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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 RV's to Newark CA 200627 MN Today we are looking at the runs for next week that we didn't look at yesterday. Rental car rates are up to $200-$300 a day for a lot of area's. $600 a day from one place. CA and NV are two area's that are still in the $100 a day range. Anything over that and we aren't going to be making any money. As of now there are still six RV's going to Newark CA and 10 going to Henderson NV, our two best shots. But we can't make it to CA and deliver in four days. Maybe they will take deliveries on Friday Jul 3? (an hour later) Wow. Things change in a hurry. I wanted to know if the drop would take delivery on Friday so I called dispatch. They do take delivery and dispatch asked if I wanted a run ... I had not planned on calling in today. We had not talked about it. I quick asked BB, she agreed and we are going. We will leave out Monday as we aren't current on our paperwork and that needs to be current Monday AM before we get paperwork. We are heading to Newark CA. We know the route, where the motels are every 500 miles, all the fuel stops. Dispatch did say there are 50 of these. And so far we have only seed 20 on the load board. Before we get to CA, I will be calling the west coast dispatch to see if the bus company is even open this week. The MN bus company closes over the 4th and over Christmas. If they are open we will either get a bus on Friday or we head home. We need to be home home by Thursday of the following week. So we will also have to be a little picky ... and I will be up against my hours. 2,000 miles out will use 50 of my 70 hours. So we either run slow or do a total shut down for a day which ever works best based on where the bus is going. I don't think I have mentioned this before, our RV company is now running RV's out of a new place in Indiana. The great big RV's like we moved for a short time out of Oregon. Might explain why we are hardly moving the but RV's out of IA, maybe they are 'giving' that marked to the new brand they bought. Swung past the local office to drop off my paperwork. There was both a Phoenix and a Baltimore bus sitting there plus a couple of trucks. But they never called me and I called them once we were in town last week and again this week until I got work. Now I will be NA for them again until mid-July. Load board IA - 60 200628 IA-CA 2 RV's to Newark CA ... spending the night in Albert Lea MN Originally our plan had been to spend Sunday night at home, we have to wait for our paperwork to clear before we can pick up our RV's. Then last night BB asks about my driving hours. The last few runs we have been running at a slow pace and/or done a shut down before getting my bus. This time we will be picking the bus up the same day as we drop and I won't have time to do a shut down unless the run is well under 2,000 miles and then I won't need one. The topic that came up last night was timing our breaks so I don't burn up my hours so fast, then sometime during the night I remembered that if we spend tonight in Albert Lea that will save another two hours on my log. So here we are. Left out of home about 2 pm. I had read earlier in the day that there were food trucks at the Steele County Fair grounds. So that was supper. We started with a strawberry malt, then walked next door to the BBQ place as they are closing the windows. They had been open when we walked past but sold out while we waited for our malt. We looked at burgers, hot dogs on a stick and taco's but ended up with a chicken-bacon ranch wrap from a local bar that was there. Later we topped it off with some Tiny Tim's mini-donuts. Too many donuts for two people. Great food for our 22nd anniversary. We hadn't wanted to go anywhere and eat inside, we'll save that for another time. Crowd here was not bad tonight. Talked to one person who said they had been here last night and they waited almost an hour in line for food. Lots of 'X's' so to remind people to stay six feet apart. We left the food trucks at 5 pm and by 5:10 we are stopped on the side of the road. Rain is coming down so hard that I can't see the end of the hood. But I am able to see the people on the shoulder of the road with their four way flashers on so we find a place and wait it out. Very narrow band of showers, soon we are back on the road and 15 minutes later the sun shining and the roads are dry. We check into the Comfort Inn and then walk next door to the Petro truck stop buy stuff for breakfast. Juice and muffins is all they offer here. We likely will leave here about 7:30, we are a half hour from the office and they open at 8 AM. We could make delivery in four days, we have done it, but that isn't our plan to push