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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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1 - New Bus 20180830 - CA to MN Got a bus back to MN :) We started the day the same way yesterday ended, at Mel's Diner. Breakfast at 5 am local. One egg, two slices of bacon and potatoes. The sun is not quite up as we pull out of the parking lot. The rest area halfway to Sacramento is still closed ... through the end of the month ... so we did not stop between Verdi/Reno and West Sacramento. Actually we did stop a few times as it was still rush hour traffic. But for California traffic it was not bad. We no longer have to wash our RV's so we also found a different place to stop. As I'm ready to fuel I see that fuel is $4.39 a gallon. But the company is paying for it and it IS the closest station to the drop. And we will keep filling here until someone says something about it. More room to get in and out than the other station. We get to the drop right at 9 am, which is when our paperwork says they open. The sign says they open at 8 am. No one was at the front desk where we are supposed to check in, so someone else sent me to the back office. No one there either so I went back to wait in line. We were 4th and 5th in line when we got there. Found out later that there had been two more ahead of them that were being inspected. Finally at 10 am they were done with checking in the first two RV's. At that point BB went to get the rental car. I pulled mine in for inspection before 11. BB was back with the rental car before they were ready to inspect hers. Two people doing the inspections, one was the same guy we've worked with for the last two years, the other was someone I'd never seen before. Once they were done inspecting BB's I started calling about a bus. He now wanted me to call him back at 3 pm. So we were not in a rush, we stop at In-n-Out Burger. Plenty of food. Mid day so it only took about an hour and a half to get to Livermore. At this point I was planning on staying if he didn't have anything for us today. We got our paperwork from the RV's all sent in and then walked. At 3 pm dispatch still didn't know if there would be work. We spent some time walking the outlet center and then ate. It had only been about four hours be we wouldn't have time once I got the bus. For an outlet mall, they have a pretty good food court. Häagen-Dazs :), Subway, Johnny Rockets, Villa, Chicken Now (a California chain, and a couple of likely local Asian places. BB and I split one of the Asian meals which was still more than enough. Finally at 5 pm dispatch asked if I wanted to go to BURNSVILLE, MN. YES ! ! ! Where we walk is about five minutes away from the buses so it doesn't take long to get there. Got my paperwork and then talked to one of the other drivers. Picked up little bits of info, including where to wash the bus in MN. We are getting paid to go via Des Moines so that is how we will go. It sounds like some are going via Oklahoma City, this person was going through South Dakota. Because I am running close on hours, we will run about eight hours a day instead of ten hour days. Now that I've laid out the trip, we can't make it in time for delivery on Tuesday either. Even with the extra day ... and another night of over $100 for a motel. 20180831 - CA to MN We had thought of getting going by 6:30, then decided that would just put us into rush hour traffic and cost us time. So we got going an hour later and hit almost no traffic delays. Breakfast was real eggs, but for me it was yogurt. I commented to the desk clerk when I was checking out about the food. She said they had tried lots of pre-made food items and some were pretty awful. Lots of produce being harvested already, onions, tomatoes. Never had seen onions in gunny sacks before. Rows of them stacked with only room enough for the tractor to run between the rows. Speed limit in CA is 65, 55 for anything towing a trailer. I'm doing 65 and still the trailers go flying past me. First break was at a Flying J in Lodi, quick on and off. Second break was near Truckee at Donners Pass. We took a half hour there so I would not have to log it as time working. (the games we play, but still stay legal) Call for my permit, luckily they were able to get it to me before we got to NV as we were only a half hour from the border. Also made tonight's motel reservation. No discounts tonight ... it's Labor Day Weekend. Got the permit 10 minutes before the border. Just past the border the inspection station was open, but they were busy with others. Next stop was Denny's in Fernly for lunch. Another chicken philly for me and a club sandwich for BB. I asked today, this Flying J has been open for four years. I thought it had been a different