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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200807 CA-MI 1 bus to Grand Rapids MI ... spending the night at Tulsa OK ... Quiet motel, as in not much for customers. When we walked down for breakfast BB went in as I forgot my mask. BB asked about not being able to get breakfast until 7:30 when we used to get breakfast at 5:30. 'Because they (motel) have to pay for it themselves' ??? Interesting, but that might explain why Barstow started so breakfast so late. One of our drivers had gotten a level one inspection at the NM scale, but they didn't say which one. We didn't see any inspections at either end so must have been the luck of the draw. 1st stop is at the rest area in Amarillo. I call the drop to let them know I will be there on Monday AM. No answer so it was just a message. 2nd stop was at the TA in Sayre OK for lunch at Taco Bell. We ate sitting on the steps of the bus, 95 degrees so we didn't want to sit in direct sun and also didn't want to eat indoors. There has been an RV out of Indiana on the loadboard for a few days so I called on it while we were stopped. $180 total. I said I might call back after I did the math. I didn't call back. We talked about it a bit and it would add a motel and an extra day on the rental car and leave us with maybe $50 for the day. We'll pass. It is almost on the way but time adds up. 3rd stop was at the Loves in Oklahoma City for fuel. Back in, their pumps are only on the wrong side. Very few trucks so not an issue. Credit card doesn't work at the pump so I go inside. Am told the card won't work because it HAS a chip in it. Usually it is the other way. So I pay inside and then fuel. No issue. The last two fills I have had to shut the pumps off because they are way over on pressure. All this takes a half hour. So not a quick stop. When we leave I see that the Flying J across the street also has CNG. Maybe next time. Amusement park is open ... scary? As of yesterday, parts of the OK turnpikes have gone up to 80 mph with a 60 mph minimum. That is an issue with buses that are governed at 55 mph. Some trucks are too. We will have to choose a different route. I tried to update people on FB and see that I can not post to my other drivers right now. Not sure what that is about. My last post hasn't been approved either. I was just asking about a semi-automated permits. No cussing, no insulting, not off topic. But not approved. 4th and final ... Tulsa OK. Plan was to stop at Arby's which I thought was attached to the truckstop. It's not. And Arby's now closes the walk ins at 5 PM, and we got there at 5:45. So we have to walk across the street to the QT / Quick Trip truck stop and get shelf food and some juice. A block away we were at the Comfort Inn, still too hot to walk back for food. Their parking lot seems big until I try to turn a 40 foot bus around in it :) Luckily very few cars so far. IA load board is back up to 57. Five for CA and five for WA. We are talking, plan is to drop Monday AM and then less than 9 hours home. Leave the van in IA. Maybe leave again on Wednesday? I need to find out what the long haul company is doing about my medical card. Law says I have until the end of September, but they can opt for less. I tried contacting them on FB but no reply. I will need to call on Monday. Loadboard US - 173 IA - 57 MN - 1 WI - 5 200808 CA-MI 1 bus to Grand Rapids MI ... spending the night at Edwardsville IL ... Another 400 mile day for tomorrow. Breakfast, 'punch' pouches, muffin, breakfast bar. And I bought a juice from their vending area. Last night when I asked they said it would be $1, today it was $2. Bus is being noisy again today. And the tranny is checking fine, has to be something with the CNG when the tanks aren't full. 1st stop is at Joplin at the Petro for a restroom break. And to mail our paperwork from the last trip now that we may not be going past the office on our way home. Break was un-eventful but when we were ready to head out I noticed the line was long to get back on the highway. I pulled up from the side and waited to get in line, and the truck line got longer. Finally I saw a cop pull up a little ways away from me. Not sure where he came from, there is only one in and out at this place. After watching a couple of minutes, the cop pulled up next to the 1st truck in line and sat there. At this point our light had not changed in at least five minutes. When the light didn't change for him, he hit his lights and went across the highway and made a U-turn. Him being in the turn lane from that direction made our light turn green ... for one truck. Luckily he must have had some idea what was going on because he was back sitting next to me in a couple of minutes. Again he pulled up into the turn lane, this time the light did turn green because of our side... for a couple of more trucks before turning red. But within a couple of minutes it turned green again and about 10 trucks made it through ... I was next and didn't. So I am first in line and some guy taking a left turn doesn't swing wide enough and misses my mirror by about six inches. I never thought of backing up at the time. I was where I was supposed to be and didn't think he had cut the corner that far off until he was right there. Finally back on the road. We see a 'Woman for Trump' / 'Ready for Round 2' RV that is all decaled professionally. Lots of billboards, flags, etc for Trump. So far I have only seen a couple of bumper stickers for Biden. 