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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200211 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Santa Nella, CA. Late night will write more later. Delivery is M-F, we will get there Saturday and Monday MAYBE a holiday for them. Should know tomorrow. >>> posted later <<< When we went down for breakfast I saw that one of our drivers was just getting to her bus so I walked over. We talked for a few minutes but she plans on delivering in FL yet this week so I let her go. A second driver also walked out while we were talking but I didn't stop her to talk. We have talked to the 2nd one a few time before. Nope, I don't remember their names. Seeing we were now going to be gone for over two weeks, BB decided it was a good AM to do laundry. Once that was done, we were ... on the road again. 1st stop was the Winton Cemetery in Winton. With a good map from the front desk the marker wasn't hard to find. 2nd stop was the Turlock Cemetery in Turlock and here is where things got interesting. When we were in the motel, I had looked up some of the possible stops today. Part of the problem here came when I asked them about people who weren't at this cemetery. The other part of the problem was that they thought O'Harrow was (heart) Harrow like I was doodling. Once that was cleared up we found the marker and were gone. 3rd stop was also in Turlock, In-N-Out. BB got a single and I got a double double and was going to only eat one of the buns. But all the cheese and sauce was soaked in so I picked the bun apart until I got to the cheese. We also had fries. I had thought we might have time to go to another cemetery further north, but when we looked at it and talked about it, it made more sense to visit that one with others in that area and we didn't have time to do more than one more today. 4th stop was in Tracy Cemetery in Tracy. All the cemeteries today had such original names :) Again with help from the office and a good map we found what we were looking for. 5th stop. Our outlet mall and walked for a half hour or so before it was time to call the dispatcher. We are heading to St Louis, IL. And it sounds like the pay should be good. We soon realized that we would / could get there on Saturday and we couldn't deliver until Monday ... or Tuesday because of Presidents day. We knew we were going to have to get some kind of inspection done before delivery. Before we drop the rental car we have to fill it, turns out the closest gas station is miles away. All kinds of other retail but no gas close. Dispatch said we could get to the bus by 4:30, that is new. We knew that security doesn't start until 5 PM to let us in so we didn't know how we were going to get in. We sit and wait until some employee comes by with equipment big enough to trip the gate to open. We had our bus number so we went and found it and got it checked out. Lots of other drivers standing around waiting so something was up. New routine. Dispatch doesn't drive the 30 miles in rush hour traffic anymore. Someone local does the paperwork and usually has it done by 4:30. Not today. Sometime after 5 pm they show up and start doing the paperwork. I think I was the last one to get mine, I'm not in any rush. Met a few new drivers and a few old drivers that we've seen before. When I left the security guard said that was almost like a carnival today, he'd never seen so many drivers at once. I gave BB a 10 minute head start and she got delayed dropping the car so she was just walking out of the building when I pulled up and had to hurry to our pickup spot. Traffic on the freeway was slow ... and I pick the slowest of the five lanes, the middle one. Got to the motel, no problem backing in tonight. I have a short bus and just make a U turn in the parking lot. Another driver had pulled in ahead of us but we never did see them, not sure where they slept or if the checked in while we were unloading. 200212 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Kingman, AZ. The other bus was gone by the time we went down for breakfast. Good news, we can now get our AZ permits from our permit company and have them in hand before we get to the scale. But they don't have them to us before we leave this AM so we will have to pay to have them printed somewhere. CLUNK ... I've gone out this motel entrance a dozen times and never bottomed out, but this is a short bus and I bottomed out both on the front and the rear. Guess I'll head out the other entrance next time if I remember. And then not too far down the road, I hit a pot hole, not sure why I didn't avoid it I guess it didn't look that big. BUMP ... OUCH. I hit the hole just right that it jammed the steering wheel into my knuckles and threw the bus towards the other lane. Fingers still hurt enough that I am remembering it the next morning. 