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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210214 OR-CA 1 truck to San Diego CA ... spending the night at Medford OR Major issue. At some point (either last night or) this morning. We were trying to decide which route to take to Portland. And noticed that the highway we were on, US-101 is now closed. Closed an hour up the road. Not sure if we would have made it through last night before the closed it or not. The road is closed because of a mud slide. Some time yesterday. I've read a couple of updates and lots of comments. The biggest issues are that Google Maps is routing people on a private road. I looked at it online and the Google map cars only went part way down the road. The basic comment is NEVER trust Google Maps on a re-route unless you feel your life is in bigger danger by staying where you are. Sounded like there were a lot of people who were 'an hour' from home when the road closed. Now they are eight hours from home. No short cut. And the hotels filled up, not sure when. Our other option this AM was to head back south of the snow and cross over to I-5 and then come back north. Instead we waited for checkout time. Then we found a Philly place. BB had the 'normal' Philly and I had a Hawaiian version. US 101 wasn't open yet so we took a chance on heading 'straight' east. As we were leaving town we saw the highway sign that still said the road was closed 65 miles ahead. The road surface wasn't bad, but it took three hours to go a little over 120 miles. Lots of sharp curves. One place someone had come across traffic into our lane. Four cops were already there and we met the ambulance less than a mile from the accident. After three hours on in the mountains it was good to be back on the freeway where I could set the cruise. Next stop is in Yreka at a Speedway for fuel. We had talked about going further tonight but it looks like the temps should be warm tomorrow so it should be rain instead of more snow. And we have gone across the tallest pass and it was dry. Forecast for tonight is still rain/ice in Portland until 6 AM tomorrow. We are still five hours from Portland so it is likely that we may only get back this far tomorrow. If we even get this far. So instead of delivering Tuesday as planned it may be sometime on Wednesday. We would have been better off on vacation for a couple of days. We end up stopping at a Clarion in Medford and walking next door for Mexican. Good food but we could split a meal and still not starve. 210215 OR-CA 1 truck to San Diego CA ... spending the night at Roseburg OR Breakfast. We point, they dish it up. Scrabbled eggs, but no sausage out. And I had yogurt and juice. We got going at 7:30 AM just as it is getting light out. The temps did not drop below 45 degrees all day, but rain. Lots of rain. I don't think we went a half hour without having the wipers on all day. 1st stop was the rest area near Creek Hill. 2nd stop was going to be the 1st rest area south of Portland but it was closed. As we got closer to Portland we started seeing ice piles under the trees. Then the ground was still covered with snow and ice. Lots of branches and trees down because of the ice. Once we got on I-205, traffic was backed up a little. The highway department had workers going along and just cutting the debris in the road back to the edge of the pavement and they would leave it there. Then a huge front end loader would come along behind them and push it off into the ditch. When we got onto the side street, the road street wasn't even plowed full width. The branches were laying too far out into the street. When we first exited the freeway, traffic was backed up out onto the street with people wanting to get gas. When we got to Wendy's, the same thing. The line was out onto the street for the drive thru. We didn't get close enough to see if we could walk in or not. So we drove a few feet further and went to Subway. Parked and walked up, closed. Then drove across the parking lot to Taco Bell, closed. So we went across the street to a Fred Meyers. I thought they were a grocery store but they are bigger than a super Walmart. As we were walking across the store we heard someone ask the help something. Don't know the question, but the answer was 'We just got our power back on.' That would explain the other places being closed. Because the last rest area was closed, the first item of business was the rest room. Then we went to the deli. It looked like they had pulled all the food from the open refrigerated cases. We found a couple of pre-packaged salads and at couple of ?? and crackers. I ended up with a small cup of chicken salad and peta style bread circles, with grapes and cheese. BB got fresh veggies and something. Their lot was a mess, a huge tree had fallen in front of the store mostly blocking car travel. Other places there were smaller branches blocking parking spots. Another two miles and we were at my pickup. The person at the front desk knew I was coming and where the truck was going. He took me to someone else who in turned pawned me off to a 3rd person. He was the one that found the keys and my truck. I thought it might be a van, but it was a stake truck weighing 26,000#'s. One more pound and it would be CDL. I didn't measure but I am guessing there was about six inches of ice on the bed of the truck. When I went back in to get my