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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 - New RV's 20180601 - IA-AZ After two weeks of appointments of various kinds we are back on the road. Called Thursday morning and picked two runs going to Tucson. A couple of days ago it didn't show any cheap cars coming out of Phoenix anymore, but now there are again but we are still going to Tucson. Stopped on the way out of town to get a whole bunch of blood work done. Then ate at Burger King as we left town. Somewhere between there and the border we saw a semi slowing on the frontage road before going under a bridge. Bridge is posted at 13 foot, most semi's are 13'6". He was still sitting there as long as I could see him. Also right there it is narrow between the railroad base and the freeway. They even have a cement median between the two roads, the only place he was going was in reverse ... maybe a mile. Got to Forest City after 9, no other drivers heading out the whole time we were there. It took us our usual hour. Then we both stopped at Casey's for fuel instead of Pilot. Diesel was cheaper, gas was the same. Headed to Pilot / Subway for an early lunch. There were four transport RV's sitting there when we got there. They were still there when we left, we did no go talk to them. Usual stop at the rest area before Ankeny. We had gone back and forth about how far we should get tonight. We have plenty of time and can't deliver until Monday. Once we got to Ankeny we decided to go past Kansas City. Because we were going past we split up our stops differently. We stopped in Eagleville at the rest area before stopping for fuel in Kearney. QT was cheapest of diesel, I should have gone to the Pilot and gotten my discount but didn't. Then we went to the Arbeys for food. While eating we looked at the motels ahead. They had been expensive, now they were gone. No vacancies other than the bottom of the line. IF we had gotten past KC we could have made it to Tucumcarri ... instead of Dalhart and the trains. So, it was only 5 PM but we stopped in Kearney for the night at the Quality Inn. Work is back down under 150. We have this quick trip, back in town for another appointment and event. Then leave again on Sunday the 10th and back on the 20th so someone can survey our yard. Then we will be back in town until likely the 20th of July ... after that we have nothing planned. So far. 20180602 - IA-AZ Woke up to storms. (After a night of a recurring dream) Done raining by the time we were ready to go. Late start, breakfast wasn't until 7 AM because it was Saturday. Got through Kansas City at the posted speed limit. Not much traffic on Saturday AM. KS scale was closed. About the only thing of interest today was a pickup pulling a mobile home that had two posts of an awning sticking out. Awning was gone. The map makes it look like we are taking the same route as last time, and for the most part we are. Same road, same stops. 1st stop, rest area by Williamsburg, KS. 2nd stop for for fuel at Dillons in Newton, then a few blocks to Arbey's. 3rd stop was the gas station in Mullinsville. They had gotten the same rain as we did, so it was easier to where the craters are when they are filled with water. Not sure what year they last graded this lot. People had hay down back in IA, hay up in KS. Some of the grain is turning color already in KS. We didn't want to listen to the trains tonight so we decided to make it a short day and stop in Guymon at the Quality Inn. This time instead of eating at the Pub, we walked to Luigie's Italian. Bread was really good, other food was good too but might try a different menu item next time. Tonight we are using reward points for the room. Right now we have enough points for 35-40 nights so we need to start using them. Earlier in the day the rooms were $100, but dropped by the time we reserved. Got our permits printed out without issue. Tomorrow should be a 500+ mile day. About an hour on I-40 and then another hour on I-10. All the rest will be non-freeway, mostly two lane roads. We should end up with about three hours driving, plus the wash for Monday. Plenty of wind today, almost all of the day was two hands on the wheel. No sudden gusts, no high wind warnings. Only a tail wind for a short time, a lot of time in a lower gear because of the wind. 20180603 - IA-AZ Got delayed 3 hours because of a crash, details somewhere below. Headed out of Guymon, OK at 7:15. Before we left I asked the gal at the desk about the partially built motel across the street. Seems whoever was building it thought there was going to be a new