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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord ... spending the night at Moline IL ... The map. If you are looking at the map, you might notice that at least to start with, I am only adding our stops, not to show the route we followed. And I started the new month because we will not be home until next month and we will be off for most of a month during the next two. So that kind of splits up the maps more evenly. 8 AM we both start dialing. With this location, once their phone picks up, we have to dial the extension. Because of space, I have the extensions in my phone listed as 221, 2, 3. I called in twice and went to voicemail, BB call is ringing through. As I start to dial in the 3rd time ... I realize that I have only been dialing the 2, not the 222. Opps. :) BB's call is picked up, we get the runs. We are headed to NC with our first choice. And with our rental discount through that carrier the car is $20 less a day than shows online. Even if I get work coming back, BB will likely follow me as it is cheaper that getting a 2nd rental. Pack, get ready, eat breakfast, stop at the bank, etc in less than an hour. We had thought we had found cheap fuel for our van on the way down by looking at GasBuddy. But that info was a couple of days old and the price had gone up by $.20 a gallon. So we got back on the freeway and stopped at the Love's truck stop instead. 1st stop, Loves, Albert Lea, for restroom and van fuel. Signs everywhere that masks must be worn. 1st person I noticed coming out of the store had a mask on. The next three did not. 5th person was BB, she had hers on ... and we were gone. 2nd stop was the A&W on Forest City. BB was going to be too hungry if we waited until after we did our inspections on the RV's. There drive thru has room for a half a car between the car at the window and the car at the speaker. But our food was ready by the time we paid. The sign says their Root Beer is 'Made on site,' but when I asked, they said it was the carbonated. I passed. I thought the stuff from the 'barrel' was not carbonated. 3rd stop, A&W did have two picnic tables, but they were in the sun so we went to the park. This little park in town gets a lot of use. At least from the people who stop in the shade and park. I'm not sure we have ever gone through town in the daytime, in the summer time when there hasn't been someone there. 4th stop is the office, the lot. We go in to pick up our paperwork. The gal has seen us for years but gives us the blank look so we say our name and then spell it. She can't find it, or the 2nd place she looks. Then someone else in the office 're says' our name and says the paperwork is there. It was. They don't say our name the way we do ... and she heard, but didn't listen to ... the spelling. We might just spell it from now on. BB can't find her RV. It ends up being in the east lot instead of the west lot where the paperwork said it was. So I am done before her this time. IF all had gone well, we have done the small RV inspections in a half hour. But this took an hour like most do. The office is finishing training someone new, but I didn't talk to them until we were ready to leave. New, new to RV's. They have been driving trucks for this company for about four months. First RV. Not off to a good start. The guy gave his ID to a motel when he checked in on his prior trip. Didn't realize he hadn't gotten it back until 400 miles later. Couldn't fly here without it. Couldn't rent a car to get here without it. So he road the bus for a couple of days to get here. And then he is taking one of the runs that have been sitting on the load board for a week because no one else wants them because it is hard to get out of. And his RV is the one RV we can't make money on the fuel with. 5th stop is for fuel in Clear Lake, it was cheaper than Forest City ... but we found out when we went past later, not cheaper than Floyd. We could have saved another six cents. Three cents for BB, she gets a discount. Sometimes I use her card, my card doesn't work. May be because I will not download there app. My card(s) used to work. 6th stop is at the Sinclair in Center Point. Good thing I wasn't on auto pilot. The Sinclair is gone and it is now another Casey's. Lots of Casey's on this road and not much signage for a one exit cross street. Just south of Center Point is where the damage starts. Lots of tree damage, corn damage. Saw one farm where the west and south wind brakes had a lot of damage, but the 100+ (guessing) year old barn stood, as did the wood shed you could see into through the missing boards. Cedar Rapids, south of the river. There is a place where the houses are the little, 1930-1940 style. Tree tops are all gone. Looks like a new housing area where there are no trees taller than the houses. Sort of like St Peter MN looked like after the storm went through there a few years ago. Some places there are trees still laying out onto the pavement, just not out into the travel lane. Finally quite a