restaurant before Denny's but they said no. Another two hours and we were in Winnemucca for the night, Quality Inn. They have a nice big parking lot, never have to worry about room. We walked again tonight, we also had walked on Wednesday night. Tonight was walking around the cemetery. It looks like there are a number of cemeteries all next to each other. Online they only show as the Winnemucca Cemetery, but I also saw signs for Knights of Pythias, FOE, F&AM and IOOF. Lots of interesting stones ... and a half hour walk. When we were done walking we stopped at The Pig for food. This time we split a pulled pork sandwich and each got a side. Good food and not too much. Not gaining much time. Gained 15 minutes today but that is not enough to make delivery Tuesday. Tomorrow I will need to stop and get a WY permit so that will take an extra 15 minutes ... or more if they are backed up like they were this week on the way west. No traffic issues, just lots of cops. Likely getting ready for this weekend. Bus wasn't full of fuel this time and that is likely $50-$100 more that I will have to put in the tank. Put in over $300 this fill, and we are no longer in CA where it was even higher. 20180901 - CA to MN Went to bed early (west coast time) last night so we were up by 5 am. The only reason we needed to get going that early was our NV permit. It is for 24 hours and we entered the state at 11:30 so we needed to be out of the state by 11:30. We made it with 45 minutes to spare. Breakfast is at the Model-T Cafe. Four slices of big fat bacon, two eggs, toast and juice. If you don't want one of the 'free' options you can take $2 off any menu item. I'm thinking the above breakfast is worth way more than the $2. The sun didn't come up this AM until I was pulling on the freeway, so I had that in my face for a few hours. 1st stop was Elko. We tried the Sinclair as it is listed as a truck stop. It does have more room than the Maverick we have been stopping at. Heading west we could see they are just about done building another Sinclair truckstop at the west edge of town. The new one has separate diesel islands. Also we noticed that Elko County Fair was going on this weekend. BUT we have to be out of the state before our permit expires. Next stop was the Burger King in West Wendover. If we had less time, we would have had to park across the state line and eaten at one of the places that was within walking distance. Lots of times we get a buffet when we are in this town, they have a pretty good discount for CDL drivers. But neither of us was that hungry after a good breakfast. We took our half hour break and were rolling. Across the salt flats and we are at Tooele (Twila) at the Flying J. The smashed RV is gone. We take a half hour here also to try and buy time to make it to Des Moines on Monday night. We are cutting it pretty close, right now we are still short of time. Long climb up to Evanston but the bus does good unless I need to slow down for a truck. Once I loose my momentum it's pretty hard to get it back. Lots of trucks in the parking lot again today, just like there was on Tuesday. But only one person ahead of me and he didn't have his paperwork so I was next. I had all my info and was in and out in about five minutes. Then about two miles to the motel. Off the road before 4 pm local. Quality Inn, they had given away their last king room, so we ended up with two queens. IF we stay up for it, there is the 4th of July fireworks tonight as well as a rodeo in town ... and a taxi to get us there. I said 'no thanks.' Food was the Highway 30 Tavern. Food was cheaper than the steakhouse ... and was really good. A little too loud for this old man, they had the WY collage football game on. WY lost 41-19. I had a patty melt and BB had a bison burger, both were really good ... did I say that already? ;) Then we took a short walk for the day. Where we ate last time is now closed. JB's, I thought they were good but looking at the last reviews they had more 1's than 2-5's combined. The corp website still lists this as one of their locations so I don't know if there is a plan to re-open. Signs are all still up ... last message was 'Mothers Day Special.' The math says I am still 45 minutes short of making it to Des Moines Sunday night. If we don't make it that far, we'd need to leave by 6 am out of Omaha to make delivery in MN by 3 pm. IF nothing goes wrong, no wait at the wash etc. The only thing for motels between Omaha and Des Moines are Super 8's and ma-pa motels. And none of them get great reviews. Not delivering until Wednesday just means one more nights motel. 