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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 230421 IA-CA 2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA ... spending the night at Kearney MO Besides taking my blood pressure every day including when we are on the road, I also weigh in every morning when we are home. Both are helpful to my keeping my DOT card. Today it helped in another way. I can't remember my weight for long so I put it on my computer ... which shows that I need to stop by the clinic by tomorrow. I hadn't thought about that since last time. And we go right past there this AM so not a huge delay. But ... while I am waiting the couple of minutes at the clinic, I try to look at my phone and it is acting like it is a new phone with no connection. Once I am done and we are rolling again, BB starts looking at it. We need to stop and have it looked at. So we decide to stop at the first place we come to after 9 AM. Owatonna phone store. They look at a couple of things and then put in a new part. Now it works again. No charge. Then we stop at Burger King for breakfast. They give me my juice and then I use the restroom, when I come out BB is already in the car so I go to the car. They have given BB the order ... and a 2nd juice. Once we have it, they won't take it back and if they do, they will just throw it. It's snowing again today ... But it is not cold enough that we need to have the car full of gas when we park it for days. We are the only ones picking up this AM. Here. There are people still picking up the out-dated vans next door. There are still a lot left but there are also 1-200 completed vans in that area plus the 100+ RV's in our overflow area. Lots of inventory. It's been a while but today we need to call for permits before we leave the office. And then get them printed before we cross the state lines. I don't have as much fuel as BB so I stop in town here and put in three gallons of fuel to get us to the Loves where fuel is cheaper. We've got a good headwind and BB has slowed so we spend the rest of the day at about 60 mph. We stop in Ellsworth at the Loves for fuel and food. Shelf food. This place has a Hardee's but their line is long. This place did give me both fuel discounts so it can still be done. It took the manager about a dozen times before it finally went through. Sounds like the issue is which order they hit the keys on their computer. Things are pretty calm today for traffic. Even at 60 mph we didn't have any memorable issues. We stop at a rest area near Osceola. Then another 40 miles to Eagleville Loves. Place is busy so there was not a pump where we could each be on a side. Here we had to fuel one RV, then lay the hose down so the next RV could pull up and fuel. Saves a little on the cost to put everything on one card. I did call the bus dispatcher to let him know we were on our way. It went to voice mail which was fine. After that stop there was some road construction where we all had to get in the left lane. Right as we got to the cones, they were pulling the last cone out of the lane as BB went past ... Tonight we are at the SureStay, Best Western. Price went up $20 between when we looked last and booked. Closest food was Sonic. I ended up with chili, it's not on the menu but they said they could do it. :) It came in a condiment sized cup :( That and cheese curds for me wasn't much. I should have gotten my third breakfast for the day. We had talked about getting Mexican but guessed we'd be getting better Mexican the closer we get to Mexico. We do get a walk in tonight, the wind has died down for the overnight but should pick up again tomorrow. Load board US - 213 IA -0- MN - 18 WI - 24 Plan is to get another 500 tomorrow. Wind may slow us down but not shut us down. 230422 IA-CA 2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA ... spending the night at Guymon KS The only hot part about breakfast was biscuits and gravy so I had yogurt and two cartons of juice. It is a sunny AM. Cold but no snow or rain. Even this far south there was a freeze warning last night. Lots of trees in full bloom, not sure if it did freeze or what damage it would do. Kansas City ... freeway closed. Easy re-route but it is different so we have to watch close for the turns. But being early Saturday AM traffic stays at the posted even during construction. We did have to cross the scale in KS but no issues. MO scale yesterday was closed, coned off and looked like partially removed. First stop of the day was the Loves in Ottawa. It would be nice if the fuel stops were more evenly spaced but we want to stick with Loves and so we are stopping for fuel every three hours instead of every four hours. Today we were able to get both discounts on fuel again, so did the location yesterday. Emporia used to be a frequent first stop for me so I watch the area every time we pass through. Today I noticed that the Budget Host we used to stay at is gone, just a pile of rubble. And at the next exit there was a Cracker Barrel turned Montana Jack's building that was also a pile of Rubble. And the old Holiday Inn that