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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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211016 IA-WI 1 RV to Neenah WI (Sunday) ... spending the night at home Friday we were home all day and never really talked about work, other than we were going to work next week. This AM we decide we should make plans and work. Finally a little after 9 AM we had a plan. Sometime in the past when we called in we did some chit chat with one dispatcher while another dispatcher gave away our load so now I get right to the point. "Neenah" I saw when dispatch answers. 'No, this is ____.' :) "No, I want the Neenah trip" I say. 'Picking up where?' ??? "Iowa" (that is the only place this location dispatches for) After that it went fine. BB will move the RV, usually she calls in herself if she is the only one running but that didn't happen today. As of last night there was still an auction truck available coming back to Shakopee. It is far enough between the drop and the pickup that we will be following in our chase car. But because we did not take care of this on Friday (like we could have,) we now need to wait until Monday to see if we have this 2nd leg. If not, there is a truck right in Neenah going to Chicago or another truck in Madison going back to Des Moines. Those just don't get us quite as close to home as we want to be. Plan is to leave Sunday and get picked up and part of the way to the drop Sunday. Then get delivered Monday AM. It usually takes a couple of hours to find out if I have the auction truck and even more time to get the paperwork so no rush, usually, in the AM. Load board US - 175 IA - 38 MN - 6 WI - 8 211017 IA-WI 1 RV to Neenah WI ... spending the night at Tomah WI No alarm this AM. It will be a short day, but we need to be in position for tomorrow. We pull out before 10 AM. 1st stop is in Northwood at the Burger King for food. Not fast enough. The person at the register is taking one order and then going and filling the order for the person who's order they took 3-4 people ago. Then back to take the next order. And the reason it wasn't fast enough is that we had to stop for a train at Harlontown. A few seconds sooner and we would have made it. And it was a long train going, MAYBE slow enough someone could have jumped on. 2nd stop was the shipper in Forest City. No issues, quick inspection. Two other drivers picking up, one I talked to, the other I didn't. The one I talked to was heading to GA and planned on getting 600 miles in yet today. That would be kind of hard, but maybe before he shuts down tonight. 3rd stop was the Kwik Star in Forest City. Gas is as cheap there as anywhere, so BB guesses as to how much she will need. We will know by this time tomorrow how close she was. Really nothing to write home about on the trip today. Weather was good, traffic was thin and it was daylight. 4th stop was the rest area in Stewartville for a break. 5th and final stop was the Quality Inn in Tomah for the night. BB was in the lead and hadn't looked to see where it was. She was picturing Mauston and had to pull into a parking lot before we remembered where it was. Once we were checked in we went back to the fuel station and used up a bunch of our gift cards at the Shell station. We've had those a few months. We could have walked to the Culvers but we were out fueling so we went though the drive thru. I had the reuben and BB had the fish, plus our treats. Looking online for places to eat we see that the Quiznos in town is open from 10 AM to 2 PM seven days a week. Last night, back in Hudson, I had gone to the Jersey Mikes, online says they are open until 9 PM. Nope, Saturday night and they were closed before 7 PM. I didn't go to the door to see any signs. Did see someone coming out of the drive thru the wrong way again. We saw that the time we were here before. Not sure how they get turned around back there ??? We are about two hours from our drop, almost all two lane highway. And it will likely be closer to 10 AM before we know which trip our 2nd leg will be ... and if we get one we will have to find somewhere to print our bills of lading. No truckstops close. |