1st stop Rest areas are closed so we stop at Lovers in Lost Hills. They have their email address printed right on the ticket box so it must be usual thing for them to print from emails. I've never found any place that would do it before, always had to be faxed to them. $2 and I had my paperwork. Not sure what happened a mile down the road. I let a construction guy walk across the road ahead of me and I couldn't get the bus to move again. Kept trying different things and finally it went. ??? Things looked pretty much the same as a few days ago around Bakersfield and Tehachapi. 2nd stop. This short bus has a smaller fuel tank so I put in 20 gallons here at the Loves in Tehachapi before going in to eat at Subway. Picked the wrong fuel lane again. One truck was ahead of the truck in the fuel lane so I though that's why he was still sitting there not fueling. Quite a while later the driver comes out to his truck and motions that this pump is broken ... Grrr. I hate when drivers do that. The park so you can't see the cones that are blocking the pump. To them it is just a good parking spot. To me it means I just wasted a bunch of time. While stopped I have to call dispatch, and I find out that I'm still showing as working on my last run. Took three phone calls but got that taken care of. Also called the drop, they ARE open on Monday so should only be a one day delay because of the weekend. We just get back on the road and I see that I am down under a half a tank of DEF. I'm not going to make it to Kingman, AZ. We will need to stop again. We had thought we had the day planned for 130-130 miles but now it will be 90-150 miles. 3rd stop is at the Flying J in Barstow. One pump open so I back in as that is the only way to get DEF from the pump. And I didn't line up right so I really had to pull on the hose to get it to reach. 2.5 gallon. I have a small tank, I will need to fill ever time I get fuel. Not good. I filled with DEF but the gauge didn't move. Problem with this new stuff is if the computer says there is no fuel or DEF, the engine won't run. It doesn't matter what is actually in the tank, it matters what the computer thinks. So we could have an issue where the computer thinks I'm out of DEF even if I just filled it. No issues with the DEF. The tank is holding at 1/4 and I've shut the bus off, battery off, a couple of times and it is holding at 1/4. I will just need to fill every fuel fill. 4th stop is at the Wagon Wheel in Needles. Really good food. And limited truck parking. I have my permit so I don't need to get it at the POE. The guy at the window just asks if my plate is on the rear (it is) and then I show him my permit. We are good to go. MORE BAD NEWS. Now my widow won't close. I pull off to the side for a minute, nothing works so I drive the last hour with my window open. I have the heat cranked on high so it's not bad but I need to do something to get it closed. 5th and final stop - Quality Inn in Kingman. $30 cheaper than Needles so we did 500+ miles today. What I did about the window was take part of it apart. Now I need to put it back together before I deliver. At the Quality Inn, we got a lesson on how to print our own paperwork. My NM permit. If we log on to their wifi we can see their print and then just ask them to hand it to us. Now if only we can remember next time. I'm going to need fuel in the AM so we will back track to save $.04 a gallon on 50-60 gallons. And I still do not have that companies perks card. Up to 51 RV's on the board out of IA tonight. Looks like we will drop Monday, be home Tuesday and then we will see how fast I can get my appointments to get my DOT physical done. Once that is done we'll likely be back on the road in a day or two after that. The rest of the trip should be under 500 mile a day. Still need to contact the inspection place. They didn't answer when I called them right before they closed. Dispatch had said (I thought) that I needed to get a level 1 inspection, this place does emissions testing. Level 1 is a complete under, over and all around the truck plus looking at all of the drivers paperwork. Not sure why they would need to see my paperwork before I delivered. Miscommunication I'm guessing but I'd better call dispatch back. 200213 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Albuquerque, NM. Good breakfast, real eggs. I parked behind one of our buses that was heading to Miami-Dade, they were still there when we left. I did know anyone kept a slower pace than we did. I'm guessing this was the same one we saw at the motel in Santa Nella. Good news, bad news. Good news is my DEF gauge is working and showing full. Bad news is my fuel gauge is working and showing empty. 