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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210517 IA-SC 2 RV's heading to Greer SC ... spending the night in Morton IL Today we wake up to an alarm. Ready to roll at 7:45 AM. We are only a few minutes from our house when I decide to call on a trip starting in the same town we will drop in. I am calling a day early, more than 24-hours before I can be there, but I call. No answer so I leave a message. A half hour later someone calls back. They need it picked up today and delivered tomorrow. It was going from (near) our drop to IN, where most RV's come out of. No renal car between the 1st two legs? Would have been nice. Just as we pass the last twin cities exit, I remember we will need fuel and have a grocery card with cents off gas. Too late. 1st stop is in Owatonna for fuel at Holiday. The do not take the twin cities grocery discount. 2nd stop is in Forest City to pick up our RV's. There are three other drivers picking up loads today, all are towing. Two are couples taking only one RV. My RV is the 2nd one from the office door so easy for me to find. I park the car and walk to my RV. To do that I have to walk past another driver who asks where we are heading. That turned into a few minutes conversation and I soon see that BB has her RV pulled up and the well on her way with her inspection. This couple I talked to, lives in VT. Only she is driving right now but hopes 'he' can start driving again soon. They live in their RV when they are home. Sounds like they mostly run between IA and the northeast. We have smaller RV's so we were ready in less than an hour. BB's plan was to pay extra for fuel and stick with me, but she didn't have enough fuel to get to my fuel. And I am saving about $10 a tank full by watching where I stop. 3rd stop was in Floyd at Loves for fuel and food. My Loves rewards card was getting old, the strip still worked but all the markings were gone. I didn't have enough information from the card to get into my account so I just used all the points and started a new account with a new card. Now I can not get rewards points on the auto pumps until I have purchased 500 gallons of fuel on the truck islands. Oh well. I have lost out on $.26 worth of rewards points today. Food, this place has Godfathers and Subway. We split a pizza. When I pulled in I saw a minibus with the shell of a VW on top. Then I noticed someone dropping off a can of fuel for them. Later when I was looking from a different angel, I saw a sign 'need gas.' There is also a sign painted right on the bus that states 'we live on donations.' One 20 something gal and a young child, living in a bus. 4th stop is Cedar Rapids at the rest area. It is quicker than the Casey's on Center Point and still under two hours. The first three legs my cruise lasted from a few minutes, to not being able to set it, to a half hour. This is a MB so the only way to re-set is to re-start. Also, when I get up to 20 mph, all of my inside lights come on. 5th stop is the Loves in Davenport for fuel for me and Pilot across the street for BB. I get my cheap fuel here but the person is new so it takes a while at the register. When we are near Peoria I see a semi driving on the wrong side of the cones in one lane traffic. Then he gets back where he is supposed to be, but when he gets to the exit he almost stops before speeding up to travel speed. I am guessing he was thinking there was an exit between the cones, and then something made him think he goofed again the second time. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Morton. This AM on the ride to Forest City BB was thinking we would be to Morton before 5 PM so she was looking at hotels further down the road. Not sure what math she was using. From the hotel we can walk to Steakburger or Cracker Barrel. Today was Cracker Barrel. We ordered online and our food was ready in about a half hour. Took us about 15 minutes to walk because we wanted to stay off the grass and out of the water. It's only about five minutes when we can walk straight. They are also putting in an Arby's 'opening soon.' Not sure what will happen to the one in the truckstop across the street. There are two other restaurants that are still closed next to the hotel. Load board US - 358 IA - 126 MN - 11 WI - 12 We have about 560 miles to go tomorrow so it will be about a 12 hour day. That will leave us three hours before our drop to do on Wednesday. IF we end up getting a truck out of Creedmore, that is four hours from our drop. Shelby is less than an hour. There is one truck heading to CO but that means a two day rental car. More likely we will try to get something to IN and get a third leg or dropping within