On the Way Home ...
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
 
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Trip 69b - New IH - Class B Refer
... to Pittsburgh, PA

Trip 69c - Used IH - Class B Refer
... from Pittsburgh, PA

Trip 69d - New IH - Garbage Truck
... to Philadelphia, PA

Trip 69e - New Sterling - New Watertruck
... to Portland, OR

1/4/04

After waiting for a while the boss came up with a 'round trip' run to Pittsburgh ... will need to ride up to our depot, take a used truck to the customer where I will then pickup my truck.
This meant I was not going any where at 8 AM ... by 10:30 the shuttle was ready to go ... a two hour ride to the depot ... at -3 my used truck won't start and I wear the battery down, find a set of jumper cables but it still doesn't start. Finally after an hour someone comes by with a can of starting fluid and after a few slow firings, it starts.
Another two hour ride to the customer ... do save 15 minutes by not stopping for fuel, looks like I have enough to make it ... when I pass the last station before the customer it still shows I have 1/4, but it starts to drop rapidly and is laying on E when I pull in, does bounce up a little, don't really like leaving it like that at a regular customer but it should still have enough fuel to get around the yard and they do have a pump in their lot. Finally rolling ... hours later ...
... a little good news, the truck I'm picking up isn't on empty so I can make it to a truck stop about 15 miles away to fuel. All this time getting nowhere has the storm catching up to me ... on the average trip I can get to the WI/IL border by about 4:30 ... on a good day, by 1 or 2 ... today ... 8:30 PM. By now it is raining / snowing and not good weather for using the cruise control.
More expenses, same rate of pay ... the tolls on the IL tollway increased Jan 1 ... I'm ready to give the guy at the first booth a buck and he says $2.85 ??? I pay it ...by the time I get to the last toll booth the price is back down to a buck ??? I'm tired and