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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2- New RV's 20180106 - IA-NC Got going early this AM, just getting light out. Woke up early and we would like to get the rental car returned today if possible. Short stops today, just north of Kearney at a rest stop. Chick-fil-A in Ankeny. Fueled at Eagleville. Picked up the car in Forest City. BB fueled the rental in Lakeville. Dropped the rental at MSP. Made it back to Albert Lea to the Comfort Inn for the night, at again next door at the Iron Skillet. Friday we had the mileage up to 44.5, this AM it dropped down to 35.8 but came back up a little later in the day. Guess this CA car doesn't like the MN weather. Fuel was supposed to be $2.19 a few places, but wasn't so we kept driving toward IA. Last fuel stop in MO fuel was $2.12 cash. So I filled it until it was right at the cap :) Fuel at the first station in IA was $2.47, one place in Des Moines it is $2.97. I got to MSP before Bridget so I drove into Fort Snelling cemetery, but didn't have a list. Need to have one so I can take pictures while I wait. BB got to the airport, small terminal and no one was around. Just rows of cars running, sort of like 'Left Behind.' :) Finally found someone at the front desk to get a receipt from. Half way to Albert Lea we finally decided we would spend the night in Albert Lea. Forest City would be cheaper but another hour down the road. The first room we had, everything was still up and off the carpet, they had likely cleaned and never put the room back together. Chairs on the bed, phone on the bed, bedstand on the chair. Food was another meal at the Iron Skillet next door. All you can eat, always more than enough. Work got rid of 20 off the board today but that still leaves over 90 for six days in a row. Last year it was just in double digits for January and into the first week of February. Our safety meeting has been delayed so now we have no reason to come back :) We plan on staying in NC for a couple of days to try and get a second leg ... maybe to the west coast, CA. 20180107 - IA-NC We got going earlier than the original plan as it was warmer than we expected when we got up. After breakfast we stopped at WalMart and walked out with bags full instead of the one item we walked in for. Stopped in Forest City to fuel as to leave are car on full. Less chance of not starting? Neither of us can remember how old the battery is in the car. We put a new one in the van last year after it didn't start one morning in Forest City. Luckily the office was open and the have a jumper pack. Not nearly as cold as last trip when it was 10 and wind out of the north. Today it was 19 when we pulled in and wind from the south. Also today we pulled up our RV's so other RV's were blocking the wind instead of being out in the open. We are in and out in just over an hour. Both of us have enough fuel to get to Clear Lake. BB can't get her plate on so we cable tie it instead of using the screws. On her's the screws just screw into the plastic and are often stripped out. Mine wouldn't start with just the main batteries so I had to use the coach batteries and it started right off. Fuel at the Flying J in Clear Lake, half hour down the road to Floyd to the Wagon Wheel for food. Always been good food ... and cheap. Hope the new Love's across the street doesn't put them out of business. Our next usual stop is in Ely just south of Cedar Rapids at the rest area. We had looked at staying in Cedar Rapids just in case ... Clarion is / was our stop but it was no longer listed so we searched for it and found that because they had not been paying their employees that the Choice chain of motels had dropped them. Too bad, it was a very nice place and cheap, always very well kept up. Not sure if it's a temp thing or if they are gone for good. Name was still on the building when we went by today. Not even an hour and a half to Moline where the weather advisory is but we hit rain before that. We had the daylight hours to go another hour to Gailsburg but we held up in Moline. As we are going up the off ramp, someone else is coming down the cloverleaf and spins out. Parking lot at the motel was glare ice. Checked into the Quality Inn and then drove about two blocks to Montana Jacks. This is the first time we have driven but we didn't want to walk on that far on this ice. Just walking from the parking lot into the motel was a slow process. Not too crowded. I like their potato salad on their salad bar, but when I asked the waitress if I could sub fries for the potato salad I completely lost her. I tried to explain myself a couple of times and then just said I would have the salad bar as my order. Whew ... BB ordered ribs and chicken which was way more than enough for both of us so I had some of hers besides the salad bar. Food was good but the meet seemed like maybe it had sat a few minutes on the counter after it came off the grill. Not cold, but not hot as it should have been. I even taped over the lock on my only door so I could get in tomorrow morning. 