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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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201119 IA-CA Today's load board out of IA 8:00 - 16 8:30 - 9 9:00 - 8 9:30 - 7 10:00 - 7 10:30 - 7 11:00 - 19 11:30 - 12 12:00 - 12 12:30 - 9 12:38 - WE HAVE WORK 2 RV's heading west. 1 to Carson City NV, 1 to Davis CA ... spending the night at Ankeny IA No alarm today. We were up some time around 7 AM, down for breakfast before 8 AM. Then we both started hitting re-fresh on the company website. We talked about bringing our van back to the shop because of the breaks, we talked about going for a walk. But we wanted to wanted to work and some loads only last on the load board for a few seconds. Today the first batch of orders was loaded before noon. Some good runs but nothing great heading into the weekend. We didn't want to do a short run and have four days to do it for Monday delivery. The motel would only give us a late check out until 11:30. ?? So we drove to get food. When we checked out there were signs saying that there would be no more breakfasts for four weeks. So roughly until December 19th, based on the MN Governor's speech last night. We ended up the same place we did last night. Erbert and Gerbert. I got the same sandwich last night without the BBQ sauce. BB got a sandwich instead of a salad. We sat in their lot and ate in the van. At 12:30 I decided to call the west coast dispatcher to see if his shipper was even open next week or we should head somewhere else. He sounded glad to hear from me. Also he was wondering where I was as he had a truck near KC he needed moved. I told him I would be heading that way IF I could find work. About five minutes later two CA orders show up on the board. BB wants to wait until we see what else is being loaded. I want to call NOW. Dispatch loaded a couple more and we agreed to call. We got the trips. We are heading to CA :) I try to call the west coast dispatcher back but the line is busy so we head down to IA. One other RV getting ready to go. Not sure what was going on with that. There were three people looking at it and it didn't sound like they had driven out of this location before. Then they found damage and may (or may not) have switched trips. At that point I wasn't watching them anymore. Our pre-trip takes the usual hour. No issues with our RV's. I have Willie Radio :) I also have over a half a tank of fuel. I did get billed for six gallons of it but there was closer to 16 gallons in the tank. I started with a range of over 300 miles instead of less than 10. A few mile from our pickup location, there is a barn that has been leaning for years. It was leaning so far that the run off from the roof was hitting the side of the barn, so the owner had placed boards to shield the barn from the run off. Today it was down, a big pile of rubble. Almost all of the first 20 miles I am smelling something. 1st it is exhaust, then it smells like burnt cookies, then burnt other things. I almost stop to see if something in my RV is burning. I don't. But when we get to the fuel stop I do open the hood and walk around inside and out smelling. Nothing. 1st stop is the Kum and Go in Clear Lake. $.30 cheaper than the Pilot across the street. Less than an hour down the road and I start smelling smoke again. But this time I also see it. A farmer is burning their ditch banks and the smoke is hanging like early morning fog in the air. Two easy hours down the road to our hotel. Road construction is closer to done in Ankeny. They have moved the southbound lanes back to their own side since we came through two days ago. Sunny today and 70 but that makes the last hour challenging driving somewhat into the sun. 2nd stop was the Comfort Inn in Ankeny. Once we were checked in we ordered online from the Outback next door. 30 minutes later we walked over to get it. 1st person couldn't find the order, 2nd person couldn't find the order, finally the manger got involved and asked if it could be under JAMES instead of JIM. ??? Good help ??? I was still stuffed from lunch so I just had two cups of soup ... and BB had also ordered carrot cake. It's new to their menu so we had to check it out. It's good. BB had chicken. Load board US - 170 IA - 40 MN - 6 WI - 2 Finally the IA load board ended the day a little higher. We stopped looking when we got our runs so we don't know what else was put out and taken right away. At the end of the day there was still 4 CA, 4 WA, 5 FL and 2 AZ. Our CA runs are a better fit than anything left on the board but we would have taken any of the remaining ones over the weekend if what we did take was gone before we got it. Tomorrow we need to call our drops for a 24 hour notice and call to get our NV permits. We've done this route enough that we know the stop, the cheap fuel. All as long as nothing unexpected happens. 