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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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200901 OH-MN 1 chipper truck to Circle Pines MN, 1 rental car following ... spending the night at Rochelle IL ... Went to bed early last night, mixed up on the time zones. Still slept until the alarm went off at 7 AM local (6 Central.) Muffins and juice was all they had for breakfast. BB had muffins, I had juice. Fog, lots of fog this AM. Kicked the cruise off for a while but cars and trucks still kept sailing past at well above the posted. 1st stop - We were a couple of minutes late, I blame it on slowing down for the fog. One hour to get to the pick up location. The shipper was not there, but we found the keys where he said. Who was there was a repair man. The driver that was going to leave yesterday could not, no tail lights on his chipper. So he had to wait the night and they were just working on it now. The other driver was sitting in his ? rental ? car and didn't look up or open the window until I was right next to the car. We only talked a couple of minutes. Later he did come over and said a few words to BB but that was it. On the phone most of the time. He was still there two hours later when we left and his truck was done before mine. The reason I went and talked to him, was I needed to know if that was his truck the repair man was working on. Mine was blocked in by his truck and the repairman's truck ... and a bunch of employee cars and the cars weren't going anywhere. When the time came, BB guided me around the cars and out into the open. ... yes, the other drivers truck was done before mine. When I got there, one step was missing and I waited until that was repaired until I tried to start the truck. Tried ... click, click, click. So I call dispatch and then the shipper. Had to jump the truck yesterday but when they were using it, it had started good. And we could see there were fairly new batteries in it. So the repair man jumped the truck when he got a chance. Now that the truck was running, we could check the lights. No back up lights. I knew I had a bunch of scales to cross and I wasn't going to head out with a truck I knew was illegal. The repair guy found the problem right away ... but said no one carries those parts in stock. As I am calling dispatch, he is calling his office who says take the part I need off of the repair truck. He started working on that and then got a call, their shop had found the part in town and it would take '15 minutes' to go pick it up. Close. The other driver thought one of his tires was low so the repair guy went and took care of that. He did finally get my truck done and waited until I had it restarted. One of my tires looked low too but not that I would have noticed if the other driver hadn't done something about his. I didn't do anything about mine. I had allowed one hour for my inspection, we were there two hours. Good news, fuel and DEF are both full. This chipper I am towing does not have 'flags' so I can not see I have anything behind me unless I take a hard right or left turn. We head out, the truck is a Ford 5 speed stick shift. Stripped down as in no extras. No AC, no radio. I'm just a few miles down the road when a version of the check engine light comes on, but goes off before I find a place to pull over. This happens a few more times so I soon ignore it. Within the first half hour I cross my first scale. I have to enter the scale area but get the bypass lane. Whew. A few miles down the road I notice that the storage door on my truck that had been held shut with a bunggie cord is now hanging open. I ignore that too, except when I am going through road construction. ... then I look back and a second door is open, so I pull over on the shoulder and stop. I use my blue tape to anchor the 1st one shut and the 2nd one seems to have just com unlatched. Indy isn't too bad, for me anyways. We had talked about stopping in Brownsburg at McAllisters sandwich shop but once we were running late, I decided to go to Crawfordsville to where I knew there was a place to park and the food was fast. So where past Indy, a red check engine light comes on ... I hit the shoulder and it goes off. So I pull back on the highway expecting the worst. Now I start watching my gauges as much as the road. What I find is the auxiliary fan does not come on when it should. These bigger trucks have extra engine fans that should kick on when the temp gets too high. First time I was in one when it came on, scared me ... think it was in IL when another driver was giving me a ride to my next truck. As I watch, I see a pattern. There are no numbers on the temp, just C and H. Cold and Hot. When the temp gets to 3/4 hot, the check engine type light comes on. I think that is the point when the extra fan should kick in and doesn't. When the fan does kick in, the temp drops and just under 1/2 the light goes out and then below 1/2 the fan shuts off. But the fan does not always kick on, not even a H. So I start slowing when the temp gets close to H and then realize that if I run at 62, instead of 65 the gauge doesn't get to H. So I back off to 62 mph. That is about 2,100. 2nd stop Crawfordsville at the Pilot for Subway. I am just walking to the back of my truck when BB pulls in. My one chipper tire that looked low is really hot. And my fuel is down below half on about 150 miles. Neither are good. I order my sandwich and eat in the rental car. We have decided to keep the car, it would have been about the same amount to return it in Cinci, and it would have been extra time. Plus then we would have to pick up our car and those couple of extra hours could me not dropping the truck until Thursday. Once break is over, I fuel, 25 gallons for 150 miles. And I find the air to air up my tire. I pull over to air up and try the hose. It seems to have pressure but it looks like the tire is going down, not up. Finally when I decide it is not working, I stand up and see that ... $1.50 for four minutes of air. So I was letting air out of my tire instead of putting air in. I paid the $1.50. No working tire gauge and hard to tell looking at the tire, so I filled until the time ran out. Back on the freeway ... just about right away the 2nd door flew open again so I stopped and taped that one shut also. I am running out of blue tape. Will need a new roll before my next trip. Not too long into the trip a van got between BB and I ... then BB pulled off for cheap fuel. That van followed me for the next 100 miles at 60 mph. When I slowed, they slowed, when I switched lanes, they switched lanes. It was too the point that when we got to the rest area, I waited to the last minute before I turned on my blinker and exited to see if they really were following me .. they did not exit. 3rd stop is the rest area near Farmer City. Things are going 'well' now, but we decide not to make a motel reservation until we get to the motel. This leg is mostly uneventful. BB stays right behind