 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
(The above bus is one I have been asked to drive, but haven't yet.) Two RV's leaving Sunday, one for UT, one for CA. The usual dilemma for work. Things change as we watch. Called into dispatch on Wednesday before Thanksgiving for work leaving Monday. But for the first time since I've worked there, they are going to be open on Black Friday and that Saturday so we can't call in until the usual times. 24 hours before we leave. So we lost out on the good runs going down by San Diego. Those runs were gone by Friday when we could call in. Our new choice was the UT-CA run, two for Salem, OR or the Carolina's. Taking the split run shorts BB $300 because she is not running the whole trip. We don't like to do that. But the Salem run puts us 10 hours away from our next trip, time wasted. And we later found out that the rental car would be twice the daily rate as anywhere else. Trip miles between the CA run and the OR run were almost the same. 3rd choice would have been going to the Carolina's. Various locations but it is only a two day run (pay) vs the four days going west. And return trips have been more hit and miss ... and shorter than the west coast. Finally Friday morning we decide to call in for the UT-CA run and if it is gone (1st call, 1st get,) we would hold off and do the math on the other trips. Called in 10 times over the first 5 minutes before someone picked up. Only one person working the phones and they weren't putting anyone on hold, just letting the other phones ring. I was ready to give up thinking the person on Wednesday told me wrong. BB is taking the one going to UT, north Salt Lake. It is less than 20 miles out of route so it shouldn't slow us down too much, just something we have to schedule in. Mine is going to the usual Sacramento location. Should be able to drop BB's on Wednesday and still make delivery on mine on Thursday. Both unit's are no tow so they pay us extra for transportation so that makes up the $300 we'll 'loose' by dropping one in UT. Dispatch did add a few more runs including a second one to CA. But, once you take a run you are committed. No switching unless your's breaks down in the lot. Just looked back and for the last four years, the load board has gotten up to between 80-90 right around Thanksgiving. And for the last three years the board has gotten down to -0- by the middle of December. This is likely our only RV run this month. We need to be back now for a followup dentist appointment on the 20th. And I always try to work quarter end locally. Did get a couple of days of metro work but no all day runs. When I was in the office one of the dispatchers asked if I wanted a dispatching job (they know I've done it there before,) I think I've heard that comment from half the people in the office so I didn't think too much about it. A couple of days later I hear more bits and pieces and it sounds like this time they really are looking for a dispatcher. Now the forecast has changed and we may have been better off leaving yesterday or today. More later. And now it's later. We had a few things to do this AM before we got going at noon. Shoveled the snow one more time, etc. Traffic was slow most of the way. We go as far as Albert Lea to the Comfort Inn. It's been a while since we stayed in Forest City. Nicer motel here. If we leave right after breakfast we should get to Forest City just before sunrise. No stops this trip, until we were in Albert Lea, then we stopped and got new wipers as they started falling apart today, we'll have to put them on at some point. Then we stopped for fuel so the van will be almost full as it sits for a couple of weeks before being moved again. Checked in about 3 PM, then walked next door to the Iron Skillet for food about 5 PM. Buffet, stuffed ourselves. Sounds like the roads are closed in SD. We should be OK and staying far enough south on I-80. NOPE, it's a little later and now I-80 is closed from Ogallala, NE to Laramie, WY. By the looks of the map, it looks like every major road in NE west and north of Ogallala is closed. But we are a day plus away. WY says the roads should be open by Sunday morning ... before noon. We won't get there until Monday afternoon so ... they storm is moving east so we will see what is closed tomorrow, I haven't seen a forecast as to how fast or where the storm is moving. I've added a couple of pictures to this 'trip,' it looks like the way I have this set up that each group in the upper left is a trip and pictures are posted to whichever group I put them under. 