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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210409 CA-MN 1 Bus to Farmington MN ... spending the night in Rocklin CA 5:30 AM (local) wake up call. The guy I have been helping dig in the dirt for is letting me know it is raining and he won't be needing my help for a few days. Now that we have addresses we look closer at how to get to the pickup and then to drop the rental car. There is a place close, but there is no place for me to park so hopefully BB is in and out quick and waiting by the time I get there. Breakfast is in a bag. Short bottle of water, pastry and breakfast bar. BB eats leftovers. /////////////// The following is being written two days later. At 9 AM local, we head to near the SFO airport. We have extra time so we 'drive the loop,' following the route that I will be taking with the bus. It's good that we did as there would be detours to go the way we had planned. So we will do the trip the opposite direction. When we get to the shipper, the doors are locked and the 800 number does not allow for the info I have. So I walk to the back of the building and find someone helpful. We find the bus and then I ask if there are any hints I need to know ... Every bus is different and this is a coach (Greyhound style) bus, not a city bus. So they did a quick walk through with lots of hints. Not sure what they are used to, but I asked if they wanted to keep the plates off the bus. They didn't know. Other questions, they didn't know. Then I find out that someone else has to come from a different location to sign off on the paperwork. By the time I get the bus checked out and moved, and a few more questions answered the paperwork is signed and we are clear to go. BB leaves a few minutes ahead of me so she has time to drop the car and walk across the street as there is no place to park a bus and wait for her. Turns out there was a rental car place about a half mile from the shipper ... the way the crow flies. Three miles the way the roads run. BB is waiting when I get there ... now back through San Francisco and on to I-80 for a 1,000+ miles. Lots of ships in the harbor that are stacked high with shipping containers. Slow and go traffic but not much stop and go traffic. 130 miles into the trip, the yellow check engine light came on ... and the red STOP ENGINE light came on. I pull to the side of the road do a quick check of the bus and start making phone calls. Lots of phone calls, and some de-bugging over the phone. Finally after 3 hours I get the OK to move the bus three miles to a safe place as long as the STOP ENGINE light doesn't come back on. Finally, we get to use the restroom and order some food. We have parked in a strip mall parking lot. It might be the only strip mall that doesn't have a vacant storefront. We thought we would have plenty of room to park. I do find a place and we are out. ToGo Sandwiches. It is one of the places we looked at but didn't pick last night. Good food but not as good as the Beach Hut last night. We sit outside in sun for the next three hours until the sun goes down. When they said I could go to a safe place, they also said they were bringing me another bus. About an hour after we thought they would get to us, they arrived. We move our stuff to the new bus and when I go back to the old bus, they ask what I did to it ... It now has even more error message and will not start. We leave. We had hoped to get to Reno or beyond, but 'our' hotel in Reno is full for tonight. Then I call the closest motel. They are not full, quite, but parking will be where we find it. So we call our motel about 10 miles back. They still have a couple of rooms left, but there we know the area and where trucks can park. When we get to our motel there is lots of room to park. Final stop, the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. /////// Original posted below 11 PM, we are safe in a motel. More later (100 miles after we picked up the bus, it broke down. Six hours later the shipper brings us a different bus) //////// Load board US - 522 IA - 260 MN - 6 WI 14 210410 CA-MN 1 Bus to Farmington MN ... spending the night in Wendover UT Breakfast here is still limited. Choices are hard boiled eggs, yogurt, breads, fruits and some packaged pastries. I get the yogurt and some juice. Sometime last night, BB had remembered that I needed a permit for NV. At that point it was after hours for where we get them and I still didn't have a VIN to get one. Once that I had woken up this AM, I couldn't fall back to sleep again because I kept thinking about the permit. The place our company has a contract with is only open M-F and today is Saturday. I know who my other company uses in a crunch so I call them. They are able to get me the permit, I just need to pay and get reimbursed. Wish I had known that before. I have tried to get permits myself direct from the states and that doesn't work. But this did, I am