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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 25b - '96 Used International - Refer...
from Houston, TX 12/4/03 - I find the keys ... check the fluids and start the truck. Looks very used, but starts right off and sounds good ... and it's a stick, should get good gas milage. I go back to my first truck to get my bag and come back ... to a CAB FULL OF OIL. Oil was running out from under the dashboard. Off goes the truck, and I start calling dispatch. Dispatch doesn't open for an hour, but I wanted to be first in line so I called the 'emergency' line ... and they answered ... gave them a quick update and asked them to call as soon as they got to the office. (Guess someone had called dispatch at 3 AM with a problem, plus someone else earlier ... so I was already third in line.) They suggest I keep calling my Houston contact ... which I do, and they do ... they finally get a hold of another contact and are told "...he's probably still in da bed." So we call the leasing companies help line ... and they are ... helpful. I give them a couple of numbers and they say they will have someone there in about an hour ... I was going to give them two before calling back, they finally got there 15 minutes before I was going to call. I'm sure I walked off a few calories in those couple of hours, pacing the parking lot ... fenced parking lot, with rolled barb wire around the top ... gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. Then there's the trash everywhere ... in the vacant lot next door is a decomposing hide-a-bed ... probably someone's 'home' not too long ago. At one point I noticed an ever growing number of birds flocking overhead ... then I realized it was just before the dump next door opened, and suddenly all the birds were gone, (feeding on the new loads of garbage I presume). The only other entertainment was watching the huge trucks hauling the garbage up the side of the hill ... slowing almost to a stop by the time they'd get to the top. I was also looking at my options, in case this truck wasn't going anywhere ... there was a cheep flight $170 from Houston home leaving this afternoon. And dispatch had a truck up in Witchita they wanted moved to TX, but I wanted to be home for a 'family event' on Saturday. Step one for the mechanic was cleaning up the oil mess, both inside and now outside the truck ... it was now leaking from the cab to the ground. Then he had to remove the dash ... and found the problem ... the hose to the oil gauge had been chewed in half. He quickly replaced the hose and replaced the dash. In the course of the my conversation with the mechanic I had mentioned all the (rodent) trash on the engine ... and now that he was done with the real problem he looked the truck over and suggested I hit the first car wash and clean off the engine so it didn't start on fire. Then he offered to blow it off for me ... great, it would get it done now and save me time and money. One blow of the air hose on the engine and out from under the dash ... came a RAT. That woke us both up ... and made me decide to clean out the cab ... it had been stacked half full with cardboard and I was just going to leave it, but now I wanted to make sure there weren't any other animals in this cab. This rodent had been here a while ... he had chewed out a 2 x 4 in hole in a plastic cover under the hood ... had enough food stored to last years ... a nice nest ... and its own spot in the cab it used for an outhouse. When the mechanic was done blowing off the engine he offered to blow out the cab ... and I was very willing to let him. The only thing we left in the cab was the nest, we would have had to dig it out with our hands ... not sure what the customer will say, but we left it. This truck was not in the best of shape ... one of the side doors was held shut with a bungie cord, the other I wired such with electrical wire ... and we noticed the DOT sticker had expired ... a full year ago. Oh yeah, someone had removed the wiper blades so I would have to stop and buy some before I get to the first scale. Finally, five hours after I arrive at the customer I was ready to go ... it did have a half a tank of fuel, so it wasn't all bad. I did ask the mechanic to FOLLOW ME out of the parking lot just in case the rodents had destroyed anything else ... 10 miles down the road he finally passed me and I was on my own. I didn't get his name ... but thanks ... this guy went way beyond what he would have been required to do ... cleaning the engine and cab ... to make my ride home a lot more pleasant. I had noticed a Flying J back on I-45 so I was planning on stopping there to get my wipers and fuel ... I stopped there and fueled, which concerned me, because the amount of fuel I put in did not match the gauge ... on my last truck I was running 20-30 miles on 'E' so that I wouldn't have to stop so often ... with this one I would be stopping within 20-30 miles of hitting 1/4 ... and about an hour down the road I realized I had forgotten the wipers ... may have been that 'Scale - 1 mile' sign that reminded me ... but it was closed ... as was the next one. But I knew I better stop before OK ... so would try to stop at the TA in