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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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201207 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Davis CA (delivered) ... spending the night at Livermore CA Not a good sight. We wake up in the morning, look out the window and someone has parked directly in front of us. No rush to get going this AM. We have been leaving this hotel at 9 AM local to get behind the rush hour traffic going through Sacramento. Breakfast. Yogurt, pastries (or toast,) hard boiled eggs and juice. Half the cars in the lot are gone by the time we leave but the one blocking us is still there. Not a big issue. I am able to get out from behind BB by backing up once before pulling out. Traffic through Sacramento is light, we drive the posted except when the wind hits us. They have 'high wind' warnings. Up to 35 mph, that wouldn't even get a warning in WY. We drive past where one of the light rail routes starts in the middle of the freeway. They also have a half mile park and ride lot there. Today, Monday 9 AM, that lot had fewer cars than most Sunday mornings. Empty. Today we have decided to fuel at the Velero, the station closest to the drop. Completely empty when we get there. They only have two diesel nozzle's on one pump. BB's screen keeps asking her for her pin for her credit card. Even though she is pushing credit, not debit. Rather than move, we just use the hose from my side on hers. And with BB calling out the dollars, we are able to stop the pump at exactly $20. :) A couple of blocks to the drop and we are there. Right behind the flatbed hauling two RV's that we have seen a few times in route. I quickly take my picture (wrong view, but it does show that there are no warning lights.) Then I grab my paperwork and go to the office as quickly as possible. I see the manager and he says someone will be right out. I want to talk to the inspector but he is still with the last person he checked in and is in no rush to quit talking. So I walk out and BB walks in, by then there is a new gal that says she will be right out. And she is, I'm 1st in line so she does my RV first. Lots of rock chips on the hood and one on the windshield. Not driver damage but I have to take pictures. BB's RV is done a few minutes later. As soon as we have checked in and let them know we are here, we start onloading our stuff and get ready to haul it in ... The water was the only thing we could not grab in one trip and the manger was walking past and offered to carry it for us. Didn't turn that offer down. Once we have our stuff inside the waiting area, BB walks the block to the rental car place. The first car they want to give her has damage that was not noted when it was dropped by the prior renter so they don't want to give that one out. So they find a second one, not a big deal but it all takes time. As soon as we have our paperwork signed, we call in the damage and then I call the bus dispatcher. "Call back after 3 PM, but they only gave us 2 buses Friday and I have had drivers in motels all weekend." Off we head to the In-n-Out Burger. ??? No homeless sitting at the end of their entrance, but they now have a piece of carpet on the ground and a nice love seat to sit on. And no line at the In-n-Out. I think today was as slow as we have seen it and we get here more or less the same time every time. I get a double-double and BB gets a hamburger and fries. A little windy out but 70 degree's :) I've looked at a couple of cemeteries, one was north and the others are south. We go south. Down CA-99 and then east to Lockeford. There is one more cemetery further east but no one has found that marker on FindAGrave so I'm guessing I won't find it either. The one at Lockeford is an upright in a cemetery of about 1,000 markers. When the cemeteries get over 5,000 markers it gets harder to find what you are looking for. Actually I had the address I had was for the church, so we ended up there first. Then we went to the cemetery but I turned in to the first one I saw and it was the wrong one. But they were adjacent so we parked and walked to the other one. Maybe 10 minutes walking instead of the hour we sometimes do before we give up. Next was find a bathroom. The truck stops are on I-5, there is not much on CA-99 so we ended up at a Home Depot. Don't really like going into stores, but some things need to get done. Of all the fancy computer stuff on these new cars, I would think they would have come up with some way to tell you the park is not in park when you open the door ... 