I've stayed at under various names is now vacant again. The last sign was a Clarion but I don't know that it was ever opened as that. Next door is the old Motel 6 that now doesn't have any sign on it. Both food places right there are still open. Because of the wind today we decided to take the toll road. Four lanes is better in the wind than meeting traffic on the two lane ... and as soon as we get on the toll road/freeway it narrows to one lane with on coming traffic. Luckily it was only for a mile or two. Our next stop was going to be for food at the oasis but both food places are closed. So it was going to be shelf food or wait another two hours. We waited. Changes ... when we exit the toll road. The messages painted on the highway say that if you don't have a K-pass (their I/EZ pass) that you have 10 days to pay online. We had taken a ticket when we entered the toll road in Emporia but no toll booths at the exit??? I see that one of the hotels here in Wichita that I used to stay at is all boarded up. Not sure how long it has been since we have been this route but lots of changes. Somewhere after there starts being stop lights I loose BB so then I drive 55 mph until I can see her in my rear view again. She ended up hitting a lot of red lights so she was way behind for a long ways. Loves in Cunningham is our stop for fuel and food. Subway. We do eat there when we have to. Actually pretty good when you don't eat there every day. Better than Loves shelf food two days in a row and no wait. One of these days I will start adding notes to these write-ups about what I remember from prior trips about each of these towns. Lots of little things come to mind as I get in a location again that I would never remember sitting at home. Rest area Bloom closed. No sign on the highway, just a sign on each door. In Meade there is a small Loves gas station on a city block. It's not busy today so we just park on the street so BB can use the restroom. The other truckstop we have stopped at has creators you could loose a bus in in the parking lot. From here BB makes our reservation. It would be a push to make a Monday delivery but now we are not even making our 500 miles per day. On the plus side the sun is still up when we shut down for the night. Road changes. Once we get west of Wichita, US-54 can be four lane or two lane. And it changes each trip. More changes since we have been here last. Some places have been started and done since we have been here, other places were started long before our last trip this direction and still are not complete. Best Western in Guymon tonight. A couple of bucks cheaper and we are playing the rewards game with both Best Western and Choice. We usually stay at the Choice hotel across the street. Once we check in we find out another plus. The hotel was only a couple of bucks cheaper, but this place has made to order breakfast in the AM. And some bad news, the food in the parking lot closed for good one week ago today. We had eaten there many times. Now we had to cross the street, busy highway to get food. Lots of food within a mile, not an issue with a car. We eat at the Round Top. It's an old round top steal shed that was likely a farm storage shed at one time. Good food. Serve yourself. We did most of an our walk after that. No sidewalk near us so we just walked on side streets and parking lots. Load board US - 203 IA -0- MN - 17 WI - 23 rental - 4 of 6 trips are out of Bagley MN. Sometimes there are dozens total for the US. I was hoping to get one/some of the Bagley trips but they only show up when we are NOT in MN. Tomorrow is another 500 or less day. We were able to get our permits printed tonight, this desk clerk let us behind the counter when their business center printers wouldn't work. 230423 IA-CA 2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA ... spending the night at Gallup NM Turns out that only the eggs were made to order. Meat and potatoes, etc were all buffet style. Eggs were good. Bacon could have been warmer, potatoes could have had more flavor ... same with the apple juice. Our first stop is just 20 miles down the road, I / we didn't have enough fuel to get to the next truckstop 160 miles down the road. Wow. This may be the first time the fuel clerk at Loves did not have to run my card 2,3 ... 9, 10 times to get it right. Young kid, 18 or so, got it on the first try. When I said something, the person was ... ??? ... what's so hard about that? Seems like TX has put in more passing lanes, still mostly two lane but getting better. From mid KS down into TX there are hotels that had sat vacant for years. Little ma-pa ones that now have been re-done and have more customers than the other old ones that have been in business the whole time. In one of the small towns there was a four-way stop and I stop, then go ... just as I see a motorcycle going. I hadn't seen him. Luckily I had completely stopped and started slowly. The driver looked at me but may have just been looking at the two matching RV's. Stratford I think it is. Once had a DQ, they closed and it was a Mexican place for a couple of years and now