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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210106`MN-NV 2 RVs, heading to Reno NV ... spending the night at Rock Springs WY Short day - Part II Not sure how long the snow squall lasted, but there were only a couple of cars in the lot with snow on them. Nothing left on our RV's, it must have all blown away. Hot breakfast. I wasn't sure I wanted to dish up my own hot breakfast, when I am not willing to buy roller food at a truck stop. Not an issue. This is a full service breakfast. This is a list of our choices, we tell one of two staff what we want and they bring it to us. Otherwise we can grab a to-go bag. That is what BB did. I asked for juice, croissant to nuke and fruit. I didn't see until later that they also had yogurt and hard boiled eggs. I did see they had Pop-Tarts, but they were out. No road closures AM. Weather says high winds west of Laramie ending by 11 AM. We have a few miles of good road before the road got worse and we got behind a truck going 35-45 mph and we stayed behind him. I got over to pass once and fell right back in behind him. Right by 'Tree in the Rock' the road was really bad, I felt me slipping a little. The snow was blowing across the road, the road was hard packed and there was a truck in the ditch with a cop on the shoulder. Most are doing 35-45 mph. Some are still doing 70 mph and the variable is set to 55 mph. By the 'Tree in the Rock' is where it was snowing so bad on a prior trip that BB lost me for a while. It is 50 miles from Cheyenne to Laramie. The first and last 10 were OK, the rest was white knuckle slow and go. In the last mile before we fuel there is an overhead sign that says 'Road closed to high profile vehicles.' 1st stop is the Pilot for fuel. We check the web and yes, the road is closed to us. So we decide to go across the freeway and park behind a Comfort Inn we stay at often and 'use' there WiFi. It is now 9 AM, so we hope that the road closure is lifted when the winds die down at 11 AM. BB goes for a short walk, I keep watching the WY 511 page on the web. About 10:30 we go to the Petro truckstop to get some food. Very limited shelf food right now. I end up with a chicken salad sandwich with an expiration date of 1/26 ??? BB gets a tuna salad sandwich and some fruit. We will be ready to roll at 11 AM. And we are ready at 12 PM, and 1 PM, and 2 PM. Finally at 2 PM the restrictions are lifted on I-25. Then at 2:30 they are lifted on I-80. As fast as BB can get out of my RV and do her log, we are rolling. By now there is one other RV in this lot, plus 12 travel trailers all waiting for the road to open. I had thought that as soon as it was open all would be pulling out at the same time. No one else moved. The 1st two hours we sat by the Comfort Inn and were on the web. The 2nd two hours we mostly hit refresh on the WY 511 page. At one point I was so bored that I went back to scrapping off Scotch tape off of last years placards. Road is mostly dry. We see two more semi's in the ditch. Other than that this leg is un-eventful. We even pass two other RV's that are doing about 60 mph. Lots of sand on the road and hitting the windshield. But so far no cracks that I can see. And our wrap is staying on so far. 2nd stop is at the Flying J in Rawlins. While we are there, BB makes reservations for our hotel. We should get there right about sun set. I was hoping we didn't have to do any after dark miles to make it to our drop Friday. Forecast was for the winds to die down tonight by 5 PM / sunset and pick up again tomorrow AM. While we are here we see the 1st of the travel trailers pass. I had expected all 12 to pass us in the first 100 miles. A 'shop truck' in transit passes us, this one is made in Garner IA. But I do not get a look at the name of the company moving it. A ways down the road, both the shop truck and the two RV's are at the Loves in Wamsutter. Before too long I see the shop truck coming up behind us. Opps, I miss the name again. 