2nd stop was the TA in Strafford for food. I had wanted to stop here for some Champs Chicken, but BB decided she wanted Subway instead and the chicken didn't look as good as it had sounded. Now I wish I had gotten it because it looks like another Subway day tomorrow. Subway and Denny's. It had rained fairly heavy this AM around Joplin before we got there. The outdoor tables were still a little wet but we wiped them off and ate outside at a table for once. 3rd stop was at a truck stop in Cuba. Mom and Pop place right next to the Blue Beacon truck wash we have used before. Just as we were pulling in here I could hear the police siren's. Then I saw two police cars pulling in behind me ... luckily they were going elsewhere. I could see them parallel to me as they went between some trucks but they never came out the other side when I did. Didn't see them again. We went in to use the rest room and when I came back out into the store I was looking at dozens of old toy trucks in show cases. But BB was motioning for me to hurry up. We aren't usually in a hurry, but OK. Once outside she said it was because we were the only ones in there with masks on (people not taking it as seriously here) ... I thought she was uncomfortable because we were the only ones in there with teeth :) We have been using a new brand of tape for holding our placards on for the last couple of years. I've used it on the outside of trucks for days in the rain. I have used the same tape pulled off one truck and put on the next, and the next. Good stuff. But today it is so humid here that the tape isn't strong enough to hold a piece of paper onto the window inside the bus. I finally take my placard down and clip it over the pull cord further back in the bus. It works if the windows aren't too tinted, but this bus is too tinted. I try new tape later in the day when it seems less humid. Six Flags St Louis is open, as was the place in OKC. Their parking lot here looked about as full as you would expect on a normal summer week day. So down a lot, but still lots of customers. 4th stop is Platoon Beach at the Flying J for CNG fuel. The pump is supposed to be all by itself in a huge no parking area. Which means it is an easy place to park for a whole bunch of trucks. Today most of them are CarVan trucks. I thought about using the outside pump which would have blocked a couple of them in for a half hour, but didn't. I used the inside pump so they could get out. Same issue, main credit card didn't work but second one did. Normally I should get 3,600# pressure but today only 3,100#. That was all it pumped so that is all I can get. That's life using CNG. I'm OK, I only have to get another 200 miles to my final fuel stop. If I don't get a good fill there I will likely try again in Indy. Just to be nice to the customer. I will have more than enough fuel to get to the drop. We had talked about going across the street to the Hen House, but we are here so we ordered here. Denny's again. To go. 5th and finally stop is at the Comfort Inn in Edwardsville. 3 miles from the Flying J and we are in for the night. I had also gotten a Klondike Oreo ice cream sandwich. It was pretty melted by the time I ate it. Doesn't last long in 90+ degree weather. This AM I finally looked at a map and saw the route I need to take Sunday after I fuel. We will be going right through South Bend. A two day rental car out of South Bend is $100 cheaper than a one day out of Michigan. So now that is the plan. The load out of IN to MI that I called on yesterday was taken today. So were 3 of the 5 CA runs out of IA. So not likely the last two will be there Tuesday. Load from IL to IA that I had looked at but didn't call on is also gone. Lots of stuff goes on Saturdays but nothing much gets added. Monday will be a mostly non-freeway day. Didn't realize that before. But I looked and it does seem to be almost if not all four lane highway, just not freeway. One final fuel stop, then pickup the rental car. Monday I will do the wash, delivery and head home. And I need to call corp to see if I can run into Sept on my current DOT card. Not sure what the issue was last night with FaceBook. I couldn't post. Now tonight I can. No idea. Our daughter stopped a picked a couple of dozen ears of corn, plus picked tomatoes and peppers so it isn't all going to waste. I'm sure a lot of it is ... just as if we were there. Down to two Amazon Prime vans today, one UPS truck on the ground and one being hauled. Noticed a couple of other vans that had the DOT numbers from the delivery covered up. I'll have to look if I remember on the Amazon and UPS trucks, I don't remember their numbers being covered up. Loadboard US - 154 IA - 43 MN - 1 WI - 4 200809 CA-MI 1 bus to Grand Rapids MI ... spending the night at Benton Harbor MI ... Woke up a couple of times during the night, once to thunder, but not to our neighbors. Front desk had said they didn't want to put us on the 3rd floor because their is a 'crew' staying on that floor that comes in late. Breakfast was a cup of juice, two mini breakfast sandwiches, a muffin and breakfast bar. Better than most places but along the same line. Pretty un-eventful morning, day. Traffic was light. The scenery is now green instead of brown. 