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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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No need to set the alarm, can't call in for work until 8 AM and then they need time to get the paperwork ready. Person at the front desk I think was new. They were busy mopping the floors, vacuuming, etc while people were still trying to eat breakfast. When I checked out, it sounded I was the first person checking out, and it was after 8 AM. Nothing was added to the board so we called in at 8 AM. Lots of dialing and getting busy signals, them not being able to hear us before we finally got through. We grabbed two of the Greer, a big class A for me and the short 22 ft for BB. Then we called NC dispatch, but by now the board was down to 1 SD non-CDL truck. I asked if we could get work for Monday yet (IA won't give us Monday work until Saturday AM,) we could. BUT I found out that the non-CDL trucks were really CDL trucks, and we would need to stop at a 2nd place in NC to pick up a wood chipper, then go through IA to drop off that chipper, then go up to SD to drop the truck, pick up a 2nd truck and drop that back in IA. I said I would call maybe call back. We didn't. There are also still trucks in NC going to NE, one straight line, that I could deliver on Thursday, with stops the other one would be Friday, maybe Saturday before we dropped. Nothing left that both of us could drive so the sooner we get back to IA and both of us driving the better. Got our paperwork, found our trucks ... then we had to dig a hole to park our car. Didn't realize how much heavier this shovel is than our other one at home. We both worked at it, but it was hard work. And we weren't taking our time, that's how people over do it. Even with the snow shoveling we were in and out in an hour. Until last week, we hadn't gone through Garner for months. Gas is cheaper there so that is where we stopped. It was up since last week, but still $.10 cheaper than anywhere else. Credit card max is $125 so I let it stop there. Should have filled it with a 2nd card, that is the cheapest we've seen anywhere. Two hours down the road we stop at Evansdale at RoadRanger at Junies. Food was good, all they have for a buffet during the week is a salad bar. I got it without any side, trying to cut down. Only had yogurt for breakfast but that is about all there was ... actually they did have biscuits and gravy plus cold cereal. Lots of snow drifts as far down as Cedar Rapids, after that we started to see bare ground. One of our RV's caught up to us in Cedar Rapids, stayed behind us for a few miles and then passed and was gone. Did see something in Cedar Rapids I don't think I had ever seen before. Geese ... on top of something. Usually they are on the ground, here they were dozens, maybe hundreds of them sitting on top of the rail cars near the Quaker Oat plant. Water must have been higher weeks/months ago before this last snows. Lots of trees near the rivers have ice frozen to them a few feet up. Where the trees are close you could crawl under the ice roofs. Other places it looks like concrete slaps have been dumped, but it's just large pieces of ice that collapsed as the water level dropped. Next stop was the Iowa 80 truck stop. If fuel was cheap we would have fueled there, it wasn't so we just used the rest room. No, it wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than we will have to pay now because we didn't fuel. No scales open today, I'm 22,000# so I will have to cross the scales. Another hour and half and we are in Morton, at the Quality Inn ... us and NO ONE else. Came back after eating two hours later and then there was ONE other car in the lot. There is a Stake and Shake in the next parking lot so we walked there, there was a line so we walked another couple of blocks to the Cracker Barrel. 20 minute wait there but here we waited. Good food. Both of these places had lines waiting, and we walked through what used to be a Country Kitchen and what used to be a Ruby Tuesdays. Seems something else should have been able to make it here. There are still six hotels within a couple of blocks of these two food places. This last week is a good example of what can happen in this line of work. I needed to get my DOT updated, and didn't have time to fit in a trip before, so we lost Saturday and Sunday. Monday was the DOT. Then Tuesday I wanted to make sure everything would clear both companies, because I was dealing with stuff I hadn't had to deal with before. Then it was weather, actually had been weather ... we could have gotten out on Saturday but not since. Then no time to deliver before the weekend so we waited for better runs. Then didn't want to leave and miss the safety meeting, Then waiting for better runs. Ended up being off 7 days for what started out as a one day appointment. We did 350 today and will do about 500 tomorrow. That will leave about 200 for Sunday. Airport where we will pick up our car is less than two miles from our drop. Motels are about 5 miles from the drop. We may end up picking up our car Sunday ??? We'll see. Plan is to stay out when we get back to IA and not go home until mid March. 190302 - IA-SC Plenty of cars in the lot this AM, everyone must have got in late last night. Breakfast was almost made to order. I thought we'd be the only ones this AM so that they would only put out what we could eat. Almost. We took the last of the eggs and left one sausage, but they did bring out more before we left. More people at breakfast than some places. But it was 7 AM on a Saturday morning. When we were on the way to Virginia last trip, we had stopped at the truckstop across the street. It was still a Mobil station as it had been for years. Today it was a Circle C. They are the same company that bought the Holiday Stationstores in the midwest. 