100 total pictures, 90 to go. I think I will try to add at least one picture per vehicle and then just delete the older ones when the file starts getting full. I'm already moving by write-ups to my personal site after about six months. Had throat issues again yesterday, first time since before Easter. I think I may have it figured out now but I still need to deal with it. 191201 IA-UT-CA 2 RV's, one to UT, one to CA ... got as far as York tonight. Not much updates on the weather map this AM but we are assuming everything will clear by the time we get there. We are likely the first people down for breakfast at 6 AM. It's Sunday so there is bacon. That does seem to be the routine. The help today was talkative, we just wanted to eat. Enough snow last night that the sliding doors and the rear hatch on the van are all frozen shut. Easy enough to clear off and we are rolling. Roads are still not good this AM so we are running a little slower on both the freeway and the side roads. Kwik Trip in Forest City is open, it wasn't two weeks ago. We are the first ones in the lot since the snow, no tracks. Lucky both our RV's have clickers so they are much easier to find. Otherwise it is take a guess and start clearing off windows so you can read the until number. Lot is mostly slush, so far. It takes us our usual hour, sometimes the smaller ones don't take quite as long but with the snow we weren't setting any records. We both have a half a tank of fuel so that is both a $$ bonus and we can make it to Clear Lake for fuel where it is cheaper. It is $2.19 at the Pilot in Clear Lake and $2.19 again on the west side of Omaha where we will need fuel next. Neither of our rewards cards gave us our $03 cents off today. BB's pump turned on but wouldn't pump fuel so all this takes a little longer. Also there was a tour bus there, luckily they were done with the restrooms and just standing around indoors. Interesting to watch the driver and guide as they shoveled a path across the parking lot, had a little stand for water and snacks as they got back onto the bus. Ankey rest area ... Last time were were through here it the signs also said Scale. Now the bottom half of the sign is still green, but the Scale wording is gone (again.) NO idea what that was about. 2nd stop to day is lunch in Des Moines at the Bonanza Buffet. We are the second ones in there, the opened at 11 and we were there a couple of minutes after. Food was good and fresh, not too busy for a Sunday, but it was early and a holiday weekend. In and out in 45 minutes. 3rd stop is our usual Adair rest area. 4th is back to the BP on the west end of Des Moines. On line it said the QT price was high but a billboard said it was the same as the BP. But we had said we'd stop at the BP so we did. Looks like they are putting up a new building next to our Quality Inn there, too early to tell if it is fast food. WILLIE ... I have Willie radio. But today I don't listen as they are doing a replay of FarmAid. I start with Bluegrass for the 1st couple of hours and then BB tells me that Yoakam is doing a Thanksgiving special ... he is also on channel 349 on radio's that have that channel ... so I listen to that the rest of the day. Wind is still brisk, both hands but not white knuckle. Wind did grab me a couple of times. Fuel mileage is really bad heading into this wind, we might be paying more for fuel than we get for fuel this trip. We had hoped to get to Omaha or Lincoln, at Omaha fueling we realize we can make it to York. Grand Island would have been just past sunset. 5th and final stop is York at the Comfort Inn. Called a Comfort Inn, priced like a Comfort Inn, but I'd be hard pressed to find anything in here nicer than the Super 8 that it looks like, other than the breakfast. Not impressed. Lot is icy so we have to take the long way to get to the door. No one else here at 4 PM on a Sunday. Still windy so we walk to the closest food. KFC and Taco Bell next door. Lots of fast food within sight but we go for close. I had the three taco hard shells and BB has a salad. Not much chance we'll back delivery in UT on Tuesday but close. Looks like less wind tomorrow. Looking at our stops tomorrow, they are all going to be the same as last trip. So not too much exciting. Pretty uneventful today. Not much traffic, no road rage, nothing going on in the fields. Stayed right around freezing all day, mostly cloudy. Tomorrow should be routine as well. Tuesday will put a new twist in our routine. 191202 IA-UT-CA <<< Photo <<< AM UGGGH Weather had forecast that I-80 would be closed (except for car) for 12-14 hours. We thought it was to start at 5 AM, but nothing yet. That will delay my drop but not BB's ... if that's the only delay. PM We are shut down in Laramie, WY. Forecast says we will stay shut down until 5 PM tomorrow ... and the sun sets at 4:30 so we need to be off the road by then. 2 RV's, one to UT, one to CA ... made it to Laramie, WY tonight. Breakfast, the usual, eggs, sausage and yogurt. Apple juice smelled fermented, the orange juice tasted like water. Thick frost on the windows this AM, couldn't figure out why my headlights wouldn't work. They were working, I just couldn't see them with all the frost. Got going before daylight. I guess we didn't look at the sunrise time when we decided when to get going. BB hasn't said anything about it so it must have been OK. We were on the road for about 15 minutes before first light. 