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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210601 MN We are off the road for family reasons. We spent an hour or two a day over the long weekend looking at the load board and doing the math. The only long trip that had rental cars AND paid was a trip to VT. Other than that, the best trips are doing short ones like we did last week. First thing in the AM there were still three locals that would pay. Then the 2nd leg of one was gone. Then the 2nd leg of the other two was gone also but a new one that would work was added to the load board. When checking rental cars, there are still a lot of locations that do not have one ways. Later in the afternoon there was a 2nd RV to Davis that was put on the load board so I called the Enterprise that is directly across the street from our drop. 'If you can't make a reservation online, I can't give you a car.' But they did say that the airport and downtown locations should be doing one way cars. They are not. But National Car Rental is. National is the only company that is. And we can drop it in Livermore at the Enterprise location. But the airport is 20 miles from the drop. Not sure how we will work that, but we will figure it out. When I log in to see the load board, I can also look at my status. That has been showing my drivers license will expire in June this year, it should be March three years from now. So I finally called. They never received a copy of my new license. What they are using is my paper copy. Opps. Load board US - 442 IA - 174 MN - 4 WI - 8 210602 IA-CA 2 RV heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at home We finally decided to work and called in 1st thing to get to RV's to Davis. Normally in Davis, we can walk across the street from the drop and pick up a rental car. But not now. Not even a local one. -0- cars available. So we are going with the only one way car at the airport, National. By using our company discount we are saving about 25%. And that discount makes it cheaper than dropping this car in Livermore and getting a local. And we will drop at the same Enterprise location. The Livermore location does have local cars. Or at least they say they do. Because we have to pickup the rental at the airport we are staying at a different hotel. And we already have that reservation made. It is part of a different hotel chain but they have a huge parking lot and we are driving larger RV's. Yesterday IA added an RV trip to Lincoln NE that would have paid good. Same pay, but the miles are less. And we could have done a trip from Des Moines back to MN for even more money. But, we are taking another day off. By leaving Thursday we will have enough time to adjust our schedule if needed for hotels ... or high winds. We had talked about dropping on Tuesday but there hasn't been much for trips to that area so we wanted to get them before they were gone. Mid day today I see that we now would not need two RV's going to CA. There are two shop trucks out of Garner going to CA. They are dropping within five miles of the RV drop in Davis. Load board US - 447 IA - 164 MN - 8 WI - 17 Lots of interesting trips on the board, but we will stick with the proven again this trip. 210603 IA-CA 2 RV heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Lincon NE Rolling around 8 AM. One stop for fuel at the Kwik Trip in Owatonna. I have a quick trip rewards card, this is the 1st time it has given me $.05 a gallon discount. 2nd stop is at our RV lot on Forest City. A new dispatcher gave us our paperwork but he did not introduce himself. And he took our temps, not sure how much longer that is going to last. It's a warm, clear day. No issues finding our RV's. There were four other driver's there. I only talked to one, he was done with his trip. The other three were heading out. The one I talked to, I have seen many times at the lot and at safety meeting but know anything about him. He asked where we were going and advised we drive at night through WY as it is less windy at night. We know. But I still do not want to drive at night. BB gas a half a tank of fuel, part of which they are billing her for 'fuel on board.' I have an 1/8th of a tank of fuel. BB's fuel would be cheaper down the road but we don't do the logistics ahead of time so we stop at our usual place. 3rd stop. BB stops at Kum and Go for diesel and I stop at Pilot for gas. Then BB comes to the Pilot for Subway. We eat outside by my RV. There is enough wind today to mess with the cruise / radar so I drove an hour plus without mine. BB's would cut out later in the day. Just before we get to our next stop, traffic is stopped. We stay in line until we are at the exit which adds some time to our trip today. 4th stop is the rest area near Ankeny. From here BB makes tonight's hotel reservation. Last trip this hotel was full so we had to keep driving. As soon as we are back on the road, we see what the hold up is. Because the highway department now thinks they need to put the guard cable next to the travel lanes instead of in the center of the median, they need to block traffic so the tractors can mow. Actually they would not need to, they just do. They could use a mower with a big arm and reach over the guard cable. They use those mowers for mowing tree branches and creek banks, they could use it here too. But then the wouldn't keep six people employeed. 5th stop is the rest area near Adair. 6th stop is the Kum and Go in Gretna. It is across the street from the QT / Quick Trip we usually stop at. Prices are the same but was a pain to get out of last time. No issues getting in or out of the Kum and Go so if prices are the same we will be stopping here. 7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Lincoln. We park, check in then order food at the Cracker Barrel and drive down to get it. Some times this hotel is full of semi's so we parted across the car spots so we would be lined up with any semi's that may come in. Too warm and too late to walk down to Cracker Barrel. BB drives, I walk in and grab our food. I didn't see any other customers with a mask but the employee's did have masks. At Pilot earlier today, no one (other than me) was wearing a mask in the store. I did see someone fueling when we walked out that was putting their mask on to go in. Cracker Barrel was good. Load board US - 500 IA - 150 MN - 9 WI - 18 There is a truck in CA coming back to MO, we might call on it tomorrow if I am told there are no buses. We need to call for our Sunday NV permits tomorrow. And call the customer about delivery. And call dispatchers about trips. 