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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 34b - 'Used' '99 Freightliner -
chassis ... Spartansburg, SC to Fort Lauderdale, FL 2/20/04 - Good Morning SC ... I'm not going anywhere until dispatch gets in the office at 8 CST ... and if they have drivers leaving than I may not get any paperwork until much later, but as long as I can leave by noon, I can still be in Ft. Lauderdale tonight ... no worries, no hurries ... but I may as well get moving, not sleeping anymore anyhow. Do some checking in the phone book for 'other rides' to the customer, there are none ... nothing, just a single cab company. Time for a shower and as I'm running the water to get the right temp I notice the tub looks ... off colored ... so I rub it ... then with a towel ... Yuck!!! No shower this AM ... if a truck driver won't shower in it, you know it has to be bad. Up to now my only complain at any Motel 6 was two missed wake up calls ... which may have been the ringers shut off by a previous guest ... This motel was not measuring up to the Motel 6 standards ... also had a whole in the door ... never stayed at a MiroTel so I don't know their standards ... My plan was to just let the front desk know and leave it at that ... but when I got to the front desk no-one was there ... just a couple of other guest sitting in the lobby who told me ... "No ones here, we've been waiting quite a while ..." So instead when I got home I emailed Motel 6, for them I had to limit my story to 510 letters ... hard for me as you could guess if you've read this far ... At the airport I ask information for the 'cheapest way to Spartansburg...' he and the other guys standing there laugh ... there is no cheep way ... there is only the one cab and that will cost me $50. It's a good thing we don't do this live of work for the money ... My cabbie is an interesting older man ... by the time he drops me off, we have exchanged business cards ... he's thinking of bringing his grandson up to my home state this spring ... By the time I'm in the cab its time to call dispatch and tell them my change of plans ... I run in and double check this is the correct place before he leaves, it is ... Within a couple of minutes I have my paperwork and should be ready to go and I'd be on the beach around sunset ... if that was only the case ... I had reminded dispatch to double check on the lights and mudflaps because of it being a chassis ... they were working on it, but not done ... wouldn't this have been a fun Saturday pickup?? I comment on the good job he's doing and ask for a spare section of wire ... just in case ... he cut's me off a piece and then double wires the frame ... just in case ... Once they are done, I do my inspection, or try too ... the truck doesn't start ... nothing ... dead as a doornail ... so I find someone to jump start it ... he try's and the batteries start smoking ... so someone else comes over and they get it started ... Oh, and one head light was out, there response was "You don't have to drive at night do you?" ... fine, I let it go ... guess I'll be stopping short of Ft. Lauderdale tonight ... Before leaving I tell them that I'll go fuel and come back and then try to re-start the truck, I'm not ready to trust it yet ... There is a Citco just two doors down with diesel ... no fuel in this truck ... as I am fueling I notice a guy talking to to customers in the lot ... then trying to get some guy's attention as he's walking to his car ... as I'm paying, this same guy is in the store telling someone else ... "You go and make copies of this and I guarantee people will be calling you by tomorrow ..." no idea what he was talking about. I go back and look in my tank before getting in my truck to see if the fuel has balanced out ... this truck has two tanks and I didn't want to fill both until I know I'm going to be taking it/it's going to start again. By now I have caught the eye of this guy wandering the lot, he start yelling and waving at me ... I hop in and step on it ... he keeps coming twords me and waving and yelling something ... the exit is halfway between us, I do a quick stop and hit the highway ... I normally would have waited for the cars coming but I didn't want anything to do with this guy ... and to make it picture perfect and I swing into to traffic my door flies open ... I'm sure it was quite a picture for anyone watching ... Back at the customer I stop the truck and ... nothing ... I've realized that them jump-starting me again is not the answer ... they are not sure what they want to do ... they have either sold the truck as is or never owned it and just want it off their property ... Time to call dispatch, she was busy so I asked for the owner, times