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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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No real slow downs for 'rush hour.' When we drove past our repair shop, our van was sitting in the 'done' row, but they hadn't called. We did not stop. 1st stop is for the rest area south of Owatonna. Somewhere along here we get a text that there are problems on the farm. Not something I can deal with today, and somehow it never happens when I am home? 2nd stop is at the Kwik Star/Kwik Trip in Forest City. Now that is is winter, I would rather leave the car on full overnights. Then we head to our lot to pick up our RV's. One flat bed picking up when we get there, and one driver comes and goes before we leave. Not much action for 100+ on the load board. No issues with either RV, but it takes us our usual one hour to do our inspection. My only issue is I have to use cable ties for my plate and when I try to tighten them they slide loose. Glad I noticed that right then. Rather than try more ties I just taped over it so it could not slide. There are about half as many RV's in there employee lot as there had been on Tuesday. Other than that things looked the same. Casey's, south end of town. Not sure what is going on. It has been closed two out of the last three times we have gone past it. When we got home Tuesday I was going to mention it in my write-up but forgot. When I looked on line it showed it was closed Mon, Tues and Weds. Now today their website says open 24 hours again. 3rd stop was Kum n Go in Clear Lake for fuel. Except for Pilot, all diesel was $2.29, we use Kum n Go because it is a large lot and on the correct side of the street. From there we go across the lot into Pilot for Subway. All of Pilot's auto diesel pumps are bagged off. Again we eat outside standing by our RV's. 40 degrees and sunny with minor wind. 4th stop is the Ankeny rest area. It is not quite 2 PM so we are heading to Omaha for the night. Leaving Des Moines one of our RV's passes us, then a truck that was likely a transporter but I didn't see either placards or any plate. 5th stop is at the Adair rest area. Right at the top of the ramp was a skid steer and a pile of burnt rubble. Looks like it might have been a semi trailer but not in big enough pieces now to tell. The highway is burnt from shoulder to shoulder. As we head past the Councit Bluffs Mall, I see that it is now fenced off with two back hoes sitting next to it. Only a few months ago it still had a Dillards. Looking online it looks like it used to have four anchors. Over the last 15 years I have seen it go from a thriving mall to now being taken down. I don't think I was ever in it, but I likely heard about it when it was being built. Wiki says it opened in 1986, expanded in 1988 and then started loosing stores in 2013. Menards now owns it and is the one planning on knocking it down. So at least it won't sit empty like some malls and be an eye sore. Then in Omaha (BB saw the guy, I didn't. That is rare) There is a guy standing next to the concrete median with a tire. Then a ways down the road there is a one of those tree chippers I move on the side of the road without a tire. You can see where it left a groove in the highway as it was dragged to the shoulder. Because of how small it is, the driver can not see it back there. But I'm sure he felt and heard something that was not right. 6th and final stop was at the BP in Omaha, real near Gretna for fuel. Cheaper than Clear Lake. From there we drive to the other end of McD's and we are at the Quality Inn. We park in the biggest open spot. I'm guessing a few minutes later we could have parked better, but not right then. Once checked in we call the Mexican place next door and then walk over 15 minutes later. Big place with four tables of customers. Not sure what the limits are in NE. Sun had set by the time we were parked at the motel, so we have been driving in the dark to make it to Lincoln. This is 100+ miles further than last trip. So each night we should be 100 miles further than last week including Sunday. So Sunday night we should be in Rocklin CA. Less than 30 miles from our drop. If all goes well. We both started out with about a half a tank of fuel, I had over BB had just under. When I fueled the 1st time it said I had a range of 400 miles. That would be 16.6 mpg. I was making closer to 12 mpg. Later in the trip i was watching my range against the miles to the border. It stayed pretty close to 100 mile range beyond the border from when I started watching When I crossed the border I had a range of 98 miles. Ten miles later my low fuel light came on, it had dropped to a 52 mile range ??? Yikes, but good to know. After I fueld the 2nd time I had a range of 350. That is 10 miles short of our next usual fuel stop, Ogallala. Load board US - 265 IA - 133 MN - 3 WI - 2 Of the IA orders, 5 to OR, 2 more to Davis CA, 2 to Rancho Cucamonga CA, 10 to WA, 2 to NV, 6 to FL, 6 to MT. But this is it for us for the year. When we were home I had gotten a letter from our local company, their newsletter. This time it mentioned the CSA (commercial driving violations.) So I looked on line at the details. Driver didn't have their last seven days logs with them, another driver was over their hours, another driver didn't have his plate/placards on, or on correctly. All very basic stuff. Everything is listed by plate not name so hard to know who done it. 500 miles a day will but us in Laramie, Wendover and Rocklin. Fuel and rest stops should be the same as usual. 