20180902 - CA to MN They did have fireworks in town last night but we were both sleeping by dark. Breakfast was the usual, mine was just yogurt. Front desk clerk was busy so I didn't catch her to take off the safe charge so they got an extra $1.50 out of me last night. First stop was Rock Springs for fuel. Flying J. All pumps were full when we pulled in but one driver was just pulling ahead. He stopped so a semi would have room to fuel, but I need to fuel at the rear of the bus. Luckily he only paused there for a minute and then left the lot. So we were in and out fairly quickly. 60 plus gallons. Not noon yet but we stopped to eat in Rawlins at the Flying J. Denny's, same place as the way out. Some of the same staff. We each had chicken soup then I had a chicken philly and BB had fried chicken. Lots of drive-a-way units on the road. Rv's of all sizes, UPS trucks, Fedex Vans, buses, stacks of tractors. Not much for wildlife, did see a few deer today. Yesterday saw a coyote grabbing his lunch off the pavement. Other than that mostly birds. After Rawlins was a rest stop at the Laramie rest area. Took a half hour there just to kill time, walked a bit. At Sidney we ate at Three Margaritas. We each had two enchiladas. I think the food was better than Mi Rachito where we ate in Sidney last time. I was going to park in the Motel 6 truck parking until I saw how ruff the lot was, ended up parking on the street. Original plan was to spend the night in Sidney, but then we decided either Ogallala or North Platt. Ogallala was the closer one and that is where we ended up at the Quality Inn. In North Platt we have stayed at any of the motel so it would have been somewhere knew. As soon as we got off the bus someone was more or less asking for a ride. There car has a bunch of issues and they are trying to make it back to MN. Nope, no riders. We went for our half hour walk before turning in. It looks like we should be able to make it to Des Moines tomorrow and then delivery on Tuesday. IF we don't have any issues. Today there was one accident but it only likely slowed us down about five minutes. 20180903 - CA to MN Breakfast in the former Denny's. This place was attached to a Denny's and back then we got fresh food made to order. Denny's has been gone for three months and they are serving the usual motel breakfast foods. The person I asked didn't know if anything was going to replace Denny's. The parking lot filled up last night. Someone had backed almost up to the back of my bus. When we were out for our walk last night we had walked around the building and we saw that the back section, about a third of the rooms, are not being used ... and this morning we realized that our door was about 10 feet from the butt can / smoking area in this '100% smoke free building.' It is daylight when we pull out this morning. 7 am local, but 8 am a few miles down the road. We are back in central time. 1st stop is less than an hour down the road we stop at the Flying J in North Platte. Luckily they are not too busy on a holiday morning. I am able to back in behind someone and so I can get my DEF. My DEF is on the right side but the truckstops build all DEF stations to be fueled from the left. (Why not some of each I don't know) I put in 5 gallons of DEF and 57 gallons of diesel. Stop didn't work on the diesel so a wee bit went on the ground. The nozzle wouldn't stay in the tank so I had been holding it the whole time. My commercial fuel discount card is almost worn out so it doesn't always work. Yesterday I asked someone at the desk of that Flying J for a knew card and they said I would have to ask my company. This Flying J had them on display at the fuel desk. So I grabbed one. Now I need / want to get someone to move all my points to my new card. If they can't do that I will just used up the points on the old card and add all new points to my new card. While looking at my cards tonight I see that my gas discount card for Flying J has the numbers already worn off and that card is less than two years. old. Right now I have over $50 on my Flyin J card, $20 plus on my Kwik Trip card and likely about $10-20 on Loves and Petro cards. Also have a few points on a Sapps card ... I think that is all. We did a quick stop in Kearney, NE. BB ran in quick at the rest area. I just drew a line in my log book and she was back out and we were rolling. We had planned on taking a half hour here but did this instead. Lunch was at the Iron Skillet in York. Still no salad bar for me until after I get my blood levels under control. I had fried chicken, pot roast, (bland) potato soup, noodles plus a couple of kinds of deserts. Iron Skillet and Country Pride no longer give points for food so now I need to find out how much is on my rewards card for them and use them up. There is a new buy 10 get 11th one free but I haven't signed up for that yet. When we went past Lincoln, I noticed our former place to stay, the Quality Inn Airport