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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200203 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis, CA ... spending the night in Lincoln, NE If you want to know where we WILL be, just look at our last trip. I plan on making almost the exact same stops. :) Breakfast was the usual, then it took us an extra few minutes to scrape off our windows. Lots of frost. Got to the lot about 8 AM, too late. Our paperwork was no longer in the box, and the dispatchers were busy on the phones. Gave me time to call on our van. The van was ready, had been ready. They knew I was on the road so they didn't call. Not sure if they would have let us pick it up over the weekend without paying? Keys were in it. They said there was nothing wrong with the latch so nothing to fix ??? We'll see how long this windshield lasts before the hood blows back again. That all took about a half hour. My RV was low on coolant, but this time dispatch had some sitting in the office. Last time it took most of an hour to get someone from the shop to bring me some. Lots of drivers out, car parking spots were all full so dispatch said I could park in front of the NO PARKING, CARS WILL BE TOWED sign. We'll see. Now we have to cars in IA. It took our usual one hour to do our inspection and paperwork. Just cold enough so my hands were freezing without gloves on. Noticed that our RV overflow parking lot has been cleared of snow, 1st time this winter so I'm guessing they are getting ready to dump more on us. There are still 1-200 sitting in the next parking lot waiting to be moved over ... right when I need to take time off to get my DOT medical card updated. 1st stop was the Kum and Go in Clear Lake. 1959 was the year of the big plan crash in Clear Lake. We had looked online to see the price of fuel in Clear Lake, and were going to stop before if it was cheaper. It was. Caseys in Garner had it for $.03 cheaper but just as I was pulling in I noticed the diesel nozzles were bagged off. Lot is really small and I noticed that BB did not turn on her blinker when I did. She doesn't like this place. Kum and Go, I used the same pump as last time but this time I stood and watched the pump. Again, it did not stop when it got full. But I was watching, the fuel was running slow and I could see the fuel before it ran over. This time I did let the staff know they have an issue. This time BB's cruise is not working and mine is. But she washed off her windshield here and hasn't had a issue since. Except for the wind later on. 2nd stop was the Bonanza in Des Moines. Good food, good staff. One of the ways I tell if a buffet is good is how much salad I eat. We have stopped here a dozen times I don't think I have ever had a salad. This time I didn't even have my usual meat loaf and other things. Did have my one sampler plate of deserts though, all good. 3rd stop was at the rest area in Adair. One of the rare times I needed a restroom. Must have drank too much water with my buffet. We are trying something knew, taking a half hour break at a non-food, not fuel stop. 1st I made two phone calls and then we went for a walk. One call to the insurance to tell them to not pay the claim, we had already mailed a check, had to leave a message. Next one was to the bank, got a real person and that one took a little longer but got things worked out. Then we took a short walk, 10 minutes. Very brisk wind. The 'wind assist' has come on on our RV's a few times and now BB wants to slow to 60 mph. So for the next part of our trip we were going 60 mph and the wind assist was still coming on. Then were the freeway turns south I re-set the speed back to 65 and we were OK except over the bridge coming into NE. 4th stop was at the QT in Gretna. Faster pump so no fuel issues here. BB made our reservation for tonight. We have time to go another hour plus before dark but there is a weather system coming in and we are going to be sitting somewhere. Hopefully not too long. If we have to sit for over a few hours we will not be able to deliver until Monday. Down goes what we take home. Last trip we got flagged in to the weight scale just before Omaha, I was sure they were looking for us, it wasn't a mistake. Today we didn't even trip the scale, it didn't give us a message one way or the other. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Omaha, about half price of what we budget for a motel. Nice place, used to be a ... now I forgot. Since last year they built a Perkins next door. But today, because there was a nice still sub zero wind, we decided to walk a half mile to Cracker Barrel ... with the wind. Cracker Barrel was good, BB got her veggies and fish. I had a French Dip, either it is new or I just have't seen it before. Good, and the right amount. Walking back it was into the wind. Everything that was covered was nice and toasty. My face and eyes were feeling the pain. But those three walks added up to 30 minutes for the day. Looking at our numbers we stayed in motels 21 days last month. Choice, the motels we mostly stay at, rewards ... to get to Platinum you have to stay 20 nights per year. We do that in a month. Their highest level is Diamond at 40 stays and we do that in two months. Sometimes just being a platinum or diamond member has it's extra perks. Like tonight, they upgraded us to a suite with a room with a jacuzzi and a fireplace. And we get this plus breakfast for the same price as other people are paying for the Motel 6 down the street. Got paid for my last trip. Ended up doing really good. Loadboard was down from 60 to 57 tonight. Seven RV's left for Seffner, FL. Another seven to WA. But nothing left to the SE. 200204 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis, CA ... spending the night in Cheyenne, WY Bacon ... and cheese omelettes so I passed on the yogurt. Rolling at 7 AM today, it is just getting light out and we should be able to make in to Laramie in daylight hours. Not much new for sights since 10 days ago. 1st stop at the rest area in Grand Island. 