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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 - New RV's 20180929 - IA to CA This time when I stayed in town for quarter end, there was work. So I needed to take a day off before heading out, so Saturday was my day off and we headed down as far as Albert Lea. Comfort Inn was our choice. The closest for a good price. I wasn't hungry after being well fed at my brothers, but BB wanted to eat at the Iron Skillet next door so that is where we ate. Food was mostly good. Cheesy potatoes and potato salad were two of the best on there spread. Fruit was good too. We had called in Friday morning to take the only two RV's going to West Sacramento. The board was down to around 50, 10+ of those were going to 1,000 Oaks, CA. Too close to LA and too far from Sacramento. Maybe later in the season when we want to get south of the snow line we'll try those. 20180930 - IA to CA Alarm went off at 5:30 ... I need my 34 hour restart and I logged off at 9 pm Friday night so we can't get going this AM until 7 am. Breakfast looked good, but I just had one cup of yogurt. I am still stuffed from last night, way too much food. A single piece of pie would have done me. From Albert Lea to Forest City is about 45 minutes. Some places the water is still high from 10 days ago, other places it has started to recede. It took our usual one hour to do our inspection. The board is now down to 20+ after people grabbed Saturday and the lot looks it. Only one other person in the lot, he came in via taxi and was heading to 1,000 Oaks ... he passed us a couple of times later in the day. No issues with the units, it just takes time to look everything over. BB has almost a half a tank and I have about a quarter, beats both being on empty. Down side is that one is gas and one is diesel. Some places have gas $.40 cheaper than most in the area, others have diesel $.40 cheaper than most. Few have both the cheapest. That I have about twice the range that she does so I don't need to fuel as often. BB stops in Forest City at Casey's, that is the cheapest diesel. I stop at the Flying J in Clear Lake, that is the cheapest gas. From there we make it to the QT in Des Moines where BB fuels again, doesn't have to already but that will get us so she fuels one stop and I fuel the next. Works out for me this time two as I take it all as off duty. We eat at the Burger King there. Interesting change of motels at this intersection. There had been a Red Roof, that changed to a Comfort Inn and almost right away changed again to a Quality Inn. The place next door has been going down hill for the last 10+ years under various names. Recently it had been a Rodeway Inn for a while but for going private label. Today it is the Red Roof Inn. They would have had to do a lot of work to get that up to par. I stayed there a few years ago before it was downgraded to a Rodeway and it was bad already then. Next stop was the Pilot in Council Bluffs for fuel for me, bathroom break for BB. After that was a fuel stop at the Phillips in Waco. Fuel there was $.30 less than five miles down the road. Interesting place. the restaurant is closed. Half the truck islands are closed, one of the car islands is half closed, bathrooms are closed. We had to stop a couple of miles down the road at the rest area to use the bathrooms. Original plan was to make it to Kearney, but we've made good time so we will make it to at least Lexington. We stop at Lexington for food and decided to keep going. In Lexington we eat at the Arbey's. I get a smokehouse brisket and go back and ask them where the onions are, they have to point them out to me so that I see them. Nowhere close to what the pictures look like or what I have gotten at other locations. I emailed to complain when I got to the motel. If I had seen the sign, we would have both gotten a Gyro, 2 for $6. ... oh, forgot about this in my complaint. They were out of ROAST BEEF ....??? Just because, we drove for another half hour to Gothensburg to a Comfort Suites. It's not going to gain us anything other than a nicer motel. If we had stayed in Kearney it would have made for a 570 mile day Monday. Now both Monday and Tuesday should be 500-550. We'd have to push over 600 to make it any further. After our motels then next two nights, it is another 100 miles before the next major town. Did see a lot of windmill pieces on trailers. Six at one rest area, lots more coming down the highway. Other than that, not much new on this stretch of I-80. Looks the same as the last few trips. Not sure anyone can tell where we are on the map anymore. Tomorrow we need to call our drop, call for permits and call dispatch about a bus out of CA. Did meet one heading to Cleveland today. 20181001 - IA to CA Breakfast this AM was eggs and bacon, and cranberry juice. I've been getting cranberry juice if they have it as ... so far, I have not had any off tasting cranberry juice. Often the apple or orange doesn't taste right. Rolling by 7:30. Lots of stops this AM but that is usual for this route. Our first stop was for fuel in Ogallala at Walmart. Cheaper than the other stations. The Shopko has gone out of business next to Walmart, but other places are building. Holiday built a new place last year and Best Western is building a new one this year. BB didn't want to do the 160 miles without a break so we stopped at the Sidney rest area. Then another 70 miles to the POE. Sign said closed but we pulled in anyway. They were still in the office so they sold us our permits, saved having to go to the one in Laramie. One other transporter pulled in behind us, other than that the place was empty so it didn't take long ... other than BB didn't think it was open so she waited to go in until I had my permit and was coming out. Still doing road construction in the area but no one had moved the cones so we had driven in. Another 90 miles to Laramie and the Iron Skillet at the Petro. From here I called the drop to let them know we'd be there on Wednesday. They want any info from my so not sure why we have to call ... but the one time I don't call ... Buffet, not much that I liked but still more than I needed. After our main food, both of us had salad. First BB bit into something that went crunch so she quit eating ... then I did. I'm used to it being a tooth, not sure what it was this time but I didn't eat any more salad either. Cheapest gas was at the oldest truckstop so we headed