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211018 WI-MN 1 RV to Neenah WI (delivered) 1 pickup to Shakopee MN ... spending the night at Wausau WI Went to bed early last night so we were both up without an alarm clock. At 7 AM I call the auction dispatcher to see if the Two Rivers trip is still available. Sometime after that we go down for breakfast. This is a Quality Inn, not a Sleep or Comfort Inn and it shows in the breakfast. No hot food. Two things to nuke. A biscuit and something tat looks like half a Hot Pocket. Tasted like one too, except the coating was really doughy. Not crisp. I also grabbed a yogurt, the only had one flavor, and a box of cereal. Finally about 8:30 I get the call back I have the Two Rivers trip. It would be nice to have been able to print the BL's before we left the hotel, but that is not happening today. The company computer routing has us going down to Mauston before exiting the freeway to Neenah. My logic would say exit the freeway here in Tomah. I did look at the map this AM from Mauston to Neenah so I knew which road numbers to be looking for, but I did not compare the two routes. At Mauston we exit the freeway and head east 10 miles. Detour. So we followed it south, and south and south. I finally pulled over to the side of the road and called BB, but she didn't answer the first two times. She often shuts the sound on her phone off at night and forgets to turn it back on. By now she is far enough ahead of me that she can FINALLY see the signs where we will turn east. So we keep following the detour. Based on BB's mileage we went 20 miles out of route. If we had stopped and turn on the GPS, Google would have taken us about a half mile out of route. Or without Google, I would have looked at a map and said go north and then east, it will add fewer extra miles. Between all the small towns and the extra 20 miles, our 110 mile trip ended up taking us three hours. Somewhere on our cross country trip we get to a stop light. It is still a two lane road and the truck behind me pulls into the right turn lane. The light turns green and he goes straight ... BB backs off to give him room to get in front of her. Not sure what was going on. He hadn't been tailgating me and he didn't leave us in the dust. My guess is he thought the road was changing to four lanes because the lanes were divided. 1st stop - the Kwik Trip in Neenah. I fuel so BB can use the restroom. Two hours is usually her limit and it has been three hours. I hadn't gotten my paperwork when we got to the KT but I had by the time I left. So today it took three hours to get the paperwork after the hour and a half to find out I had the trip. Trips pay good but don't wait until the last minute. 2nd stop is the drop in Neenah. Today is the first time this person has done an inspection and no one is training her. It took a half hour which is about normal for the small RV's. As I am waiting, I call the next shipper. I call all three numbers and leave messages with the one's who don't have full mailboxes. With this account I am prepared to just take the truck and go. 3rd stop is the Fedex Office in Walmart. $.71 for four pages of paperwork. At truckstops I have paid $8 for four pages. 4th stop is FOOD. We see a sign for Jimmy John's and head there, and miss it so we need to back track. We get our food to go, I have had my 'off time' while I waited for BB's inspection. Once we leave the freeway I somewhere miss a turn. The easy way would have been to get on US-10 to within a few miles of the shipper. But Google says it is faster to take the freeway and some back roads. BB has the GPS on so we take the faster way ... and for what ever reason it does not tell us where to turn that turn. So we take the next road. Not a bad road, just 35-45 mph and lots of stop signs. (looking later, it was four minutes quicker ... if we hadn't missed our turn, but 13 miles further) Finally when we are within a block of Lake Michigan we turn south. I don't remember what the signs said but something about 'private' but we keep going. Then we see a place where the road could be gated off. We keep going. We saw a nice little park on the lake, I thought about stopping on the way back to take a picture with my truck and the lake in the back ground. "You have arrived." Nope, fields on both sides and no driveways. So I keep driving, we haven't seen anything yet. 5th stop - Another quarter mile and we see a spot of land that is in the closing down process. And we see someone sitting in a truck waiting (For us?) But not for us, someone is supposed to meet him here in a few minutes. Good, because this place is almost empty. We drive over to the only truck that looks like a maybe and then I see it is someone's personal truck. So I drive a little further, here it is about a quarter mile from the road to the lake. No other trucks but I do get to the back of the lot and take a picture of Lake Michigan. First a guy shows up but sits in his truck, so I go ask him but he doesn't work for the company I need but does know what is going on. As we are talking someone from the company I need shows up so I thank him and go and wait in line to talk the other person. 