2nd stop was for fuel in Cozad at the Caseys. Today the pumps were working, but the shut off didn't work so I ran a few drops on the ground before I got it shut off. 3rds stop was at the Walmart in Ogallala for fuel and then the Wendy's for food. Today I had chili and a small chicken. Should just order the chili. Two trucks pulled in beside us at the Wendy's so on the way out I asked the drivers if they were transporters. Sort of. They were transporting new trucks, but for their own company. They were talking about heading south through Denver to miss the road closures, we reminded them that they would need chains if they were going through CO. Something they didn't seem to be aware of. If they told us where they were going, we forgot. 4th stop was at the rest area at Sidney. It is open again after being closed for ... a long time. We took a half hour break here as the roads are now closed past Cheyenne and we won't be making it to Laramie. 5th stop was the POE. Two people working, two problem drivers. One guy was overweight. The other seemed clueless. All I could see laying on the counter was a drivers license and he was being asked all kinds of questions about his logs, which didn't seem to exist. 6th and final stop was at the Quality Inn in Cheyenne. Someone had parked their U-haul and trailer across the spur on the parking lot blocking the long parking spots were we usually park. 1st room smelled like smoke before we even got in the room. BB was still standing in the haul shaking her head, never made it in the door. And this is a 100% no smoking hotel. Shortly after we checked in we walked across the street to the Dennys inside the Flying J. A chicken philly with swiss for me, chicken and veggies for BB. We were only there a few minutes and BB looked at the road conditions ... all clear. We could run, but by now there is not enough daylight hours to get there. And not a fan of driving on bad roads, in the mountains, in the dark. Forecast is for wind tomorrow. We will see how far we get. We won't leave out until sun up, not first light. If we don't make it to Salt Lake City tomorrow, we don't deliver this week and have to sit in CA until Monday AM. That works as a restart if there are buses so not a total loss. Day ends with 63 RV's out of IA including 5 to CA to places we like to go. And 8 to AZ which we haven't seen for a while. 200205 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis, CA ... spending the night in Up at 5:30, 'Black Ice and No Unnecessary Travel' here to Laramie. Then closed completely for the next 60 miles beyond that. Plan now is to delivery by spring :) We hope if the sun is out today that we can get to Laramie this afternoon. There we will likely have to sit Weds and Thursday nights. ... spending the night in Lake Point, UT Amazing how fast things can change. From 5:30 to 6:45 the WY road website said roads closed/no travel. With wind warnings coming in that would last until Friday evening. As we were heading down the breakfast, BB looked for last updates and ALL was clear. All the way to UT. Luckily BB had gotten hungry so we were mostly on schedule. We ended up leaving only 15 minutes later than originally planned. 2 below zero this AM. BB ran her glow-plugs a dozen plus times before starting her RV, I didn't do nearly that many and so far no issues. Windows were well frozen over so we waited until the defrost melted it off. Our first few blocks of driving were heading right into the sun just as it was coming up. Too far to drive blind. The other transporters had all left between the time we ate breakfast and when we left. Very long day. A good share of the day was driving 5 mph under the posted, and on this road the posted changes based on the road conditions. The lowest the posted was on this leg was 45 mph so we were going 40. At one point some trucks past us where the snow was blowing and BB lost sight of me for a mile or so. That's just from the blowing snow, it didn't snow much at all today. Wind and ice is what slowed us down. Before we get to Laramie there is a long down grade. A couple of trucks gave me a good scare when the passed me going down hill. The posted was 45, they had to be doing 65+ ... brakes don't do much good on ice on the down grade. Some how they made it to the bottom, still on the highway. Didn't see any trucks in the ditch, but most of my time was spent watching the white lines. 1st stop was the Conoco in Laramie for fuel. The nozzle wouldn't fit in BB's tank again, after I was done she pulled ahead and finished on the pump I had been using. The Conoco was a small station so we pulled next door to a larger station to use the restrooms. BB wanted to make sure the roads / weather hadn't changed before we headed out again. All this took a half hour, twice our usual. Saved almost $.40 a gallon stopping at the convenience store instead of the truck stop at the next exit. Laramie to Rawlins was more of the same. Slow, blowing snow, ice ... and now FOG. White knuckle driving all day. Could only use the cruise for a few miles at a time in WY. 2nd stop, restroom break at the Flying J. Semi's backed up out to the freeway to fuel. Luckily non-trucks could still get to the parking lot. And a school bus in transit was getting hooked to a tow truck in the semi-lane but it didn't