3rd and final stop is the Clarion in Rock Springs. (again we should have fueled before we shut down, it would have been cheaper) Once we are checked in, we walk over to the in-house Mexican place and order our food. 10-15 minutes it should be ready. We come back in 10 and it is sitting there, waiting. I used a few minutes of that time to walk around the outside of the building. Dark, lots of ice so I just did it once, but it is something other than sitting and walking the stairs a few times. Not sure how far we will get tomorrow. But close enough to make our drop on Friday. Depending on the weather. A couple of storms will be hitting NV on Friday. I will wait and call the bus dispatcher until we know more. Load board US - 342 IA - 175 (over half the board) MN - 2 WI - 21 210107`MN-NV 2 RVs, heading to Reno NV ... spending the night at Winnemucca NV Interesting breakfast. They don't have a lot of the usual, pre-covid stuff. But they have made to order omelettes, if you ask. We have been here before so we know the routine. Usually the staff asks when you arrive if you want an omelette. This time the staff was seated elsewhere, BB made eye contact with them, and BB still had to ask if they were making omelettes. (Everything was set up, so we know someone was.) We each had an omelette. They were good. Rolling by 7:30 local. First stop is the next exit for fuel. Just enough fuel to get us to Evanston where it is $.20 a gallon cheaper. Not much new since last week. Our first full uneventful day. 1st stop is in Evanston for fuel at the Flying J. 2nd stop is in Tooele UT at the TA for food. It was supposed to be Burger King, but the TA has all of their food closed off. So another cold sandwich from the shelf. Eaten out doors at the back of the RV. Today the temps were above freezing. Before we got to the food, I called for our NV permits. These are something we just need to have a copy on our phone. As far as I know this is the only state that allows this. UT has an exit weigh scale on I-80 before NV. Today is the first time I think I have ever seen it closed. 3rd stop is in West Wendover for our, maybe, final fuel at the Pilot. 400 miles to the drop. Right before we get to Elko the NV DOT has an inspection station. Today it is open, one truck being inspected and four DOT pickups sitting there. I thought we had a good chance of getting flagged in. But not today. IF we do get an inspection AND we have no issues, it is an extra $100 each for us. But if they find an issue, then it's not quite as good :( 4th stop is the Sinclair in Elko for a restroom break. When we are stopped I try to call the bus dispatcher but no answer. We decide that Winnemucca is as far as we will go. Getting to Fernley would mean two hours of after dark driving and the storms look like they will be holding off until noon. I had planned on fueling again in Winnemucca, but BB may not need to fuel at all so I will wait. I have enough fuel to get to Fernley where we plan on stopping anyway. My fuel range is still 20 miles short of the border at Elko. It slowly goes up so that I am 7 miles past the border, but drops on one of the passes back to the border. But is back up to 7 over by Winnemucca. I am going to want to have 30-40 miles range past the border when I leave Fernley. 5th and final stop is Winnemucca at the Quality Inn. As soon as we are checked in we order food from across the street at The Pig. It is ready in 10 minutes. Pretty much the same routine as last week. Wrong, As soon as we were in the room I called the dispatcher. This time he answered. Yes, he should have work. Maybe Denver. I wanted to know tonight so we weren't on the way to a bus when he said no. Then we would have to make a U-turn and head home. A couple of years ago we did a Grand Junction CO bus, but that is the shortest one we have done. We'll see how it pays. If the weather is good, we might make it home faster than we made it out here. IF, if we go to Denver we would come back on I-80 and drop south at Cheyenne. From there Denver is 100 miles south. But right now I give it a 50-50 chance that that is where we will go. Other drivers can get out of Denver, if he gets a 'hard to get out of' location, that is where we'll be going. I saw two transporters today. One UPS style white van and one Sprinter style van like we are driving, but it wasn't converted. Yesterday I did see one bus, but it wasn't being driven, it was being hauled. A battery operated bus. Load board US - 329 IA - 165 MN - 1 WI - 17 At this rate we could be back in IA on Wednesday and do another CA run before the end of the month. Not sure we want to do that. I do plan on running some numbers on the shorter trips to see which ones we could make money on, but haven't done it so far. 210108`MN-NV 2 RVs, heading to Reno NV (delivered) ... spending the night at Santa Nella CA ??? No work. Our original plan was to get going by 6 AM to beat the weather. But that would mean I would need to be off the road by 8 PM. That would be cutting it close, as I can't pick up my bus until closer to 6 PM, then inspect it and get to a motel down the road. We