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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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230225 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL (Sunday) ... spending the night at Brownsburg IN I wake up during the night and look at the clock, it's around 3 AM. I wake up again when BB is getting up and it looks like it is around 3 AM. Why is she getting up and staying up so early. I drift in and out and look at the clock again. It is almost 6 AM, it had been 5 AM when BB got up, but it hadn't registered that it had to be later the second time I woke up. Breakfast was good, eggs and sausage. There were two kinds of yogurt but none for me today. Also they had bakery fresh donuts. Both BB and I got one for the road and one bottle of water for the road. They are re-doing this hotel and let us know during check-in to let them know if anything was amiss. So I did when I checked out. The smoke alarm should not be covered once it is a rentable room. When most hotels do this they put the storage containers off to one side, this place had them set up in the parking lot like it was a splat ball course, all over the place. We pulled out at 7 local (6 AM home time,) it was still dark. We had planned our whole day for the least number of stops. We had a range of over 150 miles and there was a Loves truckstop 140 miles away. That didn't work so well because the 50 mpg we were getting when the temp was in the 60-70's and dropped to 30 mpg with the temp in the 30's. 1st stop is the Loves in Oakwood for fuel. My rewards card does get us the $.10 discount. That's nice to know. 2nd stop was a rest area near Williamsfield IL. Somewhere before Davenport we are talking about where we will stop for food and for some reason 'butter' came up. That is when I remembered that we had left all our leftover food in the hotel fridge. A cup of fresh fruit, banana bread and better, bacon, chicken sausage. By then we are four hours down the road, that was enough good food that it could have been lunch. 3rd stop was for more fuel at another Loves, this time in Davenport. Still too early to eat. We left town in a hurry earlier in the week. Now we can see what the weather did do after we left. Four days later and the trees, grass and fences are still hanging with ice from the last storm. The sun has burned off some of the ice but mostly on the west side of the trees. 4th stop is the Loves and Wendy's in Waterloo for fuel and food. We had planned on stopping at the Flying J but all they have is shelf food, not even a sandwich shop. So we added a couple of extra miles to get cheaper fuel and better food, all in one place. BB went in to order food while I added fuel. Four gallons, WOW. But now we can get home without adding more. This place was fast on the food. After BB ordered, she went to fill up her soda cup and while she was trying to get the cover onto her cup, they called her name, her food was ready. We've been kind of timing our stops and most are about five minutes in the store and about 10 minutes from exit to entrance to the freeway. BB is always watching the weather and we are glad we did not go west. Anywhere west. Now she is looking at where we are going. High winds on Monday that will likely shut us down. So we finally decided we would go home tonight and get a later start tomorrow. It will be one less night in a hotel and hopefully a lot less time sitting. The winds should only be an issue on Monday between St Louis and Nashville. As of today, we will be delayed enough that we will deliver on Thursday instead of Wednesday. We've also talked about staying in FL because we have been on the road for a few weeks without any real breaks. But the temps are going to be in the 80's and BB is packed for winter. Think snow boots on the beach :) Now that we are going home we could pack some warm weather clothes. As of now we have a car straight back. 5th stop is the lot to pick up our car. We are in and out of there in a few minutes. Five RV's waiting and ready to pull out. Five office people are working again instead of the one on most weekends. Our lot's are now full and the over-flow area's are not empty, there are more RV's to be brought over before the end of day Tuesday. Tuesday would be the end of their quarter. I need to get a clinic visit in and I had hoped we were heading west so we'd be gone a few more weeks. We aren't heading west but I stuck to stopping anyways. 6th stop was my clinic. I wasn't sure they would take me in with less than a half hour before close. They did, this time so that is done. But now they want me back in two weeks instead of the usual two months, not what I wanted to hear. BB got a couple of minutes ahead of me because of me stopping at the clinic so she was ready and waiting. So were a lot of other people, waiting. Not sure if something has changed but now there are a dozen plus cars parking in one of the travel lanes where no one could park since 911. 7th stop was Noodles and Co for food 8th and final stop is home. Someone has snow blown our driveway. Our house guest had shoveled the earlier snow and then had gotten a few feet of the heavier snow before quitting/taking a break. Not sure who done it, yet. But thank you. Load board US - 423 IA - 267/265 Tomorrow, Sunday, we plan on leaving first thing and should get most of the way to St Louis. So we still may be sitting a day depending on how close the forecast is. With these RV's we need to shut down when the wind speeds get to high. The forecast is to be 'too high.' 230226 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL ... spending the night at Hannibal MO Neither of us were up before the alarm this AM, we must sleep better in our own bed. But being at home meant that breakfast was not ready when we were done in the shower so we'll get that down the road. We pull out before 7:30 AM, the temp is -0-. Sunday AM, not much traffic. 