seem to be the cause. Enough snow that we couldn't park in our usual spot. Parked beside two other RV's in transit. Then entrance to the Flying J was really rough. It looked like the last snow had been a wet snow, it didn't get plowed and then it froze. I wouldn't have driven a sports car into the parking lot. Even with the high clearance of the RV's I took it really slow as the RV rocked back and forth. When we left the semis were backed up onto the freeway ramp and the tow truck was gone. Usually the freeway is worse either east or west of Laramie ... today the worst was west of Rawlins. We weren't on the road long and traffic was down to 20 mph, on ice. Even at that speed the wind was still moving us. Very few trucks past us. Interesting that all day some trucks would pass us and we'd loose sight of them. But then we'd get to where we could see for a longer distance and there would be a large group of trucks about a half or a mile ahead of us. Lots of trucks would pass me and then pull in front of me and stay their for miles, half hour, hour before the road would clear enough for them to take off again. We saw a lot of the same trucks over and over again. One in particular. He must have just gotten a truck with 'driver assist.' We'd pass him, he'd pull out and pass us. Then a few miles later he'd be behind another truck and we'd pass them. He'd pull out and pass us ... many times today. First vehicle in the ditch was of Rawlins was a Sheriff's pickup. Or maybe it was a truck that just had it's nose in the ditch and the trailer was still on the shoulder. Then a mile or so later was a semi in the center ditch and three cars in the right ditch. This is part of the time we were going 20 mph on ice. Passed a few trucks today that had their 4-way flashers on. Most truckers use the 4-ways when going slow up a hill, or to let people know that traffic ahead is stopped. Very few use them when driving slow in the snow. Anyway, I think some of those truckers drove the 400 miles across the state today with their 4-ways on and never got over 45 mph. Some people are really scared of ice. 3rd stop. We knew from our last trip that the A&W in Rock Springs was closed so we decided to eat 'fast food' at a Taco Time. It is right next door to the motel we stay at so we knew there was plenty of parking. Easy off, easy on. First time we had been to a Taco Time. This one was not fast. Took us 45 minutes for fast food. Usually we are in and done in 20 minutes waiting for our half hour to be up so we can head out. And I thought that taco's would be faster than a burger. There is a KFC buffet across the street, maybe next time. 3rd stop, part two. Next exit down the freeway is the Shell we stop at. This time both diesel pumps were open but our rewards card doesn't work. Still the cheapest fuel in town. We are not making good fuel mileage. We are driving slow enough but we are bucking a 40+ mph wind, and we can feel it. Nope the roads don't get any better. Well maybe a little, or we are just getting used to them. One place I noticed 50-100 pronghorn deer just on the other side of the freeway fence. Between the highway fence and the snow fence. Then a few miles down the road I see a lot of birds, a lot more than are usually attracted to a carcass. That is because it wasn't one carcass, it was a dozen or so. That herd of deer must have been in the road and someone hit a dozen of them in one spot. BB told me later than on this leg of the trip she was 'yelling at me.' This was it, she was no going to drive any further. Hands froze the wheel for the last 350 miles. (But by the time we were done at the next stop, she was ready to keep going) If we had stopped for the night in Rock Springs we could have still made delivery on Friday. But the high wind warning was going to start before noon and that could shut us down depending on the restrictions. So we could have stopped in Evanston or half way to SLC. 4th stop is the Flying J in Evanston. We check the time and the weather. We can make it to Toole. So all this pain and suffering has only cost us a couple of hours from our original plan. When we fueled in Rock Springs, I had 10 more miles than I needed to get to our next fuel stop. In Evanston I had 6 more miles. Now that we have made it to SLC, I have 70 more miles. Haven't decided if I trust that or not. No fuel for the next 99 miles. Finally in UT there was nothing eventful from Evanston to SLC. When we were in Evanston the highway map showed to stay on I-80, but we always take a shortcut and did again today. Glad we did, I-80 was at a standstill right after we got off of it. 5th and final stop. Quality Inn in Tooele / Lake Point. Tonight they have soup plus cookies. We've seen evening food at other locations, usually in the south but this is the first time we have seen it here. Walked next door to the Denny's at Flying J. We both had breakfasts. IA load board is up to 81 tonight. Lots of work if we were there. We have really been getting pelted with rocks from the gravel and salt they put on the highway. I now have a good sized chip in my windshield. And my nose cover is coming off, but I'll leave on what stays on. Last trip to Davis we got pelted in NV, this time it was WY. I'm guessing there is a lot of little chips too from all the stuff hitting the windows. I was behind someone in the left lane when they hit the rumble strips, that really pelted me until I could back off. We should make it the 500 miles to Reno, we stay at a Best Western there. Just noticed tonight that the 25+ motels we have stayed at this year have all been the Choice brand. Quality, Sleep, Comfort Inn's. 200206 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis, CA ... spending the night in Verdi, just west of Reno Ate too much last night, should have just gone with what BB got off the senior menu. So this AM I was going to just have yogurt. But I saw there was bacon and cheese omelettes before I remembered so I had those plus yogurt. And this place as some kind of papaya mango juice/drink. We did the math on what time we should get going and it was still dark when we pulled out. Didn't think about that when I got to the stoplight and left BB to find her own way. When leaving in the AM this is much easier if we wait to take a right on a green light. But when there are people behind you you kind of have to go when there is an opening. We have to get across two lanes of traffic and take a left in a half mile or so. BB caught up to me before the freeway ramp, but I lost her again once we were on the freeway. Someone got between us and I kept going. She had slowed down to 55 mph because she thought either the wind or the ice was causing her to slip. We were down to 55 mph a few times. I was fine with that as our range was pretty close to our miles to go. I didn't rest easy until our range was twice what we needed. That was about 40 miles until our fuel stop. Both our cruises quit working about the same time and started again about the same time. I doubt all these issues are because of dirty sensors. 1st stop at the Sinclear for fuel near Wendover. We has started with a range of 70 extra miles and got there with a range of 50 extra miles. BB and I put in $.23 different on a $60 fill, so some legs we are running pretty close. More wind, back down to 55 mph, at one point down under 45 mph. Really rocking the boat. Lots of warnings for the NV roads but no road closures. Parts of I-80 in WY are closed to high profile vehicles this AM thru Friday. Good thing we got moving when we did. (EDIT: Closure has been lifted as of 8 PM) 2nd stop was Elko to eat at the Port O Sub. Truck inspection station was closed today. I hadn't double checked my logs for a few days so I did that while I was driving. Wind must have died down a little so I didn't need both hands. Found out what all the cops were doing today. 1st I saw one near an exit with it's lights on but no one around. Then a 2nd one coming down the highway with it's lights on, then a 3rd one. And I was wondering why the 1st one was just sitting there. Then I saw the dump box from one of those mining dump trucks. Lots of cops escorting it and lots of traffic backed up behind it because it takes up all of both lanes. 3rd stop, Winnemucca for fuel at a Mavrick. Tried using my rewards card and it canceled the transaction. Here I put in $2 more than BB. But I have been running without a cruise again, for an hour plus today because it wasn't working. Other times because of the weather. Fuel was $.46 a gallon cheaper here than at the Pilot or Flying J. The fuel canopy for the new Loves in Winnemucca is up, can't tell where anything else is going to go. 4th stop is in Lovelock at the Golden Gate truck stop for a restroom break. Otherwise it would be 180 miles from Winnemucca to Verdi. Called the bus dispatcher and said I would be in town tomorrow. He was quick to tell me that he could almost guarantee there would not be anything for me. But for me to call, as things change. One of the trucks we were playing tag with today was a UPS truck with three pumps. They were wagging a lot in the wind. One time I could see the sides of all three for quite a ways as the wind was blowing them that far to the side. BB said the first time he past us that he blew her onto the rumble strips. I have enough problems driving my 25 foot RV, the semi pups are 28 foot each. No thanks. 5th and final stop is the Best Western in Verdi and eating at the buffet. $7 if you have a casino players card so we finally got one. We have stayed here at least a dozen times before. It is a 'lobster' buffet, but if you want the lobster, it is $5 more. I wish they all would do it that way. The first plate I didn't think I would find much. But I don't remember ever leaving a buffet hungry. Creamy mushroom soup was really good. As were the brownies. Usually buffet brownies are lacking but these were good. I finally had to quit with the sweets. I had a brownie, cheesecake, carrot cake and ambrosia salad. Too much sugar. Aw ... the hotel. BB picked a room on the south wing so we wouldn't have to walk so far through the casino to get to the elevator. After we got to our room, we were looking for a stairs so we went the other direction out our door. About 20 feet from our door was the ... north elevator. So we had basically walked the same distance down the hotel hall instead of through the casino. We are on the 2nd floor and didn't pay any attention when we got on the north elevator. We just went down. When we came back we took the same north elevator up to the 2nd floor, no hall to our room. So we went up to the 3rd floor ... there it is 2nd floor to the left and 3rd floor to the right ??? We plan on staying in town even if there is not work. At least through Monday. not sure what we will do. Alcatraz still has tickets available, not sure what the weather is going to be like this weekend. A couple of old notes. Back the first night of our trip, we had noticed the room was really dry. I went to bed after BB was sleeping so I had shut off all the lights before getting into bed. When I got in I noticed the mattress pad on my side was bunched up so I reached under the sheet to straighten it. When I felt on top of the sheet to make sure it was all smooth, the outline of my hand was lighting up from all the static. And yesterday, about the area where the accidents were, there was a semi tractor, trailer and reefer sitting in the no U-turn area. The reefer that is supposed to be on the front of the trailer was lying on the ground next to the tractor. Not sure how you would have to jack-knife a trailer to tear that off the front of the trailer. 