one day of home. Right now there are 19 trips out of NC. They dumped 13 out 1st thing this AM and the board wasn't empty so stuff moves. Most of it moves a lot quicker than the stuff out of IA. IA has not started dumping quarter end trips on the board. Tomorrow will be two weeks to the end of the month. ... I did find out how to shut off most of the RV inside lights tonight. We will see if they stay off tomorrow. Not a big deal when running during the day. And lots of water in the fields here in IL, plenty of rain. And is supposed to rain for us all day tomorrow. Would be nice to get some for my garden at home. 210518 IA-SC 2 RV's heading to Greer SC ... spending the night in Knoxville TN IL-IN-OH-KY-TN Alarm did not get set last night. So we overslept by a half hour. Hot breakfast and yogurt. Got a whiff of bad juice so I dumped what I had taken. Rolling at 8 AM. It is still raining. Wipers on my RV are automatic and they were really whipping in this rain, not sure what they would do in a down pour. 1st stop - Covington IN for fuel at a Marathon. No signage on the freeway for the station so we pulled off on the ramp and still couldn't see the station so BB looked it up on the map. And then we could see their freeway sign directly across from us. Not sure how I missed it, it stands way above the trees. 2nd stop - Shelbyville IN for food. McD's at Pilot. Crowded so we had to back into single parking spots. We both got a McDouble today. 3rd stop - Sadieville KY for fuel at Loves. Even with 'saving' $25 off the posted prices over the last two days I still am only going to break even on the fuel on this RV. Glad they are giving me 'bonus pay.' 4th stop - London KY at Wendy's. It is right next to a BP truckstop. We don't see too many non-chain truckstops that are busy but this one is. At one point 7 of the 8 fuel islands were full. Parking lot is full. It is right next to a 'Dog Patch' strip mall. It looks run down but is mostly full. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn east of Knoxville. The place is full. No easy place to park, it took us a while to park and I parked both of them. Hope we can get out in the AM. Long day, 11 hours. Three hours left to go tomorrow, I should have enough fuel. BB will not. I had just enough range when I last fueled to get to the drop. Now my range has gone up so I will have 70 extra miles ... if I don't loose them. Load board US - 350 IA - 127 MN - 11 WI - 11 Nothing new out of NC today. The best two runs are a MI or a IL, both CDL so me only driving. We will see what tomorrow brings. 210519 IA-SC 2 RV's heading to Greer SC ... spending the night in Durham NC First a couple of older items. ... there was a third dispatcher in the office when we picked up on Monday. First time since the new terminal manager has been there. ... when I tried to start my RV yesterday afternoon, it wouldn't. On these RV's they are just push button but there has to be a key nearby. And the RV wouldn't 'see' my key. Finally I clicked the locks open and closed and then it saw my key. I haven't looked yet to see what one is supposed to do when the unit won't see a key. Alarm went off at 6 AM, 5 AM local. Very slow getting up. We could have just slept in, We were late getting going. Hot breakfast, eggs and bacon, yogurt and juice. 1st stop is Candler / Asheville at the TA for BB's fuel. Those sleeping in the parking lot are just getting up. Besides the RV, I was a guy crawl out of the back of covered pickup and someone else climbing out of their mini van. Also a converted van. Parking lot was smaller than expected. BB put in two gallons and the fuel only went up by 15 miles. She hoped it would go up more and it do. Her low fuel light didn't come on until we were almost to the fuel stop. I had had 70 miles range beyond my drop, that dropped to 40 beyond and then was back up to 65 miles beyond when I fueled. So pretty close filling almost 400 miles back. Lots of road construction after Candler. I finally decided to pass a truck in front of me and then he speeded back up so I wanted to get in behind him. Then he slowed down again so I had to slow even more to get behind him. I'm guessing the people behind me wanted me to speed up instead. When I finally could see his rear bumper, I could see his blinker ... There were not any exits coming up ... but there was a scale. I quickly got in behind him and crossed the scale. Not sure if I needed to, there was only one temp sign for the scale because of the road construction. We went through on the empty side. Earlier in the day one of the semi's that I was playing 'tag' with had gotten ahead of me. At the last minute he cut across the last of the pavement to get to a different scale. Sign had said CLOSED but he must not have been looking at the sign and when he saw trucks in line ... Just before the fuel station there was a semi coming down a closed ramp and I had to quickly get over. The car behind me had decided to get over at the same time and I wasn't sure they were going to let me in. ... as someone on FB has said "When I turn on my blinker, I am not asking permission. I am giving you notice." 