Denton. About an hour north of Houston ... POP ... WUUuuush ... and a lot less power ... all the gauges still looked OK. As the truck slowed ... it sounded fine ... but step on the gas ... wuushh. It was still moving and I didn't have a good cell signal so I kept going ... thinking I would stop at the top of the next hill ... and then the next ... going slower with each mile ... finally an 'Exit - 1 mile' sign. I pulled off and looked under the hood ??? I couldn't see anything wrong. I called dispatch ... who really did not want to hear anything else from me this trip ... who basically said "As long as the wheels keep moving, keep driving" ... so that's what I would did ... I kept driving, and eventually got used to the sound. My little delay this morning would put me in Dallas in rush hour ... and would mean I would have to hit it hard to still make it home on Friday. The only real slow downs were where someone was on the side of the road ... coming in from the south was no slowdowns until I got north of one of the belt lines, then it was slow and go for a half hour or so. All in all not a problem. I was hoping to do a little a better on fuel on the way home ... by buying fuel in OK ... so I didn't fill in Denton ... maybe I'd fill twice in OK. If you are in southern OK in the next few weeks ... try to travel through Admore after dark ... according to their website they have "1 1/2 miles of animated Christmas displays. Tune your radio to Christmas music playing constantly onsite" I was hoping I could find some pictures on the internet, but no luck so far. When you are personally running on 'E,' one tends to react a little slower ... I sure was ... by the time I got to OKC I had been up about 16 hours. I had wanted to fuel before the city but couldn't see the last few stations before the exits ... and I hate getting off unless I can see the station. So I ended up within the OKC city limits ... I miss the exit for another station ... by now I've been below 1/4 for a while and don't want to chance getting all the way to the Flying J. For some reason I think the next exit has a clover leave for the westbound highway and miss still another station ... now I'm into road construction and miss the next exit also ... this one has two stations, including a Love's for $1.27, so I decide it's really time to stop ... so I hit the next exit ... when I should have waited for the second exit and taken the cloverleaf. A few more turns and I do make it back to Love's ... and pay cash to save the extra $.02 and only pay $1.27 ... the lowest I've seen this trip. On the way down, I fueled at a station where they gave an $.08 discount for fuel ... Ouch, I don't usually pay cash but for eight cents ??? I should have kept notes as to where to stop on the way home ... I wanted to be past the KS turnpike but with a late start and a truck that no longer was exceeding the speed limit I would have to stop south of the turnpike. Again, slow on response ... I missed a few exits with cheep motels and finally stopped in Blackwell ... I wasn't dozing off but I was just to physically tired to go any further ... a few more exits would have looked better on the log book ... but not tonight. It cost me over $50, but not sure what this place was ... some of the Days Inn signs were covered, others weren't. The sign in sheet and a few things in the room said Executive Inn ... but my credit card receipt said Days Inn ... and then there was the Budget Inn sign leaning against the end of the building. Stopped too late again, there was a restaurant right in the same parking lot, but it was already closed ... guess I'll go to bed hungry tonight instead of stuffed. 12/5/03 - 5:30 AM again ... but why??? Because I didn't do the math in my log book before requesting my wake up call ... then at 5:45 the radio alarm goes off ....Ahhhggghh ... it's been so long since I've had a clock in my motel room I forgot to check the alarm. So I'm wide awake and can't leave until after 7 ... so I just lay there ... still to zapped to walk next door for breakfast ... it was warm under the covers ... Fluids still look good ... the truck starts right off ... so I pull out of the parking lot ... a car is coming but it's a block away .... Putt ... putt ... putt ... and so much smoke I could no longer see the car. This is not good ... it would idle fine but as soon as I stepped on it it was gutless and blowing smoke ... not again ... I finally got it into a vacant lot and let it idle ... and thought ... it was still to early to call dispatch. I noticed the oil pressure had now dropped from 60+ back down to the 45 where it has been yesterday so I took off slowly ... as soon as it started to smoke I'd back off ... by the time the truck had been running a half hour it was no longer a problem ... Not wanting to stop more times than needed I didn't fuel again in OK and had to stop in KS ... $1.53 ... I pulled off to fuel at the TA, but they had diesel for $1.55 ... One more fuel stop in Des Moines and I will be able to make it home. On our check-off sheet we have to check that we've cleaned out the truck ... on this one I wrote "Removed my own stuff" ... guess it will be up to the customer to clean out that rat's nest I left ... |