64 loads left out of IA. Of those, two are to CA, 1 to OR and 7 to WA. Lots of other runs came and left during the day. Sounds like I will have about $30 left that didn't get spent of fuel, BB will have a little more than that. Not bad for bucking a 40+ mph headwind for a couple of days. Tomorrow we have to be out of NV by 8 AM because of our permit so no sleeping in. It would have been nice to hang out here instead of sitting in the car for half the day waiting to hear if there is a bus for me. I did call the drop sometime today and left a message, they didn't call back so I'm guessing mid-morning must work for both of us. Driver Assist or so it is called. If I could, I would rename the Wind Assist, Crash Attempt. When that kicks in it really throws the RV and slows it way down, someone following too close could easily rear end us. The Lane Assist also throws us a little and also slows us down. For a few days I was just standing on the gas harder every time the computer would slow me down, but I'm not going to win that argument. Not a fan. There are a few times when I am over the lane line because there is a wide load coming, I do NOT want to be thrown back into my lane. And then wind one, I know it's windy. Like today I was fighting it all day, the computer takes over for a few seconds and then leaves me to try take control back again. Grrr. 200207 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis, CA ... now delivered. ... spending the night in Livermore, CA. Noisy heater in an otherwise great room. Didn't get as good or as much sleep as we should have. No free breakfast here. We have to head down to Mel's Diner. Home of American Graffiti. Food is good. BB just ordered 1 egg, toast and fruit. I had 2 eggs, potatoes, bacon and biscuits and gravy. Nice thick bacon, but the gravy wasn't sausage gravy so it was lacking. We gave ourselves an hour to eat instead of the usual 15 minutes. We were back in our room in 45 so quick service. Headed out at 7:30 so we would clear the state line by 8 AM. A little chilly this AM but no frost on the windows. Traffic wasn't bad, roads were clear. Lots of hills and turns so a lot of time was spent going under the 65 mph posted. Just one question at the produce inspection station entering the state "Transporter?." Snow is really getting dirty on the sides of the road, must have been a while since the last snow fall. We have fueled last in Winnemucca and at that time our range said we would get to Sacramento with 2 miles to spare. By Lovelock we had 45 miles to spare, same in Verdi. I'm still not sure the range is going to hold so I've picked out a place to stop about half way to the drop in case we need to fuel. We don't, we end up getting to the fuel stop with a range of 102. Way more than we would need to have, so we are leaving $30 worth of our fuel in the RV's before we put in final fuel. Traffic is not bad in Sacramento, came through almost all the way at the posted. Nice time to come through either from Verdi or Rocklin, CA. 1st stop is the 49er truck stop in Sacramento. It is co-branded a Pilot but is not up to their standards. They are slowly working on improving it. Auto fuel pumps are hard to read, swiped my credit card and then it asked for my rewards, but never gave me the options of what to do with it, the screen froze and I had to go inside to pay. Lot line, one cashier. I paid $20 cash to start the pump. Then had to go back in and wait in line to get a receipt with the gallons on it. BB's RV did not reset the range or tank amount. But she has a receipt that says she put in $20 and that's all that matters. 2nd stop, another 12 miles down the road and we are at the drop. They are working on this place so we have to go in a different way and wind between other RV's to get to where we need to be. One RV ahead of us. Only one person checking people in today so lucky it was slow. All the chips on the windshield were written up, as were other chips on the paint both sides of the RV. On both RV's. No other issues. It took about a half hour each RV. BB walked over and picked up the rental car while we were waiting. Once we were signed off we called our dispatcher. They are having so many issues with chips this time of year that we don't even need to call them into claims. The guy checking us in said they are having issues with these units locking themselves. There also had been a note in the dispatchers office about the same thing. Keep one set of keys on your person at all times. The check in guy said BB's RV locked it's self three times just while he was doing the check in. ??? We hadn't had an issue, luckily. 