a wasting. At first they said they were going to call my drop customer / the now owner of the truck ... then put in A battery ... the truck holds two and they wanted to put in one ... first they had to find one that worked ... then someone to do the work ... and he has to talk to a half a dozen people before they agree to put in both batteries. This guy is very pleasant and does a good job ... but he just does the work, he doesn't make the decisions ... asked him a few questions, like if this was a 'safe' area, in case I come back again and wanted to walk from a motel to the customer ... from this spring, I remember it looking like a rougher neighborhood than it looks today ... this guy only lives a mile away, this a safe area ... so I ask about the guy at the station ... pests, but not dangerous. By now I've been here 2 1/2 hours ... the truck starts, and again, and again ... so I'm finally ready to roll ... I've gotten a couple of different directions on how to get out of here ... Right at the driveway, right at the first light, left at the first overpass ... keep it simple, I can handle it ... and it's still before noon so I would be OK to be in Fort Lauderdale tonight ... if I want to buy a headlight ... 722 miles to go in 11 hours, posted is 70 mph all but the first couple of miles and the last few feet are Interstate and the truck will go ... I have all kinds of time and am guessing the milage will be better if I don't run petal to the metal so I set the cruise at 21 rpm's which is about 69 mph ... I have no clue as to what kind of milage this truck will get, it's a stick with no box and two tanks ... gauge is still showing empty after putting in 34 gallons so I'll be stopping in about a 100 miles to fill them ... did stop at about a 100 miles to check and for some food ... waited too long, the sandwich shop was done for the day ... it was after 2 PM so it was another cold sandwich ... and couldn't find a fuel stick, all the trees were evergreen ... the sticks were dirty and brittle ... but by now the gauge was finally showing over 1/4 ... I'm guessing the gauge was in the right tank and I filled the left one, so it was taking a while to 'level' ... of the thing just plain didn't work ... as I walk past my truck to look for a stick I notice that some of the staples are pulling out of the mudflaps so I use my spare wire to wire each one to the frame as best I could with this little bit of wire. 160 miles to the SC / GA ... things are still looking good ... I'm always checking my mudflaps ... lost one set a while back and drove the last few hours without. I look back again when I see the 'scale ahead' sign ... still have my flaps ... scales closed .... ahhh, too bad. A couple more miles I look back again ... THEY'RE GONE ... no flaps, no frame, the whole setup is gone. The next exit is miles away and I'm not going back to look for them ... don't want to see what or who they may have hit ... nor to put the extra miles driving without looking for something that is more than likely junk by now ... A little luck on my side today, the next exit has a 'tire shop' ... one of these little ones out of a shed with old trailers for storage ... the only guy in the place says his boss may be able to help when he gets back ... so I wait. Time to call dispatch again ... the office had just called as I was turning in the lot with some not so good news, the (finally) contacted the drop locations and no, they do not accept trucks on the weekend ... upon finding out I was already in route, they agreed to have someone accept it on Saturday, but they are only open until noon ... not two like we had been told, and they are not open at all on Sunday ... so deliver by noon or sit it out until Monday ... no blind drop either. So I was calling dispatch to make sure the message had gotten through what had happened ... we are supposed to call on ANY repairs ... even if they have to be done ... and as long as I was talking to them I got the OK to get a jumpstart ... as needed ... without calling in. The shop boss gets back and has me back the truck in and he brings over a hunk of metal and throws it across the frame ... the temp ones we use are usually wood ... 