until we know how well the first day goes. 200629 IA-CA 2 RV's to Newark CA ... spending the night at Lincoln NE No alarm, we were up before 6 AM. Last night the sun was still up when we went to bed, had to try to get it as dark as possible in the room to get some sleep. Breakfast was juice and a muffin for me, plus my yogurt from the store. BB only ate her stuff from the store. Head out and about 45 minutes later we are at the office. This time we remembered the road construction so it didn't cost us any extra time. Things have changed since the last time we were here. Last time dispatch had to hand us our paperwork out the door. Today, two people at a time are allowed in the building. BB's paperwork still hasn't cleared by the time we get there so she can only get the keys and not the paperwork. By the time we find out RV's and get them moved to the inspection area BB can see that her paperwork has cleared so she can get today's paperwork. When I'm looking for my RV, I talk to a driver picking up the one next to mine and he is heading to the same drop as us. We talk to him again briefly and then he is gone. He was in and out in 30 minutes. Everyone else today seems to be taking about an hour, same as us. A few things different with these. Plates are already on them so we have to put ours over the one already on it. And no sales sheet inside so BB has to go ask for the dim's to write on our inspection sheet (thought that would have come with it if everyone is supposed to know that info) And usually we put in $20 final fuel. For these it is 15 gallons no matter the cost. These RV's show the range and we have enough range to get to Williams where fuel is cheaper, and that will also save us one stop. No issues yet. 1st stop, Pilot in Williams or Boondocks IA. When I am going to pull into the Pilot I was going to wait for a tractor coming down the road, but he pulls to the side and stops so I go ahead. Once I'm parked i see the tractor go past. Pulling a wagon with wire sides ... full of little pigs. Never seen them moved that way before. We both put in 45+ gallons each so that extra three cents we saved per gallon add up. I don't even try my rewards card anymore, but I should try to figure out why mine won't work. It's now noon was we also eat at Subway. Only one other driver sitting inside to eat, so plenty of distance between us. Seems to be about half the people wearing masks. 2nd stop is the rest area in Adair. We take a half hour break, it's a technicality that allows me to conserve my hours by taking longer rest breaks. I'm hoping to get a bus and I don't have time to do a re-start so every 15 minutes helps. It also gives us time to walk. 3rd and final stop. Quality Inn in Lincoln. GasBuddy was way off on the fuel price so we didn't stop in Gretna like we usually do. Turns out gas was a lot cheaper there than it said online. But we are also trying to reduce stops so that stop was one we didn't need. This trip we have 50 gallon tanks instead of 20 gallon tanks. Checked in at the Quality Inn, sounds like they have almost everything for breakfast except the hot food. We'll see. Once in the room we ordered ahead at Cracker Barrel. We did look at delivery because it is in the mid 80's and it's a mile walk. We ended up walking it. I should have removed some extra clothes first. Food was ready when we got there. BB had fish and I had meatloaf. Saved my extra fried apples for breakfast. Much better than another burger or fast food. As soon as I got to the motel I called the west coast dispatch, he said to call him on Thursday as Friday the shipper is closed. So if he has something we will know by Thursday night. Short conversation and I forgot to mention that it will be a 2,000 mile limit for me. So far he hasn't given me anything I couldn't do except the Brownsville TX one that I never delivered. So this shouldn't be an issue. But I will call him Wednesday so there are not surprises. Load board IA - 64 MN - 18 WI - 11 US - 163 200630 IA-CA 2 RV's to Newark CA ... spending the night at Laramie WY Squeek ... bump ... BUMP ... squeek ... It seems that the person/people above us decided to do their exercises at mid-night. We both had been in a dead sleep and did get back to sleep at some point. Breakfast was ... yogurt, juice and leftover fried apples. Cracker Barrel had given me three sides of apples, as good as they were I just couldn't finish them. BB had toast hard boiled eggs. To save on time ... 1st stop was combined with our pre-trip. Fueled at the Phillips a block away. We each put in $30, that would be enough to get us to Ogallala. 