3th stop - We are in CA, so we head to In-N-Out. And use our gift card :) Two double doubles. We are thinking maybe we should have them cut one and we share. Parking lot was so full that we drove around three times and then waited for someone walking out and took their spot. No side trips this time, we just headed down to Livermore, traffic wasn't too bad going our direction, everyone seemed to be leaving town instead of heading across town. 4th stop - Livermore Outlets. We talked about staying away from crowded places because of the virus but went here anyways. All we do is use the restroom and then walk the perimeter. We only made it around once this time, 30 minute walk. That was enough for me today, yesterday didn't seem to bother me. Called dispatch at the appointed time and was told there was no work today. I said we'd stay the weekend because it is much nicer here than back east ... to which he replied "If you stay, I'll pay the motels." :) 5th stop - We figured that BJ's with the great deserts would be packed on a Friday night, it is billed as a brew house. So we went up the street to a Mexican place instead. Order at the counter and then they delivery. When we walked in there was one person ahead of us finishing order, after we ordered the line was sometimes out the door. We ordered in so we were there for a while, great food. Lots of to-go orders. Then about 5:30 the band starts to play. The way the restaurant is laid out they were basically playing to about 10 tables but everyone could hear it. Not sure why, but I can listen to some of the music for hours and not understand a single word. Load board is at 47, still some for WA, but nothing for CA, OR, AZ or FL. The other good thing about dispatch paying for the motel is that there WILL be work, just a question of when. Maybe not Monday as there are five ahead of me in motels. But maybe Tuesday. We've been doing this for <> five years now and we just learned something today. And I had thought about earlier on this trip. One way cars are more, so we usually rent a one way car to get where we are going, and then rent a second car at a lower rate once we are there. Turns out that there is a one time drop charge so in today's case it was actually $40 cheaper to keep the one way car than switch once we got to Livermore. Still living and learning. Saw a couple of things yesterday we don't see often. 1st I passing someone on the freeway at more than a snails pace and someone passed us both on the right shoulder. They had to be doing well over the 80 mph speedlimit. 2nd one was something we often see cars doing but seldom trucks. Truck drivers are really good about getting over to the left lane when there is a truck or anyone on the right shoulder. But often times when we do that, a car will pass us on the right (putting the sitting vehicle in more danger than if we had stayed there.) Yesterday I actually saw a truck pass on the right as the other trucks had moved to the left to avoid the parked truck. Not sure yet what we will do tomorrow. It will likely involve driving somewhere. 200208 CA Waiting on work ... spending the night in Bakersfield, CA We didn't think of anything else to do so we decided to drive ... on our day off. Breakfast was the usual, we didn't have to rush to get anywhere so we weren't down when they opened. Nothing else to do today so we decided to go take pictures at cemeteries. Later. We each sat on our computers until about 10:30 AM, check out is 11. So now I am caught up on my TripAdvisor posting again. No new DNA matches so I haven't done much there for a while. At one point got bored enough to look at my junk folder and found two emails about family tree. My junk folder only holds emails for a month so who knows how many I have lost. Once we decided where we were likely going to stay for the night, BB started looking at reviews. She sometimes spends hours doing this, both for motels and food. One location had her laughing, but the story wasn't good. This location of a motel brand we stay at has a location in Bakersfield. One of the reviews said that when they got to their room, there were two cats living in it and had been there for a while based on the mess. And another review said the front desk came to their room and demanded payment for a stained towel, when the reviewer offered to pay, they demanded they leave ... NOW. And this person said they stay at this chain as often as we do. BB didn't want to stay there. 1st stop - Headed down to Santa Nella to Andersons Pea Soup. The ride down looks different in the day light. Doesn't take nearly as long when you are not slowed by rush hour traffic. Hills are green, fruit trees should be budding in a week or two. Did see one field / orchard that already was. At Andersons, BB had soup and salad. I had their chicken salad sandwich and potato salad. We've eaten here enough we don't need to look at the menu. We are there before noon, I notice one couple come in, sit and then start to leave before going back to sit down. I wondered what that was about until I saw one of the people behind them get up to leave. I noticed she hugged someone at the next table but earlier they all looked like they had been talking to each other. Then she fell onto the table. After being helped up she hugged others on her way out ... she was falling over drunk before noon. :( On our way out of town we went past a In-N-Out Burger. I knew it was there but it's on the wrong side of the freeway to walk to and they usually have packed parking lots. This one has truck parking, we'll see if we make use of it. We / I decided to take the back roads to Fresno. Different sights the the highway we've seen many times. Even the small towns have their homeless. Saw one guy laying his head on the railroad tracks. But like the song says ... But railroad don't run no more. Not sure if it does, but we had just passed where the tracks ended a few miles back. It was about 90 miles of back roads. Computer kept telling us ... save ... minutes by going this (other) route. Sorry, we were here for the drive, not to save time. 2nd stop - Fresno Memorial Gardens. Office was open so they were able to give me the location of one of the two people I was looking for. But like often happens, the name I have of the other person is not what was on the grave stone. Same dates, nicknames instead of legal or given names. They also gave us a good map so it didn't take us long. Others (living) were there for a little longer. One gal had her lawn chair and a blanket laid on the ground. This had taken a little while to get here so we only had time to visit one more cemetery before we wanted to be to the motel and it would be getting dark. 3rd stop - Visalia Cemetery. This locations the office was only open M-F. But as long as we were here, I looked online for a picture of the marker and saw the location was listed. And a grounds worker was just pulling up so I asked where I could find that section. He told us and we were on our way. Then we realize that the sections were clearly marked. Once we got close we parked and started walking. Then we realized that the edges of the section were marked with row and column numbers ... and then we noticed that every grave marker was stamped with a row and column number. Plus there were numbered corner markers on many of the plots. Most are not this detailed. 4th stop - Comfort Inn in Bakersfield. Checked in. 5th stop - Black Angus (Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company), Black Bear Diner were both close by. We were in the car before we decided we did not want to stuff ourselves that much again. I searched for a deli. Found the Deli Delicious was about five miles away. I had a French Dip and thought it was great. BB had a turkey sandwich and it was good, but 'just sliced meat.' Back at the motel we decided the heater fan was too loud so we got a different room. The one is Verdi was too loud also and we didn't get much sleep. Saw a couple of small cars pulling travel trailers. When we saw one of them the 2nd time, BB got a good look at what the car and the trailer were and looked them up online. The travel trailer was twice the weight (empty) of what the car was rated to tow. That's great ... until you try to stop. 10 less RV's on the board than yesterday. Dispatcher said they would pay our motels. But we are 250 miles away, I guess I'll ask about that, but we are paying a % of what other drivers are paying if they are at the Motel 6 in Livermore. We'll decide tomorrow what we are going to do tomorrow. 200209 CA Waiting on work ... spending the night in Morgan Hill, CA. We are going to bed at Mt time, waking up at central time and living in Pacific time. We were both awake early and were on our computers long before it was time to go down and eat. Headed down as soon as they started serving at 7 AM and were the first people to check out ... at 8 AM. I wasn't sure we would have enough fuel to get to Tehachapi so we stopped on our way out of Bakersfield and put in 1+ gallons. There might have been one more gas station a few miles out of town but then none for the next 40 miles. And lots of hills before we get where we are going. 1st stop was the Bakersfield National Cemetery in Arvin. Very small cemetery, this place has less than 20,000 burials. Fort Snelling in MN has over 240,000. So 1/10 of the size, I was surprised it was that big. 2nd stop was a cemetery in Tehachapi. I knew where it was, I had seen it from the highway. But the road I wanted to take would be enjoyed by ATV's, not rental cars. We had to go through town until we got to the next highway exit and back track in on a narrow one lane blacktop road. BB found the one person I was looking for in about two minutes. Luck. We had no idea where to look. That wasn't long enough walking so we walked for another 10 minutes but there was a nip in the air so we got back in the car. But first we saw a Clark section, gated with people from the last 100+ years buried there. 3rd stop was the Flying J in Tehachapi. Gas was $.73 a gallon cheaper than at the Chevron across the street. About $.25 cheaper than where I put in the gallon earlier. We really didn't have a plan from here, I had thrown out a bunch of options last night but we hadn't picked one. BB decided we should head south, from right here, back roads. We did, up and around and down and up and around and after about a half hour she redid the route and got us on a four lane highway, then six and then eight. And we weren't in LA yet. It was only 10:30 when we left the Flying J and too early to head back to the motel. It was much later when she realized she hadn't done the math to get us home. Only to get us to our next stop three hours away. Part of this route was the route I had wanted to take to the to Thousand Oaks so that was good. Later in the afternoon there were clouds coming in so BB looked at the weather, snow for the area we had come through earlier today. Guessing it would have been worse on the back roads we had started out on as we would have gotten up to higher elevations. Roads this leg were good, just long. 4th stop - When we were eating at Andersons Pea Soup yesterday I had looked at the place mat and commented we could visit their 2nd locations. And that is why we ended up in Buellton. Hwy 101 follows the coast for about 50 miles from where we got on in Ventura to where it heads inland before Buellton. But we didn't stop and sit on the seashore. I had the exact same things as yesterday and BB had soup and sandwich instead of soup and salad. Somehow not as good, just little things. No drunks here though. Yesterday I had looked at cemeteries down different roads but I hadn't looked this far south. There was a cemetery less than two miles from where we ate. 5th stop - Solvang cemetery. BB had to look up the town as it was very Dutch. History says that a bunch of Dutch from Des Moines, Iowa decided to move west. Very touristy town. This time it was raining so BB did not get out of the car. I had looked on FindAGrave to see what the marker looked like and there was an edging that was unique. Quickly