201204 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Laramie WY Went to bed way to early last night, awake hours before the alarm. We were almost directly across from the entrance door and the front desk so we heard voices late and early, but not during the night so that was good. Breakfast was ... muffin or a small box of cereal. BB had to ask for milk, a bowl and a spoon. They did also have juice, today I had passion-orange. It was pretty good. We are ready to leave early so we do. Right at 1st light. WHAT? As I walk back in to get my receipt and checkout, the crew is talking about the RV's that are parked out there and that NO big anything is allowed in the lot. They were not addressing it to me and I'm not sure they knew it was me. But I asked when that started, they didn't say, they just said the pavement is too thin and is getting busted up. ... tonight after we get to the motel, I email that hotel and say it's been nice, but not being able to park in their lot is a deal breaker. Some places we will park somewhere else but not here. Too much chance of damage. The price is right, but it is basically a re-named Super8. Without doing any research, that leaves us staying 20 mile back at the Best Western in Council Bluffs or 30 miles ahead at the Quality Inn in Lincoln, both places we have stayed before. 1st stop - York at a rest area. 2nd stop - Cozad for fuel and food. With a lot of the RV's we can make it from Omaha to Ogallala but today I have a range of 7 extra miles. And after the range dropped 50 miles in 10 miles last night I am not going to risk it. Fuel is at Casey's then across the street to Burger King for food. I have called ahead to make sure they were doing indoor order taking, they were ... but they didn't tell me that they only were until 2 PM. Not an issue today, it is 10:30 but something I need to ask in the future. When we are done eating, I call and get our NV permits. 3rd stop - Ogallala at Walmart for fuel. The only place cheaper is Big Dog for cash, save six more cents. From here I call the drop and leave a message. And then call the west coast dispatcher just so he knows I am on the way. Once upon a time he commented that he wished he had known soon that I was coming. So now I call the day after we pick up. And then again once I drop. All he said today was call again on Monday (after we drop) 4th stop - Sidney at a rest area. Before the scale I see something laying in the left lane and the truck ahead of me does not swerve to miss it. It must have been a car type window with the rubber around it. He hit it square on, and shattered it to bits. 5th stop - POE / Port of Entry for our WY permits. Easy. I show them our company permit which has my plate number on it. They grab everything from that, print and ask for $20. I sign and am gone. We get back out and someone who had pulled in behind us walks over to me and asks what they will be looking for in there. 1st I tell them I don't really know because we run on a Bill of Lading. But most likely they will want to see copies of your insurance, fuel tax, etc. It still took them a long time to start walking to the building and I think they were coming back for more stuff as we were leaving. Saw three tow-away drivers at the POE. We only saw one driveaway the whole day. A truck, I didn't look quick enough to see the name, but could see the placard taped to the outside and running on a IN transporter plate. Also so a van a couple of times running on a PA dealer plate. 6th and final stop was Laramie for fuel, food and the night. First we fuel at the Exxon, sign says $2.29 but the pump says $2.07 :) ... then we went inside and picked up Papa Johns off the shelf, but I forgot the garlic butter. :( ... back streets to the motel, Comfort Inn for the night. Two cars in the lot when we get here. After seeing the burnt trailer in the median yesterday I may have been watching closer to all the burn spots on the highway. Some places all the way across the highway and grass burnt on both sides. Others just burnt on the highway and still others with just one side of the highway burnt. But lots of burns since the grass stopped growing. Somewhere across NE there is one pond that collects the geese. Just like a pond about a mile east of Forest City, 100's if not a thousand geese by one pond. Someone has about a five acre yard with a U shaped pond in the middle. The whole area is mowed and the geese are everywhere. Maybe they are also feeding them? Load board US - 243 IA - 107 MN - 8 WI - 3 IA still has 2 to CA, 2 to OR, 11 to WA, 3 to NV and 2 to FL. 201205 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT Rough night. Slept, woke up thinking it was about time to wake up. After laying there a while, looked at the clock and it was 1 AM. Often I don't get back to sleep after laying there awake but this time I did. And dreamed of delivering two buses at the same time and agreeing to move an export something that may mean waiting at the dock for a day or more. But then I was doing some shipping and some customers came in and got mad because I couldn't give them their order because I had left the paperwork somewhere