1st stop of the AM is a mile down the street at the Flying J. I did the math and I would have saved about a dollar to back track to a TA truckstop. First I realized I would get more than a dollar more in points form Flying J than TA, then I realized it would take about a gallon of fuel to get back to the TA at about $3 a gallon. Don't back track. One fuel island open so that was good, card reader wouldn't work so I had to go inside to get the pump started. Have to run the nozzle real slow or the fuel backs up and runs out. And have to stop the fuel as soon as the whistle stops. After the nozzle kicks off the next fuel will run on the ground. It is full. Saw a couple of RV's and a dump truck in transit at the Flying J. Saw a lot more in transit of all kinds today. BB slept a full 8 hrs but must not have slept well, she even tried sleeping in the bus. And a couple of days ago her phone started going dead fast and the buses have no where to plug in so she's getting bored. We aren't in a rush so I'm trying to keep the speed about 60 mph. That is what we are supposed to run on the other brand of bus and I often do the same on these buses. 2nd stop is Love's in Williams for a break. I call the inspection place and no appointment needed, I'll try to be there about 8 AM Monday. Saw three elk laying in the ditch within a couple of miles between Williams and Flagstaff. Thought maybe there would be more after seeing that many but no. 3rd stop was in Holbrook at the Maverick gas station. DEF gauge had started dropping shortly after we left Kingman this AM. In Williams I had picked up a jug of DEF just in case. Don't want to be stranded on the side of the road. Gauge was down to 1/4 when I pulled in backwards to the pumps. Squeezed in 2 gallons and the DEF was running on the ground. The gauge doesn't work so now I need to guess. The other part of the 3rd stop was at McD's. We had talked about other places but went to the main place we stop. An hour after Holbrook we are at the NM POE / port of entry. This time the guy in the booth was trying to get his sun shade to come down and just waved me through. 4th stop was in Jamestown at the Flying J. Most islands had two trucks waiting behind the guy filling. But one island was open, my luck day. After I get the pump turned on, I'm starting to fuel and the guy in the next island asked if I had gotten the pump to run. He hadn't. I thought I had but went back to the price side of the pump and it was all zero's. So I grabbed a garbage can and blocked the pump and moved to another lane. Looked like someone moved the garbage can almost right away, not sure if anyone got any fuel. About 10 miles from our motel an engine light came on. I've seen it before and it wasn't red so I kept going to the motel. 5th and final stop was the Quality Inn in ABQ. As soon as I was stopped I called dispatch. With this company they know nooothing. Call the mfg. I left a message with the mfg and they called back before I got to the front desk. Just check the fluids and keep going. When we are at this motel, at least one of our meals is at a Mexican restaurant about two blocks away. Looks like our plan to get home is to pick up a car on Sunday so we have it when we are ready to leave Monday. We got a car going to Mason City, IA so we can drive both cars home in one trip. Cost is a little more but then we can be done when we get home. We could get home in one day, but then we would have to run down to IA twice to pick up cars or have someone drive us down after they pick us up at the airport. This was the easy way. There is a run in IL going back to MN, but doing that run would have added an extra day to the rental and extra night in a motel and we would have been doing it for almost nothing. And I need to get home so I can get my DOT medical card taken care of. Can't drive over the road again until I do. The trip today was pretty un-eventful, didn't see any accidents, no one cut me off or tried to run me off the road. Did see a lot of cops and they were busy. Sunny all day but a little chilly. Load board ended with -0- CA, 2 OR and a few WA. Hopefully better in two weeks when we are ready to head out again. Not sure of why things are done the way they are at this company. But if you are delayed due to breakdown, etc and they are paying the motel, they will pay 'what it costs' if you are in the same town (or close) but they won't pay if you stay at a motel that is half the cost if it isn't close to where you should be. And they won't pay extra miles or time for a wash when you have to go 50 extra miles to find one. But for other things they pay extra, lots extra for things that only take a few minutes. But if I say anything they would most likely cut the extra pay before they would start paying for something new. 200214 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Elk City, OK. Good bed, good nights sleep last night. No good yogurt so breakfast was just eggs and sausage. This AM we had about 10 miles of rush hour traffic before we were heading against it. Traffic has never been an issue so we continue to stay on the wrong side of town. Some places we want to be past the town before we get a motel. I couldn't see it, but BB said there were hot air balloons up this AM. Plan had been to stop before we got to Santa Rosa at a rest area. This one isn't always opens so quite a ways back I wast looking to see if it was open. Saw someone in the turn lane and there weren't any signs saying it was closed so I got in the turn lane. Must have gotten focused on something else and then just where the turn lane breaks from the highway, there was the CLOSED sign. But there were cars and a dozen trucks in the rest area ??? We kept going. 