2nd stop is the Spinx in Greer for final dealer fuel. We fuel and BB parks her RV, I move most of my stuff to her RV. Then we head the mile to the airport for BB to pick up our rental car. 3rd stop is the drop. I call as soon as I arrive, someone is there almost right away. It takes him about 15 minutes to do the inspection. I had asked if I could leave to get the car when BB got there. They want someone with the unit until they sign for it. But he was done by the time BB got there. Opps, I had forgotten my screw driver in the bags that ended up in the rental car which BB left at the gas station. I couldn't get my plate off. It is a special head and we bought the first one we could find a year ago. I have never looked for a smaller one that would fit in my back pack with the rest of my tools. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk back to the gas station and another five to drive back to the lot. We have done this a few times now and SO FAR I have always remembered to get the keys from BB before I walk to the station. By the time I get back her RV has been inspected. I grab my plate and we are ready to leave. Nothing new on the load board that we want so we head to eat. 4th stop - Schlotzsky's, about two miles in the wrong direction. Traffic is backed up out onto the street and we are having to make a left turn. And the way people are turning in, there is no way to get past the line if you wanted to park and go in. We usually do, but didn't this time. We order and go. Plan is to be on our way before that something new gets put on the load board. 5th stop is at a rest area near Concord. 6th and final stop is at a Comfort Inn in Durham. We sat in their parking lot until 5 PM when dispatch closes. No work. The only thing the dispatcher I was interested in put out three for FL. She did put out two semi tractors going up to Elk Hart IN but there are -0- one way cars in that area. I had moved one of those type semi's a few weeks ago up to Indy. Nice ride, plenty of room. Once we were checked in, we walked across the street to an Italian place to eat. We were the only ones eating outside tonight. When we left we saw another table that only had drinks on a different side of the building. Good food, BB ate all of hers and I ate half of mine. Then we split a desert. Too much food and sun, sitting out that long. BB wasn't feeling so well on the walk home. Loadboard US - 379 IA - 135 MN - 16 WI - 7 NC - 20 In the past one of the dispatchers had made comments about me 'having more time for Facebook' if I broke down. So I had guessed they were reading but not posting. Tonight I had posted an old picture that showed shuttle drivers numbers. Within a few minutes the dispatcher had posted an updated copy of that picture. So now I know for sure I am being watched :) Unless NC dispatch puts something out first thing in the AM, we will be taking a truck to Detroit. From there we can get a car home. The trip from here to Detroit will cover the cost of the car. Cars in Detroit are over $200 a day for local. We used to be able to get them for $50 or under local per day. One way is more than that, but it is the only place we can get a car. Other area's are not letting cars go one way. Otherwise Elkhart or Effingham would have been better runs, but no -0- cars at any price. Cars - we will be watching rental cars closely. I am afraid that the locations that have been letting cars go will realize they are not getting cars back and soon no one will be letting cars go one way. This trip works because we could do a local between leg one and leg two. Same with the CA trip, we can do a local between leg one and leg two. The problem with both locations is getting home from leg two. I wasn't watching, we may have missed the FL 'spring break' cheap cars. Right now none of the major rental places are allowing one ways out of FL. Dollar and Thrifty are at over $200 a day (they are the bargain cars,) another chain has them for $600 a day. One thought is for us to do 'local only' for both companies and just use our car as a chase car when it pays. Another issue we are coming up against is Memorial day and hotels being booked. If we are running over Memorial day we most likely will have our hotels booked a day or two in advance over that weekend. 