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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210219 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI ... spending the night at Needles CA Breakfast ... was selected off of a menu last night. I got a nuke-your-own breakfast sandwich, yogurt and fruit cup. I should have ordered a water, we always can use water. Went out started the bus. Heat was still not on. So I called the shipper, covered the basics, and they said to come back to the shop. Then as I am ready to pull out ... LIGHT BULB. Picture this. A fan with switch, plugged into a power strip, which also has a switch and is plugged into the wall. Everything las to be turned on/plugged in, for the fan to work. On the bus, I missed one of those. I called the shipper back and said 'Driver error.' They didn't ask any questions, I didn't offer an explanation. BUT this may all have been a good thing. While I was on the phone, BB was checking the weather. Donner's Pass requires chains. I-80 in WY is closed. We went south. It will add 200+ miles. But we will be in warm weather and shouldn't have any weather issues. 1st stop is at the rest area near Firebaugh. We are way off on our scheduled. We rarely leave Livermore in the AM heading south. So it looks like our stops aren't going to mess with our usual stop. Which isn't a bad thing. Our usual lunch stop is Lost Hills, but it is way to early when we are there so we keep going. 2nd stop is at the Flying J / Subway for food. And to call for permits. When we got out of the bus, we saw the plastic wrap on the front of the bus was already dragging on the ground. Four hours down the road. It usually lasts the whole trip, I've never seen it fall off this this before. The next 100+ miles are non-freeway and lots of hills, and some wind. Later today or tomorrow there is a high wind warning for this area. A few years ago we had to turn around part way down this road because they had closed the road because too many semi's had blown over. We had to run all the way down to LA to get from Barstow to Bakersfield. 3rd stop is the Flying J in Barstow for the restroom. I remembered their driveway being too steep for a bus to get into the car lot but it wasn't. So we parked there instead of with the trucks. ... as I am walking back to the bus, someone hits me up for cash. Clean cut kid, not the usual homeless look. Both rest areas are closed so it is a non-stop trip. 4th and final stop was at the Quality Inn for the night and McDonalds for food. This places is one of those that has two desks in the check in area. This one has both a Quality Inn and Rodeway Inn. Same building. One is $25 less than the other. I have no idea what one has that the other does not. McD's. Half their menu is gone. For ever? I realized today that cutting my sandwiches into little pieces would be a good thing to do to try to save my tooth. So far so good. Donners Pass dropped the chain requirement about three hours after we left this AM, but we were heading the opposite direction. In WY the closure was lifted but it was still no travel for high profile vehicles. I-25 was still closed later in the day so the weather wasn't good. Load board US - 443 IA - 208 MN - 2 WI - 6 NC - 22 All the runs from NC back to MN are gone but plenty of runs still heading from IA that way. It looks like the weather should have moved on by the time we are getting north. Saturday night we should make it to Albuquerque. Sunday night to Pratt, Monday night to Story City IA. That would leave 240 miles for Wednesday plus pick up our van and get the bus washed and delivered. 210220 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI ... spending the night at Albuquerque NM Breakfast, we point, they bag. OJ, yogurt and a nuke sandwich. Sun is not up when we go down to get breakfast, it is up by the time we are done with breakfast and leaving. About a half hour from Needles is the AZ Port of Entry. It is closed so we sail on past. 1st stop is the TA in Kingman for fuel. This is likely the quickest we will ever get in and out of this place. But 1st, When I go to turn into their drive I pull into the 'Exit Only - Do Not Enter' driveway. No one was coming so no big deal. There are pumps open but the one I grab has a screen that doesn't work so I have to go inside to get the pump turned on. No wait then, no wait later to get a receipt. As we go to leave, we meet a car, coming in the 'Exit Only - Do Not Enter' driveway. I did not honk at them :) One of the last times we went this way, it was very foggy. Sometimes we were above it on the hills, other times we were in the thick of it. Today it is sunny and warm. Did see a couple of clouds in the distance twice today but that was it. I'm guessing temps in the 50's? Nice, but still want a jacket. 2nd stop was in Williams at the Loves for DEF and a rest room break. Somewhere got mixed up when I used the company card for fuel and my credit card for DEF so I have been filling them at two different stops. Today I messed up and used the company card for DEF. No harm done, they didn't charge me a user fee and it is still on a separate receipt. We finally see snow on the ground once we get above 7.000 feet. It's still there, but not completely covering the ground. Once we drop back down out of Flagstaff the snow is gone again. We do see some on the north side of the hills later when we are in NM. 3rd stop is Holbrook at the TA for Popeyes. I try to find a place to park that is out of the wind so we can eat at the bus. So I drive around the lot once and then decide to park. Once I am parked I decide to move again and squeeze between two parked trucks ... opps, someone is trying back into the spot that I was moving into. Someone blew their horn at me. Not sure who, it