 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
201114 CA-TX 1 truck heading to Houston TX ... spending the night at Ozona TX Breakfast was a sandwich we had to nuke. We did get out of the motel by 7 AM but it still took us a while to get going. Then I wanted to see where the CNG pumps were so we went through town (the fact that this move made me miss the weigh scale was 'just a coincidence.') The map showed the CNG was at the Pilot, it is not, it is at the Flying J across the street. And because of some bumps in the road, BB's stuff went flying and we had to stop on the side of the freeway so I could look under the seat. One of the things that went was her glasses, not something that should be left on the floor too long. Not too far down the road this AM I see what looks like a exhaust smoke. As we get closer, nope, FIRE. Smoke is coming out of both windows of a semi on the on-coming side of the road and there are flames coming from something that has fallen off the truck underneath the cab. Three cops are already there but no fire truck even though we are less than five miles from the next town. I look back a couple of miles down the road and still see big clouds of black smoke. 1st stop is in Las Cruces at the Pilot for fuel. I saved a buck by stopping here instead of the Loves a couple of miles back. The Loves would have been on the correct side of the road so I'm guessing faster in and out. Down the road before El Paso, there is fuel for $.20 cents cheaper but it hadn't shown up on the GasBuddy site. Fuel in El Paso was $.20 more than I paid. It was just cheap at that one exit. From here I am remembering my trip just about two years ago. December 2018. We spent two weeks in TX with a bus that kept braking down and we finally left it without delivering. 2nd stop is a rest area near Fabens TX. Short trip from Las Cruces but otherwise it would be a three hour plus drive. Not today. 3rd stop is the McD's in Van Horn. We had talked about stopping at either the Pilot or Loves but the online map made them look small. We've stopped at the McD's before, maybe for the same reason. It has a huge dirt lot. Acres. But that lot has craters so we have to take it slow. No indoor seating at McD's but we can order inside. But no seating outside. I would have thought by now that locations would have been adding out door seating. We ate outside by our truck and the pigeons. As we are standing there eating at the back of the truck, out of the wind, we finally realize how to open the back truck gate :) That would have made getting our suitcases in and out easier. 4th stop is another Pilot for fuel. This time in Fort Stockton. This one has lots of room and also RV pumps which are away from the usual gas pumps. Fort Stockton. Was here once years ago and road the Greyhound for 36 hours home. That reminds me. This AM when we were leaving the motel I noticed that all markings had been removed from the old Greyhound station next door. So I just looked online and it is still listed as the bus stop. ?? 5th and final stop was at the Quality Inn in Ozona, but 1st we stop at a BBQ place a half a mile away. We could have walked later but I'm getting tired of eating cold food at 7-8 PM. The BBQ is in an old gas station so no place to park, but it turns out that there are Pilot pumps across the street. No station, just the pumps. So lots of room to park for a few minutes. Because of the latest increase in Covid, we now have to order at 'the window' instead of walking inside. We both got chicken BBQ with two sides. One order would have been enough. I might be eating potato salad and chicken for breakfast. Motel has a huge paved truck parking lot plus lots of car parking. I'm guessing there are a couple of hundred rooms (?) and about 10 customers tonight. So lots of room. If I haven't mentioned it before, my truck has visible items in the back and no way to secure the truck so we are just trusting that no one will take them enroute. Governors are starting to lock down their states again. My state had the 3rd highest number of cases today of any state. So far we are planning on staying working. We spend 90-99% of our day behind the wheel alone. My mileage is going up. I was running at about 1,900 rpms at 55 mph. That is where I like to run, but that adds about 2 hours of driving every day so as soon as we left CA I started driving 65 mph. Then we turned on the AC. And the mountains. Finally today the mileage started going up again. I am now getting about twice the mpg that I am being paid for. I like that. Load board US - 162 IA - 8 MN - 3 WI - 8 We are using a different rental car company coming home this time and we don't know how easy it is to make changes so I guess we won't be making changes. Likely go straight home, get there on Wednesday. Then try to leave out Friday or Saturday. Get delivered Monday or Tuesday and pick up something and keep moving over Thanksgiving. Or we will be in a rental car coming home over Thanksgiving. The load board started going up 2019 - Nov 17 2018 - Nov 15 2017 - Nov 16 2016 - Nov 15 201115 CA-TX 1 truck heading to Houston TX ... spending the night at Houston TX BB went down for breakfast, very little there so I did not go down. I ate my left over chicken and potato salad from last night. Last night the parking lot had been pretty empty. 