1st stop was in Santa Rosa at the TA. Correct side of the road and big RV parking. We went in and the first restroom said Closed for cleaning. But it's a big truck stop and the big ones have one restroom for the food customers and one for the truckers. As we got back on the freeway, one of the vehicles that got over so I could merge on was another Miami-Dade bus. I was able to stay right behind him for the next 60 miles until they exited in Tucumcari. I didn't follow too close. Enclosed in my first ever bus with these guys was a notice that we were to leave at least a mile between buses. Seems one bus rear ended another and we got stuck with paying the bill. There is going to be a safety meeting in CA in a couple of weeks but I won't be OKed to drive soon enough to make it back out there for this one. 2nd stop was Glenrio for lunch and phone calls. Plan was to stop at the rest area west of Santa Rosa, then Tucumcari, then Amarillo to eat at the Iron Skillet. But now that we are into the day we realize that we wouldn't get to Amarillo until after 2 PM. We'll be in Glenrio at noon. Not sure of the name of the restaurant, if it has one. It is inside Russells travel center. Good food. I knew my French Dip was going to be a little chewy when I saw that when the cook cut the sandwich it didn't cut through the meat. BB had a turkey melt. Before we left, I called to make a Dr's appt and my DOT appt. Cell service was bad so I lost them once and had to repeat myself a few other times. Got both appt's for the dates and times I had originally wanted. I briefly had another thought but that date wasn't available. The problem comes in that now we have to register with the state and that data base isn't updated live. So we may have to sit a couple of days after I have registered before my places of work can confirm that I am legal to run again. If all goes well, we'd like to head back out again on Tuesday of the following week. Assuming I pass, that gives the computer two days to catch up. 3rd stop was at the Petro in Amarillo. All island that were open had people waiting, half the island had cones in front of them. We made sure we didn't park behind someone in a closed lane. Parking lot was so rough here that I bottomed out. On their newly paved lot, I bottomed out. They must have never leveled the ground before they paved. Something new here, the pump asked me for my vehicle number besides my drive number and my truck number ... or I typed something in wrong. Good news. A few miles down the road and I notice that my warning light has gone off. The other good news is that the DEF gauge has been working all day. BB had thought I got 11 mpg the prior tank full but now only 7 mpg on this tank full. Maybe I didn't get it filled the prior time? I just fill them slowly and when fuel starts running on the ground I stop. I don't try to squeeze any more in. No issue, but a scare. As we come up to the OK scale, I get the message 'Truck must cross scale.' At the same time a cop is coming from the other direction with it's lights on and turns through the median and follows me in. There are two lanes and he stays right behind me, past their parking area, past the scale ... and finally he pulls into another parking area. Whew. Lots of transporters again today, fire trucks, school buses, FedEx trucks, etc. 4th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Elk City. We check in and then go next door to an Italian place. No line when we got there, but a line when we left. Good food, I got the sampler and then we got cheese cake. The only other thing within walking distance was the Subway across the street inside of Loves. Sleep Inn upgraded us to a suite, and I asked if we also got free cookies. The lady at the desk didn't say anything right away and I wasn't sure if she knew what I was referring to. Then she said that she had burnt the cookies once and the manger took the oven away. :( Very few new RV's on the board today. Loadboard is down to 29. But I looked an for the prior three years, on the 23-24th of Feb each year the load board has been over 100. So we should have choices when we are ready to go. Two years ago, the load board was over 200 for 7 out of 14 days before and after the 1st of the month. We are shooting for about 500 miles tomorrow, balancing tomorrow with being able to pick up a rental car by noon on Sunday. 