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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200114 NC-IL 1 trucks from NC to IL ... made it to Richmond, KY tonight. Last night before we got to sleep, we heard the train. But that was it, never heard another one so not an issue. When we got down for breakfast, all the hard boiled eggs were gone, we took the last of the egg patties, all the bread was gone, other things were gone also. And it was only 7 AM, breakfast lasts until 9 AM. I walked over to the front desk but the person counting the money never looked up and the other person never said anything either so after a few minutes I went back to eat. While we were eating, they got their food delivery. They guy with the two-wheeler just dropped it next to the pantry door. A half hour later, that food was still sitting there ... (formerly) frozen and refrigerated items. Hope the next guests don't get food poisoning. The front desk didn't ask how things were when I checked out so I didn't tell them. It does seem the only time people ask is when they know things were good. The others don't want to hear it. Plan today was to head home, get as far as just south of Indy. But right as we were getting near Spartansburg, new trucks showed up on the board. I pulled to the side of the road, if I wait until I get to the next exit they will be gone. First thing that dispatch told me was they wouldn't be ready until after 5 PM tomorrow ... too late for us. But now we were thinking their might be more work so we didn't want to go past Spartansburg, that is our turn to the trucks. So we got off a mile down the road and stopped at a gas station to use the restroom. Another couple miles down the road and more trucks showed up. I called again and got one. (more on that later) This time I had pulled off the freeway right at the ramp I was going to take. When I was ready to pull back on, I watched the traffic and when I could see that no one was signaling to turn I pulled out. HHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOoook. Some people don't use their blinkers or get in the turn lanes where they are marked. Then a few miles down the road there is someone parked on the side of the road, I see them start to move but I have no where to go ... they just start coming over into my lane ... They have miles of shoulder they could have kept driving on. This time it was me blowing my horn. BB had said she didn't want a truck, which is often the case on leg two. But this time we hadn't made real good money coming down so I thought she might have thought about it. She had ... By my taking a truck, we are adding one more days rental car and one more days motel. BB plans on following me in the rental car. If she had taken a truck, our rate on this car would have gone from $75 to $200 a day and the same from Chicago to home. We would have spent 3-4 hours shuttling to get the rental car returned and another one picked up. And she would have worked for close to nothing. Not worth it. Where we were in Spartansburg when we got the call was about 45 minutes from the pickup location. Any further down the road and we would have been back tracking. My truck is going to Romeoville, same place as last trip. We get to Shelby and find my truck. We've been here before and know the routine. It's raining so I get wet doing my pre-trip inspection. This pickup has large back side windows so I can hang my placards inside. I have some fuel, but we stop at the closest gas station and top off before leaving town. BB has picked out are next stop, she had looked at a Ryan's where we'd eaten before, but the exit is in road construction so so picked a place closer. Cracker Barrel in Flat Rock. She showed a close up of the map so I'd know where to go when we got there. But I didn't realize what town it was in. We had tried to eat there once before, but because they had three inches of snow that day no one could get to work so they were closed as was McDonalds. Gas station food it was last time. This time it was open and we were in and out in under a half hour. Not bad for a sit down restaurant. By the time we were seated someone was walking over to take our drink order and also asked if we were ready to order. BB wasn't so that was a couple of extra minutes before they came back. BB had fish, I had the meatloaf. From there we split up. BB likes to stop every couple of hours and I need to drive 65 mph. She still beat me. My mpg so far has gone from 12 to 16. And I might be able to make it all the way on one tank full of fuel. But I plan on filling here before I leave as it is cheaper here. Plan is to put in most of what I need and then stop again a block from delivery if I need to to bring it up to the one quarter we need to leave in the truck. Truck ... it is a Ford 250 with logos on it. Seems like someone could do that closer, but for us it's work. I did call the drop at noon when we were stopped, told him we would be there tomorrow afternoon. NC still has truck left on the board going to Romeoville. Not sure how many they put out today as once BB is driving she can't hit refresh ever couple of minutes. Iowa has work left on the board also. They were putting stuff out again this AM but that stuff was being grabbed right away. We may leave out as soon as Sunday if the right work is there. We can call in on Friday for Sunday. Or call in Saturday for Monday but not likely anything will be new on the board Saturday. If we were driving (just) the