3-4 times as many cars this AM. But no more trucks. A cop is stilling right across from us on the street, I hoped he was not waiting for us. And luckily he stayed right there as we left. PROBLEM. This truck has a manual parking brake and no park so it has to be set every time you stop. It is supposed to be so that as soon as you click the handle to release the break the warning light goes out. This AM, the handle was all the way in the 90 degree position and the light would stay on. IF someone held it down further, the light would go off. So that is how we started down the road. After a while we took pressure off the brake and the light stayed off and no more issues the rest of the day. 1st stop was in Junction at a Pilot. A Pilot that is often very congested. But right now it is Sunday morning and we are able to get in and park in the car area, but as we walk back to our truck a few minutes later we are blocked in. They leave before I am ready to, so no harm done this time. When we left this AM we had enough fuel to get to San Antonio plus 40 miles. And yesterday the range had been going up so I didn't see an issue. Shortly after we pulled out of Junction I realized that we had only gone half way to San Antonio and I had already lots over 20 miles range. Before we got to the next truckstop we had lost all the excess range. 2nd stop was not in the original plan. Fuel at Comfort TX at a Loves. I put in 10 gallons that had not been planned on yesterday. Fuel mileage had been up to 8.5 mpg last night but by mid-day it had dropped to 8.2 and my range was showing it. Somewhere out here we see our first Buc ee's of this trip. Not sure how many gas pumps this location had, some have over 100 pumps, but this one was huge and still had people waiting for pumps. The road construction looks the same in NW San Antonio as it did two years ago when we were here. Maybe it has moved, maybe not. There are lots of ways to get through San Antonio but I choose one that the computer does not list. Just stay on I-10 through down town. That was the plan, but it didn't happen. I missed a turn and ended up on I-35 heading to Laredo. Lots of spits and upper, lower routes. Not sure how I missed it but I did. BB saw a sign off to the right too late, and then we realized the highway signs only read I-35. Took the next exit and made a TX U-turn. A lot of the TX frontage road only go one direction and then at the next over/under pass there is a U-turn lane to get to the other side of the freeway without waiting for the stop lights. They are still working on the road by our truck stop but we remember from last time and get on the right exit. 3rd stop is at the Flying J for fuel at the RV pumps. I had already put in 10 extra gallons but still put in the same amount of fuel as I had planned before that extra. This Flying J only has a Denny's so we head back across the freeway. 3rd stop, part two. We stop at the TA which has a Fazoli's, Popeyes and Burger King. I like Fazoli's, but it doesn't always set well with me so Burger King it was. We saw an outside table but ended up eating at our truck. We noticed a few cars in the lot that looked like they have been sitting there a couple of years. But in TX weather, they may have only been sitting the last rain/wind storm. 4th stop is at a rest area near Columbus TX. We couldn't figure out why the computer was routing us on the frontage road near Houston until we got there. We were on the frontage road. When they are working on the main freeway here, they just route everyone onto the frontage road and block the cross streets. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Houston. We had looked online at the areal photo's and it looked like lots of room to park. What it didn't show was the gates across the parking lot. And a couple of them are closed. So I had to turn around in the parking area and do a little backing up. It is a pain when you can't see the thing behind you until you are so far out of straight that you have to pull ahead and try again. But I got parked and lined up to head out in the AM. Plan now is to store everything in our hotel room and BB will come back in the AM after she picks up the car. Otherwise we have to deal with it all at the customer and I have to stop and let her out the drivers side when I park on the street by the rental company. The motel shares a driveway with Pape's Cafe so that is where we got food. Chicken Enchilada = good. Philly = good. Potato soup = good. Now stuffed :) BB had rented a car before she knew the address of my drop and this motel is directly across the freeway from the rental car place. It is in the Embassy Suites but their parking is a parking ramp and I wouldn't have fit. And this is likely cheaper. We are right on I-10 so no out of route. Then tomorrow I go 10 miles north and two blocks off and I am at my drop. Simple. The way I like it. I may end up adding more fuel tomorrow. I am supposed to leave 1/4 of a tank and with the money I am making on the fuel I don't want to short them any. Right now it looks like it should be flat on 1/4 at the drop. We'll see after another 10 miles. Ahhh ... we got a call this AM that the two staying at our house ... will be getting tested for Covid on Tuesday and won't have the results until Thursday. So we likely are not going home at all between trips. If we can find work from here we will. Otherwise based on history ... the load board should get busy this week and we can be picky. Maybe another trip to CA. I'll have current pictures posted on my personal site after I drop. 201116 CA-TX 1 truck heading to Houston TX (delivered) ... spending the night at Edmond OK Late wake up. We can't get the rental car until 9 AM. Breakfast was just a grab bag, sealed. Nothing else was available. I looked in mine 1st, then BB also grabbed a bag. Each bag had a yogurt, fruit and a breakfast bar. Mine had peach yogurt (I am allergic to peaches) and a dried up orange. Breakfast bar was OK. The orange was all shrunk inside like an onion that has used all its moisture to push up a sprout. We traded yogurts and that was my breakfast. This hotel had a huge parking lot in sections and some sections had no cars. But, someone had to park right behind me so I couldn't have backed up if I needed to. ??? But I had made sure last night I wouldn't need to. Left out just before 9 AM, dropped BB off on the other side of the freeway at the motel where the rental car was and headed to my drop. I was thinking I would have to add more fuel before delivery so I had checked out where the different gas stations were along the way. But as I passed the last station I was still over the 1/4 I needed to leave in the tank so I didn't stop. And then I missed my turn. So that added another mile to my trip, but A quick turn down the next dead end street and a U-turn and I was back on my route. 1st stop today was my drop. It was in a complex with a lot of business so I found a tree truck without a motor and parked next to it. Then I went and walked the businesses. 3/4 of the way around I find the correct one. Someone is at the front desk, they yell for my guy and off we go to check out the truck. He opens up the side doors, there would have been room for our luggage if we had known. Then he checks out the rear of the truck. I had been hauling a skid of safety cones all the way from CA. Then today on the last 10 miles from the motel they all off the skid so they will have to be hand unloaded. Also there were some used hoses laying in the back. Looked like used junk to me, but $$ I guess. The drop asked me to back the chipper off to the side so he could un-hook it, and then go and back up to the building. Backing didn't go too bad. I had to back at an angle and was able to keep the side of the chipper in my view to get it into the right spot. Backing just the truck was much easier even between the buildings and the cars. All the time I was doing this BB was having her own fun waiting for someone to help her. It took her most of an hour to get the car, then she had to go back to the motel and get our luggage and someone else had grabbed the luggage cart and had their luggage sitting on it. So she had to make two trips. Two heavy trips, we carry a lot of stuff. So I am done and waiting long before she even gets the car. As we are leaving we meet one of the other truck trucks a block from the drop. Including mine, three were coming in today and the fourth one likely tomorrow. When I get to the drop I had gotten a text that there were issues on the farm again. I thought these were done for the year. Three weeks since the last issue. We haven't gotten work so we will be heading that way. While waiting I had looked at a map so I knew where I wanted to go when we left. But then BB looked at the map and saw we were heading to a toll road. So we went around in a circle and continued on the same street we came in on. About five miles and we were on I-45 heading to Dallas. 