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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 10 - A 'used' International under a cement truck To Casper, WY Date July 29, 2003 Walk in to turn in my paperwork on Monday and they ask if I want to run Tuesday ... doesn't seem to be slow here. Eight AM start, I like this better than the 9 AM which turn into 10:30 AM starts. This is a convoy run, another driver and I ... This is another one where they have to shuttle us to the pickup locations, this shuttle is about an hour and a half. After we were heading out of the yard I remembered to get the WY plates ... six other people involved with this run and its the new guy who remembers ... not a good sign. Our shuttle driver doesn't look at the directions, he's 'been there before' ... and we end up at the wrong company. There is both a manufacturer of new equipment and a 'rebuilding' company in this town, and we are driving used equipment this time. Our paperwork says they are 1998 Internationals, that and the address shows we're at the wrong location. Luckily the shuttle driver knew to wait until we are rolling before leaving. Back to the van, and another surprise, the van won't shift ... you could move the lever but it was stuck in drive and we needed reverse, luckily we weren't tight against the car in front of us ... to start with. Without thinking of all the consequences, I suggested shutting off the van so we could push it backwards. With three guys it was a easy push, but then we discouverd the consequences. As long as the van was running the tranny had stayed in drive, however to re-start the van the transmission had to be in Park, now the van wouldn't start ... opps. Luckily one of the drivers knows a little about cars and starting wiggling things under the hood until the van started ... now to leave it in drive until the driver is back to the office. Once at the correct pickup location, the good news for us drivers was that they had us drive the trucks to the fuel pumps so the shipper could fill them, had they not done this there, there would not have been much money in this run. They didn't top it ALL the way to the cap, but at least we knew how full it was ... This was one of those trucks I could not get used to ... every time I would start out, the truck would rock, which caused my foot to pump the gas, which caused the truck to rock ... That and I would forget to do the split shift, this was a nine speed with a 5 and 4 split. This would be my first cement truck, I knew that the cement tank had to keep turning but didn't know how to start it ... didn't feel quite so bad when the other two drivers didn't figure it out right away. This was another one of those trucks I would not be sleeping in, just one bucket seat ... and it would have been a long ride for some drivers, no radio ... my second in two weeks ... the other driver didn't care, he has his little hand held CB he carriers with. I may get one of those some day, but so far the $100 price is the hold up. Heading west on I90 you are already seeing "Wall Drug" signs before you get to Albert Lee. Anyone ever count how many there are? ... good thing they got them up before the current wave of anti-sign laws came to be. Without those signs, Wall Drug would be just another empty building in another ghost town. They are living proof that advertising does work. This is the first time I've taken a run with a driver who eats ... most fill their cab with pop and chips and drive. This guy likes to stop at the truck stops and eat a sit down meal. Runs a little more money, but probably better for me than the Pop Tarts and corn dogs I'm used to. Our first stop was in Worthington, MN ... crowded place for two o'clock in the afternoon, but they did have the help to cover it, we had to sit at the counter because there weren't any booths open. I had thought I would go light and get a soup and sandwich but none of the soups sounded good to me, so I ordered a patty melt ... one of my more frequent choices. When I'm going to be ... miles away from the rest room I don't want to be trying a lot of new foods that may not agree with me ... My food was good, but the soup and sandwich looked even better ... someone else at the counter had ordered it, and the sandwich was chicken salad ... another favorite of mine, when I'm not on the road. (I have to start saving my meal receipts so I can give this good places a plug.) As I'm paying for my meal, I pick up a brochure for 'Farmfest' and comment as much to myself as anyone "I didn't know this was still going on." The cashier said she had been at the first one ... after comparing a few notes, that was the one I had been to also. Have the pictures to prove it ... South Dakota, (another state to add to my map) the other driver didn't seem to know we had to get a permit ... didn't ask if that meant he didn't usually do it, or ... I didn't see we had a choice, we hit the scale and were flagged in. Also realized that this was not a 'rolling' scale, after I watched the trucks who came behind us. Another driver is getting an $80 fine for something, we got there just as he was shelling out the money ... the second guy behind the counter seemed confused as to why we were in the office. The other driver I was with started saying something about the signal's flagging us in ... I said we were the cement trucks ... Ah, "You guy's need permits." Everything he needed was on our Bill of Lading except the $15 cash ... When we tried to pickup up our trucks at the wrong location this morning we had seen another cement truck / driveaway leaving there, now we saw two more from that location at the port of entry. I decided to see where they were going, just in case it was to the same company in WY. They weren't, they were taking their trucks to Seattle to be sent to Japan. ... so far the only rental car known available in Casper was National for $300-400, if we were stuck with that bill I was looking for as many drivers back as possible. Some