me the whole way. At one point there is road construction that slows us to 55 mph and then 45 over a bridge. That is the last sign we see, but the cones go on for another five miles. I kept it at 55 mph. I'm guessing no one behind me liked it but there were no more signs. Coming out of the 45 mph, we were heading up a hill. As soon as I tried to speed up, the truck temp would go up. Back up to H. So I didn't get over 55 mph until I was up and over the hill. Then I got the truck up to 65 mph and the temp went down. Finally sometime in the next half hour, the fan finally kicked in. I had not looked at the map so I didn't know where the motel was. Almost turned on the wrong street and someone got pretty close to rear ending BB because of it. 4th and final stop, Quality Inn in Rochelle. As soon as we are checked in, we drive the rental car to Culvers and eat in the motel. I will likely fuel here in the AM as it could / should be my last fuel. I could fuel for less later but that would change where we stop and cost us an extra stop. Plan is to fuel at 7 AM here, stop in 120 miles in Portage for a break. Stop again in 120 miles in Osseo to get food. I plan on eating in this dirty truck, it will save 15 minutes and I should be able to get to the drop in less than 8 hours so no 30 minute break needed. We will see how that goes. I have a scale about a half hour before my drop so I need to be legal. Always need to be legal. Load board US - 241 IA - 109 MN - 12 WI - 4 200902 OH-MN 1 chipper truck to Circle Pines MN, delivered ... spending the night at home ... We are up with the alarm, for those that didn't have an alarm, there were at least three different cars honking their horns this AM in the parking lot. I'm guessing to try and get the attention of those who should have been in the car. I'm guessing it was the work crews. Not very courteous. A semi driver was checking in to the motel when I was checking out. Then he was waiting for my spot to park when we left. I did stop at the Petro for fuel, filled it up. Then BB called and reminded me that I had not grabbed my I-Pass so we met up in the parking lot. Then as I was leaving I saw that the truckstop had air at the diesel islands. So I circled back around and filled up the low tire again. Wasn't very far down the road and the check engine light was on. I had hoped that the cooler AM weather would help in keeping that off. Because of the metal mess overhang over my truck, I held my I-Pass out the window hoping the scanners would read it. Found out later they did not so now we have an unpaid toll to deal with. IL toll booths are closed. I-Pass or pay by mail only. I get the by pass at the first WI scale. :) Still lots of road constructions everywhere. 2nd stop for the day was at a rest area just south of Portage. BB was able to get something at McD's and get on the freeway before I filled my tire with air so she was at the rest area when I got there. We chatted a couple of minutes then were on our way. 3rd stop was in Osseo WI at the truck stop. I parked, BB couldn't find me. I didn't realize the truck stop is now a BP, and there is another BP across the street that has been there for years. So we are on the phone and she is saying she is at the BP and I can't see her at the station, because she is at the truck stop. We find each other and then she needs to use the rest room. Now. Then we drive across the street to the Hardee's. Drive thru only so no rest rooms. Once we get our food, I call the local dispatcher to see what they have for a two day run. No buses so I am handed off to cement mixers. One to some where in western OK. 720 miles. I had said up to 700 miles. But I was basing that on leaving from the office, their 720 is 80 miles down the road. Doing that trip would mean delivering late on a Friday after noon on a holiday weekend ... if everything goes well. I said no, not now for that one. And by then the 3rd dispatcher had brought the paperwork over and there was another OK run from 580 miles. I said yes. And this run goes right past our van in IA so no need to make a special trip to get the van. They call back while I am driving to see if I want to do the same run next week. No can do. BB has her first appointment on Wednesday next week, then Monday of the next and then two weeks later. So we will be mostly off after this trip. Soon after I leave Osseo, I am close to Knapp Hill. My fan kicks on about two miles before so I am pretty sure it will not kick on going up the hill and it didn't until the last 1/4 mile. Luckily the truck behind me was not riding my tail. He was giving me a good few blocks space. Right now there is road construction. The freeway is split there, I took the right lane. One shoot, guard rail on one side and cement median on the other. No place to pull over. I am down to 40 mph trying to keep the temp gauge off the red line. I make it. It is a long slow trip through WI on the hills with a truck that wants to run hot. 4th stop is at the Pilot in Roberts for fuel. Unplanned stop. When I fueled this AM I thought that was my final fuel, 100 miles to spare. When I got to Osseo I still had 50 miles to spare. When I got to Roberts I was short almost 40 miles. So I did the math and put in 15 more gallons. I ended up dropping it with a range of 110. All we need to leave it with is the low fuel not on, and that came on at 55 mile range. 2nd WI scale was closed when we went past, cop was just backing into place so it could have been opening soon. And when we get to the MN scale, closed. Due to road construction. On the top of my stupid things that people do is semi's taking U-turns in the no U-turn crossings on the freeway. When I went past the truck was sitting there waiting for an opening ... when BB went past there was a car sitting there too ... likely a cop car :) 5th and final stop is the drop in Circle Pines. I've looked at a map enough to know I know the area. I should have looked at an areal map. I pull into the drop and am told I need to pull behind the building. I thought the parking lot went all the way around the building. It does not. So I have to back up a half dozen times to be able to make a U-turn in their parking lot. Then when I get behind the building, they want me to back it into a parking spot. They spot me and I get it where they want it on the first try. They want to know everything about this truck, first one person, then the manager. The other driver dropped earlier today and this location does not want that piece of junk. Mine is the better of the two? Really? I didn't ask. They sign off and we are on our way home, I stop and pick up my paperwork. Much later, I am looking at my paperwork and see ... I told dispatch that I did not want the longer run because it would put me up against the customers Friday close time. Dispatch didn't tell that my drop has a NOON close time this Friday. So we are going to have to push, get up early ... all the stuff I didn't want to have to do. Load board US - 257 IA - 110 MN - 12 WI - 6 |
