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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 46 - New GMC - Refer ... to Horseheads, NY 7/8/04 - 9 AM dispatch ... running with a new driver, our two drops were about 150 miles apart. Mine, the second drop was about 5 miles from the airport where we are supposed to pickup up our car ... sounded like a nice two day run paying about $150 a day ($300 total) after expenses ... Should be no problem, each drop is 1,00 miles ... 15 hours. We can run 11 hours today, putting us in Toledo ... tomorrow we 4 more hours to his drop should get us there early afternoon ... three more hours to my drop, early evening ... pickup up the rental car by 8 PM, should put us home by noon Saturday ... which is what I had dispatch to tell the customers and the car rental place ... (but here is how it went) Today we have seven drivers going to the depot, three in a used refer truck and four in Datsun ... once the truck was gone we soon realized that our luggage wouldn't fit in the car so we had to call the truck back and load our stuff in there ... it's now going on 10 AM Two hours later we are at the depot ... this is when my co-driver brings up the fact he doesn't have enough money to put fuel in his truck ... a few weeks back, the only place in this town who used to accept Comcheck, no longer does ... another delay ... he puts a couple of dollars worth in his tank, and then we have to stop again a half hour down the road ... Another two hours down the road we stop at a rest area ... when running with another driver I try to stop every couple of hours to check in ... I like to stop for a couple of minutes, first this guy needed to smoke a couple ... then get a few minutes of 'shut eye' ... before we moved on ... After almost 300 miles it is time for a pro-pain stop at the Flying J, which always takes a while ... but the other drivers (who has a diesel) said he was only down to half, so he'd wait to fill up in another 150 miles at Gary, IN ... he went in to find something to eat, but when I was done fueling I couldn't find him so I waiting in the truck ... it was an extra half hour before he showed up outside saying he had gotten something to eat (but I hadn't seen him) About the time we hit Chicago, he decides he DOES need fuel ... seems the gauge drops a little faster on the second half of the tank, we had already gone past the last oasis so had to jump off on an exit ... he did find a couple of stations visible from the highway so we jumped off ... not sure how safe an area it was ... didn't notice if the adult stores had bar's in the windows or not ... didn't see any rolled barb wire ... we have now made five stops, where I would have made only two if I had been solo Another quick stop at the Flying J in Gary and we were on the road again ... had hoped to make it to Toledo tonight ... by 10 or 11, but it's already after 9 and we are 4 plus hours out of Toledo One of the coupon books I picked up at the rest area showed a motel in South Bend for $38, by the time we got there most places to eat were closed and we hit the sack ... it was after 11, but we were about three hours out of Toledo. 7/9/04 - Breakfast this AM was a half a cup of OJ ... made another mistake I wouldn't realize for hours ... this motel had a clock ... usually a good thing, today I went by the clock when waking up ... not good, didn't know IN didn't go on daylight savings time ... we got an hour later start than what I thought we were getting ... Fuel stop at Toledo ... had noticed a few spiders running on the ground when I was getting fuel, by the time I was done fueling I had a couple of big welt's ... one on each leg, guess I hadn't noticed all the spiders ... This time the other guy is fueling the same time as I ... no other delays today, but by the time we fuel again ... around 5 PM ... I am beginning to realize that we won't make the first delivery by early afternoon and tell dispatch we may not pickup the rental car tonight ... but don't ask to have them change the reservations to tomorrow (not sure why). Dispatch called back sometime after hours to see if I would be interested in a Las Vegas next week ... sure ... solo, cheap airfare ... The last couple of hours are off Interstate and am sometimes down to 20 MPH ... we did find where some of this is going to be four lane, but that will be a couple of years ... it's 9 PM by the time we finally make our drop ... it takes a while, first drop for the other guy. Did see a motel a mile back ... 'No Vacancy' ... next to it was a steak place ... 'closing in 10 minutes' ... we did ask a patron leaving about other motels, there was a couple south of town ... 'only have one room left, with one bed' ... next door was another motel ... 