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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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191205 IA-CA Got the remaining RV from Wendover, UT to Rocklin, CA today, BB is just along for the ride. Breakfast wasn't until 6:30 local so we slept in, kind of. First thing I hear this AM is the TV from the guy in the next room. It was also the last thing I heard last night. Not loud, just on. Breakfast was the usual. Eggs were real. Lots of food out for the five or so people that were here last night. IT SNOWED. Pretty. BB's suitcase was a snowplow, she had to pick it up every little bit to get over the pile she was dragging. I did complain to the desk when I checked out. The motel has about 100 rooms and they have to put someone in the next room? Slush. Roads have been plowed but some places only a lane and a half. I didn't use the cruise until about the fourth hour. Followed another RV transporter for quite a ways until he must have finally kicked it down to 70. Lots of signs advising of slick spots but didn't notice any myself. 1st stop was at Elko at the Sinclair for a restroom. In and out the back door so it was quick. We had seen three cops the first two hours so I was expecting the first inspection station to be closed. It was, but just as we came up to it one of the cops made a u-turn through the median and pulled into the inspection area. Not sure if he was going to open it or not. One of those cops we saw was behind a U-Haul pulling a car, and the car had a flat tire ... and he stopped half in the travel lane because the shoulder wasn't plowed. Unfortunately not everyone gets an elevator that goes all the way to the top. :( By the time we got closer to Battle Mountain I had stated using the cruise again. Lots of fog again this AM, don't remember where. Off and on all the way across NV. A couple of places would have made really good pictures if I had stopped. one was near Emigrant Pass. When you looked in the distance the landscape was three different colors. I think it was from no clouds. clouds and fog and then just fog. Later coming up to Battle Mountain you could see the town, then there was a layer of fog, above that you could see the mountains and above that was clouds again. But by the time we were in town we were under the fog and no picture. 2nd stop was Battle Mountain for fuel. This should be enough, or more than enough to get me to the drop. Gas is a little cheaper ahead but then I would have to guess on the gallons. Here I know when I fill the range will show 375 and it is 360 to my drop. Tomorrow we will know how close it came. 3rd stop was Lovelock at the Golden Gate truckstop and the Port O Subs. We have eaten at others and maybe even this one. No line when we got there, line when we left. I got the ham and swiss ... and once they changed the sign from Clam Chowder to Chicken Wild Rice ... I had soup. No issues with Reno, that inspection station was closed also. Got through before rush hour so it was the speed limit right through town. Glad the CA Scales say TRUCKS ONLY, the line was a mile long, an actual mile. First they have to cross the scale and then go through the fruit inspection station. Today we actually got asked a few questions. There were two of them standing there so I'm guessing one of them was new. 4th stop ... Donners Pass. And there is snow. Banks along the highway where the snow blowers have been were about six feet high. Not high for here, but it is for where I come from. When I got to the rest area I pulled into the car spots as I didn't want to tie up a truck spot with one RV. And I picked one in the snow as it was out of the way for my longer vehicle. BB had already switched out of her boots so that wasn't a good choice. Then when I came out, we noticed that there was only one truck (out of 20 spots) and about 5 cars. We could have parked anywhere. It's (almost) all down hill from here. My range actually went back up for a while. I think the low fuel light might be on by the time I get another 30 miles to the drop. 5th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. We've been here at least a half dozen times now. We pulled in at 3:15 PM local. So if we had gotten up at 4 AM again today, we could have made delivery. After checking in we waited until closer to 5 PM to walk over to Wally's Cafe for a couple of gyro's. Good food, not much business. None of the food places in the strip mall had much for business tonight. But it was early. That was our walk for tonight. Tomorrow we sleep in, get to the drop about 10 AM then find out about 5 PM if we have a bus today. If no, we get to decide if we stay in CA :) or head back home. Board is just under 20 today. BB hasn't gotten paid yet today. That is very unusual for her. She is usually paid within a couple of hours of when they get the paperwork. For me it is usually a day or two. Not sure the difference. 