10 miles down the road we are at the 2nd cemetery. This places has thousands, but a picture on FindAGrave shows buildings in the background. Once there, we quickly realize the building is the hospital next door, we just have to line it up correctly and we are at the marker. We were. The map shows we can drive to the adjacent cemetery, but it is now fenced off. We have already been to the cemetery and taken pictures a few years ago. Timing. I have just enough time to get to Livermore before I call dispatch. It doesn't look good. Where the buses are usually parked, there are six buses. Usually there are 2-3 times that many ready to ship. I call dispatch. "Not today, I have six drivers in the motel already. You will need to wait until tomorrow." We drive back past the buses, slower this time. Three of the six are going to Pittsburg, one is going to Kenosha ... :) There is another Kenosha sitting that is not done. Kenosha is about six hours from my house. We have our fingers crossed. We head to the Quality Inn. Prices are way up and the lot is closer to full. I ask. FedEx is training people and they are staying here. I don't like the higher prices, but I do like hearing that these places are getting some of their corporate business back. We end up ordering from BJ's again. We go to pick up and no one is at the counter. Someone comes out and gives Door Dash an order but doesn't acknowledge us. The 2nd time someone comes out for Door Dash, we get their attention. Yes, our order is sitting there, and the ice cream is melting. This time we just got one cookie with ice cream instead of the trio. Good thing, we hadn't looked and this room does not have a fridge. The rental car ... is the 1st one I have driven that has my speed, the cruse speed setting and the posted speed all displaying on the windshield. It took me lots of camera shots before I was able to get a picture of it. You have to be looking at the windshield at just the right angle to see it. Load board US - 198 IA - 87 (as compared to -0- last year for 20 out of 22 days in a row) MN - 4 WI - 3 Iowa loads include 4 for CA, 5 for AZ and 8 to FL. Homeless, it's hard not to mention the homeless when we are driving off freeway in CA. I've never tried counting but I'm guessing we likely saw somewhere around a thousand 'homes' of the homeless. Also we see lots of places where their 'homes' have been abandoned, often because of fire. Some places it is one or two together, other places it is dozens within a block. And just before we got to Livermore this afternoon, we saw a firetruck ahead of us with it's lights on. We slowed as the truck went to block the left lane. Then we saw it, a car had somehow managed to hit the rail median head on and bounce back. Not sure how, but when we went by the driver had his feet sticking out the windshield over the steering wheel. Lots of people on the scene but the first emergency people were not out of their truck when we went past. This could very well have been someone who past us in the last half hour. Tomorrow - not sure yet. Places are locking back down because of Covid and we have been to a good share of the cemeteries in this area. We could get a noon check out and just hang out for four hours before we find out if we get a bus tomorrow or not. IF, IF we get a Kenosha, it would add 150 miles to our route to go past and get our car before dropping. But who knows, we might be headed back to Pittsburg. Money was good going there too. Either way, any way we would go, it is now likely going to be a Monday delivery. 201208 CA 1 Bus, maybe, someday ... spending the night at Santa Nella CA We were going to be sitting most of the day so I kept a log of the load board. I had expected it to go most of the day without any change. Wrong, other than the early AM it was changing all day. Lots of stuff was coming and going and that does not show on the tally. IA Load board 8:00 - 87 8:30 - 83 9:00 - 83 9:30 - 83 10:00 - 80 10:30 - 83 11:00 - 84 11:30 - 102 - includes 9 CA, 12 AZ, 5 FL, 5 WA and 1 OR 12:00 - 100 12:30 - 99 1:00 - 104 1:30 - 131 2:00 - 130 3:30 - 130 4:00 - 136 4:30 - 135 5:00 - 133 Looking at the pictures I took yesterday. There are also partially built buses to Johnsonburg PA, (north of Pittsburg,) and San Diego. Plus lots of others that don't have markings that I could ID them from. Breakfast - we point, they pack. I had a Jimmy Dean sandwich, yogurt and juice. BB had two small boxes of cereal and milk. While we were down, I asked for a late checkout. 1 or 2 PM was as late as they would go. They now know us by our transport company name, not the local shipper name, so there must be a few of us staying there. Spent the morning on the computer. At 2 PM eastern we listened in to a company meeting. Dash Cams. They even think they are going to find something that works for us driveaway drivers. Anyone in there own truck will not get a safety bonus unless they have a dash cam. Finally at noon local we headed off, 1st to the PO and then to the closest In-n-Out. The outside post office box was full, I tried pushing my letter in but it wouldn't drop down so we'll mail it somewhere else. In-n-Out. No indoor seating, no outdoor seating. So we ate in our car like everyone else. And watched the people going to Home Depot. At one point there was a truck making a slow left turn across traffic. There hadn't been anyone coming, but before he got pulled all the way out, someone drove right up to his truck and waited for him to get out of there way. But the truck could no longer move because the pickup was too close. And he didn't seem to understand why the truck would not get out of his way. No shots were fired, no loud cussing. The pickup finally backed up. ??? Once we were done eating we headed past the bus place and then to our walking mall. Not good. There should be 10-12 or more buses each day. Friday was 2, Monday was 6, Tuesday was ... 