paperwork signed, another person was there wanting to look at my paperwork. He had overheard us talking and his paperwork said this truck was going to Santa Rose CA. So we re-checked all the numbers and each made phone calls. Before I could get back to the building after making my calls, someone came out and said the truck is going to San Diego. Originally it was set to go to Santa Rosa, but that got changed since their report had been run. The truck was too wet to for tape to stick to the doors, so I put my placards in the window. Not a good place, but better than loosing them. I had hoped it would be the drive thru at Wendy's and then, because I had called ahead to the pickup, a quick grab and go. Instead we took 45 minutes getting food and another 45 minutes getting the truck. A good hour lost. Good news. The truck has 3/4 of a tank of (free) fuel. I should do pretty good on this run. Oh, it sounds like they have another six trucks that are going to be moved from this location. I haven't seen them on the board yet. If this trip goes OK, we might do another trip. ... and back to yesterday. US-101 did open late yesterday so we wouldn't have been too far behind if we had just waited for it to open. Not sure what happened, but by noon today it was closed again. I had been reading comments about the road closure on one article yesterday. Then this AM when I searched for that article, I found a 2nd article that had more current comments. I-80 in WY was closed today too ... Heading south with the truck, the scale on the south end of Portland is closed. It had been open this AM when we headed into Portland. My next stop was back at Creek Hill for the rest area. BB stopped somewhere before that to fuel at a Loves. We are running too late to get back to Medford, it will be too many hours in the dark. In the rain. And up and down mountain passes. And it will not gain us anything. So we decide to spend the night in Roseburg, 15 miles down the road. Final stop is at the Sleep Inn in Roseburg. Areal photos show a huge parking lot. And it was. But still no where to park. I drive through one end of the parking lot first, then head to the other. 1st was was going to try to stay to the outside of the canopy. Then I realized I wouldn't fit. So I adjusted and went under, but a van was almost in the way so I got by with about two inches between the truck and the post and ??? enough room that the van didn't move so I must not have hit it. Then on the other end of the lot there wasn't room enough to get into any spots that were open. There had been a spot but someone took it as I was back up to try to get past cars. (by the time we walked in, there was a spot I could have driven directly into) So I go back and park near some of the bigger trucks, I could have before but it took some back and forth to get lined up with them. There also was one easy spot to get into but a car was parked in that spot. Someone was sitting in it when I was heading that way and it would have been an easy one to get in and out of. By the time I was parked, the car was gone and I walked through the empty spot. Only then did I realize that the bottom of the overhead billboard was lower than the top of my truck. We check in and then call next door to Applebee's for food. BB orders online, a half hour later we walk in the rain to go and get it. Once back in our room, we realize that the tip she thought she added was not on the receipt. So no tip for them. I did walk back an hour later and find the person who handled our order and gave them a bigger tip in cash. We did less than 200 miles today with the truck. Without the ice and the mud slide, we should have gotten 500 miles today. So now we have 500 miles to Santa Nella and then almost 400 more for Wednesday to San Diego. Thursday will be another 500 miles back to Livermore. And then we are out of clean clothes :) I think most, if not all, of the freeway out here has the truck speed lower than the car speed. So BB and I will just meet at noon to eat and then for the motel. Other than that we text each other from our stops so the other knows if they are ahead or behind. Load board US - 383 - (I don't remember ever seeing it over 400) IA - 151 MN - 2 WI - 9 Nothing out of CA right now. But there are three in OR coming back to CA, plus 1 in WA and 1 in AZ coming back to CA. It is -10 degrees at home at 10 PM tonight, and 46 here in OR. Same temp it has been all day. 210216 OR-CA 1 truck to San Diego CA ... spending the night at Santa Nella CA Breakfast. We point, they bag. I got juice, yogurt and a breakfast burrito. When we leave in the AM, most of the trucks have left so no issue pulling out. When I am doing my morning inspection, BB notices that I have taped over/covered my trucks weight, not the DOT # like I should have. It is not raining, but the truck is still too wet to put my placards on the outside of the truck. Even the tape over the weight has come loose. The cheapest fuel of the trip will be a few miles down the road in OR. 1st stop is when I am still in Roseburg at the Loves. I can't get the pump to start so I have to go inside. They ask for my PUC #. I don't have one, that's why I couldn't start the pump. Then they ask how much my truck weights. Whew! The PUC only applies to trucks over 26,000#'s. Now I remember why I don't like to fuel in OR. I am OK this trip. Fuel here is almost $1 less than in CA. I