1st stop is at the Petro in Effingham IL. I picked it because it is an easy on and off. And today there are only two cars in the parking lot. Huge lot, but empty. Iron Skillet restaurant is closed, whole truckstop is empty. Good for us but these places aren't going to last. Just down the road at the Flying J the Denny's is closed for good. Sign is gone. And another mile down the road the former Ryans/Old Country Buffet has now been redone as a Golden Corral. 'Opening Soon' is what the sign says. 2nd stop was in Brazil at the CNG pump. The place was built with three pumps, it now has one. A sign said something about ComData so I was wondering if we needed a special card. Nope. Mine worked and I got a good fill. Then diagonally across the intersection and we were at the Burger King. The place next to the pumps used to have a Rally's fast food. The other corners were Iron Skillet and Subway. We both got Whopper Jr's and ate on the steps of the bus. Just as I was getting ready to go, someone pulling a trailer house pulls in and decided to park in my exit where there is no marked parking. Lots of open parking in the rest of the lot. I twisted between the drive thru traffic and his trailer and got past. Just a pain, that's all ... and he drove right past me so he knew I had to get past or back thru the parking lot to get out. Somewhere this AM we passed a female hitchhiker, 60+, wearing a dress and nice shoes ... and carrying one garbage bag. (and likely a whole lot of personal baggage) Another thing I saw was a fly. Between half again as big and twice as big as a horse fly. Somehow it landed on the windshield instead of splatting on the windshield. It was there a couple of minutes before it must have tried to move and was gone with the wind. Indy was pretty quiet today. No directions needed, we have been in this area enough. Good thing I hadn't planned on going thru downtown. Accident where the two main freeways meet, all lanes closed. Lots of road construction earlier today. Short stretches of 45-55 mph but no back ups. 3rd stop was at a Loves in Kokomo on a US Highway. New, it was showing as still under construction on the aerial maps. Note about the normal maps ... One of the motels we had looked at staying at last night showed it was on top of water. The areal was still showing the ponds of water, but the computer knew there was now a building there. We didn't stay at that one. I hit the curb at one point to miss the cars, or I could have just taken it slower. This US Highway is a major route for the new RV traffic heading out of the Elkhart/South Bend area. 4th stop ... sort of. I dropped BB off at the airport. I've done this airport enough that I know how to get in and out. Even when they change things. This time I had to wait for one of the Amazon Prime vans to move. He had parked right in the travel lane and went inside to help someone return a car. He was walking out when BB was walking in so no long wait. I never really looked at a map, just enough to know which highway to be on. US-31 all the way from Indy to Benton Harbor. The route was just a surprise. Only two trucks and two pickups at the wash tonight. Hopefully about the same tomorrow. Might be, as of now the forecast is for rain. Lines aren't usually as long in the rain. But we need to wash rain or shine. 5th and final stop at the Quality Inn in Benton Harbor. Lots of things have changed in this area. Motel names seem to change weekly. This Quality Inn still has the Days Inn signs sitting on the ground, and some of the inside stuff still is from that prior name. The Motel 6 is now a Travel Lodge. The old Burger King is closed and a new one has opened two doors down. The Denny's is now an Asian food place. The Buffet is now a pancake house and the Pizza Hut is now a used car lot ... just to name a few. Had to wait a few minutes for BB. Not sure where truck parking is supposed to be. Only four cars in the lot so not an issue today, one of those cars is where I wanted to park so my doors would not be facing the street and I would still be able to get out. But that didn't happen tonight. After we checked in, we ordered online from Bob Evans. Half hour later we went and picked it up. They gave me a peanut butter cookie instead of a chocolate chip cookie :( I had ordered chocolate) Tomorrow. Wash. 90 miles to the drop. 8-1/2 hours to our van. So we will likely get our van tomorrow instead of heading straight home. 1st thing I need to do after I drop is to find out how long I can drive before getting my DOT renewed. Loadboard would be the same as yesterday. We talked about what is on the board again today and everything would add enough time to add an extra day to the rental car so not worth it. Three Amazon Prime vans today, one of them was at the airport. Lots of RV's, stacks and towaways. 