found that edging and the marker and was done, as was the rain. 6th stop - Arroyo Grande ... opps, didn't log that one on the map. Arroyo Grande cemetery was adjacent to the highway. The first marker I was looking for did have a section number so we looked there and found the marker in the first row we looked in. The second marker did not have a section so that took a little longer. It was a more recent burial so we looked for the newest markers. I wasn't there but BB found it in the next section was we were walking back. We went past the next cemetery on my list at dusk and we still had an hour plus to drive. Didn't stop. 7th stop - we did finally stop in Soledad as BB had to use the restroom and we wanted to eat before we got to the motel. McD's it was. To go. 8th and final stop was Morgan Hill. Had talked about Gilroy but this is a nicer hotel and 100% non-smoking. Got here a little after 7 PM. 11 hours on the road, almost 500 miles ... on our day off. Lots of interesting ag stuff today. Lots of stuff we don't see every day. We have been most of today's route before but it's been a few years. We will not be driving as far tomorrow. We are less than an hour away from the buses right now. But will likely run into SF or somewhere so maybe 2-3 hours driving mid-day and then be in Livermore by about 3 PM. 200210 CA Waiting on work ... spending the night in Santa Nella, CA. Added some pictures this AM. Am going to try to post one picture for every trip. To see the pictures from prior trips, you will need to change the date to a different range. Right now there are a total of 12 pictures posted. Not sure what dates the older ones are under. Yup, still on central time. BB was up about 4:30 AM local, I was up shortly after. Breakfast, the usual. While sitting at breakfast overlooking the pool, I noticed there were a lot of leaves in the pool, and then noticed the table and canopy upside down in the pool. No notice that the pool was closed. Got going closer to 10 AM. 1st stop was fuel a mile down the road, had a range of about 20 miles when we got to the station. This was out of route but fuel at this station was $.40 less than those enroute. We could have saved another $.10 a gallon if I would have gone in and paid cash, I didn't. Plenty of traffic still when we got going. Heading up to San Francisco. 2nd stop - Golden Gate National Cemetery. Seven markers to find here, all info is available online, locations, map. Didn't time it but spent about an hour here. The cemetery is right across the freeway from the airport and within sight of the bay. 3rd stop was about 10 miles away. Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo. We had a little issue getting there as SkyLAWN is on SkyLINE Blvd and we got something mixed up. Ended up parked in front of someones house. 10+ miles later we were at the correct place. Busy place, it looked like five burials between 10 AM and 1 PM today. Receptionist had to get someone else to look up the info, by the time they found my info their next appointment was there and two other inquires were waiting. They were 'overly helpful' and I told them so. I didn't need them to take me to the markers and I didn't need a bottle of water. (And didn't take either) I just thanked them and we were on our way. We did almost quickly find the graves. One of the markers was covered with someones broken flowers and wreaths. The whole 20 foot area was a mess. Later on the highway we saw a lot of branches so it must have gotten windy real recently. When we left the freeway to come to this last stop there was a pickup and trailer getting a roadside DOT inspection. An hour later when we left, he was still there. ... and the road to that cemetery was fun ;) Curves and hills, only a couple of miles of them but lots of 25 mph curves. And a few semi's just to keep things interesting. It wasn't noon yet when we had left the National Cemetery so we thought we'd have time to make one more stop. It was after 2 PM again before we got to eat. Part of that was because we didn't want to stop in San Francisco to eat. Talked about it a couple of minutes and we are still gun shy of the Oakland / SF area. 4th stop was BJ's in Dublin for the cookies and ice cream. But we needed to eat to so we ordered off the lunch menu. All good. I wish I had take a picture of the cookies and ice cream this time. There was about 1/4 of the ice cream on each cookie as last time. I know, I looked up my pictures. Didn't need any more ice cream than we got, we ate until we hurt. Called dispatch just as soon as we were done eating. As soon as I said who I was, he said ... "nothing today, can almost guarantee there WILL be something tomorrow." So we headed south. We will drive two hours (one hour each way) to save $60 on a motel. Everything in Livermore is over $100 during the week. We got paid this AM, once we are paid we mail our paperwork. After we left Livermore BB pegged in a post office and there is one just north of the motel but it keeps us off the interstate for a ways. Again, nice to get off the freeway and driving a little slower there is lots of interesting things to see. Crops, livestock, unique little towns. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Left my usual spot for something larger. Now that we didn't get moving on Monday we won't be able to deliver anything much over 1,000 miles by Friday. Anything to the midwest will be a Monday delivery. This morning the news was reporting a 209 mph wind gust at Lake Tahoe yesterday. Now it is being called 'questionable.' That is the area we drove through about 10 days ago to from Carson City to Livermore. Still 39 RV's on the board after close in IA. |