1st stop was 50 miles down the road at a Love's in Le Roy, IL. We could have saved a few dollars if we planned ahead. Gas is up here to $2.35, that is the most we will pay this trip. An hour later we do a quick restroom break at the Pilot in Crawfordsville. Somewhere today as I'm driving down the road a strip of my tape comes loose and is flapping in the wind. About four feet of it, not seeing an exit soon I pull to the side of the road. This is the tape that they use to anchor their winter covers on the front of the RV's. Hadn't noticed it was loose earlier, but luckily this stuff is made like duc tape. If you tare it right it's easy to tare. Lunch is in Seymour, IN at a Country Pride in a TA. Just a small diner size place but they still had the hot food buffet. So that is what we had. Fuel again in Waddy, KY at a Flying J. I've never filled mine so I am just guessing as to how much fuel I will need to get to delivery. I do have a range readout so that plus 8 mpg and the gauge says I should make it ... on fumes. I'll likely put in more on Sunday as we get closer to E and the drop. We stop for the night at a Comfort Inn in London. BB gets in the wrong lane on the ramp and gets ahead of me. She then took a wrong turn. She's driving a MiniWini this trip and there is enough wind that she's having to work. Not the relaxing drive of the smaller Sprinters. We walk a couple of blocks to a Fazoli's. Guess it's been a while since I've been to one. I remember it being almost like microwave dishes of food. This was a little more fresh than that but still fast food. To get there we had to walk down a back street. Thought it would be empty but lots of traffic for a street that two cars could barely meet on. IA board was down by one. Some were gone but they added a bunch of FL. Short day tomorrow. 190303 - IA-SC No alarm this AM. We've got less than 300 miles to go and can't check into most motels until 3 PM. Motel was loud, we thought the breakfast area would be packed from all the noise. Turned out there were just a couple of other people there. Only 1 yogurt so I left it for someone else. Had an egg and sausage instead. Finally left the motel at 9 AM. Today was a day of BB missing the lights so we got separated a few times, leaving the motel was one of them. Rain most of the day, fog part of the day, road construction part of the day. Somewhere we saw an SUV, now the size of a Smart Car, crunched against the guard rail. Someone was standing next to it, no emergency vehicles around. Not sure if it just happened or if it happened a while ago and they were still waiting for a tow. 1st stop is for fuel, it is cheaper here so I plan on putting in fuel here and adding fuel later if I am running low. I get to the pump and am waiting for someone fueling. The hose is in the tank but no one around. Finally they come back out from the station with their cups of coffee. It looks like the pump must have shut off when the tank got full ... like it should. But the nozzle is still in the on position, they guy grabs it and pulls it out of the tank ... his timing was such that the pump kicked back on and he was running gas all the way from his tank to the pump. When I pulled up, because of all the rain, I had to stand in that water filled gas. I should have pulled closer to the pump so I could have stood on the curb. This was at a Pilot in Heiskell, TN. No food at this Pilot. Some of the Pilot's down here aren't truckstops, others are truckstops, but very small. Another 90 miles and we were in Ashville. Plan had been to stop at a Pilot but have seeing this last one we decided to stop at an Outlet mall instead. Right as we got to where I-26 crosses I-40, traffic comes to a complete stop. Tanker one lane over from me had only a couple of feet between him and the one ahead of him by the time he got stopped. Later, in stop and go traffic I almost go rear ended by someone who had been following me for a while. This took most of a half hour to go the next five miles. Road construction on the freeway, road construction on the side roads. Turns out this 'Outlet Mall' used to be a major mall until about five years ago. We found that out by talking to the security person patrolling the lot. They wanted to make sure we wouldn't be camping here over night. We didn't know where we were going to eat, but there was a lot of places around the perimeter. Likely was stuff in the mall to, but that doesn't usually show on the highway maps. This mall was packed, guess it's doing much better than the 'major mall' that is still a major mall. We finally found a place to park, the lot was full in some area's. We walked across the street to Papa's Mexican, but they had a 15 minute wait, looked a lot longer than that. Then walked past the Shotgun buffet before heading to Ryans.' There still some that are open, they are owned by the same people as own Old Country Buffet. We had a little wait as there was only one cashier. They did have a host to seat people as long as there was a line, later it was back to seat yourself. Food was OK, food was getting turned over quickly with this many people. By the time we left it was raining again. I was soaked enough that I took my jacket off as not to get chilled. Lost BB again at the stop light, but with the road construction there was no place to pull off so I stopped at the first rest area, but by then she had caught up and past me. Within a few miles I was back ahead of her. Miles and miles of 'No trucks left lane' and lower speed limit for the trucks. This is because of all the curves along the river, truckers aren't very happy to have to follow someone actually doing the speed limit. I don't understand why these truckers have no problem speeding but yet won't drive in a prohibited lane. Both are traffic laws. Somewhere on this last leg, I hit a large pool of water while going across one of the high bridges. Not a good feeling to be hydroplaning ... at anytime. Not on a bridge ... not on a high bridge. Got to the Quality Inn in Duncan, about 4 PM. We are about 5 miles from our drop, with a fuel range of about 58 miles. So I'm under an 1/8 of a tank. Didn't want to run it much closer to E than that. After a couple of hours in the motel, we walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant. Had thought we were just going to go to Hardee's next door but there wasn't much traffic so we ran J-walked across the street, ran, when there wasn't traffic. Waffle House next door is closed as is a fast food place across the street. Still have McD's, Wendy's, Hardee's, Subway and Country Pride within about two blocks. Food was good, four enchiladas. No rice, no beans. We've looked at all the maps for tomorrow. Airport, drop, pickup, rental return. Now we will see what changes before all this happens. We are about 100 miles north of the tornadoes here in SC tonight. Looks like some major damage. We managed to stay south of the snow and ice last night and north of the nasty weather tonight. 