legal to roll. 8 AM local we are ready to head out. A semi was also able to find a spot in the car area after I got there. And no one is parked in the truck parking ... and the over flow parking is now roped off, I didn't ask them about that. Warning lights. When I inspected the bus this AM, I noticed I couldn't see any coolant in the sight tube, but the tube was very discolored. Then when I went to start the bus I got a number of warning lights. BB now knows where to look them up on the computer and quickly had the answer. Low coolant. After the bus ran a few minutes, most of the lights went off so I moved the bus to a different part of the parking lot so it was closer to walk to the gas station. I bought two gallon jugs of water and added 1-1/2. Not sure why. It was fine yesterday and stayed right to where I filled it all day. WOW. The 1st bus I had was down to 35 mph on the smaller hills by Sacramento. This bus only got down to 45 mph on Donners Pass. There was something wrong with the other bus long before it shut down on me. But there is something 'wrong' with the tranny's on these. They don't want to down shift until they are down to 1,000 rpms. Early this AM I started doing something I have never done before on an automatic transmission. I started shifting it myself. I would downshift closer to 1,300 rpms and after that the bus never got down to below 55 mph on the hills. We had driven back to our motel last night, so this AM we went past the parking lot where we had exchanged buses. Ours was still there, but facing the other direction. So my guess is they got it to start, but not to run. Glad they brought us a 2nd bus or we would be here for the weekend or ... 1st stop is in Fernley for a restroom break. When we park, we see a semi tractor that had gotten hit where it was parked. Pretty major damage right in a parking lot. From here I called dispatch with VIN for the bus I am now driving. As long as we were talking I asked about fuel, leave it at 1/4 at delivery. And he didn't know about the wash, he will call me back on Monday. He said this bus pays better than the city buses, we will see on pay day. 2nd stop is in Winnemucca at the Loves for Carl Jr's. Their menu is not the same as Hardee's, at least not this location. I ended up with chicken fingers. There was only one RV parked in the RV area so we joined them. As we were walking in, the driver, our driver, was walking out. He is headed to the same place in Reno as we dropped at. Besides this RV we saw two others on a flatbed and two from another company being driven. And also to delivery vans. Not much moving today. 3rd stop was in Elko at the Sinclair for a restroom break. 4th stop is an extra stop. Usually we stop ever 100 miles or so. Wells is 50 from Elko and 50 from Wendover. But it was the cheapest fuel until Nebraska. So I got 90 gallons. This bus has a 145 gallon tank and I don't have a good idea of what mileage I am getting. We ended up doing 500 miles today, our normal. The next motel is on the other side of the salt flats, 100 miles / two hours away. Tomorrow the towns are closer together so we will likely push to 550 miles, and no mountains so we should make better time. The driver at Loves said I-80 was closed because of a major crash today. Another reason we want to push tomorrow if the weather is good. Get past the winds of WY. The winds have been good to us today, all tailwinds. And I am heavy enough that I am not getting blown around, but I think I am getting a nice push. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. We walk to the food truck in the parking lot. Always good food. I think the same people have been here for about a year now. Load board US - 496 IA - 245 MN - 6 WI - 12 210411 CA-MN 1 Bus to Farmington MN ... spending the night in Cheyenne WY Breakfast is getting better here. For a while it was only Ding Dong's and HoHo's. Today there was fresh fruit, yogurt and some kind of Hostess pastry. After my inspection, we pull out ... directly into the sun. But the front shades are mechanical and I don't like playing with those when I am driving. Not on the RV's either. A couple miles down the road there is the scale, today we cross without issues. 10 miles down the road is the rest area, we pull in and lower the shades. They work, so now I am OK with using them. 1st stop is the Flying J in Tooele for the restroom. Full house, all the RV spots are filled with double parked semi tractors. So I make my own spot and we are in and out in a few minutes. As we are going through SLC, we see I sign that says 'I-80 closed ahead, expect delays.' BB looks it up and it is a car fire about 20 miles ahead and it should clear in 30 minutes. But just in case, we stop in Coalville at a 66 station for the restroom. That 15 minute stop bought us the time we needed as off duty and by the time we get to the accident traffic is getting past. Only a few minutes delay. The pickup that had burned was now on a flatbed, but a lot of debris to be cleaned. 