casino in town. Ground finally broke on the casino last week, the hotel was started two plus years ago and is still 'open air.' BB fueled across the street and I drove twenty miles to fuel in Texhoma at the Loves. She met me there before we headed on. Diesel was cheaper again in Texhoma, TX than she paid, but their prices never show up online and very greatly so we have never chanced it. Scale is open ... on a Sunday morning. Lights weren't working yet be a guy in the office was flagging us on. We had three semi's following us by the time we got to the scale. I had thought they would pass on the four lane right before the scale but no one seemed to want to be first across the scale so I was. Two of them caught up to us by the next town so I'm not sure if the last one just slowed down or got called in at the scale. Somewhere yesterday I heard a thud when two birds flew in front of me. BB didn't see the feathers fly and I never looked for damage. 2nd stop this AM was Logan, NM. Never stopped here before, just a gas station with a place for a half dozen trucks to park. Quick bathroom break and a bottle of lemon aid. From there it is about another half hour to the freeway, an hour of freeway and then another most of an hour to Vaughn on non-freeway. Once at Vaughn we ate a Penny's diner, the former Oak Tree Inn is now a Travelodge. Food was good, had a pattymelt and soup. Wasn't expecting a full bowl, but it was good once it cooled down. Potato, nice small pieces instead of large raw hunks. BB had to fuel again, she chose a little station instead of the truckstop across from Penny's. Not going to do that again, very tight quarters. Little dings can quickly offset any fuel savings. I had glanced at the claims at our office before we left on this trip. Something like 80% of the claims are hitting fixed objects. The one that stuck out to me was someone hitting the overhang at the drive-thru. Why would you take an RV through the drive thru ... and you can't eat in the RV. ??? The next two hours are mostly two lane, people not happy with us driving the speed limit. Some guy blew his horn at BB when he went by ... didn't notice anything when he passed me. An hour later he is just getting out of his cab at the same truckstop we stop at. So it gained him a minute or two to pass us. That stop was in Tularosa, NM, just before Las Cruses. Private truckstop, a few diesel islands and a restaurant. Haven't noticed if they have showers or not. From there we were going to make it the two plus hours to Deming for the night. We made reservations before we left the truckstop. Mostly four lane from here, but part of that is on city streets through Las Cruses. Then on to I-10. 13 miles before you motel traffic comes to a stop. At some point we find out that a semi has rolled about a half mile ahead of us. We sat there for three hours. We could soon see the traffic taking a country road to the next exit. Pickups with trailers and even a semi made a U-turn in the median. We didn't. The temps were working themselves back up into the 90's. About a half hour before that heavy rains went through. Somewhere in the radio listening area there was hail and frequent lightning, also up to 70 mph winds. I tried to work on my computer but it was just too hot to sit in the RV not running and there have been issues of warning lights coming on after long hours of idle time. So we mostly stood outside. After I ate a handful of nuts I didn't feel so well so I sat in the RV the rest of the time until traffic started moving. After three hours all they had done is moved the semi out of the travel lanes. His load was still spilled on both shoulders. Not sure what he was hauling looked like smaller frozen boxes. I was in such a rush to move I didn't close the windows. That's a problem on an RV because the wind was trying to suck both the plastic seat covers and the curtains out the window. I had to stop but BB went on, she had seen why I needed to stop … and it was getting dark. The sun sat just as we got off the highway. Also that was the end of our 8 and 14 hours for the day. Close timing. We still could have gone to the next 'safe place' after a situation like this. The only food at this exit was in our motel. We ate before checking in as they closed at 9 PM. We finished and paid right at 9 PM The motel tonight is the Quality Inn in Deming. We won't get going quite as early tomorrow because of how late it was tonight. 