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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 41 - New GMC - Refer ... to Salt Lake City, UT It has been six weeks since my last 'run' ... it was supposed to be two weeks off for farming, but with breakdowns, bad weather other appointments and a couple of shuttle runs I dragged it out. Did do one interesting run that was supposed to be an easy 12 hours ... turned into a very long 20 ... which cut the pay to just over $6 per hour ... it also cut into other scheduled events. 5/28/04 - 5 AM ... have to get an early start, need to deliver this truck 1400 miles away by noon tomorrow. When I heard this truck was available, I jumped on it ... I am sitting with a Greyhound bus ticket that was purchased in UT and want to it get returned. But dispatch hadn't gotten it OK'ed to move so I did a couple of shuttles yesterday ... finally a little after 4, they get the OK ... which is when they tell me when it has to deliver... Problem is, I've used up Thursday's hours and need to take my 10 hours off ... so 5 AM it is. I did park the truck in my driveway last night so no wasted hours this AM ... a perk of living less than a mile off the Interstate ... I have only 1-1/2 hours to spare ... so everything must go as planned ... I need to 'average' the speed limit ... and only take one fuel stop / break each day ... and the bad news ... I will be delivering on a Saturday, and Greyhound will be closed by the time I get to Salt Lake City ... my reason for taking this run ... ... not much traffic on this run ... major cities include Des Moines, Omaha, Cheyenne ... and won't hit any of those during 'rush' hour. ... not much excite on this run either ... ... so I notice the little things ... like the empty flat bed / tractor who had their tie-down straps just laying on the little platform behind their cab ... A few miles after she passed me I started seeing straps laying on the highway ... half a dozen or so ... but I jumped to conclusions ...then I saw a different, loaded flat bed on the side of the road, and the drivers is grabbing out a handful of straps out of his box ... never driven flat bed, but it looks like once the first strap pops off ... it just allows more wind under the tarp so another one pops ... and another. Noticed a few geese flying in formation ... and its almost June ... in my little carton bubble I see ... one goose in the formation saying to another ... "you know, if this guy in the lead would just stop and ASK directions, we'd have been six weeks ago like the rest of the family." 500 miles to my first fuel stop ... plan on doing 770 today ... which leaves me in Sidney, NE ... Omaha / Flying J ... a very slow pump ... sure seems to take longer than that 15 minutes I show in my log book ;) Second trip in a row where I ran into a ? Lapp ? Transport driver ... driving motor-homes ... this gal hoped out and asked me to guide her into the pump, didn't look like she had been driving long ... about that time I was finally full and needed to move my truck to make way for the line that had formed behind me ... so I didn't get to say anything more than a quick 'HI.' Sidney ... not the cheapest place even in the winter ... now that it's summer the Motel 6 is $45 ... ouch. Need to find somewhere else, I know there is a couple older motels in town but that would add 10 miles to my trip ... and at 4-5 miles to the gallon and close to $2 a gallon ... how far can you drive to save a buck, not far. Even the 1st Inn 30 miles down the road is over $40 ... and it may be hard to explain an 800 mile day ... but there has to be a cheaper spot. I managed to only log my morning inspection and one fuel stop as down time, 15 minutes each ... so at 4:30 PM I'm out of hours. Perkins is the only 'sit down' restaurant at this exit ... my only 'meal' on this trip / a patty melt. This is going to be one long night ... don't know how much I slept, didn't seem like at all ... 5/29/04 - Midnight, 1 AM ... people as still arriving at the motel and taking showers ... and I'm still drifting in and out .. N - o - o - o - o ... I need to get fuel in Cheyenne ... at 3 AM ... I've been to a few Flying-J's who don't have 'certified' propane attendants on from 11-7 ... in fact in the year I've been driving, I've never been able to get fuel before 6 AM. Now I really can't sleep ... if I can't get fuel, I won't make my delivery window ... and it's a holiday weekend and now backup plan ... Ahh ... learned something new last night ... my cell phone has an alarm clock ... wish I'd have known that last year ... there have been a few times when the motel's have not followed thru ... The first thing I do at 1 AM is call the Flying J ... yes, they have someone on duty ... (no ... I can't go back to sleep) ... as I walking out of the motel the clerk tells me there's a storm rolling in ... AND ... one of the drivers was just telling us that he was down for six hours ... waiting for an electric storm to pass ... guess it's even against the law in some states against filling propane tanks in a storm. But I meet the storm before Cheyenne and the skies clear ... and I watch the moon set ... Quick stop at the WY - POE (port of entry), I was a little concerned they'd want to check my log at this hour of the nigh ... but all they want is my DOT #, FICA sticker, bill of lading ... and home state transport plate ... they had no interest in my WY plate saying I should run on my own plate ??? There is someone at the Flying J to fill me ... 102 gallons for less than 500 miles ... doubt I'll make it to SLC on this fill ... not a major problem, I've got the time to fuel ... and now I'm sure there is not enough time to stop at the bus depot to get my refund. More and more women on the road ... followed one female trucker out of a rest area ... and the next one I passes was also a gal ... and neither was the stereo type of your average mother trucker ... Been lucky at the scales this trip, they are either closed, full or I'm instructed to pass ... finally flagged in at one only to get the green light ... same thing at the ID border ... clear sailing ... no delay's. Do see a little snow on the hill tops, fresh snow ... even drop thru some over one of the passes. But basically clear sailing into SLC ... arrive at my drop ... with an hour and a half to spare ... didn't gain or lose any time this trip ... I knew this before I left ... good news, my drop is less than two miles from the edge of the SLC airport ... how ever the entrance is closer to 10 miles, but still is a good shot at getting a free ride ... ... I do ... within 20 minutes of getting to my drop, I'm at the airport ... no line ... and they still have tickets for the next flight out ... and at $235 for airfare, I will still clear over $300 for less than two days work. The first leg of my trip is a short trip from SLC to Phoenix ... then less than a hour layover ... for me. Others are delayed because of weather ... bad news for me is ... once we are backed away from the hub we are told that there will be a delay ... seems that all flights have been cleared to go, so now we have to wait for the rest of the flights ... at one point I can see 20 planes waiting in line ... and they are leaving at the rate of about one a minute. We get news of one more delay ... tonight there is a major storm over KS and NE and we are going to have to fly around it ... thru it was more like it. We zigged and zagged and maneuvered our way between the thunderheads stacked 100's (1,000's?) of feet high ... the clouds seemed to be only a few feet from the wings ... |