210604 IA-CA 2 RV heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Laramie WY Breakfast, the only hot food would have been waffles. I had yogurt and a hard boiled egg. I'm in the habit of taking the stairs out of a hotel. Today that is what I did, took the closest stairs and out the closest door. I was in the back of the building on the end ... but there was a hotel fence that joined the freeway fence so I figured I would go back through the building. Wrong, no handle on the door from the outside. So I get to walk all the way around the building to get to our RV's. We have parked so that there would be lots of room for other big rigs but none showed up. We pull out at 7:30. Just before Kearney there is an archway over the freeway. Today when we pass under the archway there are bugs. Not sure what kind as they all look the same on the windshield. But it was like going through a swarm of gnats but these were the size of June bugs. Then at Kearney I pulled off the freeway. Our plan was to stop at the rest area. I thought I had missed it, most rest area's in Nebraska are before the major town coming from the east. I called BB from the ramp, she assured me it was just ahead so back on the freeway. 1st stop Kearney rest area. 2nd stop was the Loves in North Platt for fuel and food. My range would just get me to the drop so I added another three gallons. No place good to park so I parked across the McD's parking area. BB found someplace else to park. As long as we were stopped, we called the drop and actually talked to someone. Usually just leave a message. Then I called for our NV permits. When we were ready to leave we kind of got in a traffic jam, BB, me, a car and another driver from our company. 3rd stop was Ogallala at Walmart for fuel for me. $.20 a gallon cheaper here than most of the state. If I hadn't added those three gallons, I would have come in with a range less than 20 miles. Not worth it to save a few pennies. 4th stop was the rest area by Sidney. From there I call the bus dispatcher. Not good, no work. I tell him I will look elsewhere. So I call another dispatcher that has a trip to MO picking up a few miles from my drop. 'Sorry, that is part two of the trip. The 1st truck needs to be picked up in AZ.' :( This dispatcher also had had a trip from the same pickup going to within an hour of my house in MN. But it was a 'tractor' and I hadn't called first thing so it was gone within a few minutes of west coast opening time. Now we have no way out of CA. We will see how it goes. When we were in North Platt for lunch, BB had looked at the hotels for tonight and lots of choices so we waited. Now a lot of the rooms are gone and the price has gone up by $50. If we push past Laramie the price is $100 more. If we stay in Cheyenne, it is a long push to Wendover. So BB makes a reservation for Larmaie and Wendover. Wendover is already $25 more than usual. When we get close to the WY Port of Entry, traffic is one lane ... and then at a dead stop. We sat 20 minutes without moving. During that time, BB calls me and says we ordered our permits for the wrong day. I call when we get to the POE and re-order, not sure who picks up that cost. Likely us. 5th stop - POE near Burns. Someone was having a worse day than us. At the POE there was a transporter, tow pickup with a fifth-wheel that was being towed by a tow truck. That MAY have been the cause of the delay. But now there are two cops doing an inspection on the unit. Not the POE people, these two were from the highway departement. One of our drivers parked beside us at the POE. He was heading to Sacramento and from there to Seattle. Two other RV's were just ahead of us, one didn't need a permit and with everything else going on I didn't see the other driver. 6th and final stop is Laramie. 1st for food at the Exxon. Papa Johns' didn't have the pizza's we wanted ready so it was about a 15 minute wait. Then to the hotel. Comfort Inn. For there not being any rooms, the parking lot is empty. Load board US - 429 IA - 133 MN - 6 WI - 14 BB lost her cruise yesterday and it never came back, so she can not go on auto pilot this trip. It's late, more tomorrow. 210605 IA-CA 2 RV heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT Last night when I shut down quickly, my computer said 9:30 and I knew the alarm was set for 5:30. Then after I shut down, I realized that my computer stays on CST and we are now on MST. BB needs to fuel in this AM so we stop across the street at Loves for her. Then I realize that I had forgotten to see where fuel is cheapest for me. Across the street at Pilot for me. Pilot is small so BB waits at Loves until I am ready to go. So we have spent a half hour before we hit the freeway. 1st stop is Rawlins at the Flying J for a rest stop. Back at Loves this AM there were two RV's that pulled out just before we did. Then we passed them on the freeway. And they pull in right behind us at Flying J. We didn't wait for them to get out and didn't see them after we came back out. There were also four MN cement mixers parked at the Flying J. One drove right past us as we were walking. I couldn't see the name, but could see the DOT #, but didn't remember it. 2nd stop was Green River at Loves / Carl Jr's where BB fueled again. And we ate. Chicken sticks for me. 3rd stop was the Flying J in Evanston for fuel for me. It is the last cheap fuel and my last fill. From here I will add more fuel based on range. Almost as soon as I started fueling I notice the hose was leaking. A lot. But this was the only pump open so I kept fueling. When I was done, I went inside and told the cashier of the problem and they said 'not on that pump. So I told him to go look for himself. By the time I was done in the restroom, the cashier was out at the pump and was done looking. 'Nothing leaking here.' So I showed him where I thought it was coming from. He felt the hose and it was dry. So I said I would show him the video. He had no interest in that but as I talked he looked up. He saw the leak, at the top of the pump. He said he knew where it was leaking and walked away. No thanks, no you were right, no anything ... UT scale is closed. Replacing the scale. South of Echo there is a river with a lot of stairs over the farm fences. This is the first time I have seen people standing in the river fly fishing. I figured that is what the stairs were for but hadn't seen people before. 4th stop is the Flying J in Tooele. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. When we are checked in, we walk to the food truck in the lot. Still good food. Load board US - 419 IA - 128 MN - 4 WI - 14 The lone truck that would have gotten us to Salt Lake City was taken today. We have made reservations for Tuesday night to head home. We had talked of staying until Wednesday but car prices double if we wait until Wednesday. Monday we will make a few calls looking for work. If none, we will head home. ... the trip continues HERE |