have now looked up what a PUC is. Trucks over 26,000# pay the posted price for fuel. THEN they have to log their miles, record their number of axels and truck weight and pay their state tax directly to the state. At some point early on the trip I noticed my teeth didn't feel right. I am pretty sure that the filling in my front tooth is loose and is only staying in because it has no where to go because of how it is located. Now I need to be very careful until I can get in to my dentist. My next appointment is in April. I'm guessing it will last a week? Maybe? Last night we had looked online because there should have been a weight scale right before Roseburg where we shut down. We found a couple of places where it might have been, but it is gone now. Or it was just wrong. Because now there is a scale just south of Roseburg and it doesn't look new. I cross without any issues. A few more passes this AM. The highest one was is about 4,000 feet and had thick fog this AM. And it looks like they had snow overnight. When we went through it was 34 degrees. When BB looked earlier this AM the temp was at 28 degrees. When I went through Medford I had noticed a mobile home park on the east side of the road. Then I noticed construction equipment in what looked like would be a mobile home park on the west side. I looked to the west again in less than a mile and realized it wasn't GOING to be a mobile home park. It had been a mobile home park. Before the fire. Lots of partial shells where they hadn't been cleared off yet. And that fire had followed the river for at least a couple of miles. Also I was surprised as to how many homeless were in Medford. It gets cold there. 100's and 100's of tents/shelters in sight just from the freeway. 2nd stop was near the 1st rest area in CA. Near, because I thought I was going to have to cross the freeway to get to the rest area and all I wanted to do was text BB to let here know that I was 'safe' into CA. Turns out the rest area was on my side of the freeway. Those heading northbound were the ones that had to cross the freeway to get to it. A few more passes once we are into CA before stopping for lunch. 3rd stop is in Redding at the TA / Pizza Hut for food. We got with their macaroni dish again. They have to make mine so it takes seven minutes. BB took the last one off the shelf. When we stop, I call the drop. It takes a long time for anyone to answer but when they did, I explain that I am brining but they say I have to deliver it full of fuel. That is not on my paperwork anywhere so I call my dispatcher for this trip. Nope, deliver with 1/8 of a tank of fuel. So I call the drop back. This time someone picks up right away and they don't know who would have told me that the tank needed to be full as there is only two people there and they both know. Then we realize I must have been talking to someone at the rental desk. THOSE trucks have to be returned full, and have to be returned before 6 PM. I will be delivering to the service department and they are open until 10 PM. Then I call the bus dispatcher and tell him that I am 'still in CA, but delivering a truck so I will be available on Thursday.' I didn't let him get a word in right away. He seemed to 'perk up' when I said Thursday. Didn't ask how things are going yet. I am still not sure if I will call him Weds or Thurs. I'd like to call Weds and if he doesn't have work, just stay south where it is warmer. But I would also like to leave with a bus, and I may be more likely to get one if I am there and waiting. If I don't give him the option of saying no. (He still would have the option if there weren't any buses of course.) Where we are parked when we eat, there is a old full sized 70's or 80's car with no trunk on it. They do have stuff in their trunk, but no trunk to close on it. Instead they have two 'bull dog' type dogs tied to one of the hinges that are chewing on a huge bone. A cow hip bone or bigger. Plan was for us to meet up again at a rest area 120 miles, two hours down the road. But most all of the rest area's are closed including the one 120 miles down the road. So BB pulls off the highway at the next truckstop. She was following me so I kept going. 4th stop is the Flying J in Lodi for a rest room break. When I pull in, I first wash my windows. The early fruit trees are already blooming and it seemed that every time we went past a field, I would hear PING, PING, SPLAT. PING, SPLAT. Something was hitting the truck and the windshield. It was either the bee's or other bugs that like the fresh buds. BB pulls in to the Flying J before I get in the building. She makes a reservation in Santa Nella and checks fuel prices for my fuel. I should be able to fuel in the AM and have enough fuel to make it to my drop. I am guessing I am getting about 10 mpg. Only a guess as I have only filled the truck once. I suppose I could have fueled again after a couple of hundred miles so I would have had a frim number. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Food is from the Mexican food truck across the street. BB takes advantage of the extra few minutes (?) we are in early and washes a load of clothes. We have been on the road for 10+ days and we haven't started heading back. Load board US - 418 IA - 155 MN - 3 WI - 10 210217 OR-CA 1 truck to San Diego CA (delivered) ... spending the night at Escondido CA Opps, not wanting to stop around LA cost me about $50. Breakfast, BB had the rest of her burrito, I walked down and got juice and a pastry. We got going at 7:30 AM. No problem dragging as I exited this parking lot with this truck. Then I headed across the street for fuel. 1st stop is the Loves for fuel. I notices a guy at the 1st pump that looks like he is ready to leave, but it looks like the far pump is open already. So I head to the far pump and find that it is bagged off. I start to back up but then decided to drive around and come at the pumps again. Someone pulls into the now empty 1st pump so I pick another one that looks like the guy is done. Soon there is someone waiting for all the pumps. Finally the guy on the right side of me backs out and leaves, about the same time the person at the pump pulls ahead. So I go for that pump. Yesterday I 'guessed' that I was getting 10 miles per gallon, and because I did not want to stop anywhere for fuel between LA and San Diego. So my goal is to leave the truck with 1/4 of fuel. That way if I was wrong on the mileage I will not have to stop again. But just in case, I have looked to see where the closest fuel is near the drop. As I pull out, I follow the driver I had been waiting behind. He had been done fueling and never moved his truck when he was done. And as I start to pull ahead, someone had been right in my blind stop a foot from the front of my truck. I stop. He never looks back at me. We always try to walk a ways in front of other trucks and try to make eye contact with the driver. Nothing major on the first leg of the trip. I stop at my usual place, but at 70 mph instead of 55 mph I get there in an hour and a half. 2nd stop is at Lebec at the Flying J at the Wendy's. BB is already there when I get there. We go in and order food and go back to the car to eat. No indoor seating. And the self service area for most of the food has been roped off. You now have to make a request and staff will fill your cup or grab your donut. When I stop, I look at my grill. Bee's. All the bugs on my grill are bee's. I wouldn't have guessed. It sounding like hard shell bugs hitting the truck. If I hit 100 bee's in the last 24 hours, and all of the other 1,000 trucks hit a 100 bees every day. How soon before there are none left? Unlike the Ford RV's, this truck does not want to downshift to maintain speed. It takes most of the hill at 55 mph but does drop almost to 45 mph but RPM's never get over 2,000. Instead it lets the speed drop. But it does not do a good job of maintaining speed going down hill either. Truck speed is supposed to be 40 mph going down hill. Those signs do not say '3 axels or more' they just say TRUCKS. Some of the signs are specific, others are not. I just kind of guess. I end up passing another rental truck three times over two days. It is also being moved by a transporter, but he has his placard stuck in the window in such a way that his DOT # is not showing. When I go past Sun Valley, north of LA there is a fire raging just a couple of blocks from the freeway. Thick black smoke, I can see down the street and don't see any fire trucks in front of the area. Asking BB later, she was ahead of me and had not seen the smoke. Now I looked online and see that it was personal cars in a recycling area that had caught on fire. LA - We take I-5 right through LA. Eight lanes of traffic in both directions in some places. Minor stop and go, but nothing major. What should have taken us 2 hours and 45 minutes, took us 3 hours and 15 minutes. I don't stop again, BB stops at the final rest area on I-5. There are a few miles where we can see the ocean from I-5 just before San Diego. Traffic between the two towns was moving well. I have to stop at the last scale in CA on I-5. All the rest of the scales have been closed so I've been lucky that way. I get to go in the empty lane and do not get stopped. I just have to cross. I get to the drop and have to go into the rental area to enter the building. I ask for service but they want to handle it. I start to explain to the person what I am dropping off and someone comes up behind them. 'I talked to you yesterday and said the truck needs to full before you drop it.' I tried to explain that both my dispatcher and his service department agreed that it didn't, but he cuts me off saying they will bill us. Not my problem, and no they will not bill us. I still couldn't get him to understand that this was not a rental return. The other person who helped me seemed to understand but didn't confront him. They sign clear, and I am standing outside waiting for them to make a copy of the bill of lading when BB drives past. She is still texting me by the time I get to the car. We have a couple of hours before dark but stop after a half hour. Tonight we are going with traffic in rush hour. Tomorrow morning we will be going against it. But by stopping early tonight, we have 450 miles / 7 hours plus stop to get back to the buses tomorrow. 4th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in Escondido for the night. Then we walk next door to In-n-Out Burger for food. This hotel room has a little deck. Very little. One chair and a small table. But it is nice to have the deck door open when it is 65 degrees out knowing it is -0- at home. We have decided to head straight back up to Livermore. Not out of route walks or stops. Load board US - 422 IA - 157 MN - 3 WI - 8 Plan for tomorrow is just drive. Too bad we couldn't stay here. 65 and sunny today. 