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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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Ready to go, then Opps. Heading out Monday instead of Saturday to MI. We have been off the road for about three months. If we didn't get back to work by the end of this month, we would have had to gotten another OK or we would have had to re-apply and go through re-training when we wanted to come back. In the past when we have had to be home, I have been able to keep busy with my 2nd company. That is one of two reasons I have kept working for them. Very slow this year, one day a week instead of 3-4 days a week. Big difference. 190729 IA-MI Not sure why we didn't call in for this trip on Friday. These two RV's have been on the board for a few days, not sure what we thought we would get that would have been any better. Saturday after we had called in for the run, we got a call back from dispatch. They can't give us the runs until someone at corp puts us back on duty because we have been off so long. Oh well, subject to change. This AM we are out of the house by 6:30. Not used having an alarm clock waking us up. Not much for traffic at that time in the AM. We stopped just south of the cities to switch drivers so I could make the phone calls. I started calling at 7 am, 8 am east coast time. The person finally picked up after 7:30. By that time we had stopped at Burger King in Owattona and were back on the road. NO Issues getting put back on active. Next call was to dispatch telling them we were cleared. Dispatch did hold the runs for us. Good thing, there isn't much else on the board. Down to -0- a lot of the time. In Forest City there had been a Conoco gas station that went out of business shortly after the 2nd Caseys opened up. Now Kwik Trip (Kwik Star in IA) is putting in a new station where the Conoco used to be. Wonder who they will run out of business. Paperwork still wasn't done when we got there. Got to talk to the new HR person. Only the manager and the lot person left from our last trip, all the other old timers are gone. We both have no-tow RV's, the small Sprinter vans so we get an extra $150 a person. It all helps. We also each got an extra 1/4 tank of fuel so that helps too. First stop was for fuel in Clear Lake at the Pilot. Second stop was at the Arbey's in Evansdale past Waterloo. Fast food most of this trip. We fueled again in Walcott at the Pilot. It turns out it might be our final fuel if the mileage stays up. It looked like it was going to be 100 miles short but our range keeps going up. 4th stop is at a Road Ranger in Ottawa, IL. Too early to eat so we will eat after we are too the motel. 7 pm or so. Chicago traffic, road construction and rain. But it only too us 15 minutes longer than it should have. And I never lost BB. Not sure if that has happened before or not. She stayed within 2-3 cars of me the whole way. Ended up going to the TA/Country Pride before stopping at the motel. Country Pride so all they have is a salad bar, no hot food. Soup wasn't too my liking and I am still having an issue with my blood thinner so we stayed away from salad. In and out in about an hour, normal for a sit down meal. Motel was just a few blocks from the truckstop. Free rooms this trip. We have enough free rooms for about a month so we are trying to make the max $$ this trip. About 200-250 miles to go in the AM, should get both of them delivered tomorrow and then we have 24 hours to get our rental car back to the airport. 190730 IA-MI Up and down for breakfast by 6:30. Breakfast for me was yogurt. We ate way too much too late last night. I was up on the middle of the night because my stomach was still stuffed and hurt. Rolling by 7 am. 1st stop was just over two hours down the road near Battle Creek. Got to cross two scales this AM, about 10 miles apart. IN has one as we exit the state and MI has one as we enter the state. Everyone was getting the bypass lane. Fueled at the Pilot in Battle Creek, I put in $10. At first I thought that was going to be way too much ... didn't think that a few hours later. We had talked of splitting up and each going to our drops but we had time so I led the way to BB's fuel and drop. Both drops today had fuel within a half mile across the streets from our drops. At BB's drop we had to leave our paperwork and our phone number so they could call us. This place had enough office cubes they could run Cape Canaveral. Lots of visitors also. Not bad, we were in and out in an hour but that is about all I had before I needed to be heading to my drop. Dropped BB at the Hertz about five miles away and I was on my way. I like to limit my route to about three roads so I can remember them. The trip from Hertz to my drop was 10. Missed the first one, got on "5 East." I was looking for 5 North ... had to be on 5 West for about a mile before it turned into 5 North. I did write down the street names but not the distances. But I found them all ... fuel tank was flat on E for about the last 10 miles. I had memorized my range before I switched to LOW FUEL. Then when I got to my final fuel stop, I put in my fuel and checked to see how full it got. 1/8 of a tank. Thought crossed my mind to call dispatch and then I remembered. OPPS, I had only put in $10 worth of fuel, I needed to add $20 for final fuel. That did bring it up over 1/4. At this location things were a little more laid back. Even with some chip damage I was still in and out in 15 minutes. There wasn't any food close by so we went until there was some we could see from the freeway. 1/2 hour down the road, past Flint. Stopped at Wendy's for a burger. Another two hours and we stopped at Kalamazoo for fuel at a Speedway. $2.43 likely as good as we'll buy it so we filled the tank. From there it was ... more than a few hours to Hampshire where we stopped for another burger at Burger King in the TA. This exit has changed since I was here last. The Citgo diesel pumps don't look like they are being used anymore. Speedway put in a new station with truck islands and there is a new Loves truckstop. Traffic through Chicago. I drove over the speed limit for over a couple of hours and only passed two trucks. Both trucks were going well under the speed limit and one of the two had it's 4 way flashers on. All of the 1,000's of other cars and trucks passed me. Another 45 minutes from Hamshire we were at Loves Park at the Quality Inn. Had thought we'd make it to Beloit but BB looked at the motel reviews and we are here instead. Back in the double digits for RV's out of IA. Also a few trucks out of WI. Those would work for me if I was ready to go solo again. We'll see. Rental car needs to be back with about five hours of driving left for the AM. Should be doable. 190731 IA-MI We did make it home. More later WEEKS LATER - We made it home in 24 hours from pickup. Now we will head down in a day or two to pickup our car in Forest City, IA. We did one stop in Menomonie, WI at the Taco Johns. And a 2nd to fuel. Hard to do write-ups three weeks after the fact. |
