the help here what might happen to the Diner but as soon as they handed me my receipt they were gone. Did make a few phone calls. I should be getting paid the same as BB for fuel so that is an extra $200. Dispatch called and changed our drop, five miles closer, nothing else changes. Called the drop and the same guy will be checking us in, starting Thursday at the new location. Not sure why but chains are required already in the pass, weather doesn't look bad yet. NV permit is only good for 24 hours so we need to be out of the state by 6 AM Thursday. Plan is to get over the pass Wednesday night if we can. Chains are required starting at MM 63 in NV. There is nothing there. The last town before is about exit 100 and after is Fernley is exit 46. And there is almost nothing at exit 100, one ma-pa motel. Noticed that fuel in Evanston was only $2.10 but it wasn't our planned stop. Instead we stopped at a rest area about a half hour past in Echo. That's where we looked at fuel prices. Our Flying J is $.20+ more than a Maverick a few miles closer. We stop at the Maverick, not an easy place to get in and out of. Neither was our first fuel in Larami this AM. I had to back up a couple of times to get away from the fuel pump and turned. This place would have been tight too, if it had been more crowded. Had a little truck pass us a couple of times today, second time I saw that it was being transported, by Amerifleet, our former company. Almost into Salt Lake City a car passes me on the left, cuts in front of me to take the exit only to change his mind and pull back in behind me. Shortly after, he passes me again and pulls in front of me, just as everyone in that lane is hitting their brakes. I get in the left lane and go flying past everyone. Not to far after he passes me again, flying the bird. At first I thought it was just me but then saw it was to everyone he passed ... guess it was just a bird day for him. Last leg is 120 mile so flat. We get to Wendover about 6 PM local. Check in at a Quality Inn and walk to the casino for a buffet. Didn't need a buffet, it was only an hour ago that I stopped feeling stuffed. Good food. Spent most of an hour trying to get the internet to work, the front desk insisted it was working fine that all of their computers were working fine ... until they tried to bring up a screen for me. Then they restarted their server/? and it was working within minutes. We are in motels over half the time. We know how to log in. Once we know if we get past the pass, I will call and see if there are any buses heading east ... 20180314 - IA-CA When we were leaving breakfast in the morning, I noticed a cell phone laying on one of the tables and only one other person in the room. I asked them if it was their phone, as soon as he said 'yes' I knew the voice. It was Roy from FL, he drives for my 1st company and is one of the few drivers who have worked there longer than I. He had taken a out-house pumper out and was now heading back with a used pizza truck. Our first stop today was in Elko, not the cheapest fuel, but it was at the two hour mark and we are trying to save on time. Stopped at a Maverick. I had slowed from 65 down to 60 mph when the temps dropped to 35 as it was raining. While fueling the snow was coming down with flakes the size of saucers. But it looked like we were about 1/2 way through this batch of weather. Just a quick lunch today at a Subway in Winnemucca. Donners Pass is still closed (without chains,) but we want to be at the bottom in case it opens up for a few hours. Good news, chains had been required on I-80 in NV also. But when we got to the first sign, it was not flashing. We stopped at a rest area west of Loveloch to check roads. Pass is still closed so we will stop again at the Best Western in Verdi. If NV roads had still required chains we would have either had to take back roads ahead to Fernly or return to either Loveloch or Winnemucca. Still closed, it's 2:30 local time. We watch the road reports for the next four hours before getting a room and checking in. Currently you not only have to carry chains but have to put them on. There are check stations. One is right under a highway cam so that is one of the ones we are watching. Weather lets up a little before snowing heavier again. Forecast for no weather advisory between 11 pm tonight and 12 noon tomorrow. Then the next storm is coming in. If we don't get out of Verdi between storms we can't deliver until Monday and will not be able to take a bus. Also that will be three days just sitting in a motel. More interesting things happening on Ancestry. So I have lots to work on as long as I have WiFi :) 20180315 - IA-CA We were up at 4 AM local in case the roads open up. They have not. No free breakfast here so we went down to Mel's and had breakfast. Way too much food for this early in the AM. We sat in the hotel room from 5 to 10:30 AM local looking at the roads/weather. Finally at 10:30 we noticed from the highway cameras that the cops were no longer blocking the freeway, inspecting for chains. We started packing up, a minute or two later the online messages had changed. Chains were no longer required. We were out of our room, checked out and rolling in a few minutes. Roads on the up side of the hill were clear and the weather was sunny. Once we got past the scale and fruit inspection stations we saw truckers putting on their chains. Lots of them over the next few miles, none looked very happy. Likely less happy once they realized the chain requirement had been lifted. Lots of chain ties and chains laying on the highway. Trucks are load when running chains, but are pretty good about holding it at the 30 mph speedlimit with chains. We did OK, hardest part was judging the speed of the traffic. Some doing 30, others doing 70. As we were going past the break check area, a semi pulls out into my lane. There is supposed to be a merge lane between the parking and the traffic lane, but that is where the semi's were parking, so he pulls out into traffic at 5 mph. I had a split second to decide to hit the breaks or pull in front of a Greyhound. I hit the breaks, the Greyhound, BB and a few others went past me before I could get over in that lane. Down where the restrictions had started/stopped, we pulled into the rest area at Gold Run. No stop at all on the ground now. Another hour down the highway we were at the truck wash. No line, but no help either. They were running a 'rainy day crew.' I sure they took a few pounds of crud off the RV's but not a very good job. Fueled right at the same truckstop. The Pilot, 49er. Back on I-80 and then off at the next exit. They are new to this place so we are new to this place. Raining good at this point, someone else was ahead of us but I found out where to go first. Once we were talking to the check in person, I let him know the other guy was ahead of us. Another guy had not had fun either ... said he had spent two days waiting. I don't know if that was two days at Reno, or one day each place. He had been sitting in Reno and seen the roads out of Carson City had opened up. So he headed down there but the roads had re-closed by the time he got there. Also noticed he had used a couple of rolls of duck tape to hold the plastic on the front of his RV, not supposed to do that. BB had looked as soon as we got to the drop and the pass was closed again. First because of an accident and then the weather. Forecast was for snow through Saturday so if we hadn't made it we would have been setting there a while. Called bus dispatch as soon as we were at the drop. He said to call back at 5:15. BB had Enterprise Rental come and pick her up. She got back just as the drop wanted me to sign her paperwork. Worked out good. Drop was wondering why BB put 3,000 miles on her RV ... KM. She never did figure it out. Stopped at In-and-Out for a burger and a half hour break, then down I-5 to Livermore. About 20 miles from Livermore it was 5:15 so I stopped at an exit and called. Yes, he has one, going to WV. As soon as I am back on the road he calls back, what about Louisana? Or Sioux Falls? BB told him we would be there shortly and we'd talk. Due to weather we passed on the Sioux Falls, we would have had to wait for Donners Pass to open, then follow the storm across WY and take back roads up to Rapid City. Would have gotten us nice and close to home :) The WV run would have really maxed out our time, giving us just enough time to get home. With the Louisiana run we have a couple of days to play with. Thought everything was going well so BB left to return the car. Nope. Low coolant light was on and no one around. Boss said to just leave it until the AM if I have to. But the security guard was sure someone was somewhere and within the hour I was leaving. BB had to come back and sit, just in case. Got the car dropped, right at dark. Then about 30 miles down to the Days Inn in Wesley. We didn't eat again. Didn't think about it again until now. Did have to climb over a bunch of 'kids' sitting at the top of the stairs smoking. Thought they might be a issue but we stayed with the room we had and no problems. ... the trip continues HERE |