end up setting the alarm for 5:30, but are up before that. Breakfast is hot. Free from the in-house restaurant. Eggs, meat (bacon), toast and juice. BB didn't want her bacon so I put in in the fridge and we brought it along for later. Four thick slices is close to too much grease. We are ready to go by 6 but wait until 6:30 so it is almost sun up. My mileage does not go up anymore, it goes back down. But I have gone from 7.9 mpg to 12.9 mpg on Monday, to 13.4 on Tuesday and finally up to 14.5 mpg today. But still I still paid almost $50 more for fuel than BB. 1st stop is in Fernley at the Flying J for final fuel. BB adds two more gallon and I add three. We like to come in still having a range of 30-40 miles in case something goes wrong. Reno was fun. When we got off of I-80 onto the local freeway, the sun was shining in our faces, and we could see the dotted lines from a dozen different re-routes of the road. Luckily there was not too much traffic. 2nd stop. We decided to spot BB's RV at the local Walmart instead of trying to find a place at the rental car place. 3rd stop. A few blocks down the road at Enterprise. I drop off BB and head out. 4th stop. Another few blocks and I am at Shell to put in dealer paid fuel. 5th stop. I find the address, but the name is different and there are a few RV dealers within a few blocks here. As I am looking at my phone for the address, someone walks out of the sales off and confirms I am at the correct place even though the name is different. The other RV that had been on the load board on Saturday when we called in has beat us. The driver is gone, but they are still looking at the RV. By the time I get parked BB is calling me. She is sitting where I was a few minutes ago. I give her directions and she is there before I am ready to leave. We explain that we need to go and get a second RV. The inspector was good at keeping his distance. He didn't come near the RV until I was done and wanted me to leave the paperwork in the RV for him. He thought he would be done with mine by the time we got back. He wasn't. We get back with BB's RV and wait. The inspector has found some build issues with my RV that I take pictures of, but no driver damage. We can see the closest In-n-Out Burger when we pull out of the driveway. :) The drive-thru line is long, but we can order inside (and use the rest room.) They do have a couple of tables outside that are open, the rest are marked as do not use. So we eat in our car. We both get a double double. Sounds good when we order till about half way through the sandwich. Too much food. When we are done, BB is going to 'call in' that we have delivered. That is when we realize that the inspector did not sign in the correct place. So back we go, a few blocks down the road. Only takes a couple of minutes. Beats having to wait a couple of months to get the stuff signed and mailed both ways. We picked our rental car up with a half a tank of gas, so we decide to fill it before we leave NV. BB says fuel is cheaper at Maverick so I see a sign and get off the freeway. Wrong Maverick. So rather than get back on the freeway we take the back roads. I think we drove six miles to get one mile further down the road. All to save six cents a gallon on five gallon. :) It rains most of the way from Reno to Sacramento. Temps get down to 34 degrees. People are skiing in the rain. ??? We are able to get two and a half hours down the road before we stop again. 6th stop is at a Flying J near Lodi for the rest room. And to call the bus dispatcher. "I won't need you today." He doesn't seem to like long conversations, so I told him I would 'call him from the beach on Monday.' And he said he heard there are huge waves ... We mentioned what we might do if there was no work, but no real discussion. We decide to head south and decide later. 7th stop is at Anderson's Split Pea soup for food. Neither of us is hungry be we should eat something tonight. BB just gets soup and I want their Chicken Salad Sandwich. Nope. The have cut there menu, and their hours. I finally decide to have a patty melt, which they had ready in less time than it will take to nuke the left overs. ??? Final final stop is at the Quality Inn down the block in Santa Nella. As we pull out of Anderson's we see a bus at the Best Western. It's not even 5 PM and I can never pick up a bus before 5 PM. No markings on the bus so we have no idea where it is going. Once in our motel we eat our food, then walk across the street to Loves for fresh veggies and fruit for BB and yogurt for me. Breakfast here is