191206 IA-CA RV from IA to Davis, CA ... delivered. No bus today or over the weekend. No alarm today ... so we were both up by 5. Ate breakfast and then sat in our room until 9 AM. This has worked out good the last couple of trips. Stay in Rocklin, about 30 miles before the drop. Wait until rush hour is over and delivery about 10 AM. 1st stop was the Sinclair in Davis for fuel. No issues or even slow downs getting to Davis this AM. This station is about two blocks from the drop. Paperwork says to fuel back at the 49'er truck stop. Not sure why. It is a Pilot but the gas pumps are very congested and there is always a line at the diesel pumps. 2nd stop is the drop. I could have dropped BB off at the car rental place but she would rather walk from the drop. One RV ahead of me. I let them know I'm there and start unloading my stuff. At some point I had noticed an RV with lots of circles on the windows where the chips were and took a picture of ... then they started circling chips on my windshield. Usually I can hear when the window chips. I heard the sand hitting but didn't realize it was chipping the glass. There was also a dozen chips on the side of the RV from the rocks. Someone that was walking past said it was time to have them flat bedded so they can cover the windows. :( ... or don't order them to ship in the winter ?? No damage on my part, BB was back and had everything loaded long before they were done inspecting. Because of the damage I had to call dispatch and send in photos. Our 3rd stop was an In-and-Out Burger. Seems to be our CA tradition after delivery. We sat outside, one other person was also but I guess it's already cold for the CA folks. I had called the bus dispatcher from as soon as they signed my paperwork in Davis. He didn't sound too promising but said I could call back at 3:15. So we headed to Livermore after we were done eating. From Davis it shows the shortest or fasts way is down I-680 almost to Oakland. Still takes us about an hour and a half. Their prior location was only a few miles away but took us down I-5. We get to Livermore and spend an hour walking. 2nd trip around there was a truck getting a ticket. Instead of parking in the loading area, they had parked on the street closest to the store's back door. So as they are getting their packages signed for they are watching the cop write them a ticket. Merry Christmas. ... and we also saw a rear-end accident. We were within feet, they were stopped at a stop sign and ... who knows what. No damage that I could see and they drove away before we had walked too far. Lots of shoppers, lots of new buildings near the outlet center since we were here six months ago. Called back at 3:15, no work. There are already seven drivers in motels waiting for buses. But the loadboard in IA is down to 4 so no reason to head back yet. And Donners Pass is supposed to be closed for a day or two. Bummer part is that it is supposed to rain this weekend so not sure what we will do. We do need to stop and get our paperwork changed on the rental car. They called tonight and wanted to do it yet tonight but we were almost to where we were going to eat so we said we'd be in in the AM. We both spent a lot of time looking for places to eat, finally settled on BJ's. Not the same family style place that owns 4B's. This one has 200+ locations and is quite large. Maybe 2-3 times as large as an Applebee's. Not cheap, but the food was good ... so were the deserts :) We need to be back by the 20th for my dentist appointment. I said I would call the bus dispatcher back at noon on Monday if we were still in town. ... and we will be unless someone puts something interesting on the board tomorrow. Would be nice to run down to San Diego, but that is an eight hour drive ... each way. 191207 CA We are 'waiting for work' so I am still showing this as part of the MN to CA run. No work so we have a two day re-start. Slept in until 5 AM local, don't want to get to used to this time zone. Went down for breakfast at 7 AM. We aren't the only ones here but it seems like it. This place is still re-doing the rooms. About a dozen cars in the lot so maybe one third - one fourth full. Usual eggs, sausage and yogurt. Haven't been on a scale, might have to go back to one or the other. Rental car needed to be back by 10 AM so we left the motel at 9 AM. Planned on fueling next door but everything was coned off. Prices still on the sign but all cones. But lots of stations. Rental car place was busy and the lot was full. Maybe took us a half hour to get in and out. Forecast was for rain today but it is mostly clear right now so we head to Santa Cruz. About an hour from where we are. We went through it last time we were here and luckily hadn't stopped as we got a call for a run shortly after passing through. I hadn't looked at directions so BB was telling me where to go as we drove. Got near where we wanted to be and I took a different turn than she had looked at and ended up ON the pier instead of next to it. Next to it had maybe 15 spots, out on the pier has room for 100. We parked and walked on the pier for a while. Nice but windy, cap on tight, or backwards, or not at all. Pretty quiet here, off season. Parking on the pier today is $1 an your. Peak season it is $3 an hour. A few shops on the pier, a half dozen places to eat ... and a view. Also lots of sea lions hanging out today under the pier, some of them had found a way to get up on the lower beams. We only saw one try to get up and it found a beam that was loose and it just flipped it back in the water. After looking at most of the menu's we ended up at Woodies Cafe. BB got the fish and chips, I got a Hawaiian burger. Not a lot of non-fish choices. There computer crashed while we were ordering so we were there an hour plus. Food was really good, even the fries. We had a window seat so we could watch all the surfers. Then we went for a walk on land, the pier is right next to an amusement park. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Sounds like it has the longest running horse carousel. Two of their rides are on the National Historic Landmark list. This carousel was built in 1911. This place is always 'open.' Meaning you can walk through it at any time. Very few rides open to day, plus a few vendors. Not many people and fewer customers. This part of the walk likely took us about an hour and then we were done. Took a short drive to one of the light houses, just drove past and turned around. From up here on the cliff we could now see a lot more serfers. A dozen, maybe two. Headed back the way we came, then turned south on the 101. Did get to see a little of the town of Morgan Hill as BB just pegged in the city and not the motel. Depending on the software you are using it will take you either to the center of town, city hall or the post office. We got to see the city hall. Didn't realize it until it said "your destination is on the left." Then a couple of blocks from the motel, we pass an RV dealer we've delivered to. Not sure when, couldn't find it yet, but we both remember it. Tonight could end up being an expensive night out. 1st we pay $15 for a buffet that was mostly a salad bar and then coming back to the hotel I swing wide turning onto your street in the dark and rain and hit a drop off and do some minor damage to the rental car. We spend a lot of time online looking at places to eat and BB finally picks a Mexican place. It's only a couple of miles, when we get close there are cop cars and fire trucks in the area so we are circling through the crowded parking lot. We finally find a parking spot and walk inside. There is a line and they are taking names. We don't even put our names on the list, we don't want to wait. So now it's my choice, we drive past the deli before I realize it is there. And I'm not sure what I want. At a buffet I can decide what I want as I stand there. We keep driving across the street and are at Sizzler. I must have forgotten something about them or this one is different. $15 and very little hot food. Taco and spaghetti fixings for hot food. Soft serve and toppings for desert. The rest was salad bar items. Over all they likely have more items than Shoney's but very little hot food. But I still got full. Could have gotten just as full across the parking lot. As we were walking back to our car, I noticed that Mike's Pizza had an all you can eat buffet for $10. THEN coming back to the motel, I overshoot the turn in the dark and hit a drop off. Not good. Not a lot of damage but each piece can add up to big bucks. But, it's done now. IA board is back to -0-. Now work to go back for there. A few in MN but nothing in WI either. 191208 CA Weekend day two. Could have slept better, damaging the rental car is going to bug me for a bit. Finally got up at 6:30 local. Stuck with just yogurt this AM, could have been the worrying that was upsetting my stomach, or too much food last night. Then went out and looked at the car. I was able to anchor some of it back up with tie-wraps and just decided to take other parts off. Later when we left we looked at where I must have driven, two more hunks of plastic there. Later looking at the car again they were most likely mine. It looks like what happened was, I swung wide when I turned on to the street. Instead of there being a shoulder, there was a drain hole to run water under the street. One side of the street is paved and curbed, the other is dirt that is not at street height. About 10 AM we left for Pebble Beach ... area. I had thought we could stop at a cemetery on the way down but it was still raining. It quit by the time we got to the beach. Actually we stopped at a lighthouse first. It was closed. Right across the street was a cemetery with deer grazing. They were still there four hours later when we were leaving town. A few blocks from the light house ... imagine that, a lighthouse by a beach ... we parked and walked on the beach for a bit. Found the rock in memory of John Denver. Watched the waves, watched the birds, watched the surfer. Then we drove a mile or so and walked on a trail along the cliff for another half hour. ... and after that it was time to eat. Ate at a place called the Red House ... and it was a red house. Place was full so we were the 1st people to sit at the tables outside. A few minutes later there was a line, I think there was still a line when we left. I got eggs benedict and BB got a chicken sandwich. Both very good. Right across the street was a candy house. We didn't go in, we were both stuffed. After we ate, we circle back around to the lighthouse. Walked around the outside of the building and left. We didn't pay to go inside, we didn't pay for anything today except food. A few blocks away was the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. It's only a couple of acres of woods but we likely spent an hour there. Interesting to note that 20 years ago there was an estimated 45,000 at this location. Two years ago there were 1,000. This year less than that. Instead of there being butterflies everywhere, there is a volunteer there to point out where they are. We talked to the guy for over half the time we were there. It does sound like there was an increase in the numbers of the 'eastern' ones, the ones that go to Mexico for the winter. After we left the butterflies, we drove down along the cliffs again on our way out of town. It was no longer raining on the way back so we stopped at the cemetery. The office is closed on Saturday and Sundays. 