210218 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI ... spending the night at Livermore CA Breakfast. We point, they pick. I picked bacon and omelette plus two juice. BB had toast and an egg. They had to do the toast so no one was touching any common surfaces. Rolling at 7:30 local. A few miles down the road I remembered we needed gas. The hotel was right between In-n-Out Burger and a gas station. 1st stop. About an hour down the road at Temecula at a Shell for fuel. Computer is saying that going the route we want to take will take 10-20 minutes longer so we re-route to nearer LA. Computer now wants to take us almost in to down town LA but we opt for a route that will have us meet up with I-5 just north of down town. Some slow and go but not bad. The mpg setting on this car re-sets every time we fill. On this tank the mileage was up to 51 mpg before dropping. It does start out in the 20's and then worked it's way up. Once we got to the mountains it started going down. Almost 500 miles later it finally dropped to 44 mpg. Not bad. 2nd stop is at a Pilot in Santa Clarita for a rest room break. It is the 1st on-route truckstop we have seen. When we walked in, an officer walked in right ahead of us but I hadn't seen a squad. Then he walked out about the time we did and got into an un-marked van. And a 2nd officer got out. Ahhh. Transporting convicts. The drivers get to use the restroom but not the convicts. While I was stopped the terminal manager from IA called looking for drivers. Sorry, I am still in CA. But he did mention that there are ONLY 15O loads on the board. But he has over 400 trips waiting, he just doesn't want to over load the board. Yikes. We will likely be leaving out again as soon as we get back. Thanks to Covid we will likely be leaving as soon as we get back. Today is the due date for our next grandchild, but we will not be visiting even if we are home. Not right now. Watch your speed. Coming down the pass north of LA the car would quickly get up to 80 mph if I was not riding the break. Speed limit is 65 mph for cars. 35 mph for trucks. We could see the smoke around one truck going down the hill. And smell the breaks. No fire, yet. 3rd stop was in Lost Hills for food and the Arbey's in Loves. Miss the Philly. The reuben is now my go to. Trying to get used to eating out of the side of my mouth. 4th stop was in Patterson. BB couldn't wait. Flying J for restroom ... and fuel. As soon as I got out of the car someone was there asking for money. 1st time this trip. I topped the fuel tank off. BB reminded me later that the car needed to be returned at 13/16, not full. 5th stop, 15 minutes down the road at the rest area near Westley. I called the dispatcher ... 'Too early, call back in 15 minutes.' 6th stop at a Arco near Tracy to use the phone from a parking lot vs the shoulder of the road. We are going to La Crosse WI, bus will be ready about 4:30. When I call be are still about a half hour from the shipper. We head to the shipper to try and see the bus. It helps that it says La Crosse on the side of the bus :) I had pulled into a part of their parking lot when we were looking at the bus, but when I pulled back on the street BB asks 'Why are you on the wrong side of the street?' ??? This street is only a few blocks long and does have trees in the median a few places, but not here. Not sure what I was / wasn't thinking. -0- other traffic on the road. 7th stop - Then we head to the outlet mall to wait. We do some figuring and then I call a driver that I've been keeping in contact with recently. I don't watch the time and it is soon 4:30. Time to go. ... and BB is hungry. 8th stop, Carl's Jr (Hardee's) for BB 9th stop is the bus lot. While I'm getting the bus checked out, BB looks at the other buses. Only two other buses have paperwork in them today. Both going to Kansas City. Glad I got one. We check out the bus and BB heads to drop the car. After I am off the lot I try to turn the heat on. No heat. That is a problem. I will be calling first thing in the AM. 10th and final stop is the Best Western in Livermore. Glad we aren't going any further so we don't have far to go back in the AM if they can not walk me though it. Someone has backed into the light pole behind the truck parking since we were here last time. But this time no one else is in the truck spots. Some times it is full so we don't often stay here. We still are not sure which way we are going. I am getting paid the miles to take I-80 to Des Moines and up. It is 300 miles more to go via NM and up. Fuel and hotels are cheaper on the southern route so money is about a wash. All that we loose is the time. Load board US - 450 IA - 177 MN - 3 WI - 7 45 - NC Five RV's going to NC right now, four trucks coming back to MN. Almost a round trip. Earlier today there were a few no tow RV's going down there so even more money. The Portland trip was mostly a break even trip. We were going to stay in town and have motels and a rental either way so at least this way we broke even, covered our expenses. Pay. Sometimes we get paid within the hour. Today I never did get paid, paperwork was sent in last night. By tomorrow afternoon I will have to call. Weather for this trip still looks ok ??? We should be following a minor storm. If we get out of town tomorrow AM. ... the trip continues HERE |