210520 NC-IN 1 tree truck heading to Effingham IN ... spending the night in Jeffersonville OH Lots of changes today ... but we will (?) be home Saturday Too much food last night, BB didn't sleep well but other than tired is feeling OK today. Breakfast - sandwiches to nuke and yogurt. That was enough so I left my lasagna. Later last night (or this morning) we found a place closer to my drop that had cars for about $25 less a day one way. National rental car. The Hertz in that area were cheaper too, but we already had a Hertz reserved at the airport so we kept that one just in case. 8 AM when they open, I call dispatch to get the Detroit trip ... it is a two legged trip. IF we take that one, we need to also take a truck from MI to VA. Wrong way so we pass. Off the phone I look at the 2nd leg, it would be a 300+ mile deadhead from one corner of the state to the other corner of the state, up in the UP. Now we are at a loss. We can't get cars from anywhere else. Nothing new is getting put on the loadboard and we are up against the weekend. If we don't move soon, like within the hour, we will be stuck with whatever we take over the weekend and that will net us less money than paying $200 a day for a rental car. Then we get a call back on our cheap National car. They have seen our reservation, we are on a list behind other people. They have very few one way cars. We think we are being creative in looking at all the options. FL, to buy us time, New England, short runs to stay in the area ... nothing pays. Finally we settle on the truck to IL. We can get a local rental car in Dayton when we pass through and there are a few trucks near Dayton that we could come back to get that would get us closer to home. But still, none of those drops have cars that will get us home. But we have a truck and a car ... to no where. 1st is 15 minutes down the road at the pickup in Creedmoor. My truck is 'outside the gate' so that is fewer trucks to look through. 1st one in line. We get our things moved and inspected and BB is gone with the rental car. I finish getting the truck ready and then drive less than a mile to a Speedway. It is the only Speedway that I know of and use that gives me a company discount. 2nd stop - picking BB up at the Greensburo airport. I had told BB last night where I would meet her and now have forgotten. We have been to this airport dozens of times when we worked for the other company but it has been a while. As I am pulling in I am playing it by ear as to where to go. Lower levels have height restrictions so the upper level it is and that is where BB is. No other traffic at the time and a nice place to pull over. The computer routes me a different way out that I wanted to go, but the roads are ever changing so we followed the computer. It added a couple of extra miles but it was a sure thing. I looked later and we could have gone my shorter way. NC is slowly working on adding a new freeway (?) along our next route so we are having road construction backups. We know what to expect. But this time it said 'road work three miles ahead' and traffic was stopped. But stopped because some how a car was facing the wrong direction. I'm guessing it was hit and spun that way. 3rd stop is for fuel and food at the Loves and McD's in Lamburg. Crowded. And people do no like to go park before eating, taking a shower or ... They just leave their trucks at the pump. And when you pull in, you can't always see that there are 8 pumps, or can't get to them. We ate outside in the shade of our truck. 4th stop was the Oasis near Burnwell. Coming up to Charleston, things got interesting. For us. We needed to decide what we were going to do about cars and work. BB though we only had a couple of miles before we had to decide which freeway to take. I knew we had about 20 miles. But she doesn't always work good under pressure, but before we got the 20 miles we found that staying our current route for the rest of the day was the shortest. I would not have guessed that. So now instead of getting a local in Dayton, we are going to add another 10 miles to our trip and go through Cinncinnati and pick up a one way rental there. That is 250 miles before we need the car but there are no other one way rentals. 5th stop is for fuel and food at the Loves / Hardee's in Bidwell. One pump is empty so I am in and out in a couple of minutes. I am pretty sure I will need more fuel, but the next station will be to far down the road and I will be leaving fuel in the tank if I fill there. BB orders while I fuel. Then when we come out of the station I see a transporter ... so I have to talk to him. He has just had a nice three legged trip with about 20 miles between each leg. He tows and lives in Greensboro, where we just came from. BB and I were trying to fuel and eat in 30 minutes so I had to cut the conversation short. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Jeffersonville. Load board US - 364 IA - 122 MN - 14 WI - 8 210521 NC-IN 1 tree truck heading to Effingham IN (delivered) ... spending the night in Walcott IA Breakfast - Egg, bacon and yogurt ... and OJ. The apple juice was really water. When I check out, I tell the desk clerk that the towels and the garbage were not empty from our room before we got there ... he just looks at me and nods ... ??? We got going at 8 AM local. A little over an hour to the airport to pick up our rental car. I knew how I wanted to go but neither of our mapping software would suggest that route. But on my computer I can force a route and it showed that all roads were open and it was actually less miles than some of the other routes. We had looked at the maps and the aerial photos so we thought we were good. Opps ... there is now a hotel where the road used to be. I didn't see that until after I had passed the other way in. 1st stop - at the Cinncinnati airport hotel. I drove around the back of their building and was able to get BB within a block of then entrance to Hertz. But to get out, I had to go past the front of the airport, on the lower level. Luckily I did not see any height signs and did not have any issues. I had seen a height sign for one level so I knew they were posted if needed. Hopefully we remember this for next time. We need a list of issues. From there I am solo. We just came this route on the way down to avoid the Louisville tolls. And I am dropping at a truck stop so no issues. 2nd stop is for fuel at the Pilot in Shelbyville. At some point I had thought of fueling this AM in Jefferesonville before we got on the freeway but forgot. I don't like fueling in IN, they want some sort of fuel permit number. For whatever reason, I couldn't pay at the pump so I had to go inside. No issues inside so not sure what the issue had been. I am supposed to leave these trucks with about 1/8 of a tank of fuel ... or enough to get to the gas station. Seeing I am dropping it at a station, I could come in on fumes but I won't. So I do the math between my range and my mpg and put in 20 gallons. Then I text BB so she knows what time table we are on. As soon as I pull out of the station, BB calls. I am driving so I don't pick up. She doesn't call back so nothing serious. Nothing major on the highways today ... 3rd stop was my drop at the Petro in Effingham. I am supposed to park next to the other company trucks but there are not any. I call my contact and leave a message, luckily he calls back in a few minutes. The crews are working today because of rain earlier in the week. I am at the correct place. And I get his name so I can put on the paperwork who it was that gave me the OK to do a blind drop. BB pulls in within a minute of when I get there. We get our things moved from the truck to the car and we are ready to go. There is a Culvers across the freeway but I have decided I want a Freddy's. It's too late to eat so I just want a malt :) The closest Freddy's is about a half hour down the road. 4th stop is Freddy's in Mottoon for a malt. IF we could have gotten a rental car in Effingham, we could have gotten home in 24 hours. Now we have a two day rental in a $175 a day car. We will still make out OK but it always pays better with a one day rental. 5th stop is near Dahinda at the rest area 6th stop is a few miles down the road at Knoxville at Charlies Philly's. BB couldn't wait those extra miles and I haven't eaten since breakfast and don't like eating too late. BB does not get anything. She had something from Freddy's but didn't care for it, now she isn't hungry. I got their chicken instead of beef and it was different. Good, fresh, but different. Then next stop was going to be in Davenport for fuel at Flying J. But BB checked their fuel prices and fuel was the same in Walcott so we decided not to stop in Davenport. Then as we were passing Davenport, too late I saw that Loves had their fuel for less than Flying J. We've never seen that before so we hadn't even checked. 