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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2- New RV's 171212 - IA to SC - Day 12 Sleep in today. OK, we didn't set the alarm clock but were still up by 6 am and ready to go by 8 am. No work. This AM again they were putting RV's out one at a time. The did put two out to the Carolina's, one North, one South. But by the time we did the mileage to make sure they were not too far out of route they were gone. Checkout time was at 11 AM so we did, and drove to Mason City to walk in a mall. I've heard many times that 25% of the current indoor malls will close within five years. I think this is one of those malls. Yonkers (sister company of Herbergers) is the only anchor left. JC Penny's is closed, movie theater closed and over half of the small stores are closed. News articles list more closings including a Subway that had been there 24 years. Interesting how they laid out the center, right in town. One of the streets has a cul de sac right at a door. You have to walk through a jewelry store to get to a 'mini-mall' of old shops that are in the old city buildings, not in the 'new shopping center.' When we were done walking we went back to our van, but before we left we looked for a place to eat ... back to the mall and a place called The Hungry Mind. It too is for sale but still open. It's like an old coffee shop with very old wooden tables and chairs, and really good food. I had chick salad and BB had turkey on sourdough. As soon as we started walking work put out ten or so orders. We called on one mis-match but one was gone so we passed. Still watching the work board as we drive back to Clear Lake and park at the Perkins. I didn't want to add extra miles if we ended up going home so we waited there. In less than an hour there was more work on the board, two RV's to SC. We called and got them, but now we still had a half hour drive to Forest City before we could get going. Opps. Now BB looks at the weather and sees that there will be a wind advisory tomorrow so we will try to get as far as needed tomorrow. Within an hour we get our unit's inspected and get rolling. We both have 'Mini-Wini's.' Only 24 foot so they will be an easier drive. Our first stop is at Pilot in Forest City for gas and then on to the Sleep Inn in Charles City. We get there before last light. The only food within walking distance in this weather is Kwik Star (Kwik Trip) next door. Rib sandwich and a Naked Juice ... that had peach juice in it, so that went to waste. 500 miles tomorrow puts us IN Indy so we will try to get past, with the last few miles in rush hour traffic. We will drop about 140 miles directly south of where I picked my last truck up at. If they have something I might grab it. If not we will rental car it back home and I'll be driving buses next week. 171213 - IA to SC - Day 13 Rolling before dawn this AM. Going to try to get 500 plus miles and past Indy today so we are driving 65 mph instead of our usual 60. Windy, that is the other concern. We are not to drive when wind gusts are over 30. And they are forcasted more than that today but we will try to stay ahead of the warning area. Where we were last night the warning doesn't kick in until 10 am and we will be long gone by then. First stop is a rest area in Ely, then a restroom stop in Knoxville that turned into a lunch stop. It was only 11, but this will reduce the number of stops if we don't stop again in an hour. Subway at the Love's. Tried to use my perks card for Pilot there, I got us both confused and didn't end up using my Love's which I do have. Two more hours put us in Farmers City. This was the cheapest gas we will see until later tomorrow. And I was down to a quarter. Not sure how much the tail wind is helping us, but at least it is not a headwind. But it is white knuckle driving. Watching out for the trucks that are getting blown around. The plan had been to get south of Indy today, so we split the last drive with a stop in Crawfordsville. We are not going to make it by dark. We have just enough time to make the last 90 miles ... if we drove 70 ... and it wasn't rush hour. So we end up in Brownsburg, 10 miles west of Indy. So we will need to do Indy in the AM rush hour instead. Food was at the Steak and Shake next door. I decided it was best not to get a shake. Ended up with a garlic burger instead. BB had guacamole burger. Saw the breakfast burger after i ordered, maybe next time. Nothing good on the board yet out of the southeast. Now we have to decide how long we want to wait, if we want to wait. Or just head home as soon as we drop if we don't have a trip by then. If we head home at <> noon on Friday, I can work local on Monday. But it pays a lot better if I can get a trip back to the midwest and don't plan on working Monday. Hopefully less wind tomorrow. We will get as far as we get, should not be any issue with getting delivered on Friday. We'd only have to do 200 miles tomorrow and we would still make it. We should get past Knoxville. 