else. So not a restful dream. Breakfast was a grab bag and juice. BB opened hers first before I took one. Apple sauce, two kinds of breakfast bars. So I took one too. Left out at daylight. Single digits for temps, colder here than in MN. And yesterday on our way here it was 70 or close to it. Sun was just coming up. The only thing the sun was touching was the snow covered mountains in the distance. But by then I was driving so no picture. Diesel at the Pilot was $.74 more than we paid yesterday. Adds up for 30 gallons. We were not on the road very long and I saw something in the left lane, a hunk of split wood. And there was a semi that would be passing me right when we got to it. I was watching and could tell he was going to miss it so it wouldn't go flying. But there was a car right behind him, and behind me. The car hit it straight on. It was a likely about 6 or 9 inches on the thick side. I was watching when the car hit it. Shook a bunch of dirt loose off the car. 9 Another beautiful day. Clear skies, no traffic or RV issues. So the most excitement was watching our mileage range. I started the day with a range of 300 miles. 90 miles later I still had a range of 290 miles. But I knew that could not last and it didn't. Once it dropped to 290 it kept pretty much matching the miles. But my mpg today went from 10 this AM to 15.6 sometime in the PM. By the end of the day it had dropped back closer to 15 mpg, still better than 10. 1st stop was in Rawlins for a rest break. No transporters today. Did see one guy so big I wasn't sure how he got out the bathroom door. If I had been a few seconds later I could have seen. I met him just inside the door. 2nd stop is in Rock Springs for food and fuel. First the food. It is still before 11 local but Quiznos is open at 10 AM. We walk in right behind someone who is picking up 40 sandwiches. They had ordered ahead and the should have been done when we got there but they weren't. The kept apologizing to him and to us for having to wait. That left us with less time to eat so I left some of mine. I don't need an 8" sandwich. (I don't need the cookie either) Temps were still in the 30's but we ate outside by the RV. Not too bad in the sun, and no breeze. I think we had had a breeze this AM, a tail wind, and that is what pushed up the mpg. It does not take much. When we were done eating we drove a couple of miles to the Shell and fueled. My discount card didn't work so I lost out on $.03 on 15 gallons. BB's did work. We weren't sure if we were going to have to fuel again before Wendover but decided to wait until Tooele if we were. 3rd stop was in Evanston at the rest area as we were not going to be fueling. I was loosing mileage going DOWN the hill ??? I had about 95 miles extra range at the WY/UT line and 200 miles later it was the same. Sometimes, like last time?, I pick up 50 miles range coming down the hill. There are two out of the way places on the down hill with cheaper fuel. One was $2.69 and the other was $2.55. Good to know for another time. Both Evanston and Tooele are about $3. I had commented to BB that today we would get to see Salt Lake in the daylight. Kind of. The smog today was worse than we have seen lately in LA. Even all the way out to Wendover the hills were still hazy. 4th stop is Evanston for the rest room. As BB and I were talking someone walks up to us. Another driver for our company, our parent company. He drives semi. He was asking questions about pay etc. As we talked, a tow driver for our company drove past. I guess it was the place to stop today. The only transporters we saw today were the stacks of trucks. No buses today, or yesterday, or Wednesday. Last trip across I took a picture of the hills reflecting in the water. I thought I might get one today also. Nope. Ice does not reflect the same as water. And the sun was in my face instead of at my back. So didn't even try. 5th and final stops are in Wendover. 1st for fuel before we hit town. $2.39, that is the cheapest since NE. But only one pump was working so it took longer. And they got new pumps since we were here two weeks ago. Another couple of miles and we are at the hotel. Coming in to town we saw the first cop today with someone pulled over. If we did see any on the prowl I don't remember. Quality Inn for the night. For some reason, no discount tonight. They are never full. The normal is about 10 cars for a 100 room hotel. They are slowly fixing up the place. It looks like it was an old Holiday Inn with the pool outdoors in the center and then rooms all around it. Doesn't look great but we have never had an issue. Other than right now there breakfast is Hostess. What ever was on sale at Walmart? Did see one eagle today perched on top of a 10 foot fence post. And saw a few deer in the distance, and a few splattered on the road. 6 miles less tomorrow than today and we will be in our hotel in CA. One fuel stop. Timing is off so we will likely buy our sandwich at our usual spot and eat it later at lunch time. We have seen tow RV's with the dealer plac where the plate should be, from the RV dealer in Forest City. One on a flatbed the other being driven. Load board - Saturday US - 229 IA - 98 MN - 6 WI - 3 201206 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Davis CA ... spending the night at Rocklin CA If the worst thing that happens today is that I lost a