juice and a packaged pastry. As we are walking back to our motel, we wait for the walk sign at the street corner and then start to walk. I can hear a semi coming up behind us shifting gears. So we stop in the middle of the street and he doesn't even slow down, he makes a left turn in front of us. Don't know if he didn't see us or didn't care. But he should have seen the walk sign was lit. Not sure what we will do tomorrow. People are supposed to stay home and we don't want to be where there are a lot of people. But we don't want to sit in a motel room for two days either. Load board US - 298 IA - 161 MN -0- WI - 15 It is 20 degrees at home, it's 60 degrees here. Not a heat wave, but still very nice. 210109`CA Waiting for work ... spending the night at Marina CA No alarm set. And we both have leftovers for breakfast. Patty melt was as good last night as it was this AM. It was enough so I didn't get to either my bacon or my yogurt. Finally mid-morning we head to the office to look at their breakfast. Still juice and packaged pastries. BB grabbed a pastry and I grabbed some juice to pour in an old bottle for later. Also later we go far a walk, maybe for a half hour or so. First we walk around the hotel lot, then we walk down the street to see if the bus is still sitting there. It isn't. Walking around the hotel we notice there are a number of prairie dogs living in a plowed field next door. Likely they won't last long there. Other than that, we spend the morning on the WiFi. When it gets close to 11 AM we pack up and check out. 1st stop is at the In-n-Out Burger across the freeway. We go through the drive thru, it takes a while at the window and then we drive off. Opps. Order is wrong so back in I go. BB ordered a single hamburger with grilled onions. What she got was double double with raw onions. Instead of thinking she got a deal, she want's less food, and no cheese. They can't take back food so we get an extra double double for free. But nowhere to put the food. We don't want to put warm food in with the cold food. We end up putting it in the center of our 32 pack of water that has stayed cool in the car. We are heading to the Santa Cruz area. We have been this way not too long ago. It is away from the big city and still less than two hours back to the buses. 2nd stop - We have decided to go to '17 Mile Drive.' A 'pay to enter' drive through the up-scale houses in and around Pebble Beach and other golf courses. Besides the tour through the houses, six miles of it are right on the ocean with a few more miles where you can sometimes see the ocean. We stop at Spanish Bay and a couple of other beaches. Walk at some and just sit watching the waves at others. We didn't stop at Point Joe, but that seemed to have the biggest, most active waves. We spend about an hour going the six miles. And an another half hour to hour on the other 10 miles. By now it is after 3 PM and we can check into the motel so we head back about 10 miles to our motel. 3rd stop - Comfort Inn in Marina CA. We are a half a mile from the ocean, but on the opposite side of the freeway. There is a Best Western on the ocean side of the exit, but we have many, many points for the Comfort Inn brand so tonight and tomorrow night are free. We check in and get to our room. Opps. As I unlock the door to the room I am hearing a TV, as I open the door, the TV is on, there is food on the table and the bed has not been made. I quickly closed it so I am not sure if anyone was in there or not. They didn't didn't come to the door as we left. That is why we always keep the dead bolt locked. We go down and get a new room. A nicer room, a larger suite. After we get settled in, we look for food. The Best Western has an in house restaurant but it is very limited and a burger is $24. We end up driving to Sarita's. The have a make shift drive-thru. It takes a while, we should have called ahead but we have nothing else to do. When we are just about done eating, I realize we could be watching the sunset over the ocean. I look, and we would have four minutes to get out of the motel, get in the car, drive, and find a place to park, then walk to the beach. Maybe tomorrow night? This area has some very strict Covid restrictions but so far we have not ever been asked any questions. (Just got an email tonight as I type this, one of my nieces has tested positive for Covid) Tomorrow we may return to the places we stopped last trip, or the the places we were today. Outdoors and not crowded. Load board US - 283 IA - 151 MN -0- WI - 15 ... the trip continues HERE |