201120 IA-CA 2 RV's heading west. 1 to Carson City NV, 1 to Davis ... spending the night at Sidney NE This place still has breakfast, the kind we used to get at the Days Inn/Super 8. Basic packaged stuff. Plus yogurt. Headed out a 7:30. Light traffic. A very uneventful day. At times I had to focus, just to stay focused. Usually I only do that coming up to a scale or an exit. Traffic was easy, no wind, nothing. Just before our rest area in Stuart, I noticed that the Casey's was closed. All signage down. We had see the same a few days ago in OK. 1st stop was for a break at the Adair rest area. 2nd stop was the BP in Gretna for fuel. I had thought we could see a fuel price sign from the highway but we couldn't. This place had the cheapest fuel yesterday so we try it. $1.99. At the next exit where we often stop it is $2.09 and $2.19. A few miles down the road at the next truck stop it is $2.44. It all helps when we are putting in 40 gallons between us. 3rd stop is Arby's in York for lunch. So far all the food places are still open. From here we do our 24 hour advance call for our drops and also call to get our permits. Did see one bus heading to Pittsburg today, taken the I-80 route. Just looked and going I-40 is 110 miles further but it looked like most drivers run that way instead. Cheaper fuel, cheaper motels, better weather. We didn't see much else for driveaway. A few stacks of trucks. A couple of trucks towing their car. Only noticed a couple of travel trailers pass us that were heading to dealer. Not much. 4th stop was in Cozad at a rest area. 5th stop is for fuel at the Walmart in Ogallala. $2.07. Cheapest at this exit, next closest was $2.14 and then on up to $2.44. 6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Sidney. One car in the lot and I'm guessing that is the night clerk. We are off the road within a few minutes of sun set one way or the other. Clouded up just before sunset. Once in we call our Mexican place across the freeway and walk over. And Back. Food is warmer this time but not hot. Next time we may drive just to be able to eat the food hot. Load board ... wow. We left a day too early. 70+ left at the end of the day. 3 left to where I am going. 1 left to where BB is going. 2 to Junction City OR. 8 to WA, 10 to FL. Who knows how much more there was during the day. Load board US - 181 IA - 72 MN - 2 WI - 2 The load the CA dispatch talked to me about that is in KS is still sitting there. Tomorrow is planned. Same stops as usual. 201121 IA-CA 2 RV's heading west. 1 to Carson City NV, 1 to Davis ... spending the night at Tooele / Lake Point UT Breakfast wasn't until 7 AM this morning so we got a later start. Pre-packaged items. I had a ham croissant. When I start my RV there is an alarm going off. My landing gear is down. On RV's they call it the stabilizers, it looks like they are auto now, no more crawling under the RV to get it level. All stops today are roughly 100 miles. That is just where the cities are in WY and we don't do 200 mile legs. 1st stop is at the Port of Entry in WY. Lot is full when we get there, almost empty when we leave a few minutes later. Just before we got to the scale an RV transporter past us doing <> 75 mph. They were in line at the POE but I didn't get a chance to talk to them. Not sure the big rush. Can't deliver until Monday. 2nd stop is an Exxon in Laramie for fuel. Fuel is $.70 cheaper here than one of the truck stops at the next exit. Also found out here that I can't squeeze more fuel in to make it a round number. Ran a little fuel on the ground. 3rd stop is at the TA/Subway in Rawlins for food. No one in line when we got there so we ate inside. There was a line by the time we were done eating. We could have been in and out in 15 minutes but we needed a half hour break so we each looked at our phones. 4th stop was at the Shell on the west side of Rock Springs for fuel. They only have one diesel pump for the cars and one side of that was tied up with someone who was having 'issues.' So we both waited for the other pump. This is a ma-pa truckstop and the fuel was still $.65 a gallon less than the majors. 