ways south and east of Cedar Falls, I see what looks like a building that was taken down. A pole barn that looks like recent damage. Also see another temp shed people put up that was twisted. Too bad there aren't more cattle in IA, all this corn would make good silage. I think it was too damaged to get ripe with any value. And not sure how well it would work to try to combine it with a corn head. But with a grain or silage head it might work. Lots of extra costs. Lots of mess next year if it does get ripe but is left in the field. Iowa City. The Village Inn looks closed, but a lot of sit down places look empty now. So not sure if it is closed or not. I made one semi drive unhappy today. Coming past Iowa City, I see a truck on the shoulder so I move to the left. There are three lanes there and I see the semi coming, but he is a quarter to a half mile back. I had moved over sooner than I needed, but the lane was open and if I don't get over sooner, someone sits beside me so I can't get over. So the semi catches up, follows a bit and I don't move. Then he decides to pass me on the right even tho there is no one coming for miles in the left lane. He is right beside me when we go past the truck ... then he decides he want's to get over so he rides my white line and motions something to me. Not sure if he thought I was going to move over or he was trying to tell me something else. IF he had been going the speed limit, he never would have caught up to me. If he had passed on the left instead of the right, no problem. Or he could have just waited another truck length or two I and we would have been past the truck. Nope, big hurry and doing it his way. 7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Moline. One of the last places we stay that is under $50. As soon as we check in, we walk to McD's for food. BB is too hungry to wait for sit down food to go at Montana Jacks. I'm running electronic logs for this trip. Test mode so I am still doing the paper ones too. Nothing good on the load board coming out of NC for now. One heading to FL :) Plan is to stop near Dayton tomorrow night and then be in my drop town on Sunday night. About 500 miles a day. It's been a while but we have done this route many times. Our drops are less than 40 miles apart but the companies routing takes us two different routes. And BB's software is trying to take us a route different than those two, hope hers doesn't know something we don't. Load board US - 260 IA - 106 MN - 10 WI -0- 100 RV's is about what will fit in our main lot. That is full. Our 'hat' lot is also almost full, that holds about another 100. I don't think any of those are on the board right now. Plus there are rental units sitting near the mfg buildings for the last couple of months ready to go ... and their are now RV's sitting in the employee parking lot again. 11 new runs on the load board tonight that were not on the board last night. But they could have put 40 new ones out there and people took 29 new ones and left the old ones. No way of knowing. I know the new terminal manager is trying to limit the number of loads on the board at any one time to keep the old stuff moving. Doesn't work for us. If it doesn't pay the first day it is out there, it isn't going to pay any better a few days later. But some people need the work bad enough that they will move to keep moving. 200829 IA-NC 2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord ... spending the night at Englewood (Dayton) OH ... Breakfast ... NO breakfast. No one mentioned that to us last night. When I questioned them this AM they said it very's by state. (It seems to very by location) But at under $50 a night I'm not going to complain too much. On our way out, we stopped at the same McD's we ate at last night and got two breakfasts for under $10. BB had opened a bag of nuts in the room before we decided on McD's and then she realized that a few nuts was not going to be enough. We shouldn't have any scales this trip, no Port of Entry's. We are under 10,000# and so far all the scales have been closed. IF we had stopped in Walcott last night for fuel we would have saved about $4 on fuel there and then not fueled again until IN. But that would have been a couple of extra stops for less than $10 savings. 1st stop is in Bloomington IL at the Walmart. TA truckstop doesn't have gas (?) and the Pilot is always very crowded. We expected the Walmart to be crowded but no one waiting for pumps the who time we were there. And it is on the correct side of the highway for south / east bound. 2nd stop Crawfordsville at the Pilot truckstop for a Subway. We have eaten at a couple of other places in town ... before Covid. We got our food and sat out on the step of my RV in the sun and ate our sandwiches. Not sure how, but we ended up taking 45 minutes. When we got there, there was a guy, and likely two younger family members, trying to re-mount a truck tire on a rim. Tires were laying on the ground and the crew was gone when we left. We decided to make our own route from here. We take a state or county road to get over to Lebanon and onto I-65. 