rental car home, we were planning on eating in the car to make better time. So we had planned on NO buffets for three whole days. But right next to the Quality Inn here in Richmond is a Golden Corral. Along with other places but back to the Corral we went. We left full. We plan on leaving out about 7:30 AM and dropping about 2-3. We will go our own ways. I won't need a half hour DOT break if I can get there in less than 8 hours. Then from Chicago to home is another 7 hours. We could do it and be home by mid-night and save a days rental and motel. But we will get home about noon on Thusday and return the car. I might work on Friday local. We'll see. 200115 NC-IL 1 trucks from NC to IL ... delivered and made it home. Breakfast, better than yesterday. Help was engaged. Last night we had done the math on how much fuel I would need to make delivery. This AM I decided to fuel next door to the motel to save a stop. As I'm fueling, I realize that last night I didn't do all the math. I forgot to subtract out the fuel that was already in my tank. I stopped fueling, I was within a couple of gallons of what it would take to get me to delivery. I hoped the mileage would keep getting better so I shorted myself two gallons. BB also fueled the rental car at the same place. I didn't think about it until we were leaving that it was still dark. But BB said she did OK. Pretty un-eventful today. BB went her own way, I went mine. My 1st stop after leaving Richmond was the rest area near Lebanon. I texted BB, she was a couple of miles behind me at McDonald's. A while later I was watching the traffic in my rear view and saw four cars coming. The 4th one didn't have a front plate (FL's don't) and there was a I-Pass in the front window. I was pretty sure it was her before I saw her. It was. My 2nd stop was delivery was seven hours after leaving the motel. Actually I stopped for fuel a couple of blocks before the drop and put in 2-1/2 gallons. My mileage got better, but my range didn't change. Mpg got up over 17 before I dropped it. As I was fueling, BB pulled in along side of me. So we likely weren't more than a few minutes apart for the whole day. Drop was quick, no issues. As soon as I dropped we stopped and I got a 'Little' John at Jimmy John's. It's about the right size, first one this size I have had. Shortly after we are on the freeway again, I am in the right (slow) lane going over the posted and someone comes up behind me flashing their lights at me ... didn't make me move any faster ... or slower. One of the days. Spent a lot of time thinking they may as well take down the speed limit signs. No one obey's them, no one enforces them. Right through construction zones, trucks are sailing past the cops at 10-15 over. I'm just trying not to get run off the road. Today again, BB's routing software changed mid trip when heading to my drop. This time she followed it and took a different route than I did. I just looked at the map once and went that way. Not the way I would have chose if the computer hadn't mapped it. But it got me there. Last night I had commented to BB that if we delivered by 3 PM we could be home by midnight. I ended up dropping by 2 PM and the computer said we could be home before 8. Being in Chicago, I wasn't going to commit to that until we were a couple of hours down the road, out of Chicago traffic. Things went well so once again our plans changed. Unless we hit weather or traffic we were going to be home tonight. It would mean driving a couple of hours after dark but it would save us $150+. Nope, don't really like driving in the dark ... even missed a couple of big towns. Missed as in I didn't realize when I was passing them, my eyes must have been too locked on the road. Mauston and Osseo. Wasn't sleeping just focused on something else. Stopped in DeForest at Arbey's to get food and use the rest room, they weren't the fastest. Then stopped again in Tomah at the Kwik Trip for fuel. Pump didn't give a receipt so I went in and used the restroom, bought some cookies ... and forgot to get a receipt so I had to go in again. During all that time there was a guy at one of the registers trying to cash a ComData check. I may have had to use one of those early on for a breakdown or something, but never again. Big time and money suck. Because those two stops took longer than expected, we didn't get home until after 8 PM. But we are home. And the trip ended up paying 10x our original estimate. :) Not much that could have gone better. Thursday we'll need to get the rental car back by 7:30. Used to spend a lot of time on I90-I94 from home to Chicago the first year when BB was riding with me. Now we haven't headed out that way at all and only come back that way if we aren't picking up our car in IA. Lots of changes. ... Including some that aren't really there :) BB wanted to stop at the next rest area in a town I didn't remember but she had a mile marker. No rest area ... then BB realized that she was looking at the WY info not the WI info. IA board is up to 20 tonight so things are looking up. We can't grab until Friday morning but we will be watching it today. Brrr ... it was 80 in FL, tomorrow AM it will be -8 when we head to the airport. NO plans next year to be in MN in January. Other than maybe to return a rental car and head out again. Hope to still be doing this next year. I need to do my DOT physical next month. Plan / hope is to get a trip to CA then one back. After that do my DOT so we'd be in town for a few days. |