2 x 2's, etc ... "OK" I think "He doesn't have any wood and lots of metal" ... then he lights the welder and I say "This is starting to look expensive ..." "It's not going to be cheep ... but you want them to stay on don't you?" ... "No, only until I get to Fort Lauderdale" ... guess the other shop guy hadn't relayed the 'whole message.' So he comes up with something less than a 1 x 4 and anchor's some flaps on ... once I see he's heading in the right direction I go and get some binge cords, something with some give ... that's not going to snap with the first bump ... $77 and change ... might as well fuel when I'm here ... have now put in $120 in fuel and only gone 160 miles ... hope I can get there on this ... Heading out on the highway, I call my wife with an update ... rolling again ... as I'm talking and driving and merging back onto the freeway, I look back ... THE MUDFLAPS ARE COMING LOOSE ALREADY ! ! ! Bye, gotta' go ... I slow it down, keep an eye on the flaps ... this time I'll walk back and pick them up if I have too ... and exit the next exit. This guy hadn't used bolts to hold them on ... he used screws that didn't go all the way through the 1 x 4 ... to hold on mudflaps that weight ??? 5 - 10#'s ... that are going to be bounced around ... and blown in the wind at 70 mph ... Good thing I bought those binge cords ... I have to take the wire he was using to hold on the frame, so that I can wire on the mudflaps ... by the time this is all done I have been down for over 2 hours ... this time ... By now there is no way I can make this trip all in daylight and still deliver by noon Saturday ... and the plane I can afford leaves at 12:30 so I need to be there before that or be stranded for a day. From the time I got on the road I had been doing the 'Apollo 13' approach to amp usage ... almost ... I had been using the cruise to conserve fuel ... other than that, everything was off. But now it was getting dark ... I wait, finally I turn on my markers ... then a good hour after sunset I finally turn on my lights ... at this point my plan was still to get to a motel next door to the drop and park it ... then call them in the AM to come and jump-start me so I can deliver it ... yeah, right. Shortly after dark I stop at a truck stop to pickup more binge cords, need backup now that I've removed the wires ... and to check my lights ... so far everything is working ... and I do have high beams on both sides ... But I have scales coming up ... three of them plus a produce inspection site ... plan one is, when I get close to a scale, find a truck and hug that bumper until we hit the ramp, then hit the lights ... supposed to do that anyhow, so we don't blind the guys in the scale house. Plan two was, if no trucks are in site, flip on the high beams until I'm on the exit, then go to marker lights. First up was the produce inspection, everyone stops ... complete stop, inspector is at truck level ... he took one look at my chassis and motioned me through ... it worked, all the way through .... Heading though Jacksonville, came around a corner and there I could see the lights of another car in the ditch ... don't understand this area ... there seems to be at least one car ever 10 miles stopped / parked on the shoulder ... some with people inside, some abandon, some where the people from two or three cars are standing chatting ... Isn't it "emergency stopping only" in every state on the Interstate? Anyhow, another car in the ditch ... only when I was right along side did I see that this one had hit the sound wall ... and was right next to one that was upside down ... only a single car and truck had stopped, no emergency vehicles in site ... I was in the wrong lane to jump over and stop ... with all the cell phones now, I had to assume someone had called .. or the trucker on his CB ... Mud flaps are still on, but now a new problem ... I no longer have enough battery for the signal lights to work ... time to stop for a boost. Someone has a billboard for 24-hour service ... I take that exit ... he's just locking up and suggests a service station at the next exit ... sounds good, as long as I know where my next stop is ... This place agrees to charge the batteries for an hour but says that they will only last half of that ... "They'll need a good five hour charge to get you to Fort Lauderdale ..." If there had been a motel at this exit I would have taken him up on it ... that, and I wanted to be within two hours of the drop by the time I stopped so I be there when the opened, I still didn't have a airline ticket for that flight tomorrow ... "Might as well go get something to eat ..." they suggested, not a bad idea ... and right next door ... another Waffle House. By the time I walk over and sit down, one of the shop's wreckers is pulling in ... at first I think something is wrong, then realize maybe it's just break time ... it was. I'm not one to just sit at a table and stare ... let's eat, let's go ... I was back at the shop in well under an hour, so I got to chat with the guy on duty ... sounds like he lives his life around NASCAR, knows a few of the drivers, etc ... where I'm from, NASCAR gets about as much coverage as ballet or European Socar ... Finally my hour was up and he charged me $10 for the boost ...then I made my most costly