18 miles across and at least four cemeteries. A couple of 45 mph 'towns.' Houses close together for a couple of blocks. Other than that it is farm country. For the first, or one of the first, times we take I-65 into downtown Indy from the north and catch I-70 east. Not a lot of warning but it is a left exit. We go past the Lafayette Sq Mall, it looks vacant from the freeway side, I've looked at the mall many times when we pass, tonight I looked it up. At their peak, they had six anchors. In 2007 the mall did a major renovation, but the stores continued to close. One off name department store and a dozen small retail stores in a mall built for 100+ stores. Pretty much from Indy to the OH border it is 55 mph because of road construction. We are the only ones doing 55, unless we are passing a cop with it's lights flashing. Does great for the gas mileage. 3rd stop is at the rest area near Greenfield for a break. 4th and final stop is at Englewood at the Comfort Inn and Panara. Lot at the mote is almost empty tonight and we end up parking in the truck spots. When we leave to go get food, we walk the stairs and out the back door. The garbage can is smoking, I look in and everything in the bottom is ash. I go around to the desk clerk and let them know ... We walk down to a Mexican place, but they don't have outdoor seating and we didn't order ahead. BB wants food NOW. So we walk next door to the Panara. We are eating within a few minutes with outdoor seating. In the sun, but it is under the clouds half the time. Nice change from McD's. Back at the motel the desk clerk thanks me ... Right now there are three options for me to take back to MN. But the rental car is so cheap going to MN that we should bring it all the way back. It will cost 4-8 times more to drop the car in Indiana or Ohio than bring it home. There is a truck in OH going to Circle Pines, a truck in IN going to ND and an RV in IN going up by Alex. All would pay $400-$500 for an extra days work. Tomorrow we will likely fuel here at the grocery store. Fuel is cheaper here than down the road and this should be BB's last fuel, and if my mileage keeps going up it could be my last fuel too. I only have 40 more miles to go than BB. Not sure how, but I am getting paid less per mile on fuel than BB and am making less mpg. Still can't figure out my dash. In some other language and now it is the weekend. Can't find anything online, only about the radio and this is not the radio. Load board for Saturday. US - 269 IA - 99 MN - 10 WI -0- 29 large RV's out of IN, two going to MN. Down to five out of NC and none coming home direction. Besides the RV's in IN and the truck in OH, there is a truck in Jamaica ... NY ... on Long Island coming back to MN, but that one is a little too far out of route. 200830 IA-NC 2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord ... spending the night at Mocksville NC ... Breakfast, bagged. One bottle of water, one fruit, one Rice Crispy bar. Plus they had yogurt in the fridge and juice in the machine. Some juice. I wanted the Orange Pineapple, but it tasted like water. So I had a mix of grape and apple. 1st stop was right across the street at the grocery store's gas station. $2.13. It went down a penny since last night. BB thought she would have enough fuel from here to make it ... I hoped I would. Not too far down the road BB moves to the left lane to let in someone merging on. They speed up enough to stay beside her and there is now a line of cars behind both. I finally slow down enough that she can catch up and then passes me to get back in the right lane. Working together :) 2nd stop is the Pilot in Chillicothe OH for a rest stop. Quick in and out. We had looked last night at all the places to stop today and when we realized there would be five stops instead of four, BB was too tired to start over. If we had started over, one of the places we might have stopped was at a rest area on US-35. It is on the wrong side of the road and that is why BB didn't want to stop there, some online comments were that it was dangerous. As in having to cross and enter traffic that is going 65 mph. The road is not a freeway at this point. And where the road is not freeway, in places the speed limit is 55 mph. After one of those 55 mph places, BB finally passed me after I ignored the second 65 mph sign ... guess I was day dreaming ... a little. I had noticed we were back to overpasses but missed the signs. Finally when we are in WV I pass here when she slows down because her RV starts tacking out at 4,000 rpms. Mine didn't ... yet. On US-35 in WV they are getting closer to being done making the road a four lane from IL to the freeway. When I started it was all two lanes. Then sometime when I was looking, was running this route, both ends became four lane. Now we can see the bridges are done and the base is mostly done on the last stretch. It's still hilly, but four lane will be good. It isn't quite as bad if you don't get behind a farmer