5th stop part 2 - Two Rivers. The person I talked to said follow them. So we go for miles, including through an (now) unmanned security check point on what looks to be a main road. One of the roads looks like it is going right to the lake? A park somewhere we didn't see a sign for? We get to where the truck is. One is pulling out and it looks like there are four left. Two are Chev's and two are Fords so it isn't too hard to find the right one. Mine has a cooler full of water, a spare tire and a safety cone I have to set on the ground. Other than that it is empty, including the fuel tank. 1/16th is all the fuel I get. 29 miles range. There are stations 7, 14 and 27 miles from here. I will take my pick. This is the first place were I have had to sign THEIR copy of the bill of lading besides my two. One other place said I was going to have to but no one showed so I got the OK to leave on that one without signing their copy. I mention to the person signing that I didn't get a call back from anyone ... "No, I had to let them go.' ))) then why are their names still listed as contacts ??? ((( No issues with the truck, no major issues. Good thing I took pictures as I didn't notice I was missing a small piece of chrome until later. I check in with dispatch and then pull out. 6th stop - Shell for fuel in Green Bay. My range was 29 miles when I left the lot and 27 miles later I still had a range of 28 miles. But when I put in 10 gallons my range only went up to 110 miles. The truck says I am getting 9 mpg average, but my current is running between 25-30. Most likely I will need some more fuel but I won't be basing it on 9 mpg. I've got the paying trip so I am in the lead, until BB passes me. Later she tells me I should have taken the shorter route, I just stick to the freeways and the roads I know. I get there. (I just checked, it is two miles further to go the way I did than through down town. And eight minutes faster) :) Somewhere close to 5 PM I get a call from the MN dispatch looking for drivers. Not sure why, they only have five trips on the load board. And none that I will do, even on a good day. It will be after dark if we push to get to Eau Claire tonight so we will be stopping in Wausau early. 7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wausau. BB has her GPS telling her where to go and I follow my nose. I get there a couple of minutes before she does. To me, this place looks like an old Hollidome. I don't think the person at the desk had any idea what I was talking about, way before his time. There is an in house bar and grill. Not sure why it is called that as they only serve pizza. First we call a Mexican place. After calling six times with no answer and no voicemail we head to Panda. Spicier than I like but not too spicy to eat. Load board US - 213 IA - 44/40 MN - 5 WI - 5 Tomorrow ... there are two RV's coming back to MN but we don't dare chance it with a rental so we may take one. It MAY tie in with a truck but that would run us into Thursday and I was thinking I might take that day off work. We will see. 211019 IA-MN 1 pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) 1 RV to St Cloud MN ... spending the night at Owatonna MN By this AM we had decided to do another RV trip once I dropped the pickup and we decided to wait to leave until 8 AM so we could make that call before we got on the road. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with cheese and ham mixed in. Plus some good cherry yogurt. We are out of the hotel and in our vehicles by 8 AM. BB is the first call of the AM so she gets the St Cloud trip, then they ask if I want the Bemidji trip. No, not today. We have done the math and we would run into Thursday if we were going to do that ... and then take a pickup back to Shakopee. But it would be good money. I still gain range for a while but then it starts to drop. So I know that I will need to stop somewhere for fuel. Not too many changes on WI-29. I used to run this a lot when we had a shipper in Medford, just north of Abbotsford. 1st stop - Menomonie Loves. By Menomonie the low fuel light had come on so I decide to stop at Loves and add fuel. I have about 100 miles to go and when I look at the current, I am making 25+ mpg. Screen still says 9.something. So I add four more gallons. Less than twenty miles down the road I realize I am slowing. We are in a construction but I am able to coast to the shoulder. I didn't realize right away that the engine had stopped, lanes are narrower so I was watching the road. And I didn't think of putting it in neutral. I manage to get to the side of the road at an entrance ramp so I was a little further out of the travel lanes. I might have been able to get further off but again, I wasn't thinking fast. Dead. I put it in