3. We walked once around the mall, there were some lines for stores but not like last time. By then it was time to call the dispatcher. "Stay over one more night. They said they would have a lot of buses today and tomorrow. Not much today so ... tomorrow." BB goes to reserve a room at the hotel and they are full. At 3 PM, no rooms. We look at the local Best Western and then decide to drive to Santa Nella for a cheaper hotel and some split pea soup. A little over an hour later we are at Anderson's in Santa Nella. We ordered and waited. And talked. Monday the state shut down all indoor seating. So it sounds like two people work in the AM and two in the PM for carry out orders. ... as we talked. We talked Covid. The person we were talking to had young nieces. One got Covid and got their Mother sick. Another niece got sick and got their Grandma sick. Grandma had had breast cancer so she was at high risk, she pulled through but gave it to Grandpa would died almost right away. He had just had heart surgery last year. After the fact, the nieces aren't taking it too well. We both got a chicken salad sandwich. BB got split pea soup and I got potato salad. And cookies. Final stop is at the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Only a couple of cars at a 100+ room hotel after 5 PM. Instead of sitting around tomorrow we will likely get going earlier and do something. After being broken into we really don't like leaving our stuff in our car anywhere close to the major cities. We are now an hour plus away from the suburbs so we'll risk it. Load board finals US - 281 IA - 133 MN - 1 WI - 2 Iowa still has 9 CA, 3 OR, 5 FL, 12 AZ and 6 Carolinas. But nothing that works for us here in CA. 2 going to WA and 2 local but the deadhead on the locals don't make it worth it. So we sit. 201209 CA-PA 1 Bus, heading to Johnsonburg PA ... spending the night at Santa Nella CA Nothing to do today, but we don't want to sit in the motel again. Breakfast is a choice of three packaged pastries and orange water. I mentioned they were out of juice, but they were working on making coffee so we didn't wait. By 9 AM we are at the local National Cemetery taking a walk. The problem with some mistakes is they are familiar so we do them over again. We park where we park last time. The section numbers are close to what I am looking for. In this cemetery the sections are either 1, 2, 3 or C1, C2, C3, etc. We want C16. We park by C9 and walk. But for some reason C1 thru C12 are on the north end of the cemetery, 1 thru ? are in the middle and then it starts over with C13 on the south end of the cemetery. That is why both ends of the cemetery looked familiar. :) Once we are done walking, we are wishing we would have stayed in the motel so we had some place to be for a few hours. Finally we decide to head to San Jose and see how those cemeteries look. We are real gun shy about parking our car anywhere near the major cities after having it broken into. Heading back through Santa Nella we take the 'homeless road.' Actually these people do have homes, mostly motor homes. But they live the same way. Trash piled everywhere. Both sides of the street. It is a street with no businesses on it and almost no traffic. Not sure why it is even there. It makes another street not a dead end is about all. Otherwise every street in this town is a dead end. And there are only businesses. No houses. An hour and a half later we are at the first cemetery. At this one we have an area name, Roselawn. We didn't drive very far into the cemetery and saw Rose Street, and then the first area was Roselawn. We walked from the car to the far side of the section, turned to come back on the next row and BB had found the marker we were looking for. So not much of a walk here. Now it was time to eat so BB found a Honey Baked that was about five miles away, away from the second cemetery. And we couldn't figure out if they were serving sandwiches based on what it said online but we headed over and they were serving. Huge sandwiches. We ordered the same thing we usually do and they were twice as big. And I wanted my usual cup of potato salad but the smallest they sold was quarts. Nope. We didn't want to eat in their lot as it was very small, so we headed to the 2nd cemetery but found a larger parking lot before we got there. Most places near San Jose we did not see the homeless like other area's of CA. But they were still on the street corners, and walking the streets at stop lights between the cars. So they are there, some where. At the 2nd cemetery there are not markings on the ground to say the areas so I went to the office. Closed, but there was a map on the building showing the areas. The one we wanted was right behind our car. I went to the far corner of the correct area, that area was about the size of a small city lot. 10 makers in and I found the one I was looking for and we were done. Now we had about enough time to get back to Livermore before my 3 PM call to the dispatcher. One wrong turn down I-680 to add a couple of extra miles but nothing major. We drive past the lot on the way to 