 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
Trip 49b - GMC - Refer ... to Dallas, TX 7/28/04 - … needing to work, I agree with the dispatcher to take the San Diego / San Diego to Seattle run … 3,200 miles, still have to fly out of Seattle but will have a few more $$$ to do it. … but … it's the boss that comes to pick me up from the IH dealer ... and I soon realize why … he wants me to do the Dallas four part run … ok, ok … I agree to do it … try to stay away from the ones with this many lets, but … Oh, and by taking the Dallas I have to sit for a few hours (hopefully I get out of town before I would have with my original truck) … another driver is bringing my truck from the manufacture to the office 'sometime before two.' After a year, I finally went to the same customer twice last week, and now again this week … another reason not to have taken this trip. There is still little variations … multi-leg, running solo or with others … Not much unique … have seen every mile of this highway before, most of it many times. But my focus is on the bigger picture, making sure that all these legs fall into place … (new) Problem one … there is only three buses a day from Dallas to Corsicanna and my math says I'll miss all three Thursday and I'll have to catch the 6 AM bus the following morning. Problem two … even if I can catch an earlier bus the customer closes at 3 PM … ouch … I would have had to left at 10 AM, not 2 PM, to do run my full 11 / 14 hours each day. I manage to only stop once today for fuel … at the Flying J in Des Moines … and make it as far as Emporia, KS … which is short of both my max miles and max hours. But I do run too many hours and the only thing that is open is … don't know … Burger King is even closed, so I settle for a juice and an apple pie from the C-store. 7/29/04 I'd asked for a 6:30 wakeup call, but get up a little after 6 … am going to try to catch the 4 PM bus out of Dallas. Knowing that my toll tickets are time stamped helps keep me 'mostly legal' … I do my morning inspection at the Flying J while I fuel. Was going to do my paper work in the truck as it was fueled but was told to get out of the vehicle … what was I thinking … I know the rules by now … Guess Dallas had some rain last night … 12 inches or so, but any problems should be cleared by the time I get there around noon …Some trips I'll go the whole trip without the radio … but with politics in full gear its … talk, talk, talk … talk radio … does keep it interesting, not all stations carry every program 'live' … sometimes I'll be listening to a station for a while and then things start to sound familiar and there's a good reason, with the miles, I have jumped stations and this one is on an hour (or two) delayed broadcast … but just about everywhere you can pickup up the major hosts … sometimes three or four at a time. AM radio … political talk, sports talk, religious talk … and a few oldies and some foreign language stations. I should be able to make it to Dallas on this tank of fuel … but the last couple of runs the guys haven't been filling them with propane as full as they used to, not sure if I'd get the full 500 miles … so I make one more stop at OKC to get some 'insurance fuel.' I don't run into any problems and pull into our customer just after 2 … gives me two hour to get the 10 miles to the bus depot. This time when I call for a cab and the say it'll be twenty minutes, it really is twenty minutes … but the driver is not your typical speedy driver … glad I had a lot of time. I get to the depot with 45 minutes to spare … takes 15 minutes in line and then they start filling the bus almost right away and at 4:01 the bus is rolling … a short one hour trip for $10 … the bus stop in Corsicanna is a Texico station … right in front of the Colonial Inn where I'll spend the night. This one has seen it's better days … the wood is cracking, metal is rusting, the walls are water stained, looks like it used to be an Econo Lodge, if you look closely, you can see little signs here and there. But, the Best Western isn't open yet and the other motel is across the Interstate. I was hoping for a good sit down meal tonight, instead my options are all fast food … Jack in the Box is the only one on my side of the freeway and one I've never eaten at … the chicken sandwich I ate was good, but how do these places stay in business? It's 5 PM … the restaurant is right off the instate … (I'm a very slow eater) … the whole time I am eating there were only three cars that pulled into the place … and two of those only used the restroom, never bought any food before leaving. Unless something falls through … my trip will be as follows 1) drive refer to Dallas 2) BUS from Dallas to Corsicanna 3) Drive box truck from Corsicanna to Denton 4) Drive 2nd box truck from Denton to Fort Worth 5) CAB from Fort Worth back to Dallas 6) Drive van from Dallas to Memphis 7) BUS from Memphis to Nashville 8) Drive from Nashville to DC 9) ??? Leg 3 - Trip 49c - Chevy - Box Truck ... to Denton, TX |