200215 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Rolla, MO. Woke up not feeling 100%, it hasn't gotten any better. Been checking my blood pressure in the AM for most of a couple weeks. This is the 1st time I have had to do the test three times to get it in the range it needs to be. Could have something to do with how I fee. Decided it was a good day for yogurt, two yogurt and juice. This place had two kinds of meat, sausage patties and sausage rings. Slowing getting going, left a few minutes later than we had planned. Pretty brisk cross wind most of the day well into MO. Other than not very eventful. 1st stop was in OKC at the Flying J as we are heading north in I-35. Quick in and out. Saw a few more OYO motels, most seem to have been in the Motel 6 price range before becoming OYO. Heading through OKC at 9:30, we saw two of our buses heading to Miami-Dade still at the motel. Maybe we are the speedy ones at 500 miles a day. Onto the OK tollway. We pay the cost but it costs less than paying for fuel to stay off the toll way. $10 start to finish. 2nd stop is in Tulsa at Freddies. Not sure if we have eaten at one before or not, we have now. Parked across the street that was well marked, no truck parking. I am not a truck. One guy who was a truck just parked in the center turn lane and went in to get his food. Which is better? Freddies, a lot like our Culver's. Didn't see their frozen custard list until we had ordered. I knew they had some, just not what types. Don't need it anyway. We'll see if my weight comes in lower than last year for my DOT. We were in and out in a half hour. BB had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had a steakburger and chili so I still had enough food. Our motel that we stayed a few months back is already a no-name. It had been a Comfort Inn. Not sure what happened. We didn't miss our turn, we stayed on the freeway. Did see a few transporters again today, not as many now that we are off I-40. 3rd stop was in Joplin, MO for fuel at Flying J. I had debated where to do my final fuel so I come in with the gauge showing 5/8. I kind of picked based on how long it took to drop below 'E.' Now tonight as we are talking, I had been basing my fuel on '100 miles tomorrow.' But that is to the rental car place, then another 30 to the motel and another 25 or so on Monday. So I will likely have to add some more fuel. And the gauges do not stay, they really bounce over thru the course of the day. Plan now is to put in a few gallons once I get near the motel and then see if it stays above the 5/8 after I start and stop the bus a few times. That final Flying J is only about two miles from the drop. 4th stop was a rest area near Conway, MO for a rest room break. 5th and final stop was at the Quality Inn in Rolla. We have stayed here before and I remembered there was a nice dip to get into the parking lot. Wrong, the big dip so far is after we are in the lot, long drop to the lower lever of the motel but I took it at about a mile per hour and didn't bottom out. They are a nice place marked out on the perimeter but once I parked there I realized that I was about twice as wide as the spot that was marked. Maybe I should have gone next door for some chicken soup from Denny's but instead we walked down to a Bandanas BBQ. We've eaten there before and it was really good, was this time too. Right when we walked in they started taking names. But by the time we had our food there were empty tables again. BB had a BBQ chicken sandwich and I had chicken with two sides. I thought mine would have been shredded meat but it wasn't. Still good. We did not get any desert. Rental car place closes at 1 PM tomorrow so we will want to be there well before that. Then ... either stop and eat at the Flying J or stash the bus at the motel and take the car to eat somewhere. Loadboard is down to 25, still one OR, a few WA and a few ID. Nothing we'd jump on. Short day tomorrow and then heading home. Thought I might keep busy on my days at home, but might just stay mostly in bed to try and shake this whatever it is. 200216 CA-IL 1 bus going to St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Edwardsville, IL. No reason to get out of bed early so we didn't. Finally decided to go down and eat breakfast before they closed it. 100 miles to go to the rental car. I had looked at aerial photo's and street view. Good thing I did. The street view showed the trees were overhanging the road so that they would have scrapped on a van. So instead I decided to turn around at the bank across the side street from the rental. When I pulled in the bank lot, I dropped BB off and then was going to wait until she told me that they had a car. When I got turned around and stopped, I was about 10 feet from a cop. He sat there and I thought he was going to pay me a visit. He didn't by the time BB messaged me he was gone. 1st stop - Another 30 miles and I was at Flying J. Actually open pumps so I was able to back in. Got confused and paid with the DEF with the company card so I got charged an extra $1.25 fee. By the time I was done fueling BB was there and we agreed to meet at the motel. 