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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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191119 CA-PA We froze. Flint, OH to New Columbia, PA ... almost there. The lot did NOT fill up last night. But easier to get the early people to move than those that come in in the middle of the night. People parked across the parking spots across from me so no one was going to back into me. Breakast, large pre-made omelet and one piece of sausage. I always taste the juice before I fill my cup, this time I only tasted the apple but not the orange. Orange was water, blahhh. No where to dump it so i drank it. No yogurt for me today. Pulled out at 6:30 ... our time, so an hour later than past days. 1st stop was for fuel about 90 miles down the road at Burbank at a Love's. Things to remember. If there is room, fuel in the car islands and you don't have to come in backwards like the truck area. Pre-pay or use a corporate credit card. Personal cards will shut off at $125 and will not re-start because the pressure in the bus is already too high. Not full, but too high to re-start the pump. So I didn't get a complete fill, but I had no choice. Station manager even called the gas company. That all took over 15 minutes. 2nd stop was for lunch in Barkeyville, PA. We had the choice of the TA or Kings for sit-down. We choose Kings. They used to have great ice cream and malts. New owner and that is gone. But the food is still good. We both had a half a reuben and soup, BB had tomato and I had broccoli. My phone battery went dead as we were walking in. I didn't check in this AM. I had it plugged in but sometimes it's not a good connection. No way to charge anything in these buses so BB plugged it into a battery pack, it started recharging at 37%. Need to watch this. 3rd stop was at a rest area in Snowshoe. Truck area looked full so we parked with the cars. Quick in and out. Not much of anything today. A little snow in the ditches. Not much for traffic. Did see one oversized that had one cop escorting it. Yesterday we saw a load with four cop escorts, plus the usual pilot cars. Today we did see a semi who's trailer had about 25 axles, not loaded. 4th and final stop for the night is a Quality Inn in New Columbia. We are about five miles from the bus wash in the AM. Interesting location. At the end of a dead end street along the freeway and has a Bonanza attached to it. One of only 55 in the nation. Bonanza was doing a good business tonight. I thought it would be like the Kings we ate at at noon. For a short while we were their only customer ... at noon. Bonanza lots of food and good food. Looks like hours won't be an issue, I now can work six hours tomorrow. Should take under two. But not enough hours to take something else. Should get back home Thursday about dark. Load board is up to 22 out of IA, two for CA, two for OR. There is one here in PA going back to IA, but we need to get back before the weekend. It would make this trip pay pretty good. 191120 CA-PA WE HAVE HEAT. It's in our car and we have it cranked up :) New Columbia to Williamsport ... then to Maumee, OH and heading home in a rental car. There ended up being two runs heading back if we would have had time. One from here in PA back to IA, the other was 400 miles from here but the drop was 30 miles from our house. We passed. Breakfast meat was ham and the yogurt was lite/diet so I passed on the yogurt. Plan was to deliver at/by 11 AM and it was about 30 miles away so no early rise today. But we were still going by 7:30 local. Lot had not filled up overnight and most of the stuff from last night was gone this AM. 1st stop was the truck was in Milton. Looks like it used to be a Blue Beacon. Likely 10-20 years ago by the looks of the building. Building is in need of upkeep, trail back to it is now mostly dirt and dusty. A wet truck is not going to stay clean very long on dry days. Online said 9 AM was their busy time so we had allowed a couple of hours. It took 15 minutes. So we pulled over to the Flying J and logged off duty for an hour. Walked the parking lot for a half hour. This place is laid out like the old Petro's and it too is in need of upkeep ... as are most of the franchised Flyin J's. Shelves were empty is some places, traffic was almost none. Restaurant looked like it had a buffet but almost no customers. OK it was 10 AM for customers but everywhere we looked it was in need of some type of repair. One thing I have noticed that is missing from a few truckstop is logs. Paper logs. The kind I still have to use but most of the industry is now electronic. 2nd almost stop was the airport. I had only looked right at the airport online, not how to get in or out of it. On the online pictures it was under construction so it was hard to tell. I ended up letting BB out a few blocks away where a customer had a big lot and she walked the rest of the way. 3rd stop was the drop. I had never gotten a call back so I pulled in at the address. Opps, I needed to back out onto the street and go in a different driveway. No issues. BB wasn't there yet so I talked to the guy who signed off for a little bit. He seemed to know his CNG and which kinds were the best. As usual, BB calls in our delivery after we are on the road. This one has an issue and I have to call dispatch. I called, never heard back today. 