1st stop was Schlotzsky's in Willis. Just a sandwich, no soup. Too hard to eat soup while driving, even eating a sandwich is messy. 2nd stop rest area near Richland 3rd stop is Buc-ee's near Ennis. BB had been looking for fuel on GasBuddy and I saw a billboard. Advertising works. And Buc-ee's was the cheapest we have seen. $1.49. So I filled. This station only had 60 pumps. Their biggest has 120. BB went in to use the rest room and started looking for something afterwards ... got overwhelmed and then came outside and didn't see me right away. I had told before she went in that she should bring her phone (she has gone out the wrong door before and had to call me :) ) 4th stop is Ardmore for food at Freddy's. There also was a McCallister's but sometimes it takes a while for their food. Freddy's so I have to get custard (ice cream.) It is supposed to be a malt but it is still thick by the time I am done with my sandwich and is hard to drink. Opps, another missed turn. I thought I saw a sign for I-35 when we left Freddy's so I turned. I-35 south, back to Dallas. Another few minutes lost. Third time today, but all simple. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in north Oklahoma City / Edmond. BB had wanted to eat next door but it was going to be too late so we had already eaten. Good thing. Sign says open but all dark inside. By the time we got to the hotel, the issues on the farm were taken care of, for now. So we are good to head back out which we may do. There was one truck out of Houston heading to CA today. It stayed a while but was gone later, likely one of the other tree truck drivers. It had stayed long enough we could have grabbed it. But just me driving the 1st leg doesn't make good money sense. We know that IA will be putting work out and we will come out ahead deadheading to IA and heading out from there instead. Hopefully the west coast. There had been two going to Sandy OR for a while, but both class A. BB likes the B's but will drive the C's. No A's for her. Lots of work was put on the load board today from IA but it went quickly. Better for us. Now there are fewer drivers left to take what we want. Load board US - 118 IA - 12 MN -0- WI - 2 Plan is to head out at 7 AM tomorrow, time to get some shut eye. 201117 CA-TX 1 truck heading to Houston TX (delivered) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN Alarm at 6 AM, ready to leave at 7 AM. Brought our stuff out to the car and then went in to get our grab bag. They must make them one at a time because it took a while even though we said we would be right back in. The person who checked us out could have kept talking as long as we would stand there ... 1st stop is in Tonkawa at the Pilot for fuel, we think the price may only go up from here. The toll booth at Emporia had a real person at it. 2nd stop is for food at the Spangles in Emporia. It is not even 11 AM but we ate early and eating later would mean an extra stop. I had a Philly and BB had a grilled chicken. DIFFERENT. I think the only thing on their menu that was 'standard fare' was the fountain drinks. Everything else had a Spangles twist to it. Good food. I was surprised that I could eat a Philly while driving but I did OK. I ended up with a Philly because every burger was 1/3 pound. Except for the kids meal. I do not need that much food and neither do most other people. Next door to Spangles is a motel that is now the Clarion. It is closed already. It had been under many names since it's hay day as a Holiday Inn. Heard it was completely redone and reopened as a Clarion right before Covid. Now it is still listed as a Clarion, but the doors are closed until ??? The former Motel 6 next door is now the Emporia Inn. The Spangles building had been under a few names also but now has been a Spangles for a few years. It is a local chain. When I reset my miles per gallon near Houston, my first reading was 65 mpg. That lasted a minute and then dropped, eventually to about 45 mpg. Today that dropped to 40 mpg before going back up. It looked like 400 miles from our drop should be close enough to leave it near 'E.' That put our final fuel in Pleasant Valley MO. Gas Buddy said fuel should be $1.50 at the QT. When we got close, we could see the price was $1.69. BB re-checked, the price of $1.50 was last updated three hours ago. By that time we were past the Amaco that was still listed as $1.50 but BB didn't want to turn around. So $1.69 it was. Final fuel. Dispatch from my local company called so BB picked up and I talked on speaker. After the last time they called I had emailed them that I was NA. But for some reason today I did not show as being NA. So they called. Nope, I am in OK still, I am not available in MN. 3rd stop - Fuel at the QT in Pleasant Valley. 