wasn't the guy backing as he wouldn't have been able to see me. I was able to get out of the way. No harm done, but not something I should be doing again. Popeyes. They stop taking orders about the time we get in line, for the next 5-10 minutes they are just filling the orders that they had gotten backed up on. Once they are caught up, they start taking orders again. We are 3rd in line and ours only takes a couple of minutes to fill. On the way out I look at the TA's other hot food. We might try that next time. No line and it is either hot shelf food or they dish from a bowl. Even with the wait, we are in and out in 30 minutes. As we were leaving I saw my first transporter today. A Penske style truck parked in the TA lot. Later we see two RV's, one semi tractor and three mixers. I'm guessing the mixers were transporters as they were clean, new trucks with no logos. And they had their plate in the dash. But they did not have their placards where I could see them. Pretty slow for transporters today. NM scale is open, I have to stop and hold the permit so the person can read it. Then I am clear to go. 4th stop is Jamestown at the Pilot for the restroom. This mapping software won't find the town so it is listed as Coolidge. I had thought we might get further than ABQ tonight, but, if the traffic flows, we will be in ABQ about 10 minutes before sunset. And the motels in the next town are $30 more. Plus BB does not like their heaters. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in ABQ. It has been a while since we have been here. But have stayed many times over the last couple of years. Once checked in we order online from the Mexican place a block away. Then we walk and get our food. The place is packed. We past a number of casino's today and they were all still closed. Except for the one closest to ABQ. It is open ... to NM residents only. We also went past an area that was all barricaded off ... 'residents only.' Not sure what road they had to take to get in. Weather - We chose well (so far) Donners Pass and WY were both requiring chains again this AM. By this afternoon, WY had issued a 'high wind' warning for Sunday morning through Tuesday morning. Because of the prior chain restrictions, we would not have been past the warning area yet and would be sitting, likely until Tuesday AM. Then we would still have two plus days to go. As of now, I am hoping to deliver on Tuesday PM. Load board US - 421 IA - 194 MN - 1 WI - 5 We'll see how far we get. Pratt KS is about 500 miles. And the next town past Pratt is another hour. The days aren't getting that much longer overnight. 210221 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI ... spending the night at Pratt KS Breakfast. BB had leftover Mexican and I had two breakfast bars from our stash. We wanted to leave at 6:30 local and that is when they would start handing out to-go bags. When I went to check out I did ask about a to-go back and my choices were danish, muffin, pastry. I passed. 1st stop - one hour down road we stop at the TA in Moriarty for fuel. I went from 6 mpg Friday to 10 mpg Saturday. 2nd stop was Tucumcari at Loves for the restroom. We often stop at the Flying J across the street, but they are still working on the street so it is much easier to take a right in and a right out than taking two lefts. Now we are on a lot of two lane for the rest of today and part of tomorrow. And because we are turning north, we now have a cross wind instead of a tail wind. Not sure what that is going to do to the gas mileage. For most of the day the tumble weeds were coming across the road at a 90 degree angle. Not quite white knuckle, but close. At one point I hit a bird, it looked like it was taking advantage of the wind break I was creating, and then when it got past the front of the bus ... it flipped back and I hit it. :( NM exit scale is closed for those exiting, open for those coming into the state so not stop for us. 3rd stop is at Chic Witch in Dalhart for lunch. We park across the street behind the Best Western on their street. Same place as we park overnight when we stay there. I like their food, BB not so much. Lot's of name changes on the motels. The one closest to the Best Western has now been leveled. The 2nd Best Western in town went from a Best Western to a no-name to being closed in just a couple of years. 4th stop in in Liberal at the Loves for the restroom. No one fueling when we leave. Pretty quite. Once we get to Liberal, the road heads mostly east again so we are back to having a tail wind. And we are out of tumble weed country so not much blowing in the wind except the occasional flag. 5th and final stop is Pratt KS. 1st we stop at the Arby's and grab food to go, then it is the Comfort Inn for the night. Last night I looked closer at my hours and I am running really close. If things go well tomorrow, we can make it to Story City as planned, if not, we will be stopping in Ankeny/Des Moines for the night. Either way, we should still be able to make delivery Tuesday. Looks like Forest City got snow today. But the weather is supposed to warm up so it should be plowed/melted by the time we get there. Other weather. Weather changes. In WY the road is no longer closed because of the high winds (for high profile vehicles.) It is now closed for ALL because of winter weather conditions. One of the reasons I have to hang on with both hands on this bus is the steering wheel. If feels like the size they put on go-carts/bumper cars instead of a half million dollar bus. The other reason is the wind. Yesterday it was 35-49 mph where we were. In WY, the current wind warning is for 40-50 mph, with gusts to 80 mph. No change in the load board. We plan on delivering Tuesday and heading home. Depending on where we go next we may not leave town again until Saturday. 