time we were going to need fuel, and there was a Flying J listed as opening soon, so we tentatively planned to stop there ... otherwise we'd stop when we hit 'E.' We saw the Flying J billboard that said "Now open," but it also said "Five miles south I29 1/2 miles left" (or something like that) which I understood to mean it was five miles south ON I29 ... not, five miles THEN south on I29. So I was glad when the other driver didn't exit, it's not worth it to me to go 10 miles out of my way. But I could see the Flying J from I90 and realized what they MEANT to say. Oh well, their loss, we'll be fueling somewhere else today. We made it as far as Mitchell before hitting 'E.' We fueled, caught up on our log books and were deciding how far we might get when I noticed the clouds rolling in ... fast. Then I saw the dust in the air, still didn't register ... I'm not from the Dakota's. In under a couple of minutes the winds hit us and my metal folder of paperwork went flying from the step of the truck and I saw paperwork everywhere ... as good as I could with the sand in my eyes. So I left the folder lay and went running around the other side of the truck hoping to catch my paperwork. I grabbed a pink piece of paper ... that was all I could see. I went down between a couple of more trucks, nothing. So I went back and picked up my folder and got in my cab. Whew ... that was lucky, my Bill of Lading was still there, all my receipts were in the plastic pouch and I had grabbed my SD permit that had blown away .... Lucky me. As I close the folder, I realize it closes to easily ... MY LOG BOOK IS GONE ... blown away. I run to the other end of the parking lot to the freeway fence, not too likely it would have blown over, it's too heavy for that. Not there, now it's just a matter of looking under a dozen plus trucks one by one. Half way back to my truck I find it blowing back towards my truck ...But I found it. It has now been over ten minutes since the winds hit and I feel like the kids have buried me on the beach ... sand in my hair and everywhere. As we pull on to the freeway I can barely make out the outline of the other truck at the top of the ramp ... the blowing sands of the Dakota's. Within a couple of miles the blowing sands turned to rain and visibility stayed at about a quarter mile for the next half hour or so. Lots of motor cycles under every bridge ... this is the highway to Sturgis after all. The big event is not for another week ... so these riders are either the ones making it a two week event or riders who don't fit into the crowd but like the area. As the sun is starting to set we are running out of hours and stop at another Flying J for fuel and to do the math on how many more hours we can run. We decide to stay in Rapid City for the night, we would be out of hours before we made it to WY, I didn't really want to drive the next stretch of two lane highway in the dark ... and these are used trucks, and I'd rather be closer to an International dealer when I try to start my truck in the AM. Rule 1, only stop at places you can see from the highway. Rule 2, stay at motels 20 miles out of major cities or more. Rule 2b, buy fuel as close to major cities as possible or at major chains. The other driver had seen a sign for a Best Western, and he preferred those over the economy motels ... if we split a room it shouldn't be too bad. He led, I followed, I didn't see any motels at that exit and we headed into town. (Was that a 'No Trucks' sign we just passed?). Soon he realized he was lost and stopped for directions. U-turn and then down another street (Was that another 'No Trucks' sign we just passed?), finally we found a different chain and pulled in ... I misjudged the turn and ended up on the curb with one of the front tires ... but I made the turn without backing up, or hitting anything. No room at the inn, and not much help in the directions department ... we didn't find the roads she mentioned but did find a truck route. A couple of miles down that road we stopped again and made another U-turn. Finally we are heading back to the interstate and find some motels. First we tried a Super 8 that was $90, the Motel 6 sign said $59 single ... but those don't last long. So we ended up at an Econo Lodge for $90 after tax. It wasn't your average Econo Lodge, this one had shampoo AND a coffee maker. By now it was late and we hadn't eaten since ... ??? It was too late eat a big meal so I decided to get something from Burger King and the other guy agreed. Locked, but the drive through was still open ... as we walk to the drive-through speaker there is already a guy standing there, but no-one is answering. Finally our other driver walks up to the window ... yes, they will take our order at the window, after the cars are gone. So here we are, three guys at 11 at night standing at the drive through window, what a sight. Date July 30, 2003 Five o'clock wake up call ... After we find the counter person, we check out ... this was one guy who wasn't setting the world on fire. We have about four hours driving left, over half on two lane highways. I'd rather do the interstate for speed and safety, but it's nice to see the countryside once in a while. I did run about 70 miles off the interstate on my Fort Stockton run as a shortcut, but that is the only time I've been over 10 miles off the interstate in three months. I had thought we might re-route this trip and stay on the Interstate, it would cost a few extra miles but the computers all said it was the fastest way. Ran this past the other driver, no, he thought the two lane would be OK, he had been down these highways recently ... and after looking at a map I realized that it was a different highway south of Rapid City I had been on that was ... not for trucks. The first 10 plus miles were four lane, the next 20 were under constructions in various stages of building a four lane ... looks like only the last ten miles north of Hot Springs won't be four lane in a couple of