it is a little cafe. And Best Western hotel's. Three that I can think of in this leg, two are now 'Budget' hotels and the other looks better than ever but didn't have a name on it as of today. Coming into Nara Vista, another real ghost town. When I started both the hotel and truckstop were open. The hotel has been closed for a while and was rubble as of today. The truck stop is still standing. Lots of other buildings in town still standing and the only two open are the PO and the scale. I was following two pickups with trailers, one went into the scale, the other drove past it. The guy who went across the scale got flagged to come inside. The next semi had the green light but he stopped for each axel. BB said she could see the scale person waving the driver on and then threw his hands up in the air. I couldn't see anyone in the scale house so I could see where the semi driver didn't either. Logan was our next stop. We stopped at Alsupp's today. First time. Last time? BB was not impressed. We had been stopping next door at a different station. 160 miles is just too far without a break. When here we noticed a tow away driver fueling (I'm guessing fuel would have been cheaper elsewhere?) and that the driver had the plate taped to the RV. ... back to yesterday ... we saw one transporter with no plate, no placards. No idea how he got past three scales that way. It was a mixer out of MN. From Logan to Tucumcari is all two lane highway. BB was in the rear and there was a semi that was right on her tail. And there were 5-6 trucks ahead of us led by the tow driver with the travel trailer going 55 mph. Finally the semi passes BB and is now behind me. He doesn't ride me as close but he decides to pass me and the next person ahead of me because I am tailgating at this point. Should have had a dash cam. The guy passing the truck ahead of me with no passing signs on both sides of the road and a car coming. I saw other cars hit the shoulder also as he was passing others ahead of us. And I'm guessing he was doing 20 or so over when we got to the 55 mph area. In TX the main road was 75 mph and the side roads with no center lines are 70 mph :) We fuel at the Loves in Tucumcari but wait to eat. Freeway ... We stop again in an hour at Santa Rosa at the Pilot for PJ's. We pull in and then a pickup with a trailer starts backing in our direction. Luckily he missed me as he was backing blind around another RV. Then another car wanted to leave and managed to find between me and another car. I would not have tried it, hope he could see better than me because I thought for sure he was going to hit me. Three units with trailers and six or eight motorcycles and all we want is a parking spot. PJ's is out of meatloaf and no one is answering the clerks page so we get pizza instead. Two changes in this town also. A ma-pa place I have stayed at a few times used to be the Budget motel, it is now the New Mexico Inn. The boom was still up to the highway sign so I'm guessing the change was recent. And across the street from PJ's was an old Denny's I had eaten at. Then it was Annie's and we still ate there. Now it's a head shop so I think we are done eating there. There is not a good place in ABQ to stop just to stop so we pushed past and stopped at a casino just past ABQ. We've stopped here before. Buffet, hotel, truck pumps. Nice place. Just as we are ready to put our RV's in gear, someone stops right across in front of both RV's in an almost empty parking lot. ??? Then the person came over with two box and BB said 'No' and rolled up her window. The person looked at me, I looked at BB and shook my head no.' Later BB said ... 1st, don't block me in. 2nd, don't be blowing smoke when you are trying to talk to me. Not sure what it was the person was trying to sell, they stopped in front of us and then left. Didn't hit anyone else up ??? We end up in Gallup for the night. Comfort Inn again. Not sure why, the Sleep Inn across the parking lot also gets good reviews and was $20 cheaper. But we've stayed here before, it is a known. We walk next door to Dickie's. We get it to go and they give us one wrong side. No a big deal as it is already too much food and we haven't had a freezer the last few nights for our freezer packs and now the temps are up in the 70's so we can't keep anything that HAS to stay cold. Got our walk in. Not as warm as it looks or was when we got here. We did see three city buses today heading east. Couldn't read the name on the first two and the third one didn't have a name. But there was work so maybe ... 1st stop - Texhoma at Loves for fuel 2nd - Nara Vista cross over the weigh scale 3rd - Alsupp's Velaro in Logan for the rest room 4th - Loves in Tucumcari for fuel 5th - Pilot in Santa Rosa for PJ's food 6th - Route 66 truckstop in Albuquerque for the rest room 7th - Comfort Inn in Gallup 8th - Dickie's BBQ for food Tomorrow will be a longer day. 500+ miles to get to Barstow. Then we have about 150 left for Tuesday before delivery. From here on, our fuel discount is not as good as the lower priced gas stations so that will change up how we drive. 