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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 RV's to Bakersfield CA ... spending the night at Kearney MO Headed to CA A little background to being gone this year over Thanksgiving. We had planned on being in town. For most of the last 20 years we had been going to my brothers, as this was the only holiday we got together for. And the last few years we had been going there for noon and then BB's sisters later in the evening. Last year it was decided that we would do something in the summer for my side of the family as the younger people had too many places to be over Thanksgiving. So last year we went to BB's sisters. This year her sister was having medical issues and didn't feel like having anything and BB's two girls were both going to their in-laws and my kids were going to their mothers. So we were 'the leftovers' as my Mom put it. So we decided to work. Then four days before Thanksgiving, my brother sent out and invite. The next day BB's sister and both her daughters all invited us to separate Thanksgivings. But we stuck to our plans and hit the road. Yesterday both BB and I had dentist appointments. We scheduled them because we were going to be in town anyways ... right? Work dumped a bunch on the board sometime Saturday after we last looked at it in the afternoon, but nothing we wanted. By this time work was so slim that we were going to take anything ... to the west coast. Just as BB got out of her appointment they put two on the board for CA, Bakersfield. I quickly called in and put them on hold and called BB. I said I didn't want to wait for West Sac. We were going to wait and leave after rush hour, but then we wouldn't have gotten very far before dark. So we got out of the house at 6:45 ... and being the day before Thanksgiving there wasn't any rush hour traffic. After a brief stop at the rest area in Northwood we were at Forest City. Breakfast today was the last of the Papa John's pizza from a couple of days ago so we didn't have a breakfast stop on the way down. This AM drivers could call in for anything being picked up today, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday so there was 20 RV's gone off the board in a few minutes. It seemed to have quieted down by the time we got there. Only saw two other drivers heading out the whole hour we did our inspections. Weather wasn't too bad. About 32 degrees. Found both RV's and pulled them around to do the inspections. It's only been a couple of weeks but we seemed a little slow, a little rusty at doing it. No issues. We saw them bringing over more RV's already at 9 AM. By the end of the day there were still 20 on the board that they had brought over today. About 1/8 and 1/16 of a tank of fuel in our RV's so enough to get to Clear Lake where the price was a couple of cent cheaper. Had a brain blank when I got to the fuel pump. I put in my credit card and then was to swipe my rewards card. I couldn't find it and the pump kept beeping at me. Finally I clicked that I didn't have one, because we have had issues with swiping the card too many times so I didn't want to cancel the transaction. That $.03 off would have added up to $1.50 this fill. Opps. When we were done filling we went in to eat at Subway. THEN I saw my rewards card. I was looking for a yellow card and it is actually red. I never looked at them one at a time, I just spread them wide enough to see what color they were. I did use my diesel rewards card and paid for lunch, so I've gone from $40 down to $10 on my rewards card in a couple of weeks. Quick stop at the rest area in Kearney. We had talked of fueling in Eagleville, but both of us can make it to Kearney where gas is even cheaper. Next stop is another rest area, this one in Eagleville, MO. By this time I had really made a mess of my log book and finally figured out what the issue was. But it took me twice more to get it right and I still had to cross something out. I had put down that we left at 6:15, when we actually left at 6:45 ... then it took longer to get to Clear Lake, on paper, than it usually does. I'm know how long it takes to get to some of these places so I don't always look at the clock. This time that added up to a mess on my log. At Kearney we fueled at the Pilot and then went to the Quality Inn. And it was sunset so we wouldn't have made it much further. We thought we could have made it further earlier in the day but motels here were $30+ cheaper than down the road. And we have almost two extra days if we needed to make delivery. We walked over to the same Chinese place we've eaten at before. We walk in at 5:30 and we are the ONLY people there. I think it was after 6 before anyone else came in. Then two large groups plus some take out orders. It is the day before Thanksgiving, I guess people don't go out to eat just to eat out