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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 - New Bus 20180613 - CA-MO 14 hour day, now heading to KS with a bus At this hotel the breakfast is at the attached restaurant so we could eat as soon as it opened. It opened at 5 AM, we were down there at 5:30. We've eaten here a few times ... just last night :) , but also for breakfast. We've always gotten the free breakfast but you can put the credit for something else. One of the free ones is eggs and meat. The meat can be bacon, 4 thick strips. Juice is not watered down. More than enough ... bacon is really good. Got going by 6:15 local, first stop is two hours later at the Flying J in Fernly. We both ended up at the same place this time. Not sure how we got separated before, but once one ended up at the Pilot and the other at Flying J. This place does have some auto parking, we have parked with the big rigs in the past. Quick stop, in and out. We past the hot springs earlier, smelled like onions today ??? Lots of tag on the mountains, up, down. Also a stretch of road construction where it was just one lane. You have to follow the slowest truck. It was backed up right out of the produce inspection station. Over all made good time, no long slow downs in either Reno or the mountains. Next stop was supposed to be the rest area at Gold Run, but it was closed. Right where the closed sign was there was an exit with a small gas station but BB was in the passing lane so I didn't want to cut off and leave her out there. Did pull off at next exit but she said she was good for another hour, all the way to the wash. No major slow downs in Sacramento either, got to the wash just before noon. Only one wash bay open so it took us 2-1/2 hours there. Just waiting, haven't eaten yet, and it's hot. We switched off which RV we sat it so we didn't have them idling for more than a half hour at a time. The person who checks us in said don't come the 19th thru 22nd (?) The NASCAR trucks will be pulling in and that is all they have time to wash most of those days. Good to know, but we won't be back that soon. Once we are done we have to wait for the fuel pumps, then wait inside to get our receipt. Some guy ahead of me looked like he was getting about $700 in $5 bills. Finally we are done, two miles down the road and we are at the drop a little after 2 pm, and the drop closes at 3. Not a lot of time to spare. This is a locked area so I have to walk into the office to let them know we are here, before I get back they are waiting for us. Too hot to wait outside so we waited in the front area. Called the bus dispatcher. This time he wasn't happy that I hadn't told him I was coming. Usually it is "call me back when you are here." This time he is so buried with buses he's been stressing out and would have liked to have known I was on my way. His first offer was a bus to CO, it's been sitting since yesterday. I said no on that one as it would be two days driving and then two days waiting over the weekend to deliver on Monday. He called me back in a couple of minutes and had a CNG bus to Kansas City. Rental car place picked us up within about 20 minutes of when we called them. Gave us the same car they picked us up in. Didn't look close enough, they gave us a smaller car (again) than what we paid for. This one has no cruise, but by the looks of traffic right now we won't get a chance to use. Traffic wasn't really all that bad. First we stopped at Carl Jr/Hardees. Our first food since breakfast and it is now almost 4 PM. As we were waiting for our food we saw a typical homeless man pushing his cart through the parking lot. Baggy, India style pants, full head and face of unwashed hair. Full cart of plastic bags. Got to Livermore while the dispatcher was still doing paperwork. The two questions I had for him today was which route and where is our last fuel stop. I try not to ask too many questions ... My route is even longer than I thought. The shortest route is get on I-80 and go through Reno to Lincoln and then south. But there is no CNG across NV so that route is out, I thought we'd go through Las Vegas and Denver, but instead they have us getting down on I-40 all the way across to Oklahoma City. Not the shortest but their choice and we get paid by the mile. IF we hadn't had to wait so long at the wash we could have been here earlier, paperwork was likely done about 45 minutes ago. But as is we only got to Santa Nella and our 14 hours were up. We stayed at a Quality Inn. Very tight corners around the building, no large unit parking. Luckily everyone was parked properly and I was able to get around, didn't have to back out. It was after dark on the West Coast when we finally walked across the street to Taco Del. It was the closest food. Andersons split pea soup would have been good if it had not been so late. But earlier than last