1st stop was Albert Lea at Loves and Wendy's for fuel and food. In this colder weather it takes pretty close to a full tank of fuel for a round trip to IA and back. This Wendy's is quick. Two croissant's and OJ. One of today's drivers acting strangely was near the IA border. As soon as he passed me, he came back to the right lane and onto the shoulder. I pass him and he never really stops, merges back into traffic and starts passing me again, then drops back and into the right lane. Then I see him in the left lane almost at a stop ... right before a 'no U-turn' place. Then he speeds up and gets back in the right lane and exits in a quarter mile. Not sure about these people that think they have to use the 'no U-turn' spots a quarter of a mile before the exit. Saw a semi do that once, wish I'd have had my camera ready that time. Just before Forest City, we see an eagle in a tree next to the road. Now tonight, I am wishing I had stopped and taken a picture of it. :( We had seen one last night close to here, last night it was feeding on a carcass in the ditch of the road so it was close there also. 2nd stop is the shipper. Today there are at least a dozen other drivers picking up at the same time as us. Often it is only us. I only talk to three of them. One was just to ask if I could park behind them because the place was full. Another person I asked where they were going. Three of them were running together and were all headed to Thousand Oaks CA. I wished them good luck, because of the storm and their reply was 'there are hotels in Vegas.' Another driver I asked where he was going and he said 'Mesa' (AZ.) That was all he said to me. We are in and out in 45 minutes, no issues with either RV. We get a couple of miles out of town and I get a call from BB. When she calls while we are driving, there is an issue. What she tells me is ... it sounded like the door coming off a plane. A big swoosh and loss of pressure. What happened was the popup on her RV popped up as she's going down the road at 55 mph. She called dispatch but it is Sunday AM and they do not call back before we figure it out. Between looking at it and finding info on YouTube we get it secured and are rolling again in a half hour. But that is a half hour lost. 3rd stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel. Fuel is cheaper here, hasn't been the case lately. The three heading to CA are there when we get there plus one more. 4th stop is the Arby's in Evansdale. BB and I split a sandwich. It is 2 PM and I don't won't to eat too much because there will be good food next door the hotel tonight. As we are leaving, we see another of our drivers we had seen at the shipper. 5th stop is the Pilot in Mount Pleasant IA for fuel. Full house and no one seems to want to clear the pumps when they are done fueling. One person looked like they were changing their oil. Other came back out of the store and took their child in their lap and just stayed at the pump. Others were just sitting there the whole time we were. From here BB made our hotel reservations. We got as far as we had guessed. My rock wrap on my RV was not put on well, only a part of a day in and part of it has shredded so I clipped off the strands. Most of the clips are not anchored and they used very little tape. Somewhere into MO there was a pickup that went flying past us. Right ahead of me was a semi that pulled in front of him in the left lane and the pickup thought they were going to pass on the right, until they saw another semi on the shoulder. After we passed the semi on the shoulder the pickup stayed at the posted speed. At one point I saw the passenger door open as they were driving. Almost like someone said I am done with your crazy driving, I want out now ??? 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Hannibal. We walk next door to Fiddlesticks to pick up our to-go order. Good food as always and too much. I had potato soup and a Philly dip appetizer. The hotel is great compared to the last ones we've stayed at. It is a Quality Inn but it is nicer than some of the Comfort and Sleep Inns we stay at. Tomorrow ... Still forecast for wind. But it may die down afternoon so we are hoping we get at least a half a day in. And we did pack 'warm weather' clothes so maybe we will stay in FL a day or the weekend. 230227 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL ... spending the night at Hannibal MO We went nowhere today. Winds/wind gusts were up in the 40 mph range. And we are supposed to shut down at 30 mph. We spent the AM watching the forecast and the current to see how accurate it was. We even got a late check out hoping things would improve. They were supposed to by 4 PM which would give us two hours to drive. Then we saw that our location in IN was closing today with winds a lot less than we have here. So at 11 AM we decided to stay the day here. Breakfast here is good and on real places with real silverware. Eggs were good with bacon and cheese. I went back down to return the plates later and the large tray of them was almost gone. They also have just eggs and BB may have been the person today to take any of those. Lunch was leftovers from yesterday's evening meal. Finally at evening we took a walk across the parking lot for more food. Today BB and I split a Philly. She had just the half sandwich and I also had part of the side of apple slices but saved the rest. We just were not hungry today. While we were out, we stopped past the hotel's front desk and picked up our daily cookies. :) Today's were fresh and soft. BB didn't want hers so I got two and could only eat one tonight. We did watch the load board today. Trips from FL, GA, NC come and go. IA only added a few trips. Heard from the one CA bus driver I keep in contact with. They ended up going down US-101 to get past the CA snow storm. Now they will be on I-10 instead of I-40 which may add 400 extra miles if they stay south of this storm to keep moving. They are heading to WV this trip. Glad I didn't head that way not just for the weather. They ended up sitting for a week before getting a trip. But we will be sitting also. Did all day today. And we made plans to get a local rental car for four days after deliver so as of now we are staying the weekend in FL. Load board US - 393 IA - 220/219 One trip earlier today for almost 3,000 miles from FL but that's gone. -0- in FL right now, and nothing in GA or NC over 400 miles and nothing heading home. Winds should be down near 10 mph tomorrow so we should be able to make our close to 500 miles and a now Thursday delivery. 