5th stop was at the rest area by Evanston. Most times we stop at the Flying J but this isn't as congested. Only one other car today. It is going to be dark when we get to Salt Lake City but if we don't we will need to be up well before daylight to make it close to our first drop. Sun. It's been sunny all day and the sun is so low in the sky it comes in the side window most of the day. Not bad if you have a visor. BB does not, hers are locked in place and can't be moved to the side windows. 6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Tooele. Walk across the street to the Flying J and get shelf food. Pizza. Most times we have done the Denny's but it is late and shelf food is fast. My miles per gallon have been going up and down since I started, mostly down. I had been at 14.8 at one point. The lowest I saw it was 12 something and now it is slowly going back up. To 13 something today. Still not great. But I do like these Mercedes. Coming down the 5-6% grade and the speed and the rpms stay right where they are set. On the Fords the speed goes up and it tack's out at 4,000+. Saw a few cops today. None close up or personal. Weather stayed in the low 40's - high 30's all day. Jockeying for position with the other trucks was the most excitement all day. Did find out later tonight that one of our 'house guests' does have Covid, the other does not. Glad we are gone, were gone, going to be gone. Here on the road the only people we see have masks on and we aren't in any one place for more than a few minutes at a time. The rest of the time we are alone in our RV or in our motel room with each other. Our 'house guest' is young and doing fine. But in MN the daily deaths are now up in the 50, 60, 70 range. And we haven't gotten to the holidays yet. Tomorrow. We had planned on getting all the way to Carson City but there are not any motels to our liking. They may be why we stayed in Fernley last time we went to Carson City also. So an hour, hour and a half less drive time tomorrow. Should be off the road before dark. At least we won't be driving down the curvy mountains and through the city. Lots of Willie radio today. Load board US - 174 IA - 66 MN - 2 WI - 2 201122 IA-CA 2 RV's heading west. 1 to Carson City NV, 1 to Davis ... spending the night at Fernley NV Breakfast, pick from a list and they fill your order. BB likes fruit so she got an apple, delicious. She doesn't like delicious so that will be my snack tonight. BB had frost this AM, I did not. We scrapped so it would not take so long to clear. I-80 now have more guard cables so people aren't driving out onto the salt flats. I'm guessing that is just the start. I've noticed the last few times that people are now driving from the rest area a mile plus out into the salt flats. Across the salt flats there is a shark and a loch ness like creature. And now there is a skeleton sitting on a lawn chair holding a fishing poll. (when looking up loch ness monster, I found that Lake Tahoe has a similar creator) Past our 1st transporter coming across the flats, he must have been doing about 55 mph. RV for a different company. 1st stop is the Sinclair in Wendover on the salt flats. New sign for an 'Indian Restaurant.' Fuel here is $.55 cheaper than the truck stop. 2nd stop is at the Sinclair in Elko for Port O Subs. We did eat inside for the 2nd day in a row. The Sub part had two customers in line behind us and that was it for the half hour we were there. BB ordered a medium sandwich so I did too. Should not have, I don't need that much food. When we walked out I saw there was a boom truck being transported in the lot. I did not know the name of the company and didn't take a picture. 3rd stop was in Winnemucca for fuel at the Maverick. We do final fuel for Davis here. BB adds a couple of gallon to be safe to get to Carson City. The new Loves at the other end of town looks almost done. The only thing I could see that wasn't ready was part of the scale was not in the ground yet. 4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Fernley. Being there were not any 'Choice Brand' hotels in Carson City we decided to stay here. Driving into the sun for another two hours was another reason. As was being off the road before dark. Once in the hotel we order online at the Black Bear. When we pick up they ask if I want 'Ranch' for my onion rings. Yes, but I've never been asked that before. But have tried it one other time. We get back to the room and I have an order of french fries. :( Not going back. I also had a french dip. Not bad. We plan on leaving at 6:30 local tomorrow. A one hour drive, plus a fuel stop. If we are in and out in one hour, we should get to my drop at noon. ... the trip continues HERE |