night, it's only 11 PM central when we go to bed. 20180614 - CA-MO Back to the usual hotel breakfasts. Birds were loud this AM, sun is shining. First stop is a rest area in Avelon an hour and a half down the road. Second stop is Tehochapi, CA at the Flying J/T J Fresh. The 2nd leg was 2-1/2 hours but that is where the next truckstop was. Lots of jockeying for position going up and down the hills. Lunch is meatloaf. Last time I got a meal, this time BB and I split the meal and it was still plenty. Another hour and a half and we are at Barstow to fuel. It looks like they might have CA-58 done so that it is four lanes all the way from Bakersfield to Barstow by next year. Doing the railroad overpass now, the road bed is already graded. At Barstow, out of four CNG hoses, only one is still working. So we had to wait about a half hour before the other person was done. Then it only took us about 15 minutes, but no receipt again. So I took a picture. Another 2-1/2 hours and we were to Needles, CA. Plan was to stop at the Jack-in-the-Box to eat. The whole lot was gated off, not sure if it is out of business or they are just rebuilding. No signs either way. So we ate at the McDonalds instead. It was 113 degrees a few minutes before we stopped. Should have parked a little closer to the door with at that temp. Go go go. 20 miles down the road and we have to stop at the AZ Port of Entry for our permit. Topack is the city on the permit. Not a crowd this time so I asked the person about getting permits online. Yes, they can be gotten online since April 1. So the permit person who wished people would stop spreading rumors was wrong. It can be done, they just aren't doing them yet. Also this person today said it may be mandatory to have them before you cross into the state, but they didn't have a date for that yet. So now I get to talk to someone again out this. Most of an hour and we are at the Quality Inn in Kingman. First he puts us on one end of the building but when he finds out we are walking/can't park in front of our door, he moves us to one of the three rooms in the main building. Someone slept there so the room is named after them. They were in a movie back in the 50's. It took almost/over an hour to get my permit printed. The guest computer doesn't print anymore, I miss typed in their email, but it didn't bounce back right away and they couldn't figure out how to print it from a memory stick. BB was sleeping by the time I got back to the room. There had been a truck from Kansas City to Blaine, MN on the board for about a day. Someone grabbed it today, I couldn't have grabbed it until tomorrow. Not sure if I mentioned before, the tires on this bus are rated at 55 mph. But the bus is not governed at 55. So have to watch it close. Driving slower will add about three hours to this trip, so that means 5 hours Monday instead of 2 hours. Actually because of the spacing of motels it would have been less than 2 hours on Monday. 20180615 - CA-MO Out of the motel before 9 AM today. Breakfast was still buffet style but it seemed to be real eggs and fried sausage. Short day today ... 100 miles/two hours to Williams and our first CNG fuel of the day at Loves. The rest of the fuels stops will also be at Loves. At least that means someone is around, IF they can do anything about pump problems is another question. 2nd stop is at McDonalds (again) at Holbrook. Not much choice for fast food in this town. 3rd stop is at the Flying J in Jamestown, NM to use the restroom. Had to pull off at the port of entry but the guy didn't even want to see my permit, just waved me through. 4th stop was at the Loves in Albuquerque. It was five o'clock and it was a zoo. Only one CNG pump and it is in the car fueling area. I think all Loves have them in the car area ... and all Kwik Trips have them in the truck area. Two Pickups with trailers waiting to use one side of the pump. Someone in a car beats me to the other side of the pump. I wait a ways away for a while before realizing I better back in behind the car or the next car will take that spot. So I back in, then realize that I am now blocking the pickup so he can't leave. Finally the person in the car comes back out ... after 10-15 minutes ... and starts fueling their car. ??? OK that doesn't take long and they don't go back in to the store, they get in their car ... but the car won't start. So I get out of the way so the 1st pickup can leave, but am now in the way so the 2nd one can't leave. They guy in the 2nd pickup got the gals car started so she is gone. But a real jigsaw puzzle to get everyone where they want to go. BB had to guide me both in and out of the fuel pump. At one point we had left the lot, but as we are driving to another CNG pump BB does the math and it will take us at least 30 minutes ... if it was not rush hour. So back we went to Loves. We get to Quality Inn for the night, nights. We will be here all day tomorrow to do a restart on my DOT hours. The lot is still open enough so that I can move my bus around and parked. So far so good, not a big lot but we have stayed here close to a dozen times and there has always been someplace to park. We walk to our Mexican restaurant. Lot was full but we got seated right away. Nice to be off the road in the daylight. 