is out of business. It must be a poor area for business right now. A half dozen motels have down graded names or closed. Perkins closed a few weeks ago just a couple of blocks away from there. Not sure the reason. Somewhere before Omaha there was a burnt out car in the oncoming left lane. Fire fighters were still standing there with their hoses, cars going past in one lane. I hadn't seen smoke or at least not noticed it. As we went through Council Bluffs we noticed that the Golden Corral is back open after a few months/year of being closed. Two hours after the last stop we stop at the rest area near Underwood, IA. This one we do take 15 minutes as we have been doing the math all day and have time to make it to Des Moines. Right after we pulled out of York earlier I must have hit a swarm of bugs. Within a few minutes the windshield had bugs less than two inches apart over most of it. All the same kind of bug. Now that the corn is almost ripe, we can see how bad the hail damage was around Omaha. Some west of Omaha but mostly east. Lots of transporters again today. UPS trucks, rolloff, garbage, cement, bus, half dozen FedEx vans, dozens of RV's and maybe as many as 100 travel trailers. Stop for the night is the brand new Sleep Inn in Ankeny. Once we knew we'd make it past Omaha, we started looking to see how much past. The price was right on this one this time. Other times we've looked at it, it was too high. We were the 1st ones here tonight so I got my choice of where to park. There is room all the way around so there should always be room. Food next door was at Outback. We split Onion Buds and a Philly. BB had Onion soup and I had potato. Much better than the Iron Skillet. The only other food for these dozen motels is Waterfront Seafood and they looked to be closed for the day / holiday. Finally. IF we get going by 7 am tomorrow, we should be in the Twin Cites by noon/1 pm and delivery closes at 3 pm. Called tonight to find out that the truck wash in Albert Lea is open and it also is less than 100 miles from the drop which is their goal. Do need to call the drop tomorrow AM and let them know I am coming and to find out where to enter their lot and find someone. Also need to line up local work for Thursday and Friday. Plan on going on a genealogical expedition next week and then back on the road a week from Thursday. 20180904 - CA to MN I ate a little more for breakfast this AM knowing it would be a later lunch. So both eggs and yogurt. Running a little late but still pulled out of the lot a little after 7:15. No traffic issues, no extra stops. 1st stop was in Forest City to pick up our van. BB had to use the restroom and then check the oil while I called the drop to let them know I was coming in today. I didn't time it but we were likely in and out in five minutes. Next stop was the bus wash at the Petro in Albert Lea. It looked like someone was just pulling out when I went by on the highway. But the bay was empty when when I pulled up, didn't even get to put it in park before they started waving me in. A few minutes after I was done paying the bus was washed. As soon as I was out of the wash we unloaded all of our suitcases into the van and headed out again. I was hoping not to have to add any more fuel, but it was already down to a half before I got to Albert Lea. It went down to 3/8 before coming back up. I didn't fill in Albert Lea in hopes that it would stay on a half for a while longer, but as soon as I started driving it was back down to 3/8 and stayed there to Lakeville. I fueled in Lakeville at the Holiday. Would have been $.10 cheaper to fuel in Northfield without any discounts. I put in 10 gallons based on getting about 8 miles to the gallon and it had been 80 miles since it stayed on 3/8. When I pulled out of Holiday it dropped to 1/8 and stayed there most of the next 20 miles to Burnsville. Had some (un-asked for) help backing in. But I got it where the wanted it. But with all the help, I forgot to put it in neutral ... Grrr. Other than that, no issues at the drop and I was out of there in 15 minutes. Done. I have enough hours left that I called and got local work for tomorrow, and if tomorrow goes OK I will have enough for Thursday. If not I will have to take Thursday off and work Friday. Plan is to not do any runs until next Thursday. I'll work local a couple of days. Then a birthday party on Saturday and to some family tree research on Sun, Mon and Tuesday. Be around home Wednesday and be at a Safety Meeting on Thursday. We are supposed to be at two safety meetings a year and it's been over six months so I will not get my safety bonus money for these last two trips. Plan is to leave after the meeting on Thusday and be back in town for the last week of the month. Then gone again until mid-Sep. |