230228 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL ... spending the night at Manchester TN Breakfast ... wasn't ready when we first went down before 6:30. So we went back a few minutes later and all the hot food was sitting out. Neither of us remember seeing biscuits and gravy but they were here today. All I had was fancy eggs and juice today. Plus I had the skin from BB's baked potato from Sunday night and my fried apples from last night. Yeh, I opps when I called the front desk yesterday to tell them we were staying an extra day. They said they gave me the 'same rate' as the night before. (Monday nights are usually cheaper) What they did was charge us the total room rate plus tax as the room rate and added the $15 tax and fee's on top of that. I didn't argue, lesson learned? No wind today, map said about 10 mph. On the south end of Hannibal there was a Holiday Inn a few years ago. Then it started changing names as the upkeep went down. Finally it looked vacant or at least did not have any highway sign. Today it was a Howard Johnson / Baymont Inn. I've never seen those two co-branded and from the outside, the hotel is still not up to Baymont standards. So we'll see how long this lasts. 1st stop was the WalMart/Murphy in Lake Saint Louis for fuel. Traffic wasn't bad going through St Louis, we left the station about 9 AM so we were after rush hour. 2nd stop was the McCallister's in Mount Vernon. We were there before 11 AM but they open at 10 AM so that part was good. But they were busy working on a bunch of Door Dash/togo orders so it was 10 minutes from the time we walked in until anyone started working the register again. We ended up taking 45 minutes instead of the 15 minutes we did a couple of days ago. One person had left when the line didn't move but we were not in that big of rush. Huck's. They had some smaller truck stops that have now partnered with Pilot/Flying J. The ones we saw today have all be updated on the outside anyways to a new look. The three stores I saw today all had a 'Cluck's' in their Huck's. That is their own version of a Chester's/KFC. 3rd stop was east of Paducah at a Loves in Calvert City. A couple of tight squeezes today, both getting out of McCallister's and here at Loves getting to the pumps. While we are stopped, I call the drop and leave a message that we are running one day late. 4th stop is at Clarksville at the welcome center. From here we decide that Manchester will be as far as we go. We had looked at getting past Chattanooga but with the delays showing on the map it would be well past dark. Nashville. Map suggested we stay out of down town but it wouldn't have saved us any time doing the beltway so we stayed the course. Right next to the stadium, there was an (another) old hotel that I had seen go down hill. I don't remember what the best/highest name I had seen on it. It was a Ma/Pa name before it closed a year or two ago. Then we went by it a few times as they were tearing it down, or so I thought. The completely gutted it. Before today, the last time we went past it, it was completely gutted. All that remained were the cement floors and walls. Today it is all enclosed again. No new sign yet but the building is being re-done without being torn down. 5th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Manchester. As I pull in, I see the signs that say <> one parking spot per vehicle, oversized vehicles will be towed. :( So we have to park at the Dollar General store down the street and walk back. As we are walking down the street we meet a guy pushing an empty wheel chair that says something to us ... so we look behind us ... turns out what he said was 'you dropped your pocket.' ??? After we check in, we walk across the street to the Mexican place and order one order for us to split. We make sure it comes with beans, rice and chips. After we order, we walk to the Dollar General so BB can pick up some candy. Their registers are down so it takes a while. Our food is ready when we get back to the resturant. No beans, no rice and the food is cold. OK we were late getting back, but the shredded cheese is not even melted. Between the no parking in the hotel lot and poor food (it tasted OK) we may stay somewhere else next time. The Quality Inn we have stayed at and it is rated 14 out of 16 so two reasons we won't stay there again. There is a Comfort Inn a couple of blocks away but it was $40 more tonight. Load board US - 396 IA - 202/201 FL -0- We should be past Chattanooga and Atlanta tomorrow and into FL by evening. That will leave us two hours for Thursday before delivery. 