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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 - New RV's 20180826 - IA to CA 1 pm - Stopped for lunch at Burger King in Northwoods. On the way to Forest City we meet to buses going to MSP. That would be really nice to get one coming right back home, I will check in in the morning to let dispatch know we are on our way. 1:30 pm - Got to Forest City. Good news, pay has gone up. And we no longer have to wash the RV's, that can be a savings of 2-3 hours. We find our RV's and do our pre-trips. It takes a bit longer as we are out of practice. We are running low on logs, but they are no longer laying with the other forms in the office. We have enough to get to delivery. 2:30 pm - We are ready to go, I need to fuel as the fuel gauge barely moves. I stop at Casey's and put in enough to get to Clear Lake. Fuel is $.13 cheaper in Clear Lake and I will need most of 80 gallons. It's worth making two stops. 3 pm - Clear Lake at Pilot. BB is still fueling. I have start the pump twice because I go over $150. We had thought we would make it to Omaha but that doesn't look likely anymore. We are going to deliver on Thursday. We could have left Monday and still made it Thursday, but these were the RV's we wanted so we had to get them off the lot Sunday if we call in on Friday. 5:30 pm - Bonanza Buffet, Des Moines. We stop here to eat and look at our options. Most of the food was good. Soup was too salty, sweet potatoes were too sweet. The rest of the food was good. We just need to remember we are eating at a buffet for fast service and selection. NOT to stuff ourselves until we hurt. We had thought we could make it to Avoco before we needed a break but we were not going to make it. We did the math and there was no reason to push at this point. And we've been up late every night since last Wednesday. We decided to stay in West Des Moines. 7 pm - Sleep Inn in West Des Moines. The place has been open for less than a year. Brand new, and no smoking. That was some of the comments about the other motels in town, the smoke smell is hard to get rid of. We have our stops listed for tomorrow already. Makes for an easier trip. We've haven't driven RV's for over two months, we need to focus on the money for the next few trips. 20180827 - IA to CA Woke up this morning to the alarm clock that someone else had set. We are out of practice, that is something we always used to check before going to bed. Interesting shower, the door was weighted and wanted to stay open. Had to jam a towel in it to get it to say shut. Breakfast included eggs, sausage, hash browns plus hash, also biscuits and gravy and the usual fixings. Need to stop eating so much. Map says we want exit 1B, but they renumbered the road when they worked on it. It is now exit 50. It is where I-29 and I-80 run together for a few miles. 120 miles down the road we stop at the Pilot in Council Bluffs. I forgot which side my fuel was on so I needed to turn around in a fairly small lot. Luckily for me there wasn't hardly anyone else there. BB had to call in the damage on her RV. A rubber bumper was coming loose and we used painters tape to hold it in place. 12 noon we stop at York, NE at the Petro. Their Iron Skillet has a good buffet. I'm still trying to stay away from greens until my blood is under control again. But there was still plenty to eat, no bad food here. BUT I no longer get points for buying food, only fuel which I don't do at this chain. 2 pm we stop in Elm Creek at Pilot for fuel. Small place, always crowded. It is again today, we had to wait for pumps. Somewhere today I saw another bus heading to MSP. Also a couple of RV's in transit passed us and one truck but that has been all. I got the pass at a scale but BB got sent across. They just weighted her and sent her on. I didn't see what happened, only that she wasn't behind me so I pulled off at the next exit. Posted all around, no parking. So by the time I got turned around I just got back on the freeway and headed to our next break stop. She was already there, just getting out. 6 pm we got to Sidney. To the Quality Inn. It is mostly a Super 8 with a different name. Pretty cheap, but so is the price. We walked to Mi Ranchito again. Last time it was closed for a meeting/work event. This time it was open. Food was good, not great. I had three enchiladas, BB had two. 10 hour day today, more hours tomorrow. We plan on getting past Salt Lake City and then past Reno on Wednesday. No major issues, but have seen lots of cops with their lights on. Both stopped and en-route. 20180828 - IA to CA First morning of eating less, just yogurt instead of yogurt, eggs and sausage. Could see the bright red sun rising this morning off the reflection of someones trucks. So up by sunrise. Our 1st planned stop was to be the Port of Entry to get our permits. It was closed due to road construction. Our 2nd planned stop was two exits later, a Pilot on the east edge of Cheyenne. From there I called the POE but the phone was busy. So I tried the POE in Laramie. The guy on the phone asks says I should have known the POE was closed, I should have found out when I called for my authorization number. Then he wondered why I didn't call ... "I didn't call because I am neither oversized or over weight." ... Oh ... oh, just come on in and we will sell you what you need. I've never driven a Sightseer before and I don't think I am making very good mileage. I am topping off every time BB stops for fuel. At Laramie we get our permits and a guy who crosses the scale behind us is overweight ... and so is his truck. He has a dump truck hauling rock and has to move 1,200# far enough forward so it is hauling on the front axle instead of the rear. I did not think he was going to make it up into the box, but he finally did. We didn't stick around to see how many times he had to re-weight. Plan had been to stop at a rest area past Laramie before we knew we'd have to stop in Laramie. Then original plan was to stop in Wamsutter for lunch. The 1st scale/POE being closed didn't add any stops, just changed them for the rest of the day. When I got to Flying J, I called the drop, then called for permits and finally the bus dispatcher to let him know I was on my way. To early to