over there. No pay at the pump, no diesel on the car islands so BB went back to the Loves and paid $.30 a gallon more for diesel. I had planned on putting in 15 gallons but decided I only needed 12 gallons to get to Evanston (tomorrow I will add more, I won't make it) I had thought they had cleaned that truckstop up, new name and with a new Loves going in next door ... Nope, same old place I used to stop at years ago. For $.30 less per gallon I thought trucks would be lined up. No, just a couple of trucks there and more than that at Loves, Pilot and Petro. Next stop for a break was at the Flying J in Rawlins. Saw a bus there so I talked to the driver a little. This one is going to Denver. Not a bad trip, right direction but picking up Wednesday night, I would get there on Saturday AM and not be able to deliver until Monday (I'm guessing) Then I called for permits and to let the bus dispatcher know I was on my way. He just said call him back on Wednesday. Better than saying 'I don't need you.' BB's been dragging today so we stayed on plan and stopped in Rock Springs. The Clarion was the cheapest now, the Comfort in had been cheaper earlier in the day. Clarion has a nice big lot. Tonight we got an 'upgrade' so a nice room. Hadn't taken a walk for a few days so we took a walk tonight before going to eat at the in-house restaurant. This looks like the size of town that is being hit hard by the retail store closings. Across the street was a K-Mart, now closed. Up the street was a Mall, looked like it used to have 2-3 anchors, the last one being Herbergers. The Herbergers sign is still up, and JC Penny closed two years ago. I remember walking that Mall about three years ago, not sure why. Per WIKI, it is one of only three enclosed malls in the state of WY. So there is a good chance it will stay open. (Maybe Pennys' will come back?) It has 40 plus stores and the next closest mall would be somewhere in Salt Lake City 200+ miles away. We ate at the Mexican restaurant in house. Food was good but slow, they gave us a discount for waiting and we were still in and out in under an hour. We both had enchiladas, neither could finish them. Very little new on the road today. Actually can't think of anything. Another 500+ mile day tomorrow. That will put us in Winnemucca tomorrow night and leave 5 hours for Wednesday. 20181002 - IA to CA Made to order omelets are included in today's breakfast. I'm still way to full from yesterday's meals so I just grab a yogurt and a piece of bacon. BB does have an omelette. We pull out at 7:30 local, next exit we fuel at Cruel Jacks. I only put in the four gallons I think I will need to get to Evanston. I'm down to about a 1/16 of a tank when we get to the Flying J in Evanston. So I wouldn't have needed the full four gallons but I'm guessing I might not have made it on only two gallons. From here it's mostly downhill to SLC and I end up making 11 miles to the gallon instead of the 8 I think I'm making most of the time. Did see one dead cow in the ditch, don't see that very often. Also noticed something that I wonder why it isn't done more often. I looks like someone had mowed off the sagebrush on the top of a hill. I would think it would be much better grazing of more of the sagebrush were chopped off. Guessing it's not cost effective. Also noticed that the trees over a certen elevation have lost all of their leaves. Grass is already trying to green where the fire had just been west of SLC. Next stop was the Flying J in Tooele for fuel for me. It's cheaper here than anywhere beyond and it would be close trying to make it from Evanston to Winnemucca. Plan had been to eat in Wendover 100 miles down the road but BB was hungry now. We both got our usual Denny's. Grilled chicken for her and a chicken philly for me. We could see rain in the distance when we left Tooele, turns out it wasn't that far away. Very small cloud, just a few miles across. But it poured hard, had to slow down. Also saw a few flashes of lighting. All the while we could see blue sky and sun shine just ahead even in the worst of it. We stopped at the Sinclear on the Bonnieville exit. Diesel here is $.40 cheaper than the Pilot about two miles away. Lots of hunks of salt lying around. One place it looked like someone had kicked the salt buggers off their car. Four piles by where the tires would have been. Our permit was for 12:30 for Nevada, we got there about 1:15 so not too far off. Before we get to our next stop we have to go into an inspection area. We didn't have to stop, but there were five others already parked there. Usually there is either no one stopped a just one. Next stop was Elko, we stopped at the Maverick, but I think this was the last time we'll stop there. We first stopped here because of cheap fuel. Since that time we've just been stopping to use the restrooms. We had talked of parking across the street at the closing Kmart, but there was room when we pulled in. When we came out the delivery semi was backing up to the front door and got within a few inches of BB's RV when he was turning. Then people were going to try to get between his trip and our RV's so we pulled across the street to a grocery parking lot just to get out of the way. BB had looked at the radar and there was a big storm heading our way. We managed to just hit the front end of it. Mostly wind, but there were flash flood warnings. BB was going to stop at a Maverick once we got to Winnemucca, but it wasn't on the main drag so we went straight to the motel. The in house restaurant is closed until tomorrow AM. We may have eaten there once, but since then we have walked across the street to The Pig. Good food again as always. Got back to the motel and realized I had forgotten my key in the room so we had to get another one. No issue other than the time. Quality Inn. I'm not able to connect to WiFi tonight, BB says she has. The board is showing an RV out of Oregon to Kentucky. We'll see if it is still there on Thursday morning. I've already told the bus dispatcher that I am going to be in town, so I want to see what he has … and the RV' dispatchers close two hours before I find out about a bus. So I would have to wait until the next morning to call on the RV if I don't get a bus. BB doesn't like the idea of driving 500 miles to get a run … and this place is known to say they have something, but when the driver gets there it may still be days before it is ready. ... the trip continues HERE |