4th stop was the rest area in Oseola IA 5th stop was in Dows at the Arbey's. Big meal at lunch so I got a reuben. It is getting dark. Sunday night was the only night in a while that we haven't driven until after dark. I hope it's not the new normal. 6th stop was in Forest City to pick up our car. Lot is mostly empty. 7th and final stop is in Albert Lea at the Comfort Inn. We wanted to get this far so that would could make it to the airport by 9:30 without getting up before daylight. This will save one day on our rental car. And we used about $50 less in car fuel than planned so the trip numbers are going up. Nothing new on the IA load board until well after noon. And a lot of the trips that did show up were gone by the time BB hit re-fresh. So far there has been one pair of RV's going to GA. But that leaves us 5 days to go 1,000 miles. If we take something now we want the west coast. And that will still be four plus days to go 1,800 miles. We did listen in to the company meeting. Seems that there was one big claim this month that hurt the company, other than that we are having a great year. A tow away driver had his pickup and trailer stolen and it hasn't been recovered yet. So it stays on the books as a claim to be off set if the unit is ever found. I didn't hear anything from the farm today so we are planning on heading back out. We hope there is something we can speak for tomorrow. Then we will pick it up Thursday morning and head out. Covid - Our house guests went in this AM to get tested, they should know on Thursday. So we are not planning on going in the house while we are in town. We may call the shop and get our van if it is ready and we may drop off some supplies at the house. On the steps, ring the door bell and run. We did see some RV's heading out this evening. Now they are easy to pick out. They have started wrapping the fronts to reduce rock chips for the winter. Not much of note on the drive. Speed limit was 75 mph most of the way. No real slow downs anywhere. Load board US - 140 IA - 12 MN - 2 WI - 1 Tomorrow we will 'grab and go' our breakfast. Drop our rental car. Pick up a few supplies. Then head back to Albert Lea for the night. BB needs to do some laundry once we check back in to the motel. Hopefully we have found a run to leave with on Thursday AM. We are using rewards points for our motels now. As of a couple of days ago we had 450,000 points. The cheapest rooms at the lower motels are 8,000 points. We can get rooms at the chains we stay at for 10,000 points, sometimes 12 or 16,000 points. At 10,000 points we have enough points for 45 free nights. We need to use some. 201118 MN ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN Breakfast was yogurt, fruit and toast. They also had cereal. But this was before the Governor's new guidelines tonight. We were ready to go at 7:30 AM to get to the airport by 9:30. Non-stop, brought the rental car in on 'E' with the warning light on. Then we stopped at the store to get a few supplies. Swung past the repair shop and picked up our van and dropped the car at our house. Didn't go in the house tho. Headed back out of town and stopped at a Honey Baked for lunch. Again, we are the only people in the store. Next week they will not be serving sandwiches, ham pick ups only. Good food. Often I get the chicken salad sandwich, today I had the ham salad sandwich. Potato salad is good to. Then we headed down to take a walk at the Big Woods State Park. Spent about an hour there and then continued on to Owatonna. Stopped north of Owatonna at a Kwik Trip for fuel. $1.67. More than $.40 less than in the cities. Got to the Comfort Inn (again) in Owatonna about 3 PM, checked in and BB did laundry. We have been watching the load board all day. Nothing new until mid-afternoon. 1 RV first. Then an hour later a few more. Finally it got up to 20 but stuff was being taken fast. Las Vegas, LA, OR, NC/SC. The only pair of RV's that stayed out is Spokane. And rental cars are 3 times what we want to pay so that is a no go. There is one RV to Lincoln NE that would pay good, if we still had our car. After we picked up our van we started hearing our breaks, so that is next when we get back. So we aren't going to put any extra miles on the van. Instead of walking next door and having meatloaf again, we headed to Erberts and Gerberts for a sandwich. There used to be more of them, I just looked at their website and there is still one in Hudson WI and a couple in St Paul. Something else we could eat closer to home. Load board US - 137 IA - 18 MN - 2 WI -0- The closest good runs are in KS, we were there but not ready to head out then. Now we are, ready and waiting. |