2nd stop, two hours down the road is at the Kearney rest area. Half hour break, got some walking in. 3rd stop, over two hours, to Ogallala to Wendy's. Nope. We ate here last trip, inside, but today no you can't even go inside to order. So we go fuel at the Walmart. :( The price of gas went from $1.73 yesterday to $1.85 today. That adds up on 45 gallons apiece. Then we parked at Walmart and walked to Taco Johns. They had indoor service and indoor seating. All tables in use as normal. We got our food and ate outside. BB's cap blew away but we were able to hang on to our food. BB had a salad and I had 'walking tacos,' what ever they are. They don't have cheese. But they were good. There was another driver with a Cruise America RV parked at the Walmart, just said a couple of words to him. Didn't get a chance to ask him where he was going. We had to wait for him so we could walk across the street, he was leaving then. Didn't see him again, thought we might see him at the POE in Wyoming. There was also a Amazon box van sitting at Walmart, never did see the driver. A couple of blocks from Walmart, a warning light comes on. Not sure what it means but my cruise won't work if it is on. The system re-sets when being restarted so I pull to the side of the entrance ramp and re-start the RV ... a half dozen times. It won't re-set so I run without the cruise for the next 90 miles. On the Mercedes and these there are a bunch of things tied into the cruise. Sensor's, wind speed, radar, what ever it is it locks out the cruise. 4th stop at the rest area in Sidney. Not sure why but we can make it from Kearney to Sidney but not Sidney to the POE and the miles are the same. This time we only took a 15 minute break ... but that was long enough to re-set the cruise so I'm good again. While we were stopped, BB borrowed some tape from me as one of her inside doors wouldn't stay closed. That is when she noticed part of her ceiling is falling down. Nothing we can do about it. 5th stop at the POE / Port of Entry in Burns WY. No one else there. Masks must be worn. As we go in the staff all put their masks on ... ??? They now won't take cash so we have to pay an extra $2.25 service fee for using a credit card. Between yesterday and today we have seen a dozen plus Cruise American vans heading east so they are getting used. We ran 60 mph for a while today because of the wind. No wind warnings but enough to push us around. Early in the day the wind was from the SE by the end of the day it was from the NW. Not sure where the two met. 6th stop, Comfort Inn in Laramie WY. We check in and walk the few blocks to the Petro and order food to go. One burger and a side salad to split. That was enough. We also got stuff for breakfast as this place still only has grab bags in the AM. Only ran 9 hours total today so I am picking up time little by little. We will likely be in Wendover tomorrow night. Not the nicest motel but cheap and where we need to be for miles. Loadboard IA - 66 MN - 18 WI - 11 US - 154 200701 IA-CA 2 RV's to Newark CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT The night before last in Lincoln we debated walking to get food because it felt like 95 degrees. This AM it is 39 in Laramie WY. Ran out and got my jacket early so it could warm up before I needed to wear it long term. Breakfast was a grab bag, I told them they could take out my breakfast bar but they said once they are stapled, they would have to throw anything taken out of it anyways so we kept everything. No liquid, just a cup of apple sauce, breakfast bar and a muffin. Fuel was cheaper and we had enough so we didn't combine our pre-trip with a fuel this AM. Rolling at 7:30 local. 1st stop. Rawlins Flying J for fuel at the RV islands. After fueling we parked and went in to use the restroom. When I came out I saw two of the Amazon delivery vans. Asked one of the drivers where they were going ... 'Salt Lake' ... and they kept walking. Later I realized they may have thought I was a beggar ... or needed to use the restroom in a hurry. Somewhere after, two of our drivers passed us. One driving a Reading shop truck and the other an RV out of IN. Also saw a few other transporters. We saw a few Sprinter size vans with 'tour windows,' those looked like transporters but couldn't see any ID's. 2nd stop was in Rock Springs at the Quiznos and park in the WalMart parking lot. Again ... staff put on their masks as we walk in. I had a French Dip with olives. BB had a 4 inch something, I had an eight inch. A six inch would have been about right. Just west of Rock Springs, west of Green River, they are building a new Love's. Not sure if it will hurt Cruel Jacks truck stop but I'm guessing the Flying J will loose some business. We won't go to that Flying J anymore. Too congested, both too busy and not laid out to handle much traffic. Somewhere today I was following a pickup with a trailer, they were going 62 and I followed them a little ways and then decided to pass ... as they start pulling away from me I look down and see I am going 68 so I drop back behind them ... and back down to 62. I follow them again for a while before trying to pass them again. This time it was on a hill and I got past them. Not sure what their issue was. 3rd stop is Evanston Rest area. We don't need fuel so we do the rest area instead. I try calling the drop and it rings, goes to voice mail that is full and not accepting messages. When our half hour is up we leave. 