2nd and final stop - Comfort Inn in Edwardsville. About two miles from the Flying J. It's only noon but they let us check in. As soon as we get unloaded we head back to the Flying J. Or across the street from it. The Hen House is where we eat. Menu says there are four locations. As we are paying later I ask about the number of locations. Yep, the guy who started them had it up to 40 locations. Daughter took it over and ended up filing bankruptcy. Someone else bought a few of the locations and now there are only 4. Good food. BB had a BLT and I had a philly. Headed back to the motel and took a walk in the adjacent cemetery. 30 minutes. I'm still dragging so that was enough. Much later we headed out to a Lions Choice about five miles away. Lions Choice is a regional roast beef chain. Not as good as Rax, but a nice change. I ordered their original and a cup of chicken wild rice soup. I was about half done with the soup when I realized I hadn't found any chicken yet. They had given me broccoli and cheddar soup. The other down side was they were out of chocolate chip cookies. 200217 CA-IL 1 bus dropped in Granite City/St Louis, IL. ... spending the night in Charles City, IA. Another rough night, but I know I slept because of all the weird dreams I had. Too much coughing to get my blood pressure reading down. :( Got up an hour before I planned on leaving, BB was still sleeping. Only had a glass of juice this AM before pulling out. I did notice that they had turkey sausage as something different. Thought of grabbing some stuff for the road but didn't feeling like I'd want to eat it later either. 1st stop - two turns and six miles down the road I am at my first stop to get my inspection done. He had said he opened at 8 AM so I was there at five minutes to. Just as another new bus was pulling out. They didn't stop to talk and they were gone. Quick basic inspection, a sticker and $30 later and I am good to go. 2nd stop - six more miles and I am back up to the Blue Beacon. The other driver is not in line ahead of me so they must have either washed earlier this AM or yesterday. Four trucks ahead of me, 45 minutes later I was pulling out of the wash. By now there were seven or more trucks behind me so got there at a good time. Yesterday we had seen where the buses were pulling in when we ate at the Hen House, but something didn't look right this AM so I decided to go my original route. BB tried to go the way we saw the buses going but it must be waiting area, it was not a through road. 3rd stop - Once I was on the property, I started dialing my contact but another bus came by and told me where to park. Once I got to where I was told I did call my contact but I guess I'm not very good at giving my location and they don't have their doors numbered. Finally he asked if a golf cart was pulling up to me. I said yes and he told me to stay were I was. A few minutes later I was re-directed to an open door and pulled inside. We tore the plastic off the front, they may or may not have looked at a couple of other things. They signed off and I was clear to go. It wasn't noon yet so we decided to put some miles behind us before we ate. 4th stop - Closer to noon we stopped at the former Golden Corral in Hannibal. We had eaten there a few times as a Golden Corral but noticed a month or two ago that it was now called something else. It is now called the Saints Avenue Steakhouse & Buffet. Per Wiki, Avenue of the Saints is a 500+ mile highway that connects St Paul and St Louis. BB looked online and the reviews so far were good so we stopped in. Food was good. I wasn't exactly hungry today so I didn't stuff myself. The only big change I guess is now if you want a steak you have to pay extra, it used to be included. But I have never had a steak at a buffet. 5th stop - Wayland, MO - Flying J, fuel, $1.99. We knew the price was going to go up as soon as we crossed the border and we might not have enough fuel to get the car returned so we filled here. Had only been 30 minutes instead of two hours but for a few cents a gallon it was worth it ??? As long as we were stopped I called to get a new rim for the car we call 'crash,' the rim had gotten bent when it hit the curb in an ice storm. We thought they had straitened it but I guess not good enough. Then I called to get a eye appointment for Thursday before my DOT on Friday. I tried to make the appointment online last night and couldn't. As soon as I said I wanted an appointment for Thursday ... or maybe I didn't get to the word Thursday ... they said 'no.' NO? No, as in the staff is going on strike Wednesday. So I asked about my appointments on Weds and Fri and they said same company two different unions. I'm OK for the other two. I should be OK for my eyes, it's just been a year since my last appointment. The highway department is putting in a huge new up and over intersection in Iowa City where I-380 meets I-80. And I've seen others like it. I doubt these intersections don't get half the traffic that the I-94, I-494, I-694 intersection gets in St Paul and they just re-did that one with little or no improvement. 