before the big feast. Because of the distances between motels and the prices, we are planning on doing under 500 miles per day. Tomorrow we plan to make it to Guymon, we already have that reservation. Then Friday night we'll make it to Galup ... or Holbrook. Then the next night is likely Barstow. From there it is only 130 miles to Bakersfield and we aren't sure if we will do that on Sunday or take Sunday off and do the last two hours on Monday morning. After we drop in Bakersfield it is about 4 hours drive up to the buses in Livermore. I did call the bus dispatcher tonight but he will no know anything until Monday afternoon. So we will likely just head up there. Even if I don't shut down on Sunday our hours are spread out enough that I shouldn't need to do a restart after I pick up the bus. Sure last week there was nothing good in Oregon. Tonight there is one going to TX, 2000+ miles. The Iowa board has been at almost 80 or over for the last four days. The last two years it has dropped after Thanksgiving to single digits after the 1st of Dec. We may have to look elsewhere for work. Oh ... back to my dentist appointment. I need to have two fillings and one crown. Then want to do two crowns but the other one can wait. So now we have to stay in town after New Years and then be back again in three weeks after that. We had thought we were going to be leaving town after Christmas and spending January in the south again. Plans are ever changing. 20181122 - IA-CA 2 RV's to Bakersfield CA ... spending the night at Guymon OK Alarm woke us up, need to make use of the daylight. Breakfast was eggs, sausage and a little biscuits and gravy. Then I had a little yogurt but all they had was a banana mix. Rolled out at 7 AM. Glad we didn't wait for rush hour to get over ;) We had the highway mostly to ourselves. Likely about as busy as a normal 5 am ... on a Sunday. No problems, no slow downs. Scale closed south of town. 1st stop was at a rest area near Williamsburg. Noticed lots of road kill, even a mostly intact buck with a good rack. Also a few skunks, managed to miss them all. 2nd stop was the truckstop in Newton. It most mostly empty when we got there so we parked in the car lot. Decided to eat if they were open. They were. If we wanted to wait another 10 minutes we could have their Thanksgiving Buffet, but we ordered sandwiches instead. Not sure it would be a good idea to stuff ourselves and then try to drive another 300 miles. I had a patty melt and soup and BB had a BLT and soup. All was good. Food that is. Once the buffet opened people started piling in. And filling the parking lot. The only spot open was one ahead of me, thank you for not filling that one or I'd have been there for a while. People had parked so close to BB that I had to guide her out. We pulled across the street to fill out our log books before heading out. Lunch had taken under a 1/2 hour, but then it took us another 15 minutes to get and pay for our bill. The area is not doing good though. There used to be 2 or more name brand gas stations, now down to one off brand. Used to have a Best Western that closed and sits empty, a Days Inn that is now off brand and another one that may have been a Super 8 that is now an off brand. Pratt was the thirds stop of the day. Fuel was cheaper there than down the road. But we stopped at Caseys and it was $.03 cheaper at Loves. At Casey's someone stopped and asked what part of OR we were from ... because we run on OR plates. Later in the day I saw a NC plate in the front window of someones truck ... but I didn't think quick enough to look to see if it was an AmeriFleet transporter. (where we used to work) Next stop was in Meade. Even the truckstop was locked up. We should/could have stopped at a small Loves, but we would have had to park on the street. We've tried parking in the lot before and people were waiting for us by the time we got back to our RV's. The lot at the truckstop had huge crater holes in it. Not likely to stop there again. It was about another 40 miles down to Liberal so we headed that way. Just used the rest room and headed the last 40 miles to Guymon. Driving in to town I did not see any place open to eat. First question I had for the desk clerk at the motel was where can we eat. This Mc'D's is closed today. The closest place was Loves a mile down the street. So we walked it. They have a sub place, Chesters Chicken and Godfathers. We went for Chesters and then walked back. A good walk Motel for the night is the Quality Inn, we've stayed here a few times before. The motel last night does not have a printer set up because 'people keep steeling the parts.' So we waited until tonight to print our NM permits. But I did get that done. About a half hour before we got to Guymon I got a phone call, and then a text. Water issues at Mom's place again. It took the better part of a week for me to get that fixed last time. Luckily my brother was avail and got it 'fixed.' We'll see how long it is before we have problems again. Tomorrow we will try to make it another almost 500 miles. Not sure if we'll try to make more or if it a situation of that is where the motels are cheaper again. That's been the case for not pushing on the last two nights. 