1st stop was the rest area near Cozad. We had enough fuel to get to our 2nd stop plus a range of 30 miles extra. I had thought of skipping the rest area and just going on to Cozad for fuel. That is what we did last time. We decided to go for it. When our range got down to 50 miles we got a warning. When the range got down to 25 it stops counting. So I slowed down a little and the gauge was below E when we got to the station. The way it was dropping I think we had a range of about 10 miles when we stopped, so about a half gallon of gas. Lots of birds today. 100's in various ponds and fields. Must be the right mix of food and open water. They look to be mostly geese. Not sure how much room they need to land and take off between birds. Some were coming into a pond but it was right as I was passing the pond and I had a truck next to me. Priorities. Did see at least one truck laying on it's side in the ditch. Doesn't have to have had anything to do with the weather. No scales open yet this trip. And we would be exempt from most of them. We are under 10,000# but some still say to cross the scales. Looks like they are going to build either a new scale or rest area just west of Ogallala on the east bound lanes. 2nd stop ... 10 miles is a long ways when your fuel gauge is below E, but we made it. We had said WalMart so that is where we went, fuel was the same price at the Casey's. Not sure why that doesn't get updated. Next time I will likely just stop at Casey's. Less stop lights to get to it and back to the freeway. Not sure what the difference is on the two RV's, I can squeeze in almost a gallon and not be running any on the ground. On BB's when it stops, if you re-start to see if it is full it is running on the ground? Plan had been to eat here in Ogallala but it is not even 10 AM local ... so we'll eat at our next stop in Sidney. Mileage is better today, yesterday when it would downshift the mileage was down to 4 mpg. Today it drops to 8 mpg, less wind ... so far. I see and think of dozens of things every day that could be added to this write-up ... if I could only remember them. 3rd stop is at Arbey's in Sidney. I couldn't see if the taco place a t Love's was open yet or not. That is our stopping place if we don't need to eat. French Dip for me, turkey club for BB. We were done in a half hour but killed an extra 15 minutes just because. We did see one short bus in transport, I could tell it was already decaled so I didn't think it was new. Missed the placard with the name but the plate was one of ours. 4th stop the POE in Wyoming. Two minutes and $20 and we are ready to go. We had seen it on the overhead sign and now again on the screen on the POE. I-80 CLOSED to high profile units, wind gusts 65+. We are supposed to shut down at 30 mph gusts. That is at Laramie and supposed to last until 5 PM tomorrow. A few gusts before Laramie were moving the RV's around. On a couple of hills we had to slow way down, the RV kept wanting to tach out at almost 7,000. So there must have been a huge headwind. Usually I run under 2,000 and the 1st downshift puts it at 3,000, 2nd downshift at 4,000. 5th and final stop is Laramie. First we fuel at the Love's, if the pump would give us our discount it would have been $.03 less at the Pilot. But fuel here is $2.69 instead of $2.19. Truckstops are already filling up with RV's. Then across the freeway to the Comfort Inn. Not even 4 PM and we are off the road (It would have been tight to make it to Rawlins in daylight.) Too early to eat so we are in for a while. We got an upgrade, second night in a row. This one has a jacuzzi. Can't remember the last time we used one of those. Looks like I will have plenty of time to be on the computer ;) About 5 PM local we drove the mile to the Iron Skillet / Petro for the buffet. Not a lot of good stuff, BB was wondering if Monday's are the left overs from the weekend. Might be why the price is less on Mondays? But, as always, we didn't go away hungry. Got back and the cookies were gone, this motel serves one batch of cookies every day. When we checked in they said they would be ready at 4 PM. I was going to grab one on the way to eat but we went out a different door and I forgot. Yep, all the cookies were gone and there was one truck in the lot. Or do they just set out a plate with crumbs and say 'sorry.' Lot board is up again, they added quite a few yesterday. 