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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 25 - New International - Refer Used International - Refer... to Houston, TX 12/2/03 - Dispatch said a 9 AM dispatch but being without a car this week, I had to be dropped off before 8 AM ... I get good news early, we will be going directly to our drop instead of via our depot ... this will get us going 3 hours earlier than expected and give me an extra 2 hours driving time on my trip to Houston ... and if all goes well this will mean I will be home a half a day earlier ... good news. The second driver is to the office by 8:15, but we had no luck in contacting the third driver ... thought maybe we had a chance to get going before 9 AM ... did check out the truck for the other driver, which was a time saver ... first added Anti-freeze, which I had to go to walk to the hardware to the store to get ... then added a quart of oil before the truck would stay running ... the truck must have had a sensor that wouldn't allow the truck to run with low fluids ... anyhow, we did manage to get this half hour of stuff down before our 9 AM dispatch. As usual, a few stories on these rides ... Seems last winter these guys got caught at a scale over hours ... and had to be out of their trucks for their eight hours, not just stopped ... (If you are in your truck - you are on duty). But they were able to hitch a ride to the airport and pick-up their rental car ... drive back to the scale / rest area and sleep in the rented car. These two also managed to get seven runs to FL last winter, something I wouldn't mind this winter ... The trip down was fairly uneventful ... based on our usual shuttle via our depot, I had decided ahead of time where I would stop each night ... those plans lasted until I showed up for work ... now I was going to try to make this trip in four days. 1,400 miles down ... 1,250 miles back, with most of my miles at 70 m.p.h., this could (almost) be done legally. Somewhere north of Des Moines it started to rain ... and according to my truck the outside temp was around 35 degree's. for the next few hours I looked at the temp as much or more than my other gauges ... any second this road could be glare ice. Other than the one sanding truck I passed on I-80 by Des Moines, I saw no other highway trucks out and no one in the ditch ... did slow me down a little ... and kept my knuckles a little white. I made it as far as Ottawa the first night, to an Ecno Lodge for $40. There was a Country Kitchen less than a block away ... but it was closed by the time I got there ... Wendy's was next door but only the drive through was open and I wasn't going to stand in the freezing rain ... and some locations won't serve you unless you are in a vehicle ... safety reasons. 12/3/03 - Brrrr ... I froze all night last night, all I could find in the room was this little air conditioner ... found out this AM that it was also the heater. By morning the rain had stopped but the temps were still in the 30's ... almost all the way to OK ... then in the 40's almost all the way to TX ... by Dallas it would finally be in the mid 60's. I had hoped to make in all the way to Emporia last night ... motels are a little cheaper there, but I should still be able to make it almost all the way to Houston tonight. Can't do my delivery tonight, gates lock at 4 PM and will re-open at 6 AM ... I will plan on staying about an hour out of Houston, hoping motels are cheaper there. Not doing myself any favors on fuel this trip ... was out of fuel in KS on the turnpike, had to pay $1.45, when I get 30 miles down the highway to OK fuel is down to $1.35 ... then $1.30 ... then $1.29 ... but I don't need fuel again until I get to TX. I wasn't quite on 'E' when I was in Denton so I kept going ... and going ... 30 miles on 'E' (but by now I knew that there is should still be 15 gallons in the tank). Finally get through Dallas and stop at the first station south on I-45. Like a lot of stations, it was 'pre-pay' ... but this one was different, the attendant was behind glass ... AND you had to put your money in a canister which the attendant would turn so she could access. But the biggest surprise was the fast food place in the station was the same way ... the cook was behind bullet proof glass ??? And yes, the neighboring business' did have fences ... and out of the dozen people in the station, I was the only one with any European blood in my veins. I keep going and going, and end up less than 40 miles from my drop ... in a Motel 6 for $29 ... but I was miles from any food so I ordered in ... ended up paying $15 for some great Chinese food, but the take out sure off-set the savings on the motel. I ate, and ate, and ate ... so much I couldn't sleep, I was stuffed. 12/4/03 - 5:30 wake up call, on the road by 6 AM ... it gets light earlier in TX than on the Canadian boarder. The customer said they may or may not be able to meet me in the morning ... the night clerk said it could take up to 2-1/2 hours in rush hour to get to my drop. I must have gotten an early enough ... I was at my drop at 7 AM, it only required one U-turn and one extra trip around the block and I was there. The customer wasn't answering this AM so I guess this will be a blind drop. Page 2 - The trip home .... |