park, turn the key off and then on again. Nothing. No sounds, nothing. My first call is to BB to get her stopped. I call and call again. She has her phone turned off again. Mental telepathy meaning or something, same as yesterday. After I call a few times, she answers. She realized that she had left her sound shut off again ... as I am calling. She is ahead of me so she will come back. Next call is to dispatch, then a call back for the owner of these pickups. They have them all on GPS tracking so they know where I am and that I am stopped. But they still need to like up the closest person to come and fix or tow it. As we are talking they tell me that another truck they own is just passing me in the other direction. We ARE being watched. After the first couple of tries to re-start the pickup, I have been trying to restart it about every 10 minutes and trying not to touch it between times. I try again ... it starts. Just then BB calls so I tell her I am moving and for her to follow. I pull back into traffic and drive to the next exit and stop. I call the shop so they do not send anyone. They wouldn't have. They could see that I was moving and have now stopped again. They give me the OK to keep driving if I am willing. I am. So I guess that was my second stop of the day. Third stop - the drop. I now know the routine. What to get signed, where to park, what to do. ... dispatch calls just as I put the pickup in park. 'How are things and has anyone been there yet?' So I explain that I made it to the drop without getting fixed. Then dispatch asks if I want to do another trip from Tow Rivers? This one is going to IN. Nope, not me. 4th stop is Honey Baked Ham in Burnsville for lunch to go. 5th stop is the next shipper in Forest City. This trip is BB's so she does her thing while I make phone calls. I have to leave messages, just like they have done twice to me today. With two of us inspecting it goes quickly. Before we leave, we make reservations in Owatonna. If all had gone well, we could have made it north of the cities tonight. But again ... 6th stop - for me, is the Fleet Farm in Owatonna. Gas is $2.99, the cheapest we have seen anywhere. I come in with a range of 8 miles. (but I did not have to walk) Final stop is the Comfort Inn in Owatonna. BB is already there, she doesn't need to fuel. Todays RV came with almost a half a tank of fuel, more than enough to get it to the drop. Usually the shipper charges us for fuel if it is much over 1/4 but she looked through all the paperwork and it looks like it is free fuel. When we check in the offer us an upgrade but we pass tonight. Once checked in we call to El Loro Mexican place. The food will be ready in 10 minutes. By the time we walk over the food is ready. I thought the building behind us was a Holiday Inn, it is now a Motel 6 with a restaurant. Hmmm Load board US - 229 IA - 60/54 MN - 5 WI - 10 Tomorrow we will head to St Cloud. I will go out of route and pick up some medical supplies needed for next week as BB goes head to the drop. After that we will watch the load board and if anything really short shows up we might take it. Otherwise we will be heading home. We have made more in four days than we average most weeks. And we still have Friday that we may work of anything looks good. |
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211020 IA-MN 1 RV to St Cloud MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home 6 AM alarm. Not a first class breakfast for a Comfort Inn. We nuke some food and the juice was good. All the yogurt today was peach so none for me. As soon as we head out I stop on the side of the road and take a picture. The first round of rain is just moving out and at the tail of the clouds is one very tall thunderhead that is lit up by the morning sun. 1st stop - (for me) - I need to stop at a pharmacy to get drugs for Monday. 2nd stop - the drop in St Cloud. BB had already done final fuel and is at the drop when I get there. Before long someone is checking out the RV. And then all is signed and we are free to go. No short, short runs on the load board so we head home. It's not noon yet but BB is ready to eat. So we stop at the first fast food place we find. Quiznos. Food is good but I really should order ham and cheese sandwiches when I am driving. Another messy sandwich. 3rd and final stop - home. For the week? We had dropped at 11 AM. By a little after 1 PM there are three more auction trucks heading to Shakopee. All three out of Backus. Three hours earlier and we might have run up and gotten one. The Bemidji is still available also. As the the Brainerd out of IA. Not sure if we will decide to work Friday and Saturday or not. Load board US - 210 IA - 60/54 MN - 6 WI - 9 |