210222 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI ... spending the night at Story City IA Cold. Last night the heat in the room was either on or off. It was not shutting off based on the thermostat. It would run up to 80 degrees before we realized and would shut it off. So we shut it off for the night and had the window open. Sometime during the night BB got up to close the window. Then in the AM the heater worked fine. Breakfast. Hot food. I use a napkin on the common surfaces and take eggs and sausage, plus yogurt and juice. At 7:30 we pull out. Original plan was to fuel in Emporia but that would be about 650 miles. I don't like to push it past 600 so that helped decide which way we go. We go up KS-61 to Hutchinson. 1st stop is an hour down the road at the Loves in Hutchinson. Fuel is cheaper here than it would have been in Emporia by one whole cent per gallon. As long as we are stopped and the place isn't busy, I put in DEF also. But, now Loves won't take my credit card at the pump. I think it is based on prior purchases and now that I am using the company card for fuel I don't use the personal card enough. So I use the company card and get dinged $1.25 for a $10 purchase. Because I don't want inside to pre-pay. So now I am down to only Pilot / Flying J that will start the pump with my personal card. Across the street from the Loves is a motel. It was likely built as a Holiday Inn with a restaurant inside. I know it was something before it was a Quality Inn, but it went from a Quality Inn to a Motel 6 to now a Rodeway Inn very quickly. Restaurant is still there. All other motels are in town, this is the only one by the main road. 2nd stop is another hour and a half down the road for a rest break at the Flying J in Emporia. Lots of passing lanes but we haven't been on freeway since about this time yesterday. Was able to go through KC almost at the posted. 3rd stop was at the Pilot / Taco Bell in Kearney. After we were done eating, I called the shipper about a warning light that has been on. No one called me back so I kept calling all known numbers for almost an hour. Then someone picked up on the first ring. 'No problem. Keep going.' Taco's, hard shell. I leave a trail of food where I walk outside while I eat. Which is why we can't eat in the bus. 4th stop is the rest area near Osceolla IA. KS, MO, IA scales were all closed today. That should be it for this trip. Waiting the hour I thought would get us to the motel after dark, it didn't. And I still don't understand why. We left at almost the same time yesterday, drove about the same amount of miles. But today we took an extra one hour break. And I thought it was going to be close on my DOT hours. Instead I came in with 30 minutes to spare. Again, not sure how. 5th and final stop is Story City at the Comfort Inn. If I had come up short, we could have stayed in Ankeny or Ames. But going past here the next motel is an hour away. I came up short. Sooo we should not have shut down so early back in San Diego. It all comes back to haunt. It snowed yesterday or last night here so big piles of snow. This place no longer has real truck parking. The shopping center next door does not allow us to park there anymore. So now truck parking is, back the semi off the street to the far corner of the car lot. Today the lot was still mostly empty so I was able to turn the bus around in the lot, pointing out. In warm weather with no snow, we walk to the food. Today we had delivery. Pizza and a salad. We said we each wanted a garden salad but they assured us that one was enough to share. It was, and we didn't finish it. We didn't finish all the pizza either. We'll either finish it for breakfast or forget it in the fridge. For tomorrow, we now have about five hours drive time, plus allowing a three hour wait at the wash. That still leaves two hours for other things before close at the drop. I will need to fuel at least once. I am going to have to guess as to how much fuel I need to put in before the drop. Friday I got 6 mpg, Saturday it was 10, Sunday it was 7 mpg. I am going to guess 7 mpg. The wind has died down but is often a weak tail wind. Weather - This AM and later into the day the road was still completely closed in WY. Now it is back to just being closed to high profile vehicles. So far so good on the route we chose. Load board. US - 395 IA - 166 MN - 2 WI - 7 Once I drop tomorrow, I will call the dentist and see if I can get in. Getting my drivers license renewed now would also be a plus, but that may have to wait. If we get home tomorrow night, we will have been on the road for 18 days. We plan on taking at least one day off. 210223 CA-WI 1 bus to La Crosse WI (delivered) ... spending the night at home Breakfast - Hot food - But in stead of dishing up our own food, they had filled containers with eggs, sausage and potatoes. So I took one of those and a yogurt. It was a lot of food so I took two glasses of juice. Pulled out at 7:30 AM. Frost on the roof of the bus, temp was near 32. I haven't put in any anti-gel but no issues. 1st stop is at the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel and DEF. Hadn't planned on putting in DEF here but there were enough fuel islands open that I could drive in backwards. 