190304 - IA-SC Way too much food last night, didn't sleep well. So this AM breakfast was just yogurt. Hope this doesn't jinx us but we have been really lucky on the road. Neither of us have gotten really sick. Plan is to get to the customer by 8 AM so we can be sitting there with our car when they start checking drivers in at 9 AM. After breakfast we had walked out to the 'dirt lot' to see if it was solid enough to turn around in. It looked like it was, so when we were ready to go, I headed that way to turn around, that's when I saw there was a 2nd entrance to the truck lot. And it would take us up to a light so we wouldn't have to cross two directions of traffic ... and the entrance to the motel was very steep, I was worried about scraping the bottom on the way out. As soon as we were on the street, the low fuel light came on and the gauge dropped to E. 7 miles to go with a range of 50 miles, so I wasn't too worried. Just not a good feeling. Only down side is that BB hadn't followed me. She decided to turn around where we were so she had to turn around twice to exit the lot the way we did. Still was better than dodging traffic. The gas station we picked was on the correct side of the road, but not laid out real great. I thought I would pull around in front by the station so I was pointing out, but I couldn't make that short of turn from the highway. So I found a spot and drive in, then would have to back out. BB had to turn around, backing up twice to get to the pump she wanted. Plan had been to leave one RV there and go get the car. No room here so we headed to the RV dealer. BB got ahead of me and missed the turn, not sure where she turned around but I was following her and went up to the airport to turn around. Some guy was pointing to our turn as I went past but I wanted to stick with BB and then left her anyway. The drop had told me 'Go to the end of the street, turn around and park there.' So I kept following the street and it never did end. BB didn't know what was said so she stopped where she saw the signs. So we parked one RV there and went to the airport, it was less than two miles away. The Hertz 'shop' was right across the street from the RV dealer, but they weren't renting cars from there. Dropped BB off where we thought the cars were, next to baggage. She walked from one end of the terminal to the other before she saw a sign where she came in ... Rental Cars across the street in the parking ramp. Once I got to the lot I called the number on the sign. 3 or 4 people were out there checking us in by 8:30, we were checked in and gone by 9 AM. Called dispatch for today's run as soon I had called the RV dealer letting them know we were here. I got a run going to NE. So as soon as the paperwork was signed, we headed out. Stopped once for lunch at the Cook Out in Concord. This location didn't have indoor seating, just drive-thru and walk up service. So we took our half hour and ate in the car. Did get a malt to split. Four hours later we were in Creedmoor picking up my truck. We'd been here before so we knew the routine. Found the truck but couldn't get the storage doors open. It looks like you might have to tilt the box to release the latch. So we have most all of our stuff in the cab. Tight fit. And this one is a stick shift, haven't had one of those for quite a while. Forgot that it was a couple of times. About 15 miles back we at Durham we drop the Hertz rental car. This truck actually had fuel, I think the last one I wasn't sure I would get to the gas station a mile away. Because I didn't have to stop, I got to Hertz before BB and had to find a place to park. First issue was I forgot which side of the street it was on and missed it. Had to do a late U-turn at a 'Y' in the road ... in front of a cop. Then I thought I could go around their building. It looked like it from the satellite view. But that view didn't show the fence and the gate. So I had to drive through someone used car lot and park in the driveway. Opps, forgot to call dispatch so no I will have to wait at the fuel stop for money so I can fuel. I have money, we just get a discount if we use the company card and we haven't been leaving an money on it. I guess from now on we will. Truck stop wasn't too busy so plenty of place to park. It only takes a couple of minutes for the money to hit the account. This was at a Flying J in Graham. Along this route there are lots of Pilots that used to be Hess. They took them over about five years ago when Speedway bought out Hess, now sure if Pilot owns them or just manages them. This truck is tacking out 2,100 rpms at 55 mph. That is how fast I drove it the first 15 miles. Since that I have had the cruise set at 60, not sure I want the tac running at over 2,500 which is where it will be at 65 mph. And like the last one of these. No get up and go and likely no guts on the hills. One chipper from another driveaway company passed me. There had also been one other driver picking up when I did but I didn't get close enough to him to talk to him. Two hours later we are in Hickory at the Quality Inn. No good parking spots the first time around the lot so the second time I parked the first place I would fit. Seen later that a big pickup made use of my extra space by taking up half the 'empty' space between us. Met a guy with a pickup and trailer looking for a spot. He ended up at the Cracker Barrel next door parking. Not sure if he got the OK for that or not. We walked next door to the Cracker Barrel to eat, first they weren't sure if they had roast beef for my French Dip and then it took a half hour for time to get it to us. Someone who was next in line behind us had their food 15 minutes earlier. ... the trip continuesHERE |