200810 CA-MI 1 bus to Grand Rapids MI, delivered ... spending the night at Waterloo IA ... Alarm set for 7 AM local. We were both up shortly before that. I went down to check out breakfast, not much so I just grabbed two bottles of Jucy Jucie. The good stuff. BB found a couple of things in our past extra's bag and I had a piece of my banana bread from Bob Evans that I didn't eat last night. I pulled out about 8 AM. One more car in the lot this AM than there was last night. Very slow here. Because of how I was parked in their parking lot, I had to swing wide when I pulled out on to the street made use of the two lanes going each way plus the median lane. Next exit is a mile down the road and I am at the truck wash. One truck in the bay, one ahead of me. It did take all of a half hour and I was ready to roll. I messaged BB who was still at the hotel so she could head out. Opps. Detour. Freeway was closed and it re-routed us miles on other roads. But I had a general idea of the area so I didn't panic. Soon I was on a road I was going to be on, just coming from a different direction. Actually, this way may have been a couple of miles shorter. Down side is I didn't know my exit was a left exit until I was within a mile of it. No issues. Had forgot to look up phone numbers this AM so when I got to the drop I just pulled into their lot and saw a 'Receiving' door and went in there. Buzzed to get in. Someone let me in and I found someone right away that would find the correct person. Back outside someone pulls up, gets out and asks if I have been helped yet. Then I notice they have on a Gillig shirt. It was the sales rep. So we chatted off and on while I was waiting and delivery was inspecting. I mentioned about the noise which didn't seem to be an issue. He was more interested in knowing if I had any lights come on, if there were any issues. There were not. Did find out from him that Grand Rapids is getting 10 buses, Kalamazoo is getting 7 and Duluth did get 7 (I missed out on those) Rolling home an hour before we had planned. Because we had taken the detour getting to Grand Rapids, we thought we would take the same route back. A few miles down the road I realized that was not going to work. Hard to explain in writing but where the detour started, what was our exit ramp to the detour is usually the entrance ramp to the freeway. So we had to find a different route to get onto the freeway. Not even 11 AM local and BB is hungry so as soon as we are out of Grand Rapids, we get off at the first exit with food. Arby's. We needed to use the restroom too, but drive thru only. We eat and drive and as soon as we are done eating we stop at the next rest area. While we are there we get all of my paperwork sent off so I can get paid. Close to the MI / IN border we see something I have not seen before. Scale is closed … and because of road construction the road now goes up the entrance ramp, over the scale and down the exit ramp. A couple of delays getting to Chicago. Not the hours I have done before but lots of stop and go. Saw lots of towaway travel trailers coming out of MI, not sure why they are taking that route. We stop again at the Oasis in Hillsboro. Thought we would get some ice cream at the DQ. But the DQ is now a Creepes Ave and the pretzel, coffee and chicken places are all closed. The only toll booth we have to pass is closed for cash, I Pass or pay online only. We have the I Pass so not an issue. Early on, BB was watching the weather coming out of NE. 80+ mph winds forecasted. We get as far as Peru and end up going to the second exit that had a Culvers instead of the first. We thought we would get some ice cream and enjoy the show. Wait it out, be off the highway. Second Culvers ends up being a mile off the road. As we are at the drive thru, it starts to rain. By the time we get to the window the power is off and they are closing. Others ahead of us are parked waiting for their food and haven't been told it's not coming. I had thought of parking facing the wind where we could see everything but we decided to park against a strip mall. We were on the back side from the wind and I could still see the other cars rocking. We moved once to get to where there was less glass directly behind us. It was too late to move very far. We did see a couple of fire trucks and a lot of police going one way and then back the other. We sat there about a half hour. As soon as it died down we headed out. Between where we sat and the freeway there was a semi truck laying on its side on a city street. Blown over. At the exit, one of the signal