 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
It will likely be another year before we are back on the road anywhere near full time. Plan was to do a couple of back to back trips in Sep, but life has thrown us another curve ball. No. But we are doing a short one today, tomorrow. We called in this AM and got two RV's going to Brainerd, MN. So we could have done this one in one day but decided to do it over two days. We have enough motel rewards points. We didn't have a definite plan, only that we need to deliver by 4 pm Wednesday. We thought if we left our house by three we'd get the RV's picked up tonight. We didn't get out of the house right on time and about half way down we decided to go to the motel before picking up the RV's and get a fresh start first thing in the AM. So now our plan is to be to the lot by 7:30, they open at 8 so we will have our paperwork out of the box before they get in. Because we said we'd pick them up today, we will need to do our daily call in for tomorrow. We stopped at the Comfort Inn in Albert Lea and walked next door to the Iron Skillet. Good food, all we can eat. Since we were here last time the truck stop had taken out the Cold Stone Ice Cream and maybe something else and replaced it with a Taco Bell. Other times when I have needed to be home, my other company has kept me busy 3-4 days a week. Not this year. Mostly one day a week all summer. Finally last week was three day. Not sure what next week will bring, but I need to be working closer to 3-4 days a week. Either local or over the road or at another job. ??? 190904 IA-MN Alarm went off at 5 am, breakfast at 6 am. Scrambled eggs, bacon and cherry yogurt. Picked up our paperwork at 7:15. There are a lot more RV's in the lot than are showing up our board for the drivers to pick from. Managed to get our RV's checked out in under an hour. No issues. My RV was full of fuel so no fuel up-charge, no way for me to make money on the fuel this trip. BB has to guess on her fuel and fuels for the 1st time in Forest City. She will end up making about $20 on fuel for this one day trip. This is a day of stops. Six, for a 261 mile trip. Next stop is at the rest area near Northfield, MN. Have to make a few phone calls so we use the full 15 minute break. I had planned on stopping again at a rest area near St Cloud, but BB was going to be ready to eat before that. (I thought we'd make it to Brainerd before eating) We stop at Clearwater at Nelson's. Great food, had the 1/2 sandwich and soup. Might be the same thing we had last time. This time we didn't get the carrot cake. A few miles up the road we stop again for more fuel for BB. Holiday in Little Falls. Next stop at Hertz in Baxter. No one at the office so we are picking the keys up from the front desk at another company in the same building. We found a place to park and left one RV. We get the first RV to the drop and stage it, then back to pick up the 2nd RV. BB needs to do a final fuel, so she fuels at the Holiday near the Hertz. Once both RV's are at the lot we go in and give them our paperwork and wait for them to get inspected. The customer can't get the generator started on mine, but that isn't a driver issue so we both deliver clear. By now I have accepted work for tomorrow from the other company so we need to get back and drop the car ... before dark. At St Cloud we stop at the Culver's and then eat in the car. Culver's was the closest food place to the highway on this route. We get back home and throw our bags in the house and grab a 2nd car. Now we are driving straight into the setting sun ... through road construction. Somehow we both make it :) I have time to take one grave picture at Fort Snelling before I get the call to pick up BB. It is almost a 14 hour day by the time we get home ... and we still need to get our car in IA someday. If I hadn't been working tomorrow we'd have used the rental car to get our car. But I need to work when there is work. And we have plenty of cars right now. Motel last night was paid with rewards points and the we only paid $2 for the rental car the rest was paid for with rewards points. Not sure when our next overnight will be. We will likely go to IA in two weeks for a safety meeting ... and who knows when they will put more local stuff on the board. |