230301 IA-FL 2 RV's to Seffner FL ... spending the night at Gainsville FL Lots to write about but it is late. Was too close to a RV that lost the tow car it was pulling. Car was totaled but I don't think anyone was hurt. I didn't stop at the car, I chased the RV down, it took me four miles to get him stopped and send him back. **** 2 days later **** Breakfast - yogurt for me. Both BB and I had rough nights. It only happens once or twice a year that I wake up during the night and my system is telling me 'visit bathroom now.' Last night was one of those nights. Both BB and I had the same issues. Bad food last night or exposed to something. Because of where they made us park, we had to walk done the road to our RV's. So we drove back to the hotel to check out. The desk clerk that checked us in last night, also checked us out. Said she had gotten three hours of sleep between shifts. Not at my age. The same guy who told us last night that I had 'lost a pocket,' stopped me as we were driving and told me that he was 'sorry about damaging our RV last night with my wheel chair.' I just waved him off. He seemed to just be a lonely man with a strange sense of humor. An hour or so down the road as we were crossing a bridge, a semi pulls out in front of me with only a few feet to spare. After they pull back in their lane, I can see him looking in his mirror thinking 'where did he come from?' I doubt he ever looked before he pulled out. Last night there had been slow downs going into Chattanooga, that was part of the reason we didn't go further. Today the back ups were in the other direction. Clear sailing for us, slowdowns in the usual places. 1st stop was for fuel in Calhoun at Buc-ee's. I'd never been inside one before today. But today I had to go in ... quickly. 2nd stop was for fuel and food in Jackson at a Pilot. This would be our last fill of fuel. We go in to eat, but nothing at Wendy's. This place looked like an old ??? Now I don't remember which truckstop chain that Pilot took over that had both Wendy's and DQ at most locations. This must have been one of those. We end up getting a chicken salad sandwich and a back of Cheez Its. Sandwich was from the fridge, but it was still frozen. Shouldn't have been bad food. 15 minutes down the road I notice an RV with a tow car. Partly because we are driving RV's and partly because something is not right. When the RV switches lanes, it looks like the car is trying to pass the RV. The car should follow closer than that. It did that both moving to the right and to the left. Then I see sparks, something is dragging. I slow and put on my 4-way flashers. But only for a few seconds. There are cars and a truck between me and the RV so I can't see everything ... the next thing I see is just the RV. No car. Then I see dust? on the other side of the semi. The semi is pulling to the side of the road ... I don't see the car again until the semi passes it ... the car is bouncing back and stops just short of my lane. It hit something hard enough to spin 180 and bounce back. Something is leaking onto the pavement. The RV doesn't stop or slow. The semi tractor in the 2nd lane pulls to the shoulder in front of me. Two trucks have stopped. I go after the RV. Way ... way over my speed limit. I catch up to them and try to wave them over. They won't slow. I pull in front of them and try to wave them over, the pull out to pass. As the pass, they are looking at me. I give up and call 911. I should have done that as soon as I saw the RV coming loose. Then the RV pulls over so I hang up on 911 and stop and run up to the RV. The driver comes back and walks back to look at his hitch. There is nothing there, no hitch, no pin, no chains, no wires. I suggest the driver head back to his car ... BB has followed me but doesn't know what I saw. She is behind me so I get back in my RV and call her. But I can't. My phone is locked on 911. So I call them back to explain what happened. They want to know where I am ... I don't know ... until the RV pulls out, then I can see the mile post. They also want to know my name and number. BB had also seen the car 'trying to pass' the RV that was towing it. But she never could see that it was being towed. Then she saw it veer to the right, she thought the truck then hit it. She also said there were still pieces rolling around when she passed it. That is how close to it both of us were. I'm not sure if the drivers who stopped knew there was not anyone in the car. I knew there wasn't, that is why I chased the driver down instead of stopping to help. We looked later and I had chased the RV for four miles before they stopped. Them never knowing they had lost their car. How could you not know? How could you not see it in your mirror when it tried to pass you? I'm guessing my BP was a little while after that for a while. 3rd stop ... I think was Ashburn at the rest area. The area was open but there was no water so the rest rooms were closed. BB is hurting. The accident had slowed us down by a half hour and she still is not feeling well. We don't get out of the RV's, we head out. At some point I am behind a truck that isn't quite going 'our speed,' BB pulls out which is usually my signal to get moving. So I pull out and drive faster to the next truck stop. 4th stop is the Pilot in Tifton. BB runs to the restroom right away. After, she tells me that she was trying to pass me because she would have gone a whole lot fast than I did those last 15 miles. 5th stop is the rest area in Jennings FL. BB makes our hotel reservations from here. It will be late, but that will keep us on schedule. After that, both the scale and fruit inspection area are closed. 6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Gainesville. I hadn't looked at it. The lot is big enough but there are trees hanging over the lot in a few places. Nope, still not feeling well. We walk a couple of blocks to a Publix food store and get bland food. Walking back in the dark we hear voices. One side of the street there is nothing built, just grass and trees. The next day we can see the homeless camps. ... this was written after the fact so no 'next day plans' list. Load board US - 354 IA - 160/160 FL - 1 .. the trip continues HERE |