mistake of the trip, I filled the fuel tanks again ... did some quick math in my head that said I should ... Wrong, I would end up leaving the truck with a half a tank of fuel 20-40 gallon <> $30 - $60 ... OOOuch. If I can get another couple of hours tonight, that'll leave me only two tomorrow AM and I can still be on the customers door when they open at 8 AM ... When I was ready to go the guy wished me good luck ... "There's a scale about 10 miles down ... and you've only got one headlight ..." Not to worry, I made it through OK, again. Didn't have to worry about getting sleepy on this trip, with all the things wrong and things that could go wrong. After another hour plus, I start looking for another 24 hour shop, no luck ... do know that there is rest area coming up in a little bit so that is my second option and the one I have to use ... It's somewhere around 11 or 12 and the guys back at the shop told me it doesn't get light until after 7 ... that's a long time at a rest area, but without lights I don't have much choice. It's been months since I've slept in a truck, and then it was always by choice ... this one had two seats with a three foot gap between them ... and it was a used / dirty truck, but I was stuck here, I might as well make the best of it ... between my winter jacket and my travel pillow, I at least have a soft spot for my head and sort of have to sleep in an 'L' shape ... either on my side or back ... lucky the temps are in the 70's ??? ... I leave both windows open a crack ... I have to leave this thing running, if it can't power the lights, it sure won't start again ... diesels are always running all night with the drivers sleeping in them so I don't worry about it ... much. Don't think I really slept at all ... I'd call it more drifting in and out of consciousness. Sometime around three I was staring at the ceiling and noticed the clock flickering on and off ... loosing more power ... by now I start to realize that my idea of driving in the morning has a drawback ... I longer have enough battery power to run the break or turn lights, that could be dangerous if there is much traffic. Finally ! ! at 6:30 it is getting light enough to head out without lights ... I'll just have to be very careful and use had signals ... a quick trip to the restroom and I'll be on my way .. I'm just about back to my truck when I realize it's to quiet ... way to quiet, my truck has died. Why now when I'm ready to leave? Why not hours ago when I was just sitting here anyway? I go to find a pay phone ... they've been removed but the phone books are still there. So I use my cell and call a couple of numbers but get no answers ... next I ask the night security guard ... yes, this far south they either have night security guards or close the restrooms completely at night ... the security guard says he can't recommend anyone, but does give me a couple of business cards ... it's up to me to choose by looking at a business card ... I pick the one who accepts four credit cards instead of only two ... ??? (find out that the other one is a former disgruntled employee of this company, or so I'm told) They say they can have someone there in an hour ... one hour to wait, one hour to charge the batteries, two and a half hours to travel, leave one hour to get to the airport and on the plane ... If nothing else goes wrong ... I spend the next hour staring at the highway looking for a service truck ... it must have been cooler than I thought, I can see my breath ... Yeah ... a truck ! He hooks up the jumper cables and we wait ... and talk ... this guy is a repo man, goes after the big rigs ... said he gets a flat rate to grab a truck and get it to the nearest dealer, if they want him to move it any further he gets $1.00 per mile plus fuel ... I'd like that part of the job, but not the repo part ... Finally an hour has gone by, which is there minimum charge ... might as well make use of it, and it does still leave me enough time ... I hope ... and he does give me one useful bit of info ... I-95 has road constructions most of the rest of the way to Miami, better off paying the $5 and taking the tollway ... never would have thought of that ... He has called two co-workers who have just started, so that he can show them how to do a credit card payment ... this little stop is costing me $130 ... These guys are mobile only, no shop ... which means no building costs, less insurance cost, etc I AM ROLLING AGAIN ... took another 15 minutes to do his paperwork and get the credit OK'ed, wish he'd have started that during the hour wait ... but I'm going ... did see people picking oranges and a truck load that looked too yellow to be oranges ... traffic wasn't bad on the tollway ... and where it runs next to