promise anything, but did ask I call him Thursday morning when I delivery. (not wait until Thurs eve when the new buses are released) Thought there was a Subway at the Flying J in Rawlins, turned out to be a Denny's. We ate there anyways. I had the chicken philly and BB had chicken something. When we went to leave, we saw an RV pull out in front of a semi. Semi laid on the horn until the RV was fully in the travel lane. Semi hadn't gone more than the length of his truck since his last stop sign so he couldn't have been going very fast, but he did have the right of way. During the day today we did see our 4th MVTA bus heading to Burnsville. Also saw a couple of RV's in Rawlins and the same two again in Evanston ... and a short bus, and a refer straight truck all in transport. Our next stop now is Evanston at the Flying J. Just for a restroom stop, and to make reservations for tonight. We end up using points. Motels this trip are running around $100 a night, hopefully they drop down after Labor Day. From Evanston to Salt Lake is mostly down hill, with a few 50 mph curves. We hit Salt Lake about 6 pm, but traffic is not too bad. It's just always one of those cities that is a challenge. We take the 201 bypass which may help. It gets us off of I-80 for 5-10 miles and only the last mile or so is two lane. Clocked off at 6:30 local. Tonight is at the Comfort Inn in Tooele. Never the cheapest but easy access. For supper we walked across the street to Denny's ... again. Tonight I had meatloaf and BB had fish. I only got one of the sides and no bun and I was still full by the time I was half done. Need to start ordering off the kids menu. When we walked out we noticed an RV that was smashed in on one side. Brand new. I thought I took a picture of it but when I got to the room the picture I took was of the ground. A while later I walked back over to take another picture of it ... in the dark. But someone was parked next to it. The guy was just getting back to his truck so I asked if he had hit the damaged RV. For a couple of seconds he was defensive until he realized I was joking. We ended up talking for quite a while before we parted ways. When I was walking a way I began to wonder if someone had been in the damaged RV listening to all of our speculation of what might have happened. After looking at it a few times I think someone else hit the damaged RV, not the driver hitting something. Alarm will go off in eight hours. 20180829 - IA to CA Up and eating breakfast by 6 am. When we were looking at the breakfast items, BB noticed the eggs had cheese in them and made a comment about it. The help offered to make her one without cheese, but it would take 10 minutes so she passed. There were also hard boiled eggs if she really wanted eggs. Good breakfasts so far this trip. No bad juice. Today's motel had four types of yogurt but yogurt was yesterday. We are rolling before the sunrise, partly because it is early, partly because we are on the west side of a mountain at the base. Before too long down the highway I can see the red sunrise in my mirror. Always interesting crossing the salt flats. Today's question on my mind is ... do they know what year all the salt will be mined out of the lake? 1st stop is in West Wendover. We checked GasBuddy for fuel prices and the station in Wendover where we buy cheap diesel has gas for $.40 more than what we can buy it for in West Wendover. We stop at Pilot and BB gets her three cents off, for some reason my didn't work so I didn't get my <> $1 discount. No long handled window washers on the gas islands but I reached as far as I could get. It did help. Lots of cops on the road today, busy and not busy. We also had to drive thru the inspection area but we didn't have to stop. Next stop was at a Maverick in Elko. Next time we will stop at the Sinclair if we remember. It looks like it has a lot more room to park. It should, it is listed as a truck stop. This was just a restroom break. BB was wondering if we would get to Battle Mountain before the Port O' Subs opened. Nope, the open for breakfast and it was just about 11 AM. I had some kind of chicken sandwich without lettuce. Next stop would be BB's final fuel stop. Shell has been the lowest price in town so we headed there. Once there she noticed a sign on the door that said 'closed until further notice.' So we went a half mile back to fuel at the Flying J. When we left we drove past the Shell again and there were four cars there. It looked like maybe the pumps were still turned on ??? Somewhere today we saw a semi tractor on the shoulder that was completely burnt to the ground and half the trailer was too. Red cones around it, but no other action around that one. Hours later we saw another half burnt out trailer in the center median. This one no longer had a tractor with it so I can't know if that was burnt also, but by the way the trailer was burnt it was looked just like the prior one. This trailer was being unloaded, whatever hadn't been burnt. A quick restroom stop in Loveloch at the Golden something. It is our routine stop. Then 110 miles to Verdi. Today we are coming in before rush hour and again before sunset. We see the tents set up downtown for their Rib Fest. Seems we were here last year the same weekend. Best Western in Verdi for the night. BB had checked the price when we were in Loveloch and it was over $100. On one trip it had gone down by the time we got to Verdi, so we waited. This time the price did not go down, or up. Food was at Mel's Diner. I had their version of a patty melt and BB had a burger. The buffet is only open Th-Sun. After looking closely at the layout of the buffet I finally did remember eating there once. Not sure when it was. Not free breakfast here, so we will be up at 4 am (local) so we have time to eat breakfast. Not sure our rush, we should deliver by noon and then it is only an hour down to the bus when it is not rush hour. Not sure what we will do to kill the hours between runs. We do have a car reserved. Tomorrow we will know if we get a trip back east or a rental car. And if a trip, will it be to Burnsville, Dallas or Miami? We have plans to be home by Saturday the 8th and then staying home through the Safety meeting on the 13th. ... the trip continues HERE |