20181123 - IA-CA 2 RV's to Bakersfield CA ... spending the night at Gallup NM Ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr ! ! ! ! ! ! I need to be more pro-active. Our room last night was right next to the elevator so there was a lot of noise in the hall. Once it quieted down, I could hear a dog yapping. That was about 9 PM, I should have called the desk then. Instead I put a pillow over my head and tried to get to sleep. I did briefly and then woke, went back to sleep and woke again about 11:30. Finally at 11:50 I called the front desk to complain. I didn't notice any change until about 12:20 the dog yapped a bunch of times ... like the owners finally came back. And then it was quiet. But I'm someone who, if I don't get to sleep before midnight, I do not sleep well for that night or the next night. I get too exhausted. So it'll be a ruff next couple of days. If I remember, from now on I will call anytime a dog has been barking for over 5 minutes. Neither of us had slept well so we were up early and ready to get on the road. Breakfast was the usual. Orange juice had a little too much kick for me, but the staff was too busy on their phone to ask people if everything was OK. All else was good. We checked gas prices again this AM and decided to stop in Texhoma at the Loves, so BB had to re-do our route for the day. I saw a car coming as I pulled out of the Loves in Texhoma but I had plenty of room, the speed limit was slowed and the highway was four lane. But the car needed to get around me so he did, but by that time another truck had pulled out blocking the right lane. So the car got back over in the left lane behind a semi. The left lane semi slowed sooner for a stop light so the car jumped back in front of me behind the right lane semi. :) I could tell by how the semi's were moving how fast they would pull out from the light and I was right. So that car that had jumped back and fourth ... ended up in fourth place, behind both semi's and another car when the road merged to one lane. Traffic was part of the story today. NE of Dalhart US-54 has about 2 miles of four lane and then 8 miles of two lane, they call the four lane 'passing zones.' But once you are SW of Dalhart it is or is almost all two lane. First we got behind someone going 60 mph, we stayed behind them which made it harder for others to pass. At one point a semi passed about six of us, paid no attention to those pesky no passing zones. I did finally pass that one. Then we caught up to a 2nd someone going 55. They finally pulled off at a wide spot so everyone could pass. TX doesn't have signs saying no driving on shoulder so some people do that to let people pass. Once we get to NM the shoulders are too narrow. NM scale was open today. We just held up our permits and were waved on. The long row of trucks that was behind us never caught up to us again after the scale until we got to Logan. Logan was our next stop, no rest area so we have been stopping at a gas station with a small area for trucks. On through Tucumcarri and onto the interstate and on to Santa Rosa. Fueled in Santa Rosa at the Pilot before going in to eat. My discount card didn't work again so another $1 lost. After we fueled at the gas pumps we parked in the truck lot. No large car lot at this station. We ended up just eating pizza from PJ Fresh. In and out in a half hour. Did see one transporter at the fuel pump. Smallest truck Freightliner makes, and then it had a log lifter on the back. Looked strange. BB did mention that she got better mileage on the two lane at 55-60. Wind is really throwing her around today. After we left Santa Rosa a ways we stopped at an exit as I wanted to see if she wanted to drive slower because we were still bucking the wind. Zero cell service so I had to walk back. She was doing OK so we did mostly 65. I suppose this is sounding like a broken record. These big RV's like to downshift to 2nd gear. 5th gear it runs at 2,000 RPMs, 4th at 2,500, 3rd at 3,000 and then 2nd at 4,000. I don't like it running at 4,000 so I kick off the cruise everytime it does that which is often. Also a few times today it would stay in 3rd until I kicked the cruise off, it would drop to 2nd and I'd hit resume and it would stay in 2nd at 65 MPH. Not sure why it does that but it is annoying. I was annoying someone today. He tried to pass me a couple of times then jumped back into me lane right on my tail. I doubt he was too far from hitting me. The 2nd time he laid on the horn. Not