'Can't you see our NO VACANCY sign' (sorry it wasn't a lighted sign) Not wanting to waste anymore time we head the direction of our next drop and keep our eyes open ... did pass one 'INN' ... it looked like a bar, and I was the one driving, I kept going. We do find a pizza place at a wide spot in the road, they were still open for another 20 minutes but the oven was off, so all we could get was pizza slice or cold sub's. We each got two piece's ... was interesting ... no noticeable cheese or tomato sauce ... but between the four pieces, they were covered by at least one onion, one green pepper plus some red pepper and a few pieces of meat ... guess we should have asked what was on there 'supreme' before ordering it ... it was good ... but ... Knew there was two interstate's between our two drops, so I was hoping we'd find motels at one of them ... when we got back to I-80, I first saw a Holiday Express and a Comfort Inn, hoping for something cheaper I kept going to the far side of the Interstate ... nothing else. Went back to the Holiday Express they offered us a room with a jacuzzi ... for $130 ... "Sorry, that price has one more digit than I can afford" was my response. Next door at the Comfort Inn they had nothing ... they asked us which way we were going on I-80 because 'there is nothing available either way for 100 miles' ... ouch. Last week, the 4th, the other driver had to pay over $50 a night for five nights in a row ... doesn't make this job pay very well ... Back on the road about 15 minutes we find the next motel 'open 24 hours' ... most of the Mom and Pops put out the 'No Vacancy' sign when they want to go to bed ... we got a room for under $50 with two beds ... one twin and one king ... 'sleeps 4' ... sounds interesting ... 7/10/04 - It's now Saturday, we should have been almost home, instead we are a couple of hours from our second drop ... once there we have a 15 hour drive home ... starting to sound like last week, wanted to get in the rental car fresh / first thing in the AM. I was out of hours last night when we dropped the truck, so I had to do some 'creative logging' ... but what are you supposed to do? Out of hours, can't sleep in the truck, no room in the inn? A few miles down the road we get to a small cafe, busy place for 10 AM Saturday ... we both got 'the mess' ... the mix everything together, it was like scrambled eggs with everything scrambled with it ... good food. Small town, one of the gals had her kid hanging out there ... looked about 10, kid wasn't being a problem, just makes you think about what different people have to go through to get by ... As we are pulling into the town the airport is in, the other driver rolls down his window and asks the kids in the car next to us "How do we get the airport?" ... at first the driver starts giving directions and then says ... 'follow me' ... I thought he'd get us close, until we saw a highway sign ... nope ... he took us right into the airport, waved and was on his way ... to whoever you were 'Thanks.' Getting the car wasn't as easy as it could have been ... they couldn't find last nights reservation (if we ever had one) ... then the only car they had needed 'an inspection and registration' ... AND there was the customer on the phone that had no clue ... we must have been there an hour, but we got our car. This trip I had both a map and directions, but I didn't follow my own rule ... ignore the map, follow the directions ... The map was easy to follow, but it took me down a street marked 'No Trucks' ... and soon we were being followed by a cop ... ohhhhhh ... where the industrial park was supposed to be was clearly a residential neighborhood so I kept going to a filling station. We were about 2 miles from where we were supposed to be ... lucky for us the kid did know what we were looking for ... guess what, the directions were accurate ... We had the OK to do a blind drop on both of these trucks, but by chance there was someone at both locations ... even at noon on a Saturday, someone had stopped by for something with their wife and kid ... so anyhow, we were able to get signatures on both ... NOW ... for the trip home. We hadn't gone a couple of hours when the other guy thought it was time to eat ... saw the Interstate service sign for a place called 'Moomwinks' ... out here we thought it would be a little main street cafe ... nope was a bar, lounge, nightclub ... white table cloth, cloth napkins, wine style glasses for water ... I was seeing $$$ ... ended up with a version of a French dip for under $7, and well worth it. Moonwinks - Cuba, NY just off of I-86 at exit #28 (not sure the mile post) But all the stopping takes time and it is now about 4 PM and we haven't gone 200 miles ... we are going to end up driving all night after all ... that was one of the reasons we shut down last night, so we wouldn't have to drive all night ... Because of all the road construction on I-80 / I-94 around Chicago, we / I decided to take I-90 right through downtown ... it was around midnight and we just sailed right through ... almost got slowed down where there is an 'expressway' ... that was down to one lane, stop and go ... but we stayed on the exit / entrance lanes of the freeway and sailed through between 50 and ... 50 and higher. Not sure what was going on last night, but we passed about 200 motorcycles driving in formation when we were heading North / West out on I-90 ... after I had passed them all, I got to a place where there were people on the exit with flare's ... as if they were going to flag them off the highway ... (just checked the Sturgis website, and the big rally isn't until August 2) ... also dropped my change at one of the toll booths, really through me off, I always try to have exact change ... just slow and go ... Last week was a bonus ... this trip I was back to running the night hours again ... it ended up being closer to 20 than 15 hours and I drop well over half ... and after midnight, he only drove about an hour and a half before he was tired again ... somehow I did managed to stay awake, only stopping at one rest area because I needed a stretch. The rest of the trip fly's by fairly well and we finally make it home about 7 AM Sunday (instead of noon Saturday) |