230424 IA-CA 2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA ... spending the night at Barstow CA Less than two hours to go in the AM. Breakfast, good food but. I had to find the staff to ask for serving utensils. When they brought them out, I said thank you but got no relay. Other than that one person, everyone else on the PM and AM staff would say something every time we walked past the desk. Eggs, bacon, hash, apple somethings. We had an apple something and BB commented that it was warmer than the eggs. Good, whatever kind of pastry it was. Sun is just coming up over the hills as we are getting up. Not much for bright colors this AM, a better picture would have been behind us as the sun was first hitting the hills. This hotel has about half the entry area filled with military / purple heart memorabilia. On the walls, on tables, on display shelves. Our first stop is 10 miles down the road at an off-brand truck stop. Fuel there is $.70 less than across the street at the other truck stops. Interesting place. I don't remember what it was called the first time I saw it. I asked today and they gave a list of fuel brands but they didn't think it was every a chain truckstop. But it is full sized. Gas pumps, diesel pumps, store, restaurant, shop. It is now the Greyhound stop for this town. ??? All but one of it's diesel pumps were down today and blocked off with barriers so I'm guessing it wasn't just today. But the place was packed with trucks. Some of the off-brand places are ghost towns. This one had all the shelves stocked, I'm guessing it is doing OK. AZ scale was closed today. Two decks of trucks that were at our hotel this AM were sitting at the scale. I'm guessing they needed to get their permits. There was one car at the scale office so they may have been open for that. We did see two more buses this AM, one had no lettering and the other one BB and I could not agree on what it said. But buses are moving. The TA in Holbrook is our next stop. Popeyes is not open yet but for us it was just a quick restroom break. Within a few miles we can see Mt Flagstaff. A little hazy but clear enough for that. At that point we are still 90 miles from the base of the mountain. Next stop is the Maverick in Williams. We stopped there because fuel was cheaper than the Loves. Today the off brand fuel has been cheaper than the truck stops even with the discount we get with our carrier. But we have plenty of fuel so we park and eat. Shelf food. While we are eating, looking out the window of the station we notice that there is a man with a camper at one of the pumps. He may have fueled before we got there, but as we watch ... he exchanges propane tanks, walks his dog, wonders around and was still at the pump when we left a half hour later. And this is a busy place, all pumps being used all the time. Another 100 miles down the road and we are at the Loves in Kingman. From here we MAY get to the drop without fueling again. Busy place here also. We finally pick a pump and have to wait. We watched another pump which was empty a lot and had a few quick users, but we were going to move once we were in line. Today there were people at the fruit inspection station. One quick question and we were on our way. Stopped at the rest area near Essex for a quick break. From here BB made our reservation. We did see two more buses being transported. These were being hauled so most likely electric buses. The Quality Inn in Barstow is half the price of the Comfort Inn tonight so we saved the money. We have likely stayed at each a dozen plus times. This one has an on-site restaurant so that is where we ate. BB commented a few times how good this food was. And tomorrow, if I remember correctly, we get made to order breakfast with our hotel stay. I did check in on the field situation and still too cold this week. 40 there today, 90+ here today. It does look like we missed out on seeing the northern lights last night :( 1st stop - NKS for fuel in Gallup 2nd - TA Express in Holbrook for restrooms 3rd - Maverick in Williams for shelf food 4th - Loves in Kingman for fuel 5th - rest area near Essex 6th - Quality Inn in Barstow 7th - Mexican restaurant in Barstow in Quality Inn Load board US - 176 IA - 6/4 MN - 6 WI - 17 Tomorrow we have two plus hours to the drop so one stop. Then it is another six hours up to the bus shipper. I was watching my hours of service because we have already been working every day for over two weeks. But I won't run short on hours until this weekend ... and if we are still working this weekend we will likely need to shut down to wait for the drop to open on Monday. So not an issue. The bus dispatcher also moves tree trucks. And we can see those on the load board and he still has some ... going to Oregon. I'm guessing we will take it if that is all there is or all that is offered. 600 more paid miles and then the rental car is $200 cheaper home than out of CA. Unless we keep our car from the drop. That is the cheapest being another $100 less than the one out of OR. Not sure if BB will keep that one and follow for the 500 miles? .. the trip continues HERE |