lights is laying in the travel lane. And we have to go around branches on the freeway ramp. A few miles down the road traffic is stopped for five miles. A transporter pickup pulling an travel trailer as jack knifed on the road, trailer on it's side split open. Tow truck gets to it about one minute before we do. A few miles down the road we pull off at a rest area. INSIDE the rest area, there is a second travel trailer on it's side. We have always thought of these as 'safe places.' As we were walking up to the rest area building we were told by someone in the parking lot that they were closed. Did notice a few trees down and other travel trailers that were OK, parked between semi's. Over the next 200 miles from Peru IL to the Cedar Rapids area we saw another two travel trailers rolled and 23 semi's. Not sure if there had been more, it is over a three hour drive and some may have been cleared by the time we got to them. The second truck we saw nearer Peru already had a hook on it and it had been less than a half hour since the storm went through. The other issue for us was rest rooms and then food. BB ended up eating the rest of my banana bread, then her leftover bun from supper and then a breakfast bar. No where was open or had power. We weren't counting, but all of the temp orange highway signs that flash warnings were rolled over. We finally quit pulling off when we could see that the gas price sign was not lit up. Lots of the corn looked damaged but the worse of it was north of Iowa City once we were off of I-80 where the road is north-south. One place it looked like it had been flattened like a crop circle. Other places, the corn was completely shredded, just the stalk and the cob. Beans didn't look damaged from the road. Also north of Cedar Rapids was a barn blown down. … and there was the RV center north of Cedar Rapids that had a bunch of travel trailers rolled. We didn't think quick enough to get a picture of that. BB did get pictures of a lot of the bottom of other trucks. No place was safe. A trailer rolled in the rest area, a couple other rolled on the highway. Almost all the rest looked like they had been 'safely parked' on the shoulder of the road when they were rolled. A couple of them were even under an underpass. And then it was over. No more rollovers, no more crop or tree damage. The next town with motels was Waterloo. Next food was in Evansdale, we had McD's. While I waited in line I called the Choice motel in Waterloo to ask if they had power. Yes they had power, but no computers and only a couple of rooms left. I said OK, we'll make a reservation right away and hung up. After we make the reservation we realize that without a computer, they can't see our reservation ... When we get to the Comfort Inn, I go in to see if we have a room. There are two desk clerks, very frazzled desk clerks. They have no idea who has made reservations and are down to just a couple of rooms left. The computer should not let anyone make a reservation once the rooms are gone, but they are also renting rooms to walk ins and have no way to update the computer. After a half hour I finally get my room. No computer, means to internet, means no TV. And it is almost the end of a very long day so I wrote up most of the above using note-pad and finished the rest of this on Tuesday. Loadboard was at 54 for IA. 200811 CA-MI 1 bus to Grand Rapids MI, delivered ... spending the night at Waterloo IA ... No alarm. Up by 7 AM. Thought I slept good but my BP wouldn't go down. OK, but not down. The only thing worth grabbing for breakfast was two donut sticks. Sugar high, just from one. BB ate leftovers from past stays. When I checked out, still no computer, no receipt. Computers went out yesterday about 11 AM, no major storm in this area. We watch the loadboard. Two no-tows for FL, rental cars are under $40 a day. But then the RV's are gone. Other things come and go. No damage past Waterloo, in fact crops look as if they could use rain. We stopped in Clear Lake at Pilot to use the restroom. Then on to Forest City. Lots of action at Forest City lot, main lot is fairly full. People are hooking up their tow cars and getting ready to roll. Lots of RV sitting on the shippers side of the highway. We didn't talk to anyone, just moved our stuff from the rental car to ours. After BB dropped the rental, we got a sandwich at Honey Baked. We were there a little after noon and we sat outside to eat. No one else came to the store in the 30-45 minutes we were there ... at noon. I stopped to get blood work done. I guess they have always done it here, even under restriction where I had to go somewhere different. Had my BP checked too. They did it in urgent care. No one waiting at this location, a little different than my Dr's location which is usually full. Once we were home I called and set up an dentist appointment for Sep ... and called about a new phone, but those appointments are for a few days out and we only plan on being in town a day. We hope. Loadboard US - 233 IA - 78 WI - 4 MN - 1 |