2nd stop was in Forest City to pick up our van. The sun was out, the lot had been well plowed and only a few inches of snow in front of our van. Plenty of place to park the bus. Someone was parked in front of our van doing their paperwork so I walked over and asked them to move. He knew me (and my stories,) I didn't remember him. He's been doing back to back trips to the NW. Flies back for $100 and does his next trip. Works for him. Not for us. 3rd stop was the Petro in Albert Lea for a wash. No line. Paid and pulled in. Waiting in the bus. Pulled out and then we transferred all of our stuff to the van. Opps. When we slapped the back of the van shut it looked like the plate was loose. So I tried to wiggle it. Behind where one of the screws is supposed to hold it on is a rust hole the size of a silver dollar. So only one screw holding the rear plate on. BB and I part ways. She will be stopping a couple of time and I only once. I stop and stick my tank before I leave the wash lot. I should be fine. I had planned on stopping at another truck stop so I could add fuel just in case I needed to. But I felt pretty good about how much fuel I had. 4th stop is the rest area near Lewiston for the restroom and to stick my fuel tank. I am at about 6-1/2" and need to leave the bus with 5", and I have 30 miles to go. I am good. The roads had been dry until I started heading down into the valley near La Crosse. Then a truck passed my right where the road was the wettest. Not a big deal, as once I got off the freeway the snow/water from the median was running across the road to the other shoulder. No more clean bus. But still likely the cleanest one they will see today. About six turns in the last mile so I am glad I looked at a map AND wrote the street names down. 5th stop was the drop. I was supposed to call from the lot but someone was walking to me when I parked. It was my contact, he had me pull around back and into the shop. And I parked right behind bus 1501, another new bus. Mine is 1503. Not sure where 1502 is. The person I was dealing with didn't have any chit-chat. We covered what needed to be done, he walked around the bus and then signed and went to make copies while I torn the wrap off the windows. I walked outside and called BB. She had parked on the other end of the employee lot. No buses could be seen from the outside so she had no idea where I was. 6th stop was the rest area four miles from the drop. BB used the restroom while I called the dentist. I was put on hold for 15 minutes and then we left without anyone coming back to the line. 7th stop was Culvers in Winona. It was now 2 PM, glad I had a big breakfast. While we waited for food I called the dentist again and got put on hold. This time they got back to me just after I got my food. Because it is an 'emergency,' I got in at 9:20 tomorrow. :) They were going to check for today, but I told them I was not in town. They also couldn't find which med I take right away, but they got it called in by the time we got to the store. Bald eagles. Lots of them. Near Reeds Landing. A dozen? Two dozen? We weren't counting. Before we got home we stopped and picked up my meds and some food. When your gone three weeks at a time it's hard to remember what is in the house. :) Plan for tomorrow is that after I go to the dentist is that I head to get my drivers license and just wait in line for the rest of the day. I got a letter from my local company that they will not give me any work starting a week before it expires. One of the letters that I got from the local company showed they have a new, 3rd dispatcher. That is about the 5th, 3rd dispatcher since covid started and the prior dispatcher quit. Load board US - 403 IA - 168 MN - 1 WI - 9 When I first started keeping track of the IA daily numbers I was also keeping track of the IN numbers. But too often IN was at -0- and I have only been there once in five years so did that for less than a year. Today there is 40 trips out of IN, mostly RV's. NC is at 25 trips. No hard plans yet. We will be home a day or two. We may do a local before we head to the SE. We are looking at NC, no one took any of the NC trips today and they added two more. We should be OK. Doing our numbers for this last trip. We did really good. Really, really good. Considering it took us two extra days to get from IA to CA. That we sat for a day in CA with no work. That we broke even on the OR to CA trip that took five days. And that we went 200+ miles out of route to avoid the weather. 3x our minimum. Our best trip was 4x our minimum and that came right back to the cities. Weather. I-80 is still closed to high profile vehicles in WY. As far as I know that stretch has been closed for one reason or another ever since Friday morning when we left Livermore. That is why we are planning on heading south east. 210224 MN ... spending the night at home When one is rarely home we need to pack a lot in right way in case we want to head back out. So this AM I had my dentist appointment, and then headed to a driver license location that does not require appointments. Seven people were allowed in the building and there were two outside. I didn't time it, but I'm guessing it took less than an hour. I had the option of note having a new picture taken. Also people only have until 10/31/21 to get a standard license. After that everyone will need either a Real ID or an Enhanced ID. On the form, it said that with the real ID would allow people to get into nuke sites and military sites. And the enhanced ID will allow for international travel. Online, it says the real ID will needed for air travel starting Oct 1, 2021. (but I don't plan on flying) When I left, there were 10 people waiting outside so I got there at a good time. Then I headed to the local drive away company to update their records and when I got home and we faxed copies to the long haul company. And the final thing was canceling the appointment we had made, just in case. So now we can stay out until the last week of March. Likely we are going to be doing a number of short runs rather than another three week run. Oh, and I got paid right away this AM for the last trip. Weather, today I-80 in WY is finally open. Load board US - 397 IA - 183 MN - 1 WI - 7 ... the trip continues HERE |