20180604 - IA-AZ Short night. Breakfast is in the in house restaurant. Not sure if you could get a special order food or not. Help brought us our drinks, other than that it was the usual types of food. But this food was good. Great bacon, eggs were real. Left a tip. We wanted to make up some time so we stopped at the gas station across the street to get fuel to get to Tucson. Fuel there turned out to be $.20-.30 less than the next station, but $.20-30 more than the truckstop down the road. We didn't make nearly the amount off of fuel savings as we usually to. Too much time in 3rd gear. 5-10-20 miles at a time. We are at milemarker 75 so a little over an hour and we are at the POE. As we are walking up someone opens the door (for us) so we walk in the exit door. Then later I noticed the same person opening the door again a few times as the waited for their permit. Once the other person being helped left the door opener asked if we could smell that. We hadn't, but he said the person smelled like an outhouse. (my words, not his) Where we were standing was right under the AC so the air was likely blowing all in his direction. Because we had to wait for the person ahead of us it took about a half hour. The door opener was being helped when we got there and still when we left so his day for the 45 minute permit. 'Cuz I tipped the help this AM, I didn't have exact change for my permit and had to charge it. BB paid cash. Less than an hour down the road we stop and wash, no one ahead of us. We both fit in the wash bay at the same time. We are in and out in 15 minutes. I had left BB get ahead of me in case she had to run to the truckstop to use the restroom. This place had them. Some of these little hole in the wall places don't. An hour plus and we are in Tucson at the Pilot for fuel. Crowded places this AM. My range had gone from 40 miles to spare to 70 miles to spare so I put in about $15 more than I needed. BB left a range of about a 100 miles. The routine is that BB parks her RV here at the truckstop and she rides with me to the airport to pickup the rental car. From there I head to the dealer. Didn't look but I doubt it adds more than a mile to the five mile trip. Once at the dealer, I am still packing up when the guy comes to inspect. BB is there a few minutes later. We go and pick up her RV and when we get back the guy is still working on my paperwork so nothing lost. But now it is noon and his lunch so mine is done and we wait for hers. I saw we'll go to lunch too and the guy offers that they serve food at the RV dealer. We've seen that before but this time we stop. Glad we did. FREE lunch. I had noticed someone eating a chicken philly, it looked so good I almost asked where he got it. We found out. No food choices, just philly's today. Made to order. If not the best I have ever had, very close. So yes, there is something called a free lunch. Most people there were staff, but some looked like there were just there for the lunch, either way past driving range (I hope) or too young to afford. Another half hour and we were on the road. We had looked at going up via the four corners but motels are too far apart and we would to push it some days to be back on Thursday. Maybe another time when we aren't up against an appointment. We had already eaten so first stop with the car was the exit rest are near San Simon. Temps are now around 100. What we are driving is a KIA SUV but the mileage is staying over 30 mpg at 75 mph. Again, because of time we are adjusting our route. If we go the way we came we won't get to a motel until 10 PM, if we take the freeway to Albuque we will get there at 9 PM. We stop in Truth or Consequences and try a Blakes Lottabuerger and get enough fuel to get where it is cheaper. Blakes was not the good, not bad, just nothing special. Make it to a Quality Inn just before 9 PM. Internet is not good. 20180605 - IA-AZ First a couple of notes from yesterday. Bus and flood. When we went through Belen it looked like they had been flooded out. Washouts back into the orchards 8 foot deep. Water in lawns and in the ditches. But I couldn't find anything online recently. So it may be that the damage was from before and the water from yesterday. The bus issue that is making the news is from Albuquerque. They purchased battery/electric buses that were supposed to last 250 miles between charges. And they created routes based on those miles. But now the buses are only lasting 180 miles so they can't complete their routes. This is not any of the bus companies I drive for. We were not up and driving at daylight today. We slept in. We left the motel at 8:15 local so we will not be doing a 12 hour day today. 