20180616 - CA-MO Ran out of driving hours, spent the day in ALB. Very un-eventful day. Walked back the Mexican place for lunch, it was slightly raining. Walked to Little Ceasers, it was supposed to rain again in a few minutes. Rained most of the day. BB did her walk up against the building, there is an overhang, all the doors open to the outside. 20180617 - CA-MO Last night we had pizza, neither of us slept very well after. Not sure if it was the pizza, too much pizza or nothing to do with pizza. Did feel better by morning. Last time we were here, break fast was not all out until after 6:30. We had been sitting and waiting with others. This time the room was already full when we got down at 6:30 ... and all the food was not out yet. Someone had parked in the spot right ahead of my bus so I had to back up a few times to be able to get out, but I did it without hitting anything. Not quite two hours down the road we stop at a rest area before Santa Rosa. Another two hours puts us in Glenrio at the Russell truck stop. We had time, took the time to sit down and eat instead of doing fast food. I had a philly and rings and BB had a shrimp salad. Good food, no room for desert. Some how some places are able to make a go of it out in the middle of nowhere. This is one of those. Lots of people stopping here to eat. Back on the road it is about another 2 hours to Conway, TX where we stop at a Loves to use the restroom. Very small truckstop. No issues at the OK scale this time. I knew to stop at the stop sign and stay there. Next stop was the rest area in Erick, OK. Had planned on having my last fuel in OKC but it was time to stop in Weatherford so I fueled there. Now that I'm looking at my receipt I'm wondering if they have a$95 limit. Tanks weren't quite full and it stopped on even money. Hmmm. After we fueled we walked next door to Luciells, but the diner was closed and the steakhouse had a waiting line. We walked back to the truckstop but nothing looked good there either. They did have a little kitchen where they could make stuff to order. Instead we decided to ... Drive 15 minutes to the next exit and stopped at a Loves that had a Sonic, plus a Chesters and Godfathers. We choose Chesters. We've learned to get one six piece and then not eat all of that. That was in a town called Hinton. Somewhere earlier today we hit a lot of rain a couple of times. Traffic on the side of the road type downpours. It looked like it was following us but we finally outran it. Also we saw smoke ahead and when we got there the fire department was putting out a car fire. On the car on the top row of a car hauler. What would make a car start on fire just sitting there? Lots of grain already harvested down here in TX/OK. We pulled into our motel just before 9 PM in Oklahoma City. The Sleep Inn here was cheaper than anything up the road and we only have travel time of a half hour left. Parked in the back of the building and took up the whole area between curbs so no one should cut me off tomorrow morning. 20180618 - CA-MO BB has been real good this trip about getting out and taking a walk before breakfast every morning. Today was no exception. What was different was She walked past a goose that flapped it's wings at her. And the followed her down the street, back the way she came, across the parking lot and and back to the door. Guess it wasn't big enough to trip the sensor on the door or it would have followed her right in, instead it just stood at the door after she walked in. BB finished the rest of her walk indoors. By the time we went down for breakfast the goose was gone. Not a real early morning because of how late it was last night. It would have been nice to get going earlier but it was 8 AM by the time we left. Hadn't really decided where the stops would be today. BB picked out one 'truckstop' that I didn't remember as being very well kept. By the time we got there we decided to wait another half hour until the oasis in KS. Turns out the truckstop is all new since I had been there last so it likely was pretty nice now. Also a few more truckstops that were new in that area of OK. Got to the KS scale and I got flagged in. First time since BB has been with where they have gotten confrontational. I'm guessing I was flagged in because he couldn't see my ID/placards in the tinted windows. Hasn't been an issue on any of the other scales but for some reason they flagged us in. They wanted to see registration for the plate I was running on, they wanted to see my placards, they