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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 - Used Straight truck 20180113 - FL-NC Not a long day planned but we do need to get the rental car returned before they close at 4 pm today. We get going after 7:30. Only one stop on the way down to Vera Beach at the Palm Bay rest area about 20 miles before my pickup. Got to the pickup a little after 10 am, I had told them that it would be before 3 pm. But that was before the other truck broke down. Found the truck right away sitting in the far corner of the lot. It took a little longer to find the person who was going to help me. Helpful guy, he came out to check the truck out and sign the paperwork ... and take the plate. Sounds like Lowe's is not using their own drivers now in FL. Article online said something like ... 'Lowes is laying off drivers where the drivers are too busy' ... and using a delivery service ??? Anyhow, I get to move a truck. 26,000# with air brakes. One pound more and it would be CDL pay. Only a quarter of a tank of fuel and the cab was not cleaned, more than just a little messy. I was able to get a hold of dispatch to let them know I picked this one up and didn't call the customer about the broken one ... I guess that isn't my job, someone else should have taken care of it. I see fuel for $2.79 but I want to get a ways down the road before fueling. It seemed like there were plenty of truck stops ... until you want one. I'd gone most of 20 miles after the low fuel light came on before I found a Pilot, for $3.21. But it beats walking. Small place, can't pull ahead until you are ready to leave. Thought about getting something to eat but forgot when I was in the building. Back on the road I realize it is going to be closer to 4 pm before we stop to eat. So I start drinking some juice and eating a few Oreo's. No one is going to notice in this truck. Set the cruise at 65 and I'm good. Even turned the heat on a little today when it was cloudy. 59 degrees then, 70's in the sun but we are heading north, for now. I get to Jacksonville to pickup BB at 3:15, they close at 4 so we didn't have a lot of time to spare. I need to take a legal break but I want to get past Jacksonville. I still have time and on the north end of town there is a Loves. I get Chesters and BB has Subway. Lunch at 4 pm local. After looking at GasBuddy I fuel at Loves also. Another hour down the road and we stop in Brunswick at the Sleep Inn for the night. Not really hungry but we walk over to ChinaTown restaurant to eat again. I don't think I have ever eaten all the food they give me at an Asian place. Food was good, neither of us finished what we ordered and no reason to take it with us. We have less than 400 miles to go tomorrow so a short day. Not sure what happens after we deliver the second truck Monday. There is one going back to FL, which sounds like a good idea, there just isn't much money in just moving one truck. And Monday is a holiday, I don't think any manufacturing has the day off but I don't know. If we work, it cuts down on our chances of grabbing the next 'great' run. But working every day is what pays the bills. Had our daughter check the house today, all is good so we may stay out until we run out of drugs ... about another two weeks. We also have to pickup our mail by then or they start sending it back to who sent it. 99% junk but ... 20180114 - FL-NC Usual breakfast, except the yogurt was warm. Room temp, so I didn't eat it. No idea where it had been kept. No issues getting going. No frost in GA, but not too much further up the road there was frost on the roofs and in the ditches. Lots of rivers this close to the ocean. Saw a place yesterday where someone's dock was in much need of repair. It was down to one board between uprights and then nothing between the uprights. Not too much further up the road, the old road must have been replaced with new bridges for the freeway. They left one bridge for local traffic and just a couple of piers of the other bridge ... for billboards. First rest break was at Waltersburo at a rest area. Next was fuel at a Petro and then lunch at the Iron Skillet buffet. That leaves a little over two hours to our motel at Cory. Best Western is the cheapest place in the area, and for a suit. We are in early enough to do laundry. We've been on the road for over two weeks now. The closest food is the Waffle House in the adjacent lot. Cook Out is across the busy highway. Deli is closed Sundays. Busy day at the Waffle House, the last one we were at we were the only two people the whole time we were there. Tonight there was only one table empty after we sat. No big plans for tomorrow yet. Drop the first one, drop the second one. By then it should be after 2 pm. By then most new trips should be on the board and we'll know if we need a local rental and sit the night or we'll have our next trip..  1 - Used Straight truck 20180115 - NC-SC Toilet not working this AM, worked last night. Might have froze, it was down below 20 this AM and the motel is up on posts over an open garage. So we used a garbage can and filled it in the tub. Other than that a great room for twice the price. I had parked on the north side of the building where no one else had parked, even when we came back after dark there was still no one there ... until this AM. A dozen Holland trucks are parked around me, with that many more coming ... I talked to one of the drivers. Some truck companies let the road drivers take their tractor to the motel to sleep for the day before they head back home the next night. ... did notice a puddle of liquid under my truck this AM. Not sure if it was mine or if it was from before I got here. Was also concerned because it was down to below 20, not 20 below, and I had not put any anti-gel in. But no issues. Five miles to the Lowes. Didn't take long to find the guy I needed to talk to or to get signed off. He just walked once around the truck. The thing that took the longest was trying to put my plate over their plate with self locking nuts. Pain. I should have just replaced their plate for the trip. Truck drops to empty as soon as a turn the first corner. A few miles down the road we stop at A Citco with one diesel pump at the side of the parking lot. Price wasn't bad, but saw fuel cheaper down the road. As with most foreign trucks, they are pretty gutless on the hills. This one was tacing 2,000 rpm's at 40 mph. But I wasn't going to go that slow. BB was reading on line to find out if something was wrong. Did find out how to work the cruise. This one locks out if you have something engaged (that isn't even an option on US trucks.) Stopped at Concord at a Golden Correl. Very good food for a buffet, got my fill. Somewhere along the road today I blew my horn at someone. Not out of rage, but because I had moved left one lane to go past an officer on the side of the road (it's the law in many states.) And someone pasted me on the right, just as the officer was walking to his car. I blew the horn, both to get the drivers and the officers attention. Our car rental place was only a half mile from this Lowes, but there was not a sidewalk so I dropped BB off. As almost always, I put the truck in park as she was getting out. When I put it back in gear I got it in manual, first gear. Luckily there was a center turn lane when I turned left because I couldn't find the gears right away. The other night I forgot to put it in park when I picked her up from the rental place on the side of the road. Because it wasn't in park the horn went off when she opened the door. Gets people's attention. I had not called ahead to this Lowes location so it took a while to find the correct person. Even then they thought they were signing for a truck coming back from the shop, not a new (to them) truck. It seemed like a long time, but we were in and out in 15 minutes. Just as we were getting in the car to leave Lowes, BB looks at the board and there is ONE pickup from Shelby going to FL. We grab it. We aren't going to make a lot of money but we will keep warm :) I hadn't even called on the truck from over the weekend because we wouldn't make any money and now we just grab one and go. This is the only thing new on the board for this area all day. There can be up to a half dozen on a good day. Our pickup is less than an hour from where we are now, and we come right past here when we head to FL so we'll just have this one - one day rental car on this end. At this point we don't have a plan to get out of FL. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and ate at the Shelby Family Restaurant. Place was almost empty but the food was good. The motel is right next to a 'mall.' Motels and restaurant still surround it. Looks pretty empty. Belks is the lone anchor, JCP and Sears are gone. A sporting store has taken over Sears within a few months. Looks like Marshalls, a Dollar Store and others took over JCP. It still has a movie theater ... and a Chik-fil-A inside. So it must still have some draw. They front desk clerk filled me in on some of the details.  |