going 15 mph :) On that stretch of US-35 I noticed that one of the buildings at the feed mill had totally burnt. Just a pile of metal from what had been inside ... then a few miles down the road there was a remains of a house that was still smoking after being burnt. Then another half hour down the road in Cross Lanes I see that the Barnyard BBQ is a pile of brick. Couldn't tell on that one if it had burned or just been knocked over. Lots of brick and stuff to have been knocked over unless they just buried it. 3rd stop, Cross Lanes at the Honey Baked. We had looked last night online and the Honey Baked web site says this location is closed on Sundays. But Google maps said it was open. By the time we were looking it was too late to call so we took a chance and drove past it. It looked open so I stopped, went up and opened the door. It was open :) So I order their chicken salad sandwich and BB orders a turkey salad sandwich. We decided to eat inside as last time no one came the whole time we were at one. And today no one is here. But as we sat there, there may have been a dozen people come and go. None ate inside and it is a large area. Just past Charleston is our only toll road for the trip, three toll stops. We both had our passes out this AM so we are good. Good, other than I almost get rear ended coming out of the toll booth. Leaving the toll both the road turns a little to the left and then to the right so you can't see very far. I had just got up to speed and I see the truck that had been ahead of me at the toll both is almost stopped around the bend. I hit the breaks and then look back, the person behind me is on the shoulder beside me ... BB ... ?? ... she says she had just 'glanced down' to look at her speed to set the cruise and when she looked up I was stopped. She managed not to hit me and get her four ways on in a second ... and she kind of rearranged her personal stuff she has sitting loose in the RV. 4th stop is the Tamarack Oasis for a rest break. Way less than two hours but the next leg will be two hours. No, as in -0-, scales open this trip. One less thing to worry about. By now I am watching my fuel. I think I will have about a 40 mile range left when we get to the next stop. It holds, even with the steep up hills and the 99.9 mpg down hills. I've found that if I start at the top of the hill at 60 mph or less the rpm's won't go over 4,000. And I have also found that the mpg doesn't change going down hill, either 2,000 rpms or 4,000 rpms, it is still 99.9 mpg. Should have stopped in WV for fuel at Loves. $1.89. Instead we had planned on stopping five miles down the road at the Flying J. Once we were that close I am trying to figure out how many gallons I need. And I'm flipping through the screens on my dash. I know this road, I know that the next exit after the freeway splits is where I want to turn off. Opps, I miss all the blue signs and the next thing I know I am crossing a bridge. This Flying J sits below road level so as I go over the bridge I am looking over my left shoulder, the cross road runs at an angel right there. FYING J. I quick glance to my right and take a hard right to get on the clover leaf. 5th stop Flying J near Mt Airy. This may be our last time stopping here. It is easy to miss, Loves has a sign you can see for miles away, Flying J is completely hidden from the road. Fuel price, Loves was $.30 cents per gallon less. And this place is old and congested, Loves has a lot more room. I'm getting 18.8 mpg so I put in enough to get another 100 miles. I should still be coming in under a 40 mile range. The motel next door used to be a Best Westnern, it is now the Bryerson Inn. We stayed there we BB had her '40-foot' flat bed truck, she managed to get it turned around in their lot as we could not drive around the building. Biggest truck she has driven, and likely ever will. 50 more miles to go. Somewhere down the road a car passes us dragging it's bumper into the right lane. The who plastic bumper. Finally a mile or two down the road they suddenly pull over, like they just noticed it ??? We exit off of the freeway onto a four lane express way, and then on to a two lane US highway. Nice road but only a foot from the white line to the drop off. 6th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in Mocksville. We get upgraded, another perk of being a diamond member. And we are getting close to a months worth of free nights in rewards points. The current promotion will be over in a week. Closest food is Pizza Hut and Burger King. Then a Sage Steakhouse across the US Highway, we could walk across, just no stop lights and lots of traffic. Instead we decide to walk another block down the street to the Arby's. OK, if I am serious about loosing weight I am going to have to start looking at the numbers ... I thought I was doing good by not ordering a cookie or malt. But after I ordered I saw that what I ordered had almost have again as many calories, is that what they call them? as my 2nd choice. Tomorrow BB fuels and drops. I do my inspection