1st stop was Santa Rosa at the Pilot for gas and a rest stop. Fuel was cheaper in Tucumcarri but that would have been an extra stop. I mis-guessed how much fuel we needed. Cheapest fuel will be in Texahoma. 2nd stop was in Delhart at a BBQ place. We have walked by it a number of times walking to the buffet but has always been closed before. I had the ham sandwich, BB had the beef. When we walked in all the tables were dirty and they told us to sit and they would clean the ones we were sitting at. Not great food but good, and a good change from fast food. 3rd stop was Meade, OK at a non-chain truck stop. Besides the rest room we bought food to keep me awake. 4th and final stop was in Pratt, KS. We first stopped at Dillion's grocery store to see what they had in their deli. Nothing we wanted so we ended up at McD's and got it to go. And then a few more blocks to the Comfort Inn for then night. Not much of note on the highway today. Most of this road is the 4th time we have traveled this month. Cattle and crops are growing. Now that we are done with this trip we are looking at the rest of this month and into next month. But the number of trips on the board is dropping, down about 30 units again today. There likely won't be many choices by this weekend and we will be waiting for new trips to be posted. We had thought we would do a quick trip next week and then be off for 30 days. Now it looks like we may be able to take two short trips next month. But we will also be looking how much we can make. Looking back at the last bus trip I did, we only made $30 more dollars over the eight days after we dropped our RV's. That $30 isn't the full picture as we would have had to rent a car, pay extra motels and gas if we hadn't taken the bus but we do need to keep watching the numbers. As of now we should be home Thursday afternoon and leaving again Sunday for 10 days. 20180606 - IA-AZ It was after 7:30 when we left the motel this AM. It's too far to make it home yet today so we aren't going to push it. 1st stop wasn't for 2-1/2 hours. Emporia at the Flying J for fuel and restrooms. This is about as cheap as we will find fuel. Did see it for less at a un-manned Cenex in some little town earlier today. 2nd stop was Freddies. First time we've stopped at one. They have them in MN now but we haven't stopped. Burger was good, so were the cheese curds, I just don't need that many. My 1st choice had been Stroud's. But the only one we drive past doesn't open until 5 PM. We have stopped at the other one, it's a few miles out of route and wasn't that good. Not bad, just not worth driving out of route to get to. So 2nd choice was Texas Roadhouse. When we were a few miles away we were looking again for directions ... and saw that this place also doesn't open until 4 PM. So we decided to just go with what ever was at the exit. Freddies it was. Didn't try any of the ice creams this time. 3rd stop was at Eagleville. Again a fuel and restroom stop. Last chance for cheap fuel. Have gotten up to 40 mpg on this KIA SUV, not bad. 4th stop was the Ankeny rest area. I waited in the car. Again, this is now the 4th time on this road in a couple of weeks so not much new. Did see a full skid of something laying on the freeway. Also someones golf clubs and bag were being driven over. Lots of road kill but not much for live wildlife. 5th and final stop was Story City at the Comfort Inn. Ankeny and Ames were sold out by this AM. Not a great deal to use points for, but we are anyways. A new rewards program starts in a few days. For every two stays you can get a $50 gift card. Last year we cashed in on over $1,000 and we were still at over 300,000 points before tonight. 8,000 points will get a good room at lots of the hotels if its not peak times. Storm was rolling in so we didn't head out to eat until it was mostly past. Ate at a little Mexican restaurant attached to a ma and pa motel. Food was good and plenty of it. Board is down to under 70. LOL Looking at last year and it was only over 10 one or two days in the next six weeks. So still lots of work, we will just need to look close at each run. Only 1 to CA, 0 to OR and 1 to WA and 1 to AZ. We can't grab work until Friday AM so what is out there now is just something to look at. 20180607 - IA-AZ Same routine. Left out of the motel, picked up our car at Forest City. I got to Fort Snelling and waited for BB to get the rental car delivered. Then stopped at Bakers Square before heading home. By late in the day dispatch had added two trips to CA, we'll both be on the phone in the AM trying to get them. We couldn't speak for them today because of the 24 hour pickup requirement. Tomorrow works because of the weekend. |