44 was the ending number. A couple of RV's to FL would have been our longest run. 191203 IA-UT-CA 7 AM. Yep, roads closed and we are sitting. The roads were open last night by the time we went to bed up closed again by the time we got up. So we wait. As we sit we have time to look at our load board. Last week we had the chance to take 2 RV's to the Carolina's. Now today they have another truck coming back to a few miles of my house. We could have been almost out and back by the time we leave Laramie. We will spend the day watching the weather. We need to leave here by 2 PM to make it to Rawlin's, the next town with motels. If not, we will leave early tomorrow and should still be able to make BB's drop Wednesday PM. I haven't done the math yet to see when I will know that I've missed my Thursday drop. 9:30 UPDATE - they just closed the road completely until further notice due to 'Winter Conditions and Crashes.' Doesn't mention the wind anymore. 3 PM UPDATE - the hotel would only give us until noon to check out. And BB was looking at the weather it was unlikely to reopen in time for us to make it to Rawlins. And nothing is really gained in making it to Rawlins other than being on the other side of this mess. So at 11:30 we decided to make reservations for another night here. About this time house cleaning knocked at my door and I told them we were staying. They handed me their phone and i thought I was supposed to talk to the front desk. Nope, I was supposed to speak into the phone so they could read what I was saying. I later asked at the front desk, the person wasn't deaf, they just don't understand spoken English but can read it. There are now trucks parked everywhere, they try to park on the shoulder of the road, should of the ramp and then as fast as he can the cop is back to chase the on. We decided to walk to eat, as there isn't much for parking anywhere. Back to the Iron Skillet. Food was better today, more choices that I liked so I didn't go away hungry. Place was almost full and they ran out of places for a while. Today I had ribs, salisbury steak, salad, scalloped potatoes and more. At lunch we got to listen to a drive talk to someone on his phone about how he was going to take the 'goat path' to get around the other side of the mountain. BB is looking now and it is about 160 miles of two lane curve road. Sounds like US-30 used to be a option but now they have been closing that also. When we walked back we also did a little extra walk, and we could watch the trucks trying to find a place to park. It is going to be a mess for a few hours after the road does open. 7 PM - Roads did open a little after 3 PM but by then we were checked in the room for another day. I happened to be looking out the window when the cop backed down the ramp and re-moved the cones blocking the highway. And it was a zoo for a while, watching all the cars and trucks trying to get on the freeway. It was pretty easy to merge on, they had closed the freeway from Cheyenne to here a little earlier. Took a while for the website to get updated, and even longer for them to get it right. The highway is still closed to high profile vehicles. Hoping it is open by morning. 26 on the loadboard tonight. Coming west there are a few to MT and one to ID, that's it. We already had had one buffet today so we drove to Wendy's. Not that far but it is across the freeway in the dark with no sidewalk. And tonight there were still cookies. Just hit the re-fresh button on the WY highway website and all is clear. We are good to go :) The next two days will be long ... 191204 IA-UT-CA 2 RV's, dropped one today in UT, will drop the other one Friday in CA. Nothing boring about today. Alarm went off at 4 AM, BB was already up and I was already awake. This place has a box of 'to go' breakfasts, haven't seen that other places. We had seen it here yesterday so we knew it was available. A bottle of water, a cup of apple sauce and a granola bar. And they had some stuff set out already so I grabbed a yogurt and BB grabbed at banana. Left out at 5 AM local, guess breakfast takes a half hour? It didn't go too bad being dark, but the firs sign we saw was for high winds and ice. So no cruise the 1st two legs of the journey today. Somewhere early on I looked back and saw two semi's and no BB. Slowed down and then realized that it was one semi behind BB and I could see their lights over the top of the RV. One of the overhead signs was a re-reminder of the high winds and a also stated that the Rest Area was full and no parking on the highway ... but we kept going. Did feel the wind a few times, no ice that I could see. Did miss one rabbit today, a few miles down the road was one that didn't make it. Both big white bunnies. Didn't see any deer in the dark. Only saw one semi in the ditch in the dark. Could have been more. I was busy watching the road and holding on with both hands. Not sure how many crashes it takes to close the freeway. 