and then go and log off and wait off duty until she is done. Then another 40 miles and we pick up the car a mile from my fuel and drop. As of now, I am going to wait to commit to anything heading home. We'll watch the load board in the morning until I drop and maybe a little longer. Still need to do closer math on the two main runs I am looking at. 200831 IA-NC 2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord (delivered) ... spending the night at Jeffersonville OH ... Lots of discussion last night about which run to take. Finally realized there were two West Chester's in OH and we had been looking at the wrong one. The correct one, based on miles, was near Cinci. That is less than 10 miles out of route. Pays $50 than the RV and save's us one day and one motel. Kind of made our decision. Called dispatch a few minutes after they opened and got the run. One of the reminders was 'keep it under 74 mph.' :) No problem. I then called the pick up location and left a number. Breakfast, a packaged sweet roll and juice. BB ate leftovers from yesterday. It was pouring when we were ready to leave, BB suggested we park under the front door area to move stuff to my RV. I headed down the stairs and she takes the elevator. I get soaked before I get to the RV. As soon as I get to the RV I can tell from the sound on the roof that the rain is letting up. I get all my stuff in place and still no BB ... SHE was waiting at the front door to put her and her stuff in there, out of the rain. And to get a ride to her RV :) We moved the remaining items to my RV and BB headed to the gas station and I headed to her drop. I park in the visitor area and by the time I make one call to my next pick up, BB is there. A couple of salesmen come out and are looking at my RV, I tell them to not get too excited because it wasn't going here. They asked where, and when I told them, they did get excited ... and not in a good way. I'm thinking they were knew to sales and didn't know who gets to sell what where. And neither do I. My next pickup had called back while I was driving to BB's drop and I didn't realize when I left a message this AM that I have not set up my new phone for voice mail. Didn't have to set up the old ones. I called back and the person thought that there were two drivers coming in today. No, I will be there tomorrow and told him which truck and wood chipper I was getting. He would make sure everything is ready before we get there. So these are used units being re-located. I didn't ask how used. BB's inspection takes about a half hour and we are ready to go. Back roads most of the way. This one has a lot of trucks. Right as we were leaving town the road narrowed to two lanes and when there was room, I got over as did the truck behind me. And he stayed right on me like he didn't think I was going to have come over when the lane ended. It was to the point where I thought of turning off the road to a side street to shake him, and then he was gone. He took the turn I was supposed to and I kept going straight. Opps. I realized it a block after when my highway number wasn't on the next sign. But I lost him :) Planned this too close and once the fuel range gets down to 30 miles it goes blank. It went blank and I had almost 20 to go. So as soon as we exited to get the rental car, I stopped at the first station and put in $4, that brought my range up to 65 miles, way more than I need. I had looked on the map for fuel en-route from the rental to my drop and didn't see any. So I headed back to the freeway and came in the route I knew and bought at the place I knew. MORE LATER ... WANT TO GET AN EARLIER START ... much later. After I fuel, I get to my drop and park on the street and go inside. They took my paperwork and said I could leave the RV where it was. This is the third place here that I have been inspected in three trips. It takes about an hour to get inspected. The guy doesn't have much to say so I keep my distance. He finds a few issues, but none involve me. He signs off and we are gone. Cook Out is one of the closest foods. Burger is good. the malts are so so. (My Culvers blueberry mixer had more blueberries in the first spoonful than this whole malt) A few miles on the 'outer' and we are on I-77 heading north. First stop is in VA at the rest area on the state line in Lambsburg. Fog on the hills today, but no slow downs. We stop in Charleston again at the Honey Baked for supper, this time to go. After I ordered I was thinking I should have gotten something easier to eat than chicken salad, but it went OK driving. Stopped in Chillicothe at Pilot for fuel Then final stop for the day in Jeffersonville at the Quality Inn. Missed the turn, turned too soon and ended up in the old outlet mall. Some RV dealer has taken over the whole former outlet mall as is. Fairly good sized mall with buildings at all angles. Interesting too see. Last time we were here there had just been a tornado spotted. No excitement this time Load board US - 261 IA - 111 MN - 9 WI - 4 ... the trip continues HERE |