'our mall.' More buses today. Including one for Kenosha :) But I call dispatch and he is sending me to Johnsonburg PA. Because it is hard to get out of and he knows BB is with me :) and :( I could be more picky but the pay is very good so we will go where he sends us. Unless we are up against the clock/calender. He won't have the paperwork ready for over an hour. We have already done our walk this AM at the cemetery so we start doing math on this trip. Then we head to get fuel and drop off our mail. Gas is $3.09 at Arco but it is debit only, so we head to Shell, how much more could it be? $3.49. For 10 gallons, but I hate having to key in my PIN. Or we could have used cash and saved $4. We get to the lot early, the dispatcher is there, but not done with my paperwork. We get my bus, a short one. BB heads to the rental car place and I get my paperwork, call for permits, and then wait for security to check me out. All takes time. Still it only takes a half hour to check out a bus but an hour to check out our RV's. When I take a right at the first stop light it is dark and I can't see the road. So I reach to check if my lights are on and shut off the bus, and coast to the shoulder. Had to restart the bus, lots of warning lights came on, but they all cleared with the restart. Lights had been on, they just don't show on the roadway very well, they show distance OK. Opps, haven't done that for a while. No issue finding BB and we are on our way ... slowly. Slowly up the hill like always at this time of day. At some point we see the Kenosha bus pass us. Not sure how all this works yet. Dispatch hadn't given out any paperwork when we drove past at 3 PM and one driver was leaving. This Kenosha bus was still there at 3 PM but gone by 5 PM, yet he is behind me and I have done my inspection and picked up BB and stayed ahead of him ??? A few miles down the road there is a slow down where two freeways come together. That is common. But it usually clears right away but not today. Soon I see a cop on the shoulder. Then a 2nd cop. Then in the ditch I see a car, upside down, with it's headlights still on. No other emergency vehicles so I am guessing it just happened. And a few more miles down the road and I see that I have a side panel open and sticking into the other lane. I hit the shoulder. I never realized before that the shoulders right here are about nine feet wide with a curb. My bus is eight feet wide plus, and now I have a panel sticking out. The first semi that passes me on the shoulder before I am out of my seat misses the panel by inches. It is rush hour and no one is getting over. I finally am able to turn the latch on the panel and get back in my bus. Alive. But a few miles down the road the panel is open again. So this time I drive half on the shoulder and half in my lane with my flashers on for two miles until we get to an exit. The exit ramps have the same curb so no where to park. I finally stop near the merge of the on ramp. BB will not let me out of the bus again without a safety vest on ?? When I reached around the front of the bus the first time I had turned the latch the wrong way. Now I lock both latches on all the outside panels. None had been latched from the factory. Those stayed, but tomorrow I will find that the ones inside were not latched wither. So two opps in the 1st hour of this trip, hope it goes better from here. An hour and a half later we are at the Quality Inn in Santa Nella, again. My spot is wide open as is most every place else. As soon as we check in, we walk across the street to the food truck. BB was not hungry yet, that Honey Baked was huge. Good food from the food truck, we have stopped here before. Even outside in the middle of the field here they have their table tipped over. NO seating for anyone. Late night. NOTE: This was written up two days after. Most are written the evening of. Load board US - 321 IA - 137 MN - 6 WI - 2 201210 CA-PA 1 Bus, heading to Johnsonburg PA ... spending the night at Kingman AZ For breakfast we had the other half of last nights food. This AM it didn't seem nearly as spicy. I hadn't gotten my permits printed last night so this AM I went to the front desk and asked if they could print them. His 1st computer locked up and he had to re-start it. His 2nd computer had a paper jam. So I decided to try again to print it myself and it worked. The guy at the front desk was still waiting for the system to come back up when I was done printing. And people were waiting to check out. I did check when I got my receipt. Their breakfast was same as yesterday, choice of three pastries. Left over quesadillas were better. SCRAPE. Even with the short bus I scrape the bottom coming out of their lot. With this bus I easily could have drove around the building and out the other driveway. We are rolling at 6:30 local. It is just getting light outside. Somewhere in the 1st hour we could see a big boom truck along the highway ahead. Not a good sign. Today it was there to lift a semi trailer upright. Not sure what they were going to do with it after that. It was burnt down to the frame. And not sure how strong the frame would be after getting that hot. It had been a refer. Didn't see a tractor is either he got unhooked or they had already taken care of that issue. 