pen, it's a good day. Breakfast, a little better than last time. Still the same Hostess goodies but also oranges, yogurt and cereal. We had to wait as it wasn't ready yet a 6:30 AM. Beautiful sky in the east before sunrise, but too many power lines to get a good picture. The parking lot isn't full, but it is the fullest I have seen it. So there was a reason they didn't want to be giving discounts. Before we get to the freeway we pass two casino's. Both lots were full at 7:30 AM. They both have motels, but people are not staying home. Before we get to our 1st stop a pickup pulling a travel trailer running on one of our plates passes us. Neither of us saw a placard anywhere on the pickup. A little while later I see one like it at a gas station with a cop behind it. No way of knowing if it was that one or not. 1st stop - Elko at the Sinclair for a rest break. We had planned on getting our sandwiches here and eating them later. Nope. Food doesn't open until 9 AM on Sundays and it is only 8:30. Weekdays they are open at 4:00 AM. As soon as we are back on the freeway there is another cop that has a transporter pulled over. This is not one of ours. Then a little later our pickup/transporter passes us again. Still no placards but I do get a partial on the plate this time. He uses bungies to hold his plate on so I couldn't see the exact letters. I'll give it a few days and then look the plate up online. 2nd stop - Winnemucca for fuel and food. They do have a place that makes a few basic things to order, but we bought pizza and taco's off the shelf. Pizza was good, taco's were too spicy for me. But it was food without making a second stop. Loves truckstop on the far end of town is not open yet. This time it looked like there were a lot of store fixtures being stored under the gas canopy. 3rd stop - Fernley at the Flying J for a rest break. Quick in and out. We sail through Reno at the posted. Very light traffic for a Sunday afternoon. None of the NV inspection stations were open. Donner's Pass. Again, very light traffic. Very few trucks, mostly cars. Some snow on the hills and along the road in the passes. One question at the CA fruit inspection station "Transporter?" 4th stop - Gold Run at a rest area. From here BB makes a reservation. My heading is spinning, more like plugged, from the changing elevations today. 30 more miles and we are done ... 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. Today they have a large part of their parking lot coned off. Amazon is using the motel as a training / staging location for new drivers. Something just about every motel would love right now. Corporate business. Still plenty of room for trucks to park. We are early enough that we get some of the car spots. As we are gathering our stuff a guy walking in the parking lot asks us a few questions. He used to drive RV's out of IN a few years ago. Once in, we walk down to Kathrin's Biergarten. Good German food. It's a few blocks away but worth the walk even in the dark. No indoor seating, but they have two tents set up over some of their outdoor seating. And they have used part of their parking lot for more tables, but none of those are being used today. We sit outside the tents. BB gets a sauerbraten and I get a reuben and potato soup. The reuben doesn't have as much meat as some of the fast food ones but much better. The soup was very good too. Too much food to order desert. By the time I am done eating, we are getting cold. It was 60 degrees when the sun was still up, not sure how fast it dropped. It was cold this AM. The temps were down in the single digits every time we hit a low spot for quite a while this AM. And with the high hills and low sun angle we were still driving in the shadows at time until mid morning. So far so good. I don't think either of us have any rock chips. I hear a little gravel once in a while but nothing loud. In the past we have done our final fuel at Battle Mountain but at some point switched to Winnemucca. Leaving Winnemucca today after fueling, I had a range of 80 miles past the motel. (drop is about 30 past the motel) Now at the motel I have a range of 150 past the motel. So between BB and I we are leaving $20+ of fuel above what we feel save driving with. The mileage on these really varies. Sometimes it is just over 10 mpg, and others it runs for a long time at over 20 mpg. Not sure what is causing that. I know it didn't like the cold this AM. But neither did I. Another day where the excitement was watching the fuel mileage. Nothing exciting travel wise. Four days and we haven't see a single bus. And don't remember any transporters today, not driveway. I don't listen to the radio much except when I have Willie Radio. Otherwise known as XM. But after two days of listening to Willie, I decided to NOT listen to him yesterday and today. I did push the button from 0 to somewhere over 100 at some point. But spent most of the time on 5, 6 and 7. 50's, 60's and 70's music. Most of the others, if I listened at all it was for one song. But I did listen to the Bluegrass station for a while. Tomorrow we will leave about 9 AM, fuel and get to the drop about 10 AM. BB will walk across the street to the rental car place while they are inspecting. Likely be done by 11 AM. Eat at In n Out. Then call the bus dispatcher. Yes, we have done this routine before. ... the trip continues HERE |