6th stop - Cedar Falls rest area. Plan was to get to Mason City tonight. One of the reasons I didn't get up early this AM and do the wash first was we still wouldn't have time to get past Mason City. BB doesn't want to drive after dark and we don't need to. But later in the day today BB is watching the weather and decides she wants us to stop before the snow in Charles City. I mention the only food there is the Kwik Star / Kwik Trip so we were back to going to Mason City. Then we saw a service sign in Waverly that said there was a Jimmy Johns there so we stopped. 7th stop - Jimmy Johns in Waverly to go. BB got a slim and I got an 8 inch. 8th and final stop - Charles City, Sleep Inn. They have cookies. By now it is snowing so I had cover my paperwork and work under the truck to get organized. By the time we get to Forest City, pick up one car and then drop the rental we have about two hours of driving left. And we don't have to have the rental back until 11:30 AM, but we will likely get it back closer to 10 AM. Then back to get our van and hope the hood stays down. We've only driven it two miles since the windshield was replaced. Load board is still not going up, 29 at last call. They are putting good stuff out but it is going quickly. We aren't going anywhere until next Tuesday, maybe this Saturday if everything falls in place and there is work. Won't know for sure how well this run paid until we see the end pay and what extra's they paid for. But we are doing OK. 200218 CA-IL 1 bus dropped in Granite City/St Louis, IL. ... spending the night at HOME. Long / short day. Bacon, good bacon. Still the thin stuff but it had flavor. And yogurt was one of those 'fruit on the bottom' kinds. It would turn out having to hold me until evening. A lot more snow than was forecast. Scrapped off easy, the snow did. But we must have shut down just at the wrong time as there was a lot of ice on our windows from the car being warm inside and the snow melting. Roads were ice here. Maps showed the same for the route home to MN. Never made it over 50 mph the first hour. Most of the time was at 45 mph and we could still feel the car sliding under us. Later on the two lane we were down to 25 mph. Made it to Forest City. When we are at Forest City I noticed a guy carrying two inspection reports in, looked like him and his wife run together also. And for the first time in a long time we saw people in the training room. New hires. Looks like the dispatchers have a new job. (Kind of like my other company) Not much snow there so both the car and van were easily moved. We took the car first as our shuttle to drop off the rental car. Stopped in Clear Lake to fuel the rental car at the Flying J. Noticed there were four RV's parked there, one was getting a jump. Must have been there overnight. No issue with dropping the rental car and we were headed back to the lot. What we thought would take two hours took over three hours ... and I am supposed to have a car to the shop by 3 PM. Dropped off BB at the van and as soon is it was running and cleaned off I was gone. An hour down the road I realized that for sure I was not going to make it to the dealer and stopped to call them. Instead of saying they could just move things around, they want me to come in tomorrow instead. ?? Oh well. IF, IF I hadn't stopped to call and if I had been driving 65 mph I would have made it. But the car vibrates so bad that I was keeping it at 60 mph. Ice wasn't really an issue after I got back on the freeway after leaving Forest City. It was now after noon and the sun and chemicals had had time to work. Got home and shoveled, driveway was mostly done by the time BB got home. Windshield looked good and BB didn't say anything so the hood must have stayed down. Load board is down to 25, 2 OR and 2 WA are the west coast runs. Just as long as there is work once I pass my DOT. Still dragging a little so not likely to want to head out Saturday yet ... even if we can. Sent my paperwork in last night, am paid by tonight. Yep, round trips pay :) We drive home, don't fly. Have only flown once since BB started coming with five years ago. Price isn't really much of a factor for me, but here is how things would have compared on this trip. $40 - Transportation to the airport $616 - Flight home $20 - Transportation home from airport ... and two cars would have still been in IA. VS $240 - Two day rental $80 - Motel $ - Gas ... both cars home  |