wanted to see a document with the full VIN. I told them I had nothing from the shipper with the full VIN on it, but did have my other permits. He just threw those off to the side saying it was worthless in OK. Yet he kept asking even after I told him. At one point he told me I was wasting my time ...??? The placards I went out and got but the plate was still an issue. I had shown him everything I had. I thought we would be here a while with two issues. BB finally went out the the bus and got her documents and showed him that is all we are given. That was it, we were free to go. Not sure what changed but we didn't waste any time getting out of there. We did use the restroom while we were there we were good for another two hours. Two hours put us in Emporia. Most of the last two hours was on toll roads. Last time we didn't get paid for the tolls, with anything other than the buses we do. Our first thought at Emporia was the Huddle House at the Flying J. It wasn't listed on whatever BB was looking at so she kept looking. To stop at the Burger King we would have to park next door at a shopping center. We ended up walking past BK and going to Spangles. Pretty good food. They have 20+ locations, all in KS. I had the gyro. I would have liked to try one of their malts, but too much food for mid-day. Next stop was the Hertz in Kansas City. It was about a 1/2 mile off the freeway in a strip mall. Easy in, easy out, even with a bus. Then to the Blue Becon truck wash. 10 ahead of me when I got there. Two bays open so it only took an hour. Didn't seem that long as I was trying to look at stuff on my computer and had to keep moving. This time I picked the quicker line, pulled out just as the guy who had been ahead of me was pulling in the other bay. Could have been gone sooner but it was shift change/cash drawer change so that took a while. BB met me at the wash so we moved everything from the bus to the car except my backpack. Now the last seven miles to the drop. I had it written down, it was not the computers 1st or 2nd choice, but it was the fewest turns. Got to the drop, some employee knocked on my door and hopped in and guided me to the right area. It was shift change, I knew that from when I called ahead, so this all took a while. One thing we have to do at delivery is take the plastic off the windows. Not sure if it was the heat or what but this was the hardest I had to pull to get that stuff off. I had to use my whole weight to get it to pull down off the window and then it was still a slow job. Got signed off and walked off the property. BB had lots of time to look for food so she found something close. Lot was completely full so we didn't even go into Grinders to see if there was a line. We ended up at Stroud's. Last time we went to their other location for lunch and it was nothing special. This location, this time it was as good as I remember from 25 years ago. After we had ordered the waitress said we could 'split' our order if we wanted so that is what we did. Good thing, we did eat all the chicken, but only have the sides and took the buns to go. We drove another 10 miles to Kearney and the Quality Inn. We are done, maybe for a month. Our calendar is filling up. It would have been nice to have had that trip from KS to Blaine, MN but that was on the board a day too early. They did post a couple of MN loads today but we didn't grab them. My other job called last week to see when I can work so that is where I will be next week. Doing local, one day runs. Then off to the north shore after the 4th. Last year the board had been in single digits for the last 10 days. This year it is finally down to 22. It was last down to 22 on Jan 22 and was only that low for one day. Most of the last six months it has been in triple digits. The trip paid well ... 20180619 - CA-MO Back in MN We managed to get out of the motel this morning by 7. First stop was the post office, we hadn't mailed our paperwork from our last trip yet and we delivered Weds. 1st stop was the rest area in Osceolla, IA, 2nd stop at Wendy's in Forest City, then next door to the Caseys for gas. Did a quick pick-up of the car at Forest City, did not take time to walk into the office. Lot looks empty have having 100-200 RV's there for most of the last six months. Hit a few heavy rain cells, traffic didn't stop but it was going slower, all I could see is the tail lights of the car ahead of me. I was good as long as I didn't follow him into the ditch. Did notice a few places over the last few days where a few of the cows are middle deep in the water while others are not even in the water. Must be the same as people, different internal thermometers. I had time to stop at the cemetery for a few pictures while waiting to pick up BB. Cars were three lanes deep at the airport, I managed to spot right across from BB and let her in. Next road run ... sometime in July. |