1st stop is in Rawlins at the Flying J for the rest rooms. It got light just before we got there. Trucks parked everywhere including the car lot. Quick in and out. 2nd stop is in Rock Springs at Angry's (Shell) again for rest rooms. We had talked about eating at the A&W there but they wouldn't open until 10 AM and it is only 9. Fog moved in while we were there and we couldn't see the hills across the freeway. It was a long 100 miles with fog most of the way. Some places the visibility was down to 1/10 of a mile. BB said she lost me one time because she happened to drop back further than that. Closer to Evanston I had caught up to a set of pups that were really wagging. Then the road went to single lane going down a hill and the pups must have been riding the breaks because I could really smell them. I decided to give this guy some room. Later on the up-hill I passed him ... it was being towed, tractor, pups and all. We had seen this guy earlier when he was disconnecting the driveshaft on the tractor. Must have passed us at our last break. Another thing I saw that you don't see often. I saw a set of disconnected UPS pups sitting in a rest area ... no tractor, just the pumps. Not sure the story there. 3rd stop is the Flying J in Evanston. So far this is the exact sequence as last time on this route. BB puts in enough fuel to get to her drop and I fill up. After running on E earlier this trip she makes sure she has enough ... and still has a range of 100 miles when she gets to her final fuel. We also eat here at the Subway. Only place in town with enough parking. I had a new dark cherry chocolate cookie at Subway. Good but so sweet it made my mouth hurt. When I paid they asked if I wanted to use my rewards points, I didn't as I didn't think I had enough ... when the receipt printed out it said I had over $58 ... that is after buy the ice cream last night with points. Not sure when I ran that many up, it doesn't seem like we spend much at Flying J. Off to the drop. 1st time I have ever seen the lights not blinking for the scale to be open. I started at a while to make sure. The only other time I know this scale was close, was because I was sitting on the scale and the bus wouldn't start. They were not happy with me that day. Found the drop by having looked at map last night. BB stopped and fueled, I went to the drop and logged off duty. Did make some phone calls before BB got there. Dispatch, to tell them I'd be dropping a day late. The drop, to tell them I'd be there on Friday. The bus dispatcher to let him know I was on my way. And the permit company to get my NV permit. One travel trailer was getting inspected when we got there so we didn't have to go look for anyone, never did go in the building. We were in and out in a little over a half hour. No driver damage. 5th stop was at the Flying J in Tooele for fuel. I wasn't going to make it to my final fuel in Battle Mountain from Evanston so this was a good stopping point. Also the fuel was cheap and BB wasn't going to make it 150 miles between restroom stops. Snow on the ground so I got to thinking ... and remembered to look it up. One place said the lake would start freezing at -10 but another place says the lake never freezes. And I can't find a date that it has ever frozen. Foggy again so we can't see the hills until we are almost to Wendover, usually we can see them 60+ miles out. Had to cross our 1st and only scale this trip just before Wendover. I've never seen anyone stopped here, the main scale is on the other side of the freeway and it is being watched from there ... I guess. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. Quality Inn for now, not sure how much longer. Although they did just re-do the front desk area last year. The rest of the building is showing its age and lack of up keep. It doesn't help that the first two parking spots are taken up by cars that don't run. Usually we walk a couple of blocks to the buffet at the casino, but that would be the fourth day in a row for a buffet. So BB found a Mexican place within walking distance. It might be the only non fast food or buffet in town. Write up's were good, food was so-so. Less than half the price of the buffet ... even cheaper when you forget to leave a tip. We were on our way back when I remembered and didn't feel like walking back ... so next time :) . 500 plus miles today, another 500 miles tomorrow. IF we had wanted to get up at 3 or 4 tomorrow we might have been able to make delivery tomorrow, but then I wouldn't have enough DOT hours to pick up a bus. It was a weather delay ... actually dispatch never asked why when I told them I'd be a day late. Either they are watching the weather or don't care. Load board is down to 20 out of IA. ... the trip continues HERE |