7th and final stop was the Pilot in Walcott for fuel and then the Comfort Inn for the night. When BB first looked at the range on this car it was about 200 miles and full. When she picked me up 250 miles later it was 146 miles. Now another 250 miles later it still had a range of 90 miles, but had fallen to 1/4 of a tank. Load board US - 412 IA - 114 MN - 11 WI - 8 Plans tend to change but ... As of now, we do not plan on working Sunday or Monday. Then the rest of the week we will work for one of the companies doing local work where it pays to follow with our own car. Most of the IA trips don't pay for us because we have 3-5 hours of dead heading before we start getting paid. We will do the math and see what works. It would help if there was something coming back making it a two legged trip. We still do not know if we will head out over Memorial Weekend or when we will go back out depending on how the rental cars play out. 210522 NC-IN 1 tree truck heading to Effingham IN (delivered) ... spending the night in home No breakfast at this place still, and they are not sure when they will start again. Rolling at 8 AM. Before we leave the hotel parking lot I call central dispatch about some IA trips. They are the only trips under 200 miles. They are paying $150 each and we might be able to do two a day ... but we have a four hour deadhead to get to them. My local company is 15 miles away. Something to think about over the weekend. 1st stop is at Wendy's in Iowa City. The hotel was cheap enough we can afford to buy our own, and it's better and fresher. 2nd stop was at the Flying J near Waterloo for a restroom break. And some pop but they were out. BB has a big birthday on Monday, one of the reasons we are taking that day off, and we were discussing where we could go to eat and sit outside. After a few local places were mentioned I said 'Grandma's.' (It is in Duluth) Within a couple of minutes we had hotel reservations in Duluth for Sunday night. (Later we find out the forecast is for highs in the 40's and rain :( ) ... so what do drivers do when they don't have to work? They take a road trip :) 3rd stop was at the Kwik Star/Kwik Trip in Clear Lake for another restroom break. We both got something to drink here. We might have gotten some of their free samples too but the person was deep in a conversation with another customer. We noticed the 'mask' signs on the doors were all gone. So when we got to the register BB asked about the 'masks,' This company stopped requiring them on Friday ... today is Saturday. BB immediately took hers off. That left only me and one employee that were still wearing masks. There were 10-20 people in the store at that time. 4th stop was at the lot in Forest City to pick up our car. Oh Oh. I use BB's FOB to go and get our car and it doesn't work. The battery has gone dead. There is a key in the FOB but that only opens the door, not way to start the car without a live FOB. Luckily I have one also which is not always the case. Mine works. We are down to one week left of the month, the quarter and the RV company is still not dumping RV's on our lot. Same ones are still sitting in their employee lot and others, missing parts (?) are sitting on the build side of the road. Just a few miles after I got on the freeway I noticed a young woman walking down the freeway in a dress. When I got almost to her, she started walking from the edge of the shoulder to the travel lane where I was ... then I noticed it. A little teddy bear on the road. I didn't think quick enough to stop and give her a ride back to her car. By then I was half way to her car. 5th stop - We have issues where my Mom lives again and I had talked to my brother before he headed over and now he has called back so I take the next exit and park on the shoulder. Nothing major. This time. 6th stop was at the airport. Cemetery for me. No flags up yet. Not sure when they put up flags for Memorial Day. Because of my extra stop for a phone call I only have time to walk and find a couple of graves. I get my walks in that way. 7th stop is at a Dino's for a gyro. We eat outside. 8th stop is at a Batteries Plus for a new battery for BB's FOB. $10 and a few seconds later and we are good to go. 9th stop ... home again, safe at last :) ... then I got in some more walking. We hadn't been gone a week so I didn't think I would need to mow. Wrong. Two hours and the grass isn't think yet. That was my workout for the day. The week. Some of my garden is up, it rained at some point. Load board US - 391 (includes 79 non-orders - Ron) IA - 104 MN - 8 WI - 8 We aren't sure what we are going to do yet for work next week. Monday we will be off. Maybe Tuesday? We don't plan on being gone over night anywhere for work. We want to stay local enough that we can use our car. Or, we can get a local rental for a week for $50 a day in town. But if we are renting a car we better be working every day. There are six IA runs that are 300 miles or less, only one is an RV. My guess is the rest are tractors. I'll do OK for a short distance. Nothing under a 1,000 miles out of MN or WI. I was hoping there would be some round trips. And there may be round trips by Tuesday. |
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