171214 - IA to SC - Day 14 (Didn't get this written up on the 14th and now its all a blur.) We didn't make it past Indy yesterday so we get to do it today instead. No problems, traffic wasn't bad at all. Speed limit most of the way. Our first stop was a rest area at Batesville, IN south of Indie. Then a fuel stop after another two hours at Pilot in Georgetown, KY. At first I was only going to put in 15 gallons ... based on my last truck (not this RV :) ) Finally have some discussion I did fill the tank but only to the first kick off. I thought sure we'd be leaving a half a tank of fuel each. Lunch was another two hours down the road at another Pilot at Subway. I had thought we'd only go another hour, but after talking about fuel I forgot to mention it. By now it's 2 pm local. Another two hours gets us past Knoxville to the Danridge rest area. Lots of kids, a bus load. But I just followed another driver into the restroom budding in front of the kids waiting in line. Later talking to BB about it, she mentioned that those in charge likely didn't want more than a couple of kids in at a time to cut down on problems ... so I was OK to bud. Dark is closing in. We aren't going to make it 500 miles today either. Another hour and a half and we are in Asheville, NC. Sleep Inn on a hill. Long walk in the dark down the hill (and up again) with no sidewalk or street lights. We walked to Fatz, we both remember it as being really good ... we just couldn't remember what we ordered that was so good. Tonight I ordered chopped steak ... OK, but nothing special. Fatz won't let the motel put in a stairs for insurance reasons. Sometime during the day today ... lunch maybe? Another NE order showed up out of NC. Just like the one I did last week. Later another one showed up, but BB has had enough driving and didn't want to take it. But our last two trips have been round trips so the pay is good. This time we will be only a couple of hours away. Would have been nice to have been in Lexington tonight but the daylight hours aren't there. 171215 - IA to SC - Day 15 Slept in a little later this AM. Two weeks is a long time for us to be on the road, even if we did have two days 'off' in FL. We are rolling by 7:30 local, 6:30 home time. First stop is a rest area in Konards. Another bus load of kids, but this time they are just lining up to leave. Talked to a guy towing an RV there, then found out he was just the rider. He rides with when the driver's wife doesn't want to go. Another hour and we are in Lexington. First we fuel, then we go and park one RV at Walmart and come back to the rental car lot. The rental car lot has plenty of room, next time we'll just leave one RV here. First I deliver mine. After the usual 'we don't want it' comments, they got me inspected and signed out before BB got there with the rental car. We took the 'short way' back to her RV. 10 mile round trip took most of an hour down city street traffic. Another few minutes to check hers in and we were ready to go. She remembered, I had forgotten to pay the drop for a wash. So he took both our money now. It's afternoon local so we go to McD's and get it to go. The local hour was off duty for me as I had already had my RV signed off. Back north to Spartansburg where we stop for fuel. We picked the car up on 5/16ths of a tank of gas. Don't remember anyone ever doing 16ths before. Usually quarters, sometimes 8ths. We miss guessed on the fuel so BB will put in another half gallon before she drops it. We were here last Friday so we know the routine. This time it is a F750 Ford so this time a 'real' truck. Same style cab and bed, so we know how to stack our stuff. No rain or snow this time. Lots of small pickups so sometime both of us can get rigs out of here. This time the truck is almost flat on E so I'm not likely to make much on the fuel this trip. I don't get a mile down the road and I know this is going to ride like a truck, a cement truck. But it is a paid way home. Fill the tank in Shelby as fuel is only $2.69, about the lowest we will find it. A 65 gallon tank, 55 gallons usable and I put in 55 gallons without topping it off. By now it is 4 pm, three hours later than last week so we only make it to Flatrock again. This time partly because our motel we stayed in last night is $20 more tonight than last night. So for $20 we will shut down early. I drive 55 mph to get there as we are in no rush. I do get the mileage up to 8.5 ... I'm getting paid at about 8 mpg so we will see if it will stay above 8 when I drive 65. Tonight we walk over to Cracker Barrel and they are open. Talked to the clerk and she said they had to close early again Saturday night last week because the evening crew couldn't get in to work. Still snow on the ground in places. It was likely in the 50's earlier here today. I had planned on working for the other driving company on Monday but I won't be back in town yet. And I won't have enough hours to work both Tuesday and Wednesday. I will need to do a re-start/day off. Very quite on the work board. Nothing out of IA, a couple of strays out of MN. As of now the plan is to head out again after Christmas, over New Years and be gone for a week, 10 days and then be home for a safety meeting in mid-Jan. Then maybe take a week off for family tree stuff after that. Last year it didn't get busy again until the 8th of Feb and then there were many days where there were a 100 plus on the board ... after everyone had grabbed work. Last week we got to Mt Vernon the second day. We'll see if it is the same. ... we've been out so long that BB is doing laundry in the sink tonight ... :) |