20180108 - IA-NC I had planned on calling on a few runs this AM just so I would know what they were. The ones from NC to Walla Walla were gone before the office opened. I'm guessing they forgot to remove them last week when someone took them. I did get threw to another dispatcher, one of the trucks in Cedar Rapids, IA was a tanker going to FL. There had also been an RV going to FL that we could have matched up with it if we had needed work. The other dispatcher didn't answer until later. Still icy when we left this AM at 7:30. Lots of sanding trucks out, lots of cars and a semi in the ditch. Nothing recent. First stop is a half hour down the road at Pilot for fuel. I don't need any yet but it is as cheap here as we will find it so I topped off. I'm only getting 7.1 mpg. Don't think I will make a lot on this trip. While were at Pilot saw a guy walking across the field with shorts and a T-shirt on heading for the Pilot. When he got there, he stood outside until he finished his cigarette. It was a little over 10 degrees then. It looked like he had likely slept in his van parked in the field, it looked like it was a 'lived in' van. I got flagged into a scale right before our two hour break so BB got ahead of me. I just had to cross and then back to the freeway. This RV is 22,000# so have to cross most scales. Caught up to BB just as we were pulling off. So far we have been running at 60 mph. Still lots of cars in the ditch and sanding trucks out so that's another reason not to push it. And now that we only made Moline last night we won't delivery either RV until Wednesday. Food was going to be at Crawfordsville at Wings Etc, but when we got there, there was a note on the door saying pipe had burst and they were closed for the day. So back on the highway to the next exit and Subway at the Pilot. From Pilot we have started taking the two lane highway shortcut to Indy. The two lane was fine, but a couple of places today trucks came over on BB as if they didn't know she was there ... Next break was New Paris OH at the welcome center. We had talked about getting to Chillicothe yet tonight but I was doing the math and that would be long after dark and we didn't need to get that far to still make Wednesday delivery. We ended up stopping at Englewood just before Dayton. We stay at a Comfort Inn there, and right across the freeway is a Clarion with a huge parking lot if there isn't room for us at the Comfort. There's room, first I park in the main lot but before I get out of the RV the mailman moves so I move to a 'trucker' spot. I'm a little close to the tree but it should only be the small branches that I make contact with. Food is next door at the Waffle House, we are the only customers the whole time we are there. And we are there at 5 pm not some off hour. Still having to use the coach battery to start the RV, if it's still an issue I will have to call dispatch before delivery. We still have about 400 miles to go, the same as we did today. I will have to put in another 30-40 gallons of gas before delivery so no huge savings on fuel this trip. Did get ahold of the other dispatcher about trucks in Indiana, they are CBC ... cab and chassis, Autocar. The worst ride I have ever had, so I told the guy 'No Thanks.' There had been more units out of NC but they are going as fast as they are being put out there. There had been one to CA from NC, I ran the math and we would make about $15 a day, BUT it would keep us out of the cold. Sometime after the close of business it was gone from the board. There are some short runs in South Carolina I will call on. If the pay is good we might do those until something else shows up. 40 load disappeared out of FL today, but before the day was over they added another 30 so still lots of work. But we need this to be a two way trip to make much money. We won't go broke if we had back empty but pay would be better. 20180109 - IA-NC We making progress :) 400 miles a day for two days in a row. Instead of 500 or the 600+ that I used to do. I slipped a little walking out the door of the motel this AM, didn't land on the ground this time. First stop was a few miles away in Dayton for fuel. GasBuddy says it was the cheapest ... last night. This AM it was the same price as the Shell and more than a few other stations. Could have saved a couple of dollars ... or spent a whole lot more. Wide range of prices. Seemed to have a lot of people driving in my lane today. Wide awake so no issues. Did see one semi take a U-turn on the freeway, but I couldn't even take a picture of him because I would have had to use a prohibited 'electronic device' to do it. Finally drove out of the snow south of Dayton. There is still snow on the ground but not enough to have piles from plowing in the ditches. Food was at the Quizno's at the Beckley Rest Area. Then BB had to fuel at Love's in Fancy Gap, I put in two gallons also. Not sure how much fuel has to be in the tank to run. It's an 80 gallon tank, and I'm not sure it'll run up and down these hills with less than five gallons in it. I'm guessing I'll be leaving about 10 gallons in it. We ended up staying in Mt Airy at a Comfort Inn. In the past we've stayed at the Quality Inn but they have a lot of trees and the Quality Inn in Rural Hall doesn't get great reviews. We've stayed there before but