1st stop is the rest area near Avenal. Too short between stops, we need to look at why we are doing this the way we are. Cutting across from Lost Hills thru Wasco at one point I counted six memorials within a mile along the highway. A few of them were next to high line posts. That is a pet peeve of mine. Near where I grew up, they had to put the cross country highlines along the highway because the game reserve would not let them cross their property. Which is more important? Disturbing the wildlife once in a while or someone's life forever? Some of those today were simple crosses, others were small buildings/minor shrines. A few of the trucks I was seeing often enough that I remember things about them. Speed limit for trucks in CA is 55 mph. I am not a truck. And a few still pass me running at 65 mph. One guy I noticed a few times. He'd pass me, then get caught in traffic so I would pass him. For them it doesn't make any difference is the speed limit for cars is 65 or 55, they still drive over the speed limit. This same guy was on his phone every time I saw him. That is thousands of dollars in fines for both him and his company. Doesn't stop people though. We got to see a lot of orchard work today. Including some type of tractor I have never seen. Also watched them trimming the trees. Topping them off, slicing paths, chopping the trimmings. Lots of work going on. 2nd stop was for food in Tehachapi, today it is the Flying J as I was able to get my permits printed before getting this far. Meatloaf with broccoli and mashed potatoes from PJ's. They also have a Wendy's. All the tables are gone, no indoor seating and no where to sit outside. I parked up against the curb so no one would be next to us. We sat on our steps and ate. We get one order and split it. Still more than enough. While we were here I call my dispatcher to see why he is not putting money / advances on my card. Computer is having issues. But he manages to before I get to my next stop. Normally I don't like to deal with advances or company cards, but in this case we get perks that make it worth it. But there has to be money on the card and BB likes to take the money we get off of there within the hour when we get paid. Today I had gotten paid a safety bonus so there was money, more than enough for my 1st fuel even if he hadn't gotten money on it. 3rd stop - Barstow ??? Usually our next stop is one of the rest areas on I-40. But today I have an 80 gallon tank instead of 125 gallon so I am not going to make it to Kingman. Well, it does look like I should but I don't want to risk it. We stop at Flying J, it is not the cheapest by it is a known. Today they are working on the road and they have a flag man. I forget there are still two lanes, just not room for both directions to take turns at the same time. For a moment I get confused. 4th stop, almost not, is the rest area near Essex. Almost not because I was in the passing lane at about a block to go when I saw the exit sign. So I hit the breaks, and the guy I'm passing does too because he doesn't know why I'm stopping. But he gets past I manage to get over. Whew ... Still finding doors that aren't latched down. I should know where they all are but really wasn't thinking too much about them. Today have all been inside. Scale is open, but someone comes on the loudspeaker when I pull on the scale telling me I am good to go. So no time lost here. Not here. 5th and final stops are in Kingman AZ First we stop at the TA, not sure I have been to this one before. Half the pumps are blocked, the others have lines. I debate waiting or fueling somewhere else in the AM. We wait. People that aren't fueling are blocking pumps. People that have fueled don't pull out of the way. People go in and pay, and order food (?) before pumping. Finally someone comes out and opens up all the other pumps ... doesn't do us that are in line with trucks behind us any good. The new comers grab them before any one in line gets a chance. 30 minutes to fuel, then another 15 for my post trip inspection. I was hoping for a quick fuel and both combined would be 15 minutes. This is why I don't like TA, but to be fair, every truck stop in Kingman is like this. Packed. 2nd we check in to the Best Western. Ground floor, this time closer to our bus. 3rd we call for takeout at Oysters, the Mexican place attached to the hotel. We walk over and they know who we are when we say we are picking up. But then they ask if we also ordered street tacos. No, just enchiladas. They are talking mostly Spanish but we finally figure out that they had had two orders ready for pickup. The other people got there first and took our food. So the cook had to make our food while we waited. Too long standing in doors and an somewhat packed place. Food is always good. Looking at our way home, we will have to pick up a car in Akron on Tuesday at 8 AM. That gives me 7 hours and I have three hours of driving plus a wait at the wash that sometimes can be three hours. I could have less than an hour to spare. Hope it all goes like clock work. Load board US - 327 IA - 131 MN - 7 WI - 1 ... the trip continues HERE |