sure but he likely thought I was messing with him. I think what was happening is I had the cruise set at 65. His was governed at 64. Everytime I hit a hill, my speed drops to 62 before it downshifts. So to him, when my speed would drop he would pull out to pass and as soon as he pulled out to pass my RV would downshift and speed back up to 65 again. I really wasn't messing with him, it's just the way the RV is programed. Next stop was Albquerque at another Loves. Trucks were parked on both sides in the driveway so I thought it was packed, no, they are just to lazy to walk from the main parking lot. Two more hours and we are in Gallup at the Quality Inn. I couldn't tell where the driveway was so we did a little detour through the Home Depot. We had planned on parking at the Home Depot if this was a small lot but it is not. By the time we parked in the Quality Inn there were already trucks parking in 'our spots' at the Home Depot. I asked for a non-pet friendly area on the motel. At this location they are kept in separate parts of the building. That was good. The evening cookies were good. But then we got to our room and I could smell the smoke ... in a non-smoking room ... before I ever set foot in it. We both got three feet in and walked out. We got up graded to a suite. We ate next door at a Cracker Barrel. It's been months since we have been to one. Menu has changed again. BB likes them because they have v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e-s. She had fish and I had a French Dip, that is something new to the menu. It was good, I was even dipping the bun after the meat was gone. Lots of stops tomorrow, longest day planned. Cheapest fuel is right here in town so that is how we will start the day. Did see fuel for under $2.20 in Morarity. Fuel will be a dollar more than that in CA. We have reservations to stay two nights in Barstow so that will be my re-set before I get to the bus this time. Did see one bus today, they must have pulled out Wednesday night. The only markings I could read were MTA. Not much help. I need to dig out my non-phone camera so I can take pictures while driving without risking a huge fine. (Using anything on the phone by a commercial driver is against the law. That includes the camera and GPS, not just phone and text) 20181124 - IA-CA 2 RV's to Bakersfield CA ... spending the night at Barstow CA Much better night last night, did wake up to hear someone upstairs squeaking a board over and over again. It was like they were doing their exercises right on the only squeaky board in the whole room. That was about midnight. Got down to breakfast just as the 1st door opened. Had the usual, tired the red water and that is what it tasted like. Today the juice was in pictures, but the sign on the machine that wasn't working said they usually had cranberry juice. We pulled out at 6:30 local, just as the sun was coming up. Google suggested we take the back roads the next four miles to the gas station. We didn't, we got on the freeway. 1st stop was Loves. Didn't need fuel yet but the price goes up as we go west. Sometimes we can get our inspection and fuel done in 15 minutes, but not today. Very slow pumps. 2nd stop was also for fuel, this time at the Flying J in Winslow. BB didn't fuel here but based on my mileage, if I filled here, I would be two miles short of making it to the drop. So I'm hoping I don't leave too much fuel in the RV. The mileage should go up. 3rd stop was in Williams at another Loves. BB fueled her final ? fuel and then we ate at the Carl Jrs (Hardees.) Once again I was there with 2 minutes left that I could order breakfast, so I did. I got the bacon burrito and BB got a grilled chicken. My mind must have been busy today. I remember seeing a sign that said Winslow 74 miles. The next thing I know I see a sign that says Winslow 10 miles. Does make the morning go fast. Somewhere a trash truck in transit pasted us. I couldn't read the name on the side so I don't know what company it was. It is one of the ones we get out of AL. Saw him again at the Loves in Williams but he was to far away. Didn't have anyone blowing their horn at me today. Did have the usual people driving in my lane. One semi had his signal one and over the white line before he remembered I was there. Yesterday back on the non-freeway when we were going through some town a car started to come over on me from the right. Then they over corrected and bounced off the curb, then back over the white line ... I backed off until they turned off the highway. Plan had been to stop at the Flying J in Kingman for BB's last fuel, but we were both getting better mileage today so she had fueled in Wiliams. So we stopped at the Petro instead, much easier to get on and off. We stayed out of the car area and parked in the truck lot instead, the car lot was a zoo today. Back on the highway, next 