this looked nicer. We walked across the street to Chilo Rojo a Mexican place. I thought it was OK, but BB said if there was anyplace, including Hardee's, within walking distance, she'd go there next time. We have about 25 miles to her drop and then another 40 to mine. Hopefully done by noon. Nothing on the board we want to jump on. A bunch of local stuff we could do but we have to weight that against watching the board and taking something we really want. Units sometimes only last a few minutes before someone grabs them. They did put out four to NY and two to IN. Only one IN left and that run is only about 600 miles ... maybe if it is still there on Thursday. They are still adding RV's in IA. There is about 30 new ones from today that didn't get taken plus another 50 that are older so still lots of work. 20180110 - IA-NC Didn't get going quite as early as we had planned but we are not on a tight schedule today. We got going about 7:45. We were about 20 miles from BB's drop and she had to stop first to put in 'final fuel.' Not much room in this dealers lot but I was able to get it backed around. It took about a half hour to get the inspection and the paperwork done and we were off to the next stop. Winston-Salem airport. Small airport, I can pull up to the front door with a full sized RV. Half the cars in the lot are either Avis or Hertz rentals, plus a few Budget trucks in the overflow lot. Only a handful of other employee cars. I dropped her at the door and was on my way. Another 40 miles and I was at the Shell / TA in Mocksville. Fuel pump wasn't working, someone was close by replacing receipt paper so I got help right away. After waiting to re-set the computer a couple of times, they bagged the one I was on and I stretched the hose from the other side. Fuel station is only about a mile from my drop, watched another RV pull out ahead of me ... but I managed to get ahead of him. The RV dealer lot was full, full as we could not fit in. So we had to back up about a block before we could turn around that allowed me to get in line ahead of him. He also had to move his tow car before he could back up. No issues with the inspection. Checker in person couldn't find the TV remotes so they went and found the rep who happened to be there today. A window frame had fallen off in the bedroom in route. Not my issue. I fueled and dropped in just over an hour. Back to the TA for lunch at the Country Pride, soup and salad. We are in no hurry, we not sit and wait and hit re-fresh on our devises. After an hour we went to a park and walked for about a half hour. That is what my life has become ... just a walk in the park :) Still no work so back to the TA to use the restroom and sit in the parking lot. Another driver stopped to fax his paperwork from there, we saw his paperwork, plate, etc but didn't talk to him. Finally NC started loading trucks but nothing long. Finally I called on a pickup to Charlotte. And on trucks coming back to Concord just south of here. The concord trucks are all dump trucks, pay was OK if we were just planning on staying but we only want to stay until we find a long run. And now cold weather is coming south again so we are watching that also. When I questioned dispatch about the Concord trucks he said the computer is always wrong. Finally at 4:30 at straight truck from Raleigh to Charlotte shows up. That's the one I want but I ask about a Greensboro to FL first even though it is listed as a tractor. It wasn't a tractor, it was a cargo van so we grabbed it. Then within a few minutes there is an RV in FL going back to Iowa. We would have driven to IA to get that one but we were already committed. The RV is gone within the hour. I call the pickup customer and the van will not be ready until afternoon Thursday. The trip is almost 800 miles so it is unlikely that we will get to the drop before close of biz on Friday. If they can't take the van on Saturday we will have to wait it out. That will be hard ... mid 70's (vs MN weather.) So far there is a truck in Daytona Beach going back to WI. It is listed as a tractor but I will call tomorrow once I am in the van and have set up a delivery time. Lots of work, IA ended the day with over 90 un-spoken for RV's. Indiana is back up to 16 RV's, NC ended with 6, it had been up to 10 and that is just the new 'tree trucks.' We end up at a Comfort Suites we have stayed at before, the reviews are not good since a new manager took over but our other two choices of Choice hotels are a Sleep in with really bad reviews and a Quality Inn that gets really good reviews, but all by people who have only done one review ... by the employee's maybe? So back to the Comfort Inn. We had planned on going to Carline's Diner but on our way out of the motel we looked at the motel 'Happy Hour' and ended up eating chicken sticks, mashed potatoes and chips plus drinks for free. We are only a couple of miles from where we will pickup in the AM. Usually I do the math before we take a run, I did not on the FL one. Looks like we will loose money even if we deliver on Saturday. BUT we are listening to the weather channel and south is the way to go ... almost to Miami, about two blocks from the beach :) |