4th stop is Tooele at the Flying J for fuel. Declined. So I try a different card, declined. I go in and get both pumps started, it seems this place puts a $500 hold on your card when you swipe it. And when someone puts a $500 hold on our card, our card freezes the account. So instead of a quick pay at the pump, we have to go inside twice and also deal with our bank. This stop may be off our list. Tried calling the drop again, no luck. Called dispatch and told him my trip would have to be 2,000 miles or less because of hours and vacation. Also found out that I should call back tomorrow at 4 pm. 5th and final stop. Quality Inn in Wendover. We keep watching, waiting for this to become a Rodeway or something less. Tonight's room is good. Food truck is back and parked in the motel lot. Great food. I got two taco's and BB got a Quesadilla. I don't think we will be walking to the buffet again any time soon. Great price on the room and great food just out the door. Called the drop again and this time when I rang sales I got someone ... on a speaker phone ... with an accent but it was a live person. He likely has the same sense of humor I do, but between the speaker and the accent I wasn't following it. Finally got that we could deliver and where to park. Yesterday AM I noticed another bruise on the inside of my forearm. This is the third one I have had in six weeks and I have no idea where any of them came from. The first one I called the ER on and went in the following day to see if my blood was OK and it was, so I have not made an issue of the next too. And my BP is finally coming back down. The drug store had changed vendors for one refill and it was almost like they gave me 'sugar pills' instead. My BP went back up to where it had been before I started taking the second medication. Now to see if it will stay down. Other news. BB's Dad is still in the hospital, his blood cancer has not come back. And they have no idea why he has a fever he can't shake. Loadboard IA - 49 MN - 14 WI - 8 US -130 200702 IA-CA 2 RV's to Newark CA* * ... spending the night at Rocklin CA* * * * Breakfast, choices are yogurt and Ding Dongs. We both choose the yogurt. * * * * When we are down for breakfast I tell the gal at the front desk how good the food was from the food truck that parks in their lot. She knows, she baby sits one of his children. So she was also able to tell me that the truck has been there for a few years and used to be painted purple ... I do remember the truck being purple, but in the past we had always walked to the buffet at the casino.* * * * When I check out some one different is at the desk and gives me two backs with juice boxes and ... Ding Dongs.* * * * We start rolling right about 6:30 west coast time, the time our permits are good for.* * * * 1st stop is in Elko at the Sinclair. Half hour break. We also got subs at Port O Subs to eat later.* * * * 2nd stop is in Winnemucca at the Mavrick. We are just used to stopping here we never looked at prices, we could have save another $2 by fueling at Flyin J today.* * * * No place to park anything other than cars at Mavrick so we drove into town and parked behind the Quality Inn and ate in the parking lot. We also went in and used the rest rooms. Sign on the door is No Mask, No Service. The sign on Loves now says opening soon, but all that is up so far is the frame so not real soon. We did meet one bus today and a few other transporters but nothing much. Lots of Cruise America and other RV's on the road this holiday weekend. 3rd stop is the Flyin J in Fernley for the rest room. Another half hour break. Here I was able to get a hold of the rental car place after a few re-dials and they can pick us up tomorrow. On line it says they need a 24 hour notice (and I had written it down at noon, but forgot.) On the phone they said they need a one hour notice. 4th stop is Donners Pass to call dispatch. I am to call at 4 and we get there about 3:30 so we have another half hour break. I call at 4 and we are going to .... DES MOINES IOWA. Can't get much closer to home than that. I thought he was going to get me some more information so we waited a while and then decided to stop again down the road. We stopped a half hour later at the next rest area long enough to see that I hadn't gotten anything so we kept going. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin CA. The place is full of tree trucks and other trucks. We find a big enough place to park the RV's in among the cars. Masks required. None of the comp things are in the room, you have to ask for what you want. Once someone, other than the staff, touches something it has to get thrown. We walk next door to Arby's. No indoor seating but we can order indoors. After the great French Dip I had yesterday at Quiznos I decided this wouldn't measure up and got a gyro instead. BB got a salad. We ate in the room. Not sure yet if we will be back tomorrow night. There is no where to park the bus on the lot but I asked and we can park in the SureStay (Best Western) dirt parking lot. Not much exciting today other than a paid ride almost home. Loadboard WI - 37 MN - 1 WI - 7 US - 98 Tomorrow we should deliver in the AM, then it is a half hour to the bus and be back here by the PM if all goes well. As of now, I can run 10 hours a day for the next three days and then I'm limited to 8 or less hours a day for the next couple of days. Hopefully I don't use all 10 hours and the all days will be about equal. I think we will be in IA on Tuesday but likely won't deliver until Wednesday. Then home and we are on vacation starting Friday ... a week from tomorrow. 200703 CA-IA 2 RV's to Newark CA, delivered 1 bus to Des Moines IA ... spending the night at MIDNIGHT ... LOUD TALKING IN HALL WAY. Things are getting back to normal :( Then later I heard what I thought was someone moaning. Finally I thought it may be BB breathing and as I listened I realized that the 'moaning' was constant, not broken like breathing would be ... and no one could moan that long without a breath. So it was something else, and I got back to sleep. The 3rd time I woke up was because ... there was a skunk by my lawn mower, so I started throwing things at it. It moved away from the lawn mower but not away from me. Finally it came on a dead run toward me and I woke up before it sprayed me. :) And I was awake again when the alarm went off at 5:30 local. Breakfast here is all but the hot stuff. BB had toast and I had my yogurt. Sign on the entrance says masks REQUIRED. The others getting their breakfast stuff were not wearing masks, and again when we were leaving those getting breakfast were not wearing masks. We pull out about 7 AM local. Our room overlooked our RV's and we spent time trying to figure out which way to get the RV's out. Lot was a lot emptier when we pulled in. Ended up that I pulled out first and luckily I was almost across from the empty handicapped spots so I had more turn room. Once I pulled out, I watched BB's swing as she was pulling out, but no issues either. The longest two hours of the trip. I-80, CA-99, I-580. Just lots of traffic, even for a mostly holiday. We drove a lot of it under the posted because I didn't feel like jumping lanes all the time. Finally lost BB when we exited the freeway. For the next 10 miles she was not behind me, but we had talked enough about it that she caught up to me before I could get an open. 1st stop, Chevron in Newark. Final fuel about a mile from the drop. All lanes were full when I pulled in. I picked a lane and then had to back up so one car could get out as the truck in front of them hadn't started fueling. Didn't help me as my tank is way near the rear and I still had to wait. When the truck was finally done, I was able to pull far enough ahead that both BB and I could fuel at the same time. When BB was finishing up I had noticed a gal walk out of the store sucking on a pop. Then she walked over between our two RV's and stood in the drive area. BB made sure she quickly got in her RV, at that point I hadn't really paid any attention to the gal. Then I had to say 'excuse me' so I could walk past the gal and then she followed me. She asked me something but I didn't look back and didn't respond until I was in my RV with the door shut. Then she said something about a cigarette, and I said 'no, they are bad for you,' and started my RV. When I looked over to see where the gal was, she was walking across the parking lot with her pants around her ankles. Later at the RV dealer, BB said she got the full moon from the gal when she finally pulled up her pants, bent over at the waist. Only a mile to the drop, saw the arrow for the returns as I had been told. Place did not seem that busy for all the staff today so not sure the reason for not being able to get through most of yesterday. 