2,000+ graves so we didn't even walk around looking. Others that were there had their lawn chairs. It is different out here. We went back to the motel for a while before going to Erik's Deli to eat. Originally I had looked at a different deli but then I saw this one last night and forgot the name of the other one. Two meals today that were more BB's 'healthy' style. She just had soup and I had soup and a reuben. Sandwich was good, soup was a little weak, thin. BB's had some kick to it. Later BB said they did have cookies, I didn't notice, but I did see they had big pieces of carrot cake. Driving back in the dark tonight, it was easy to see how I did what I did. Still not a good feeling. Likely won't be tomorrow when we turn the car back in. Plan is to get back into town (where we rented it) early and stop and talk to them before we drop the car. Then when we drop it will just be the usual drop the keys. 191209 CA Still no work. Went down and ate breakfast, then finally got going just before checkout at 11 AM. When we left Morgan Hill, we drove right past the RV dealer we have dropped at. I even picked out the motel we stayed at. Nope. I was able to find the trip write-up. We did deliver there but had not stayed there. That trip was a stop-list only but it filled in the blanks. Not much new on the freeway, we've been this route a few times before. Stopped for lunch in Dublin at a place called the Copper Skillet. Clearly a former Pizza Hut building. I got a chicken salad sandwich and BB had a BLT. Good, but nothing great. It sits at the intersection of two major freeways so it is a ways to the exists and then back tracking on city streets to get to it. For that reason not sure if we'd come back. Next for the fun. We head to the rental car place to show them the damage. The person we talked to didn't seem to keen on not being able to collect from the insurance company. He didn't seem to understand why we would want to pay for it ourselves. But nothing they would/could do now until we return it. As soon as we got to 'our' outlet mall, I called our insurance company and then had to wait about an hour for him to call back. There is no deductible on rental cars. And he couldn't tell us if the rates would go up with we filed a claim. But based on the numbers, it will likely be cheaper to let insurance pay and raise our premiums. Where it could be an issue is if we have another accident, then there is a pattern and up our rates go. But we will deal with it tomorrow, have to have the car back by 10 AM and we will switch out to another car then. On the way to the outlet center we drove past the buses. Lots of them, just not parked in the 'done' area. Also saw the Goodyear blimp up close. It was just a few feet from the highway, inside the airport fence here in Livermore. Not sure why. I had called the bus dispatcher at noon and he said to call back at 3 PM. I did, no work. He seems to be getting frustrated also. We did see some Miami buses when we drove by. IF we had left today, we would make delivery on Monday and then have three and a half days to drive home. If we get one tomorrow, we would have to fly. :( in the air. As soon as we found out there was no work, we got a room in Livermore at the Quality Inn. There was only two rooms left and they weren't cheap. Third night in a row we are using rewards points instead of paying cash. BB had looked at motels to the west on Hwy 99 ... 'park your car under a light' ... 'don't stay here' ... and that was for the nicer hotels. It's been that way for years. Not much for good/safe motels on that highway. After our buffet at Sizzle the other night, we decided to try Mountain Mike's. There had been one across the parking lot by the Sizzler with both a lunch and dinner buffet. So we went to one here a mile or so from the motel. Nope, lunch buffet only. So we walked next door to the asian place, nope, it was a while tablecloth place. So back to Mike's and we ordered a pizza. It was good ... and likely cost us the same as the buffet would have. And we walked away full. We've noticed since we damaged the car that every time we hit a pot hole we kind of jump. Expecting the worst. UP to 1 on the load board out of IA. There had been a few added today, but they go pretty fast. Right now there is about 50 loads on the board for the whole US. IA and OH get over that by themselves quite a few times during the year. Dodge Center gets close. That and the cold is not a good reason to head back to MN any time soon. But we need to be out of town by Thursday, with our without a run. ... the trip continues HERE |