the Interstate, that didn't look too bad either ... The flight I hope to be on, leaves at 12:30 ... at 11:15 I can finally see my drop site ... now to find the person who will accept it ... the first people I see are deep in a personal conversation which I finally interrupt, should have gone in the service entrance instead of the sales door ... find the guy with the right name and get a blank look ... "Don't know anything about it ..." but he sends someone out to inspect and sign for it ... and they want me to park it for them, it all takes time. "Any chance of getting a ride from someone to the airport?" "Not on the weekend ..." But the gal in the office hears us talking and offers to call a cab ... (so I don't get to ask how long it'll be) The airport is right across the freeway, not more than a couple of miles ... tick ... tock ... tick ... tock ... opps, left my cap in the truck again ... tick .... tock. Finally ... OK it may have only been twenty minutes, but I need those minutes. Cab arrives and we are off ... I my second answer to him, I tell him my plane leaves in under an hour ... zoooom ... these guys go fast enough anyhow ... one time I looked he was doing 70 in a 40 mph ... and the entrance to the airport was on the opposite corner of where I was ... six miles away ... cost me $12 and I gave him another $5 for a tip ... and should have gotten out, but instead asked for a receipt ... and he looked here ... and there ... and HELP ... let's go. I rush to the counter ... he did land me at the right door ... this is their only flight today so the area is empty ... everyone else is where they are supposed to be ... on the plane. I ask if they have any tickets left ... "Sorry, we can't sell anymore this close to departure." ... "NOooo!" I said and put my head on the counter (really, I was not trying to be dramatic, it was just a reaction) ... another person behind the counter picked up the phone and started calling ... it took a couple of minutes, but they got me a ticket ... now for the security line ... once they had my bag I wasn't worried about being left behind ... with the new security, if you're bag goes, you go ... if you don't go, the will unload the luggage until they find your bag ... When I get in the security line, I now have 1/2 hour until departure ... when I get to the ID check I have 1/4 hour ... when the person ahead of me is getting checked, I have -0- ... and with me buying a one-way ticket ... and the last minute ... is a double security check ... we do the routine ... the studs in my jeans are setting of their alarms ... Finally ... as they are handing me my ticket I hear "JIM" ... it's the gal from the ticket counter montioning for me to come ... I still have to get my shoes on and my stuff back in my pockets ... "THEY'RE leaving" and she turns around and RUNS down the isle ... and I follow ... haven't seen anyone run like this through an airport since OJ stopped doing Hertz commercials ... We did, we ran from security all the way to the plane gate ... I handed her back my ticket as we ran ... she ripped off what she needed and handed it back ... we slowed as we entered the catwalk ... "Thank you, thank you" ... now to find my seat ... AS EVERYONE STARE'S AT ME ... we are now 15 minutes late ... my seat ... 13F -unlucky and failure ... glad I'm not superstious. I'm sure my seatmate's loved me ... I've made them 15 minutes late ... I'm dirty from sleeping on the floor of the truck ... I haven't showered in two 80 degree days and I've just run a good five minutes and I'm sweating ... They never said a word to me, I said a couple of general comments, but no response that they even heard me ... As we lift off I can see where I dropped my truck ... surrounded by residential, all with cannel access ... didn't think of looking east to see the Atlantic, not sure if I could have seen it ... now to try and sleep, I think I drifted off little, which was more sleep than I got last night. Somewhere over the Midwest as I was watching out the window, I notice how everything, almost, on the ground is at right angles ... in 160 acre sections, or at least from this height it looked that way ... the roads, the rows of trees, the fence lines. Then a while later I notices the same general layout, but now each 40 or 80 acres had an acre or two with trees and a house ... and every so often you could see the remains of an old railroad bed ... some stretches have been farmed through, but enough of the rest is overgrown with trees that you can follow the path. I like to 'guess' where we are at ... and like usual, I'm not even on the right side of town ... finally about 15 miles from the airport I recogize a bridge and am able to get my bearings ... this adventure is over ... |