2nd stop, the drop. I quickly wiped everything down that I had touched in the RV and then went in to find someone to sign. The person who checked us in got a 30 second 'how to' from someone at the desk before coming out to look at the vehicles. She 'checked out' both RV's in less than 15 minutes and we were ready to go. Plan had been for BB to call the rental car place when we got there, but things went so quick that we waited until we were all done. One other of our drivers got checked in just before we got did. He's flying back today and heading out again on Sunday with an RV to Salt Lake City. When his Uber ride came this guy motioned for us to come over, I did and he asked if we needed a ride to the airport. Nope, by then I had already called our rental car company and they would be there in 20 minutes, and they were only a mile away. As soon as we were checked in, the returns started showing up. Busy day. One of the families had a dog, he came over and lay by us until our ride came and then followed us while we loaded our stuff in the car. But we didn't let him come with us. 3rd stop, rental car. Glad we did not try to stash one RV at the car rental place. It is packed. Cars stacked 2-3 deep and so close together that you have to move one car to get in to the one next to it. From drop to rolling in a rental was less than an hour. Then ... because we had just dropped in CA ... our next stop is In n Out Burger. 4th stop is In and Out still in Newark. The line was so short that we missed where to turn in, the 1st time. BB ordered a single hamburger and I a single cheese burger. No more double doubles, for a while at least. Then the road we talked about taking with the RV's and didn't. Narrow two lane road for a few miles but I don't think I'll try it with an RV. 5th stop, Livermore, Chevron for fuel. We drove it 30 miles, it gets 36 miles per gallon and we add a gallon and a half just to be safe. 6th stop, Livermore and pick up a bus. I call security to let us in and my bus is the first one in line. Lots of buses, maybe the most I have seen here at one time and most usually leave out every night and this is the next day. I get a short bus, BB steps it off later and it's likely a 28 footer. Small fuel tank, but I can park just about anywhere. This is the same as the RV's we just had. Half an hour to check out the bus and we are ready. No issues. BB drops the car and I pick her up and we are rolling. Things are going pretty good today ... so far. Traffic is almost the usual rush hour traffic today as we are leaving town noon. I had thought of staying on I-5 but knew that getting over on to CA-99 in Stockton was shorter. I headed over to CA-99. Once I'm off I-5 the overhead signs say 'CA-99 closed, use I-5.' Couldn't they have said that ON I-5? Traffic is still moving so we keep going and see more signs. BB looks up where it says it is closed, 2nd exit ahead, so we exit with the intent of going back to I-5 but they would add 10 miles or so. So BB finds a route that gets us back to where the road is closed thinking we would be getting on after where it is closed. Nope, when they say closed AT, everything beyond is closed. But by now we are in residential area's so we keep going and follow the service road with 1,000 other cars. As we are sitting there in stop and go traffic, we see cars moving again on the freeway, they have re-opened it. And we get to watch as the power company blocks one lane of the service road we are on so they can fix the power lines. It looks like that is why the road had been closed, downed power lines on the freeway. But soon, only time lost, and we are back on the freeway. 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin ... again. I was wondering where I could park a 40 foot bus with all these tree trucks in the lot. No issue when it is a 28 foot bus, Just find four open car spots, all in a row or in a square. 27 Tonight we pay with points as we we don't maximize points staying two nights in a row, even if we check out and back in. And we are over 200,000 points again. Tonight we walk over to the Kathrin's Biergarten. We've been here a couple of times before, we've also been to a dozen other places within walking distance but none twice. BB has Sauerbraten and I had a Rueben. BB had a beer ... and a fly. So the beer was free and replaced. Great German food. I am still up against my hours so we won't know for a day or two if we will be delivering Tuesday or Wednesday. It would be Tuesday if I had hours. Only used 7 instead of 10 today. But based on the trip out we did 9, 10 and 9 hours, so we might make it. Load board IA - 27 MN - -0- WI - 6 US - 95 I've looked at the last three years load board for IA and for Jul 7, 8 and 9 were all zero's for all years. So we are heading into slow. All three years do not get back up to double digits again until the 2nd week in August. And by that time I will need to re-test for my DOT. .. and I noticed another bruise of unknown origin. |