years. We hadn't taken time for breakfast so I had to dip into my Pop Tart stash as we headed down the highway. By nine AM we stopped on the top of a hill to make a call to dispatch ... good news, we have a rental car coming home. Thank you, Thank you. To ride the bus, we would have had to wait until the next morning to catch the bus, it only runs once a day and then the ride is 28 hours, putting us home on Friday afternoon ... instead we will be home around before sun up on Thursday. They have a different way of doing road construction here in WY, they close one lane to work on it, and put up stop signs (not stop lights) on both ends ... This is also the first place I have seen cement railroad ties in use ...did a quick check of the Internet and not much info on these ties ... only that they can only be used where long stretches of rail is being laid or upgraded, they can't just replace a rail here and there ... suppose they need to find something different after a hundred plus years of using the same thing. Some of these ranches have interesting info on the their signs ... "established 1908," "cattle and horses" and "10 miles east" ... what could be better than a 10 mile driveway? I did see a 'rail to trail' in WY, most of what I saw in SD were just abandon rails. I could tell from the landscape there had been a road or railroad but it was overgrown ... only on the bridges could you see the rails. Not sure why some area's they are just left to be overgrown, in other area's like ours they tear up the rails where ever they aren't being used. On one line between to cities that used to be a major route just a few years ago, is now split into about five spurs to their remaining customers. And the other stretches are already hiking / biking paths. Somewhere in the middle of WY, there is a Port of Entry in a little town ... there is supposed to be anyhow, never did find it ... and they never found us. Break time, Manville, WY, Three Sisters Truck Stop. The tables are full, there is only one waitress, and when we sat at a table that hadn't been cleared yet ... the other driver asked where the other sisters were .... "... has the day off and ... will be in at 11" ... "I was only kidding" said the other driver the other driver told me. I still thought that it was a gag, a quick comeback to shut people up ... until I saw the newspaper clipping on the wall, they'd been written up twice in the Lusk paper. Breakfast was good, I'll stop by again ... It's a good thing we were already paying when sister two showed up early, I got the feeling the other driver would have been ready to order another cup of coffee, desert anything to hang around a little longer. Closing in on Casper ... HAVE to start looking at the maps the office gives us ... because the map would have told me that we were really going to a 'suburb' of Casper. It would have saved us a half hour, U-turns, going through 'downtown,' the other driver missed a driveway and had to backup ... blocking four lanes of traffic ... tires sliding ... all in a days drive. Surprise, the place was right where the map showed it was ... now if we could just have some hints on what square mile of a city we are looking at on the map ... They gave a quick look at the trucks and signed off, sounds like they had bought the trucks unseen ... must have been a real bargain. We asked about a ride, and they'd give us one ... the receptionist had said it was only mile, was really about five miles, glad we didn't try to walk it. The guy who gave us a ride asked what route we were going back ... I had hoped to stay on the Interstate, I do have a bit of faith in the map sites ... but the other driver spoke up and said we were going back the way we had come ... I decided to speak up and ask which way this guy took back East. He had a short cut off of the route I wanted to take ... it sounded like he had done it a few times, he had cities, highway numbers so we followed his advise. The guy who gave us the shuttle ride had been out in Casper a few months ago and had to take the bus. The office and I had been checking the Internet for a rental car ... nothing. But dispatch had found one, $80 ... for a Envoy, good thing it was under $100 because this thing was going to suck the gas. Why did they have any car for us? Guess our hometown is one of the places the rest of the country sends rental cars to be sold at auctions. The 'car' was in the other guys name so they gave him the keys and he drove first. I didn't think it was a good sign when he set the cruise at 71, in a 75 mph zone. We found the correct side roads and after a couple of hours we stopped for food and to switch drivers ... now to make some time. We were still a ways off the interstate ... and ended up following a motorcycle for the first hour. Did notice an awful lot of the tanker trucks look like they've been rolled ??? Finally the Intersate, time to set the cruise at the max the law will allow ... interesting coal mine right on / next to the highway, and a half dozen coal trains coming and going ... yes, when you're on the highway this much you start to notice almost everything. Made the same mistake as last trip, gave up driving at the wrong time and ended up driving the overnight shift. But with this guy, we did stop and eat at another truckstop ... it does beat the daily corndog. We pull into the office, park the rental and agree to return it into the AM. After renting a car in my name last week and the company wanting to use it an extra day, I've kept my ears open for horror stories. Seems there are drivers out there who refuse to drive or pay their share of a car rental ... others that never have the money to pay ... and others who take your money, say they'll fill the car before returning it and don't. And drivers who are so bad that they aren't allowed (by the other drivers) to drive rental cars. Someone has some pictures and other info about the "roadside memorials" in South Dakota. (That website is no longer available.) |