'stop' is the produce inspection area in CA. The guy checking just mouthed the word 'Transporter?' and then waved me through. Saw a long row of APS trucks heading to CA. I just looked it up and they are the Arizona Public Service trucks. Bucket and other related trucks from the power company, I suppose heading to help repair in the fire area. The note I saw when I looked it up was that they will be switching over all of the APS trucks to electric ... makes sense I guess. Last stop of the day was near Fenner at a rest area. Highest price for gas I saw today was $4.79, glad I didn't need to fuel there. Got to Barstow a few minutes before sun set so we had to drive right into the setting sun. We made it. This motel does have a lot of truck parking but they were all full. With matching trucks. Plenty of room to park, and still plenty of room at 7 pm. We usually stay at the Quality Inn, but just as BB was going to make reservations I asked her if there were any other 'Choice' brand hotels in town. Turns out the Comfort Suites was 1/3 of the rewards points as the Quality Inn would have been. And a much nicer, new place next to a whole lot more food. So we are at the Comfort Inn for the next two nights. We ate at Dickey's BBQ tonight. Not cheap. $25 for fast food, and I didn't even have a drink. There are even 2 Denny's within a couple of blocks of each other. Besides three truckstops at this exit there is also an outlet mall. I'm guessing that is where we will be doing our walking tomorrow. Weather is much nicer here. Weather is really nasty the shorter route through WY, CO, UT. Yesterday the weather had been nice by the time we got to Gallup so I shed one layer. Left it in the RV. This AM it was 17 degrees outside. Wished I had that extra layer. Did see a couple of more buses today but couldn't read the names on them. Haven't seen much else for transporters. Off day tomorrow ... I'm sure I'll keep busy doing something. 20181125 - IA-CA 2 RV's to Bakersfield CA ... spending the night at Barstow CA Another noisy night. This time it was just the people being loud getting to their rooms. Doesn't help that we are still on central time and have been sleeping for two hours before others are getting to the motel. The place was packed this morning for breakfast. Usually early Sunday mornings are pretty quite. It's usually the busiest in the hour before breakfast closes. The had eggs and spicy eggs this am. Also bacon, potatoes and tortillas besides the usual. Most places have orange and apple juice. Some have a third kind, but this place had for kinds. After a few hours we went for a walk, about a two mile walk. We walked down to the outlet mall and then back. I was taking pictures that I post on TripAdvisor. But my camera is being slow and most of my pictures were of the ground, it is taking the camera that long to snap the picture after I click it. On the way back we stopped at In-n-Out for a burger. This has to be one of the largest. It is the first one I have seen that has a queue lines. Those metal or rope things that make lines more organized. We each had a single. We usually have a double but that is when we are eating later in the day and it ends up being our only meal of the day. After leaving there we walked through another, former outlet mall. A dozen long buildings all now sitting empty. Think their directory showed two businesses and one food place out of 100-200 former store fronts. Kind of eerie. Came back to the room and sat for a few more hours. Then walked over to the Black Bear at the TA. I think this is the only Black Bear that is at a truck stop. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich and they were out. So I had a french dip and BB had the BLT. We topped it off with an apple cobbler ale mode. Sounds like they were open over Thanksgiving and every employee had to work and they were still swamped. Ran out of pies. Good food but a little slow, seemed to be under staffed today. The walk to the Black Bear and back was another mile so we got in three plus miles today. Not great but better than most days sitting behind the while. Now I am restarting my hours so I can drive / work another 70 hours before another shut down. Once we delivery tomorrow I will call on the buses but likely won't know until about 5 pm west coast time. We are getting a one way car tomorrow and that drop locations requires the car be dropped during business hours so we will need to stay in town over night. If we don't get work Monday we will get a local car that can be returned after hours for when/if we get work on Tuesday. Depending on where we end up we may take a third leg. We see there are some buses out of IN for the first time now. Those should be the double decker buses I heard about a year ago. I may call on those just to see for sure what they are. ... the trip continues HERE |
