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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 37 - New GMC - Refer ... to Walla Walla, WA 3/6/04 - The had been offering me my choice of AZ, TX or TN/GA ... then due to the storm that hit the Midwest on Friday, none of those were ready. Then they (reluctantly) said there was a Richland, WA that was ready ... YES! But by close time the Richland had become a Walla Walla ... seems someone there had crashed their truck this AM. Only 50 miles difference but messes up my plans ... when I was going to Richland, I would have to deliver by 9 PM to catch the Amtrak out of the Tri-Cities ... now I need to catch the noon bus out of Walla Walla to get to the Tri-Cities ... and wait for six hours for the Amtrak. And the Amtrak is a 36 hour ride ... but it's $118 vs the bus 40 hours ... $155 or flying for 4 hours ... $350+ rental car for 40 hours ...<> $380 including 2 days rental, gas, motel, if a car is available Guess two other drivers were out west also, but would be delivering on Monday .... 3/11/04 - Noon is my leave time today, normally I would like to get an earlier start when I have the option, but its Sunday ... we drop off a couple of our grand-kids in the morning ... and it still allows me to get my 11 hours into without effecting my drop time. This weeks trip is pretty much going to be a repeat of my trip to Portland a couple of weeks ago, except the weather should be better. Day one is the same as last trip ... drive four hours non-stop to Fargo ... stop at Flying J and fuel ... drive five hours to Flying J in Beach ND on the MT boarder to fuel ... drive a couple more hours to Miles City ... stay in the same Motel 6 ... eat at the same 4B's restaurant. Well there were a couple of very minor differences, the MT scale at the border wasn't open so I will have to get my permit at the next scale ... and I ate breakfast at the 4B's this time instead of supper ... have to vary things a little. 3/12/04 - Going west ... I don't mind going the same highway ... beautiful country ... snow covered mountains ... Go past another closed scalehouse, but the one in Billings is open today so I get my permit there ... I go in without being told to do so ... there is only one person in the scalehouse and she is already busy. After I'm standing there a few minutes she asks what I need. She calls someone to come over from somewhere to help and he's there in a couple of minutes ... this time I have all the corrected info for him, BL / VIN / DOT # / Plate # and $20 cash. As I'm walking back to my truck the first person from the scalehouse is now inspecting a truck ... checking his turn signals ... she's keeps motioning and saying "Right" ... and I tell her "It's working, just dim" "I know ... there both blinking." ... now I'm wondering ... is it possible for the wires to short so they both blinkers come on? ... or was he using his fore-ways and hoping they wouldn't notice? At the next scale I'm following a very wide / oversized load and someone has come out to watch (him hit the building?) ... and when he see's me he motions for me stop and starts my way, I hold up the copy of my permit before he can take a couple of steps so he then waves me through. Better luck this time at the Boseman / Belgrade Flying J ... last time they couldn't get the pressure to release after filling the tank, no problem today, so now I'm at least an hour ahead of last time ... also shouldn't be any worries about chains, the weather outlook is good. No problem at the ID scalehouse either, I brought in everything and as I was handing him by BL (Bill of Lading), he noticed my MT permit and said "Everything I need is on here ..." Between not being delayed in Belgrade and the extra few minutes the days are longer since my last trip this way, I got to see Coeur D Alene, ID in the daylight ... but by the time I was done filling (at the same) Flying J in Spokane ... it was again dark. I was thinking I could make it all the way to the Tri-Cities in two days ... and somehow I will if I get a run going there ... but it will mean pushing past Miles City the first day ... to a town called Forsyth, where I expect to pay a little more for a motel, and even that wouldn't give me my max of 770 miles per day. Did you know that in the wild west state of TX, the speed limit for trucks is 65? This trip I was only planning on getting to Connell, which is part-way between Spokane and the Tri-cities ... I lived there for three harvest seasons back in '77, '78 and '80. Somehow I ended up getting in later than I expected and could only call people tonight, but made plans to see a couple of family's for a few minutes tomorrow before I have to hit the road. Boy, this town is sure not the same bustling town as it is during harvest ... everything is closed by 9 PM ... restaurants ... even the grocery store ... so I ended up eating another one of my cereal bars for supper ... Sometime during the day the boss had called to see if I wanted to pickup a garbage truck in Portland and take it to Denver ... sounded great to me ... wasn't real thrilled about spending 36 hours on the train, and I should have no problem finding a cheap flight out of Denver ... but by the time dispatch closed they still had not gotten the needed paperwork, but they should be able to fax it to the motel by morning. 3/13/04 - My motel of choice cost $39 ... there was one across the street which I'm guessing would have been less ... and I'm also guessing there is a good reason they had almost ... no customers. This is the first motel I have been in since I've started driveaway that still puts the paper 'seal' on the toilet ... it's also the only one that had complimentary pop-corn laying on top of the in room mirowave ... and it also had an alarm clock with two inch numbers ... M & M Motel Right next door was breakfast ...Michael Jay's .... another place that was really s-l-o-w this time of year ... by the time I left there was only me and one other customer ... by the time I walked the block to my local bank and back, he was walking to his truck ... here we were 1,500 miles from home ... and the only two customers in this small town restaurant are from towns less than 50 miles apart in the Midwest ... it's a small world. When I had paid for breakfast I had commented on how slow it was, and we talked for a minute and I told her I had lived and worked out here 25 years ago ... "For who?" ... so I said the boss's first name ... she knew them, guess they still frequent this restruant. I hadn't talked to either of the people I stopped to seen in 10 years, so I didn't want to impose, but I did want to see them ... and I didn't have a lot of time to spare ... Had less than an hour and a half to spend between the two places and I was on my way to my drop ... this is one of the perks of this job ... being able to see old friends, if even only for a few minutes. ... I'm heading down the highway thinking about all the good times and all the things that have changed in 25+ years ... and I get a phone call ... "Family emergency" ... my adrenaline kicks in to 'high' mode, where it will be for the next 36 hours ... I call dispatch to cancel the Portland / Denver run, more calls and find out that flying out of here tonight will cost me this weeks pay ... my cell battery is dead within the hour ... and yes, this is one of the reasons I have this job, it will be here when / if I come back, many jobs wouldn't. |