4th stop was in Clearfield at an Arbey's. There is a Dutch Pantry two doors down that looked interesting but we want to be back Thursday night so it is fast food when we are driving. I got my usual Philly and managed to spill cheese on myself and the steering wheel ... ahhh ... when we got to Arbey's the next open parking spot was in front of the dumpsters ... it didn't say no parking so I parked. As we were leaving the lot we had to make room to meet the garbage truck ... and he headed right to the dumpsters I had been blocking. Maybe I won't block them from now on. At one of the rest area's in PA, the cops had a inspection 'sting' set up. All trucks must exit, all signs were temp. A mile down the road was a truck with a cop behind it ... guessing he thought he was exempt. Today's safety text was that a driver in NE was ticketed for 'unlawful parking.' Not sure what that is ??? ... (I've looked it up now, parking in a handicap, no parking zone, over the line into the travel lane, etc.) Somewhere today I upset someone. I was doing the speed limit and passing a truck, then when I had room to pull over, there was a cop on the shoulder so I stayed in the passing lane. Person behind me started flashing their lights at me and then cut around me and back in my lane with a foot or so to spare. He thought I should be the one not getting over one lane for the cop, not him. 5th stop ... about two hours later we need to stop for a restroom break. No rest area's so we stop at the Flying J in Hubbard, OH. Easy in and out. 6th and final stop at the Comfort Inn in Maumee (Toledo.) Somehow we made it almost three hours this time. Just getting dark so off we got. Walked a couple of blocks down the street to food inside the Holiday Inn. No street signage, the only sign on the building is on the door. Saba's Bistro. Food was good but I am tiring of Philly's. Should have gotten something else, this makes two in one day. Everything else was a little pricey. BB had fish and veggies, way too much food for her. Not too much exciting on the freeway's. Did see a few in transport. We did almost 400 miles so about 600 to go tomorrow. I used to make it this far driving trucks so I should be able to make it in a car. Then we still have to go to IA to pickup our van. Load board is up to 40 tonight, but anything on the board now will be long gone by a week from Friday when we are ready to head out. 191121 CA-PA Heading home ... We were running an hour later today, to get back on our own time zone. Down for breakfast at 7 AM and rolling by 7:30 East coast time. Breakfast was eggs, sausage and yogurt. Mostly 'lite' again, but a couple of cups of an off brand that were not lite so I got one. 1st stop was a few blocks away at the Speedway for fuel. Credit card wouldn't work again and by the time I tried the second card it said see cashier. This morning was fun for BB on the computer. The routing software was saying that going through downtown Chicago was fastest, then going through Davenport was faster than going through WI. For a while it would route us through WI if she put in Hundson, WI but when she put in our home it routed us through IA. My phone routing always did the beltway around Chicago and then up through WI. Finally her's did to but it kept her busy for a while. 2nd stop was the last oasis in IN, for the restroom. Lots of stop and go, slow and go around Chicago. Other times if you weren't going 10 over the speed limit you were likely to get hit, some lanes were going 20-30 over, including through constructions zones. So slow and go was preferred. Did see lots of transporters this AM. RV's, box trucks, delivery vans. 3rd stop was an oasis, rest area with food and gas. BB got Panda, I go McD. This oasis has 10 vendors, the prior one we stopped at had one ... and I think that was 'store brand,' not a major name like here. Nice to have the I-Pass, faster on the turnpike, open road tolling in IL and a few other places. We haven't used it much because we've been heading mostly west. 4th stop was in DeForest at another Speedway ... Ahhh ... Speedway not has chip readers. I'm guessing this AM I didn't leave my card in long enough to get read. I'm learning. New Fleet Farm across the freeway here in DeForest. This AM I got $.03 off gas for using my rewards card, I did not here. Still we saved almost $.30 a gallon by buying fuel here instead of a few miles back, thanks to gasbuddy.com. Did get an email in the last couple of days that BP is dropping their rewards card, everything is going to phone apps (so that they can track you better.) Not me, I'll pay the extra. I'm guessing that is why my Pilot rewards card doesn't always work, I haven't tied it to my phone. BB has and hers works. ... next stop was actually at an exit. Bus dispatcher finally called back just as I was passing an exit so I did a quick turn and got off before the phone stopped ringing. Don't know what the issue was but I was able to get my release number a few minutes later. One of the questions he had was if I had had any issues with the heat ... so I'm guessing someone else did too. Took him over a day to get back to me so I'm guessing he is a little backed up. 5th stop was the rest area in Menomonie. BB went in, I made more phone calls. This was almost three hours between stops, make a record for this trip. 6th stop was in Hudson for take out, we weren't sure what food might be left in the house. It is dark by the time we get home so we will be returning the car tomorrow ... and the drop would be closed when we got there tonight. So tomorrow we need to return the car in Burnsville, guess she thought we'd be coming in from the south as we usually do. But by coming straight home we saved about $100 on the car and $50 plus on a motel. Now on Sunday we will go down to IA and pick up our car. Not sure I'll do a write up on that. Board ended the day at 20, it was close to the end of the day before they added any new ones. Based on prior years, it should be 2-3-4 times this many on the board right now. This is this customers quarter end. Right now there are RV's going down to Greer, SC. And earlier there were two pickups going from Shelby, NC to Long beach. It's about 55 miles from Greer to Shelby ... now that would have been a nice first two legs of a trip. Plan is to work local Monday and Wednesday next week if I can. Then Wednesday we will grab something so we can leave out Friday. First choice is CA, second is NC, SC ... and FL. After that we'd have to do the math to see if it pays to leave town. It doesn't always if we don't have a good chance of a second leg. Three full weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plan to work most of those days and then be back in town for the week of Christmas for local work and family. Two of the last three years there have been really slim pickings in January. So we may just take whatever there is to get out in the system and to somewhere warmer. I've got my eye on some trucks out of WI, today they have one going to MS. Last week they had a rare couple of non-CDL trucks going to CA. Most are CDL. I've never taken one but I think I know which customer they are coming out of. |
