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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Trip 71c - Used IH - Class B Refer from Des Moines, IA 1/20/05 - 8 AM ... we are slowly waking up ... I had hoped to be rolling by 6 and home at noon. ... ahh ... the weather channel ... then local TV ... 'No travel is advised north of Des Moines ... No towing is allowed.' ... winds are at 50-60 mph ... reports say a semi was blown off the road at Cedar Rapids ... none of this looks good. My suggestion is let's go ... go as far as we can, then shut down until we can go further. We need to be out of the motel by 11 and the winds are supposed to drop to the 30-40 mph range by noon. But they want to eat first so we walk next door to the Country Kitchen ... while waiting for our food, dispatch finally calls back from last night ... They just want to be kept updated if we have any more problems ... and they tell me that one of our drivers is stuck in MI ... with a truck going to New England ... wow ... what a run, he'll be stuck in this storm for the next 2-3 days. (And if his first truck had been ready on Wednesday when he showed up for work, he would have been ahead of it all ...) Surprise ... this truck back home is old and tired, last night it had only been on icy city streets. On the interstate it made it up to 20, then 30, finally five miles down the road we hit 40 mph. Between the wind, ice and a truck that tops out at 40, this is going to be a long day. I-35 isn't too bad, the white outs are short ... the cars in the ditch are under a dozen in the first 60 miles and only a couple of trucks. A few more on US 20 east to Waterloo, here the right lane is two tire tracks and the left is hard pack ... another dozen cars in the ditch or stalled and another two semi's ... both cattle trucks, within a 1/4 mile of each other ... the first went through the median and across the other lanes, through the ditch, the fence and into the field ... the second stayed in the median. And there was a third but by now the 'no tow' ban must have been lifted because he was being towed out. Heading east on US 20 did have one perk ... with that 50-60 mile an hour tailwind we were now moving at speeds of up to 55 mph. We're here ... and drop a driver off at his Phoenix truck, it starts and were are rolling home. Before I knew this truck was slow I had told people we should be home by 6 PM ... that would give us 9 hours to do a 5 hour run ... we might beat that by an hour. The Phoenix driver must not have been thinking straight ... he gave this driver a $20 for the ride ... he was so surprised he didn't know what to say .... it's never happened before ... so the guy decided to buy himself and me lunch. ... at Denny's ... I had a Philly Steak sandwich and it was good, maybe the best food I've had at a Denny's ... this one is at the truck stop in Clear Lake, IA. Rolling on, we are not quite going to make it home on the fuel he put in in Waterloo so we stop in Owattana and add 5 gallons ... bad move ... 10 miles down the road the trucks starts choking ... I thought it was because of the hill but the other driver knew better and pulled off at the exit. He bought some fuel additive ... and the clerk said they had been selling a lot of that to drivers who had fueled at that truck stop. The truck had idled fine while we were sitting there so he added the stuff and we were on our way ... to the top of the ramp where the truck started choking again. He pulls over and soon the truck dies ... and doesn't start ... for the next 10-15 minutes. Finally it starts, but is puffing out a lot of green shaded smoke, by now the driver has added the rest of the fuel additive ... it is supposed to treat 375 gallons summer or 125 gallons winter ... he adds it all to the 15 gallons we have left in our tank. We do finally make it back to the office ... at exactly 6 PM ... sometimes I can guess lucky ... Not good ... not sure how many inches of snow we got but the plows have buried both of our vehicles ... mine was the last in a row of cars and the snow pile is tight to the top of my car and goes up 6 feet from there ... but somehow I am able to pull straight out. The other drivers vehicle has had the snow plowed around it on three sides ... leaving a three foot bank of hard snow, lucky for him I have a shovel ... we pick the smallest pile and shovel the hardpack ... he is able to back out. I arrive home <> 24 hours later than expected ... still not a bad paying run. The Indy run paid $200 after expenses, the Des Moines paid $150 ... $350 ($375 without the second motel) would have been nice for two days work. Doesn't happen very often ... lately. the original plan was 10 PM - drop in Cinci 9 AM - PU in Cgo 3 PM - drop in Des Moines 8 PM - home New 'plan' looks like 8 AM - drop in Cinci 2 PM - PU in Cgo 6 PM - drop in Des Moines 12 AM - home The reality was 8 AM - drop in Cinci 5 PM - PU in Cgo 11 PM - drop in Des Moines 6 PM - home ... the next day |