2nd stop was at the POE near Evanston. Only those who need permits need to go in the office today. When I get in there are six people ahead of me and only two desks open so I am there a few minutes. I know the answers to all the questions they ask, $20 and I have my permit. They tell me where to sign and hand me a pen ... I take the paper and start to walk away. Nope, this person wants me to sign it in front of them. 'Sorry' I said, 'I usually step to the side and sign it.' To that they said thank you, but I still had to sign it in front of them today. 2nd stop part two was a couple of miles down the road for Subway at the Flying J. 3rd stop is at the Loves in Green River for the restroom. 4th stop is for the restroom at the TA in Rawlins. We shouldn't do that with a bus. Today only one person asked if I was the bus to Denver :) 5th stop is at the rest area near Laramie. Usually we stop in Laramie but there is road construction and single lane traffic. 6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Cheyenne. As I am heading to the hotel I take a right on to a cross street. It has a turn lane before the signal post so it is an easier turn. As I look over my shoulder to see if anyone is coming, I see cars in ALL lanes heading the opposite direction. ... turns out someone was in the wrong lane and it wasn't me. No harm done. Once checked in, we head over to the Sonic for food. They no longer have the cheesesteak so I ended up with a breakfast sandwich ... onion rings ... and ice cream. Cheyenne to Des Moines is 9 hours. I have 9 hours and 45 minutes. I will have two fuel stops and a pre-trip. I would have to AVERAGE the speed limit to make it tomorrow. So instead we will be leaving out of Omaha on Tuesday and trying to deliver before the customer closes. I will call them tomorrow to find out what time they close. An un-eventful day. Sunny with a nice tail wind most of the time. Very little traffic or road construction. Bus keeps a good speed on the hills. Snow is supposed to be moving east through this area tomorrow but we will stay ahead of it. 210412 CA-MN 1 Bus to Farmington MN ... spending the night in Ankeny IA Breakfast, this place is 'full service.' They seat you and get your food for you. We don't want to be seated and the place isn't set up for to go orders but they do take care of us. Scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, yogurt and pop-tarts. I do my inspection and we head out. Less than 10 miles down the road a check engine light comes on. It is yellow but we are leaving a big town and the next big town is 80 miles away. It is only 7:30 here, 6;30 at the shipper so instead of calling him, I text him a picture of the warning code. Within a few minutes I get a call back. They need to look into it and call me back. Within a half hour we get the call it is safe to run with the warning light on as long as there are no other issues. So only a half hour lost. By this AM, we had looked at all options. As of last night, I had not done my log. I had miss-guessed by 15 minutes. And if I only fuel once today, it will cost me a couple of dollars more but we will gain another 15 minutes (and maybe save having another $100 a night hotel.) And we re-did our trip at 69 mph instead of 65 mph and came up with another half hour. So now I have another hour to get to Des Moines, we might make it. 1st stop - Sidney at the Loves for fuel and DEF. All pumps are full but I pick one truck that is still fueling and pull, back in, behind him. These coach buses also have the DEF on the right side and none of the truck stops do. While I am still backing the truck is done fueling and pulls ahead. I run two transactions so I have only the DEF on the receipt that I turn in to get paid from. When I go in to get my receipt there is only one for my fuel. I ask, and without looking on the register, they reach into their trash and pull out my DEF receipt. ??? I call the drop, they don't seem to know the bus is coming but say they are open for delivery from 5 AM to 5 PM. Good. And while stopped, I call the shipper to let them know I have not had any issues with the bus. BUT two miles down the road a second yellow warning icon comes on the screen. I pull over, it goes off. I pull back into traffic, it comes on ... and again ... and again. And I can not do diagnostics while in gear and the message is gone when I stop. Then it stays gone for about 20 miles. Now I notice an almost complete lack of power when the warning comes on. This time it only comes on twice. By then I have set the screen to the diagnostics view but the warning never comes back again. 2nd stop - North Platte at the Loves McDonalds for food. We eat at the bus and watch the truckers try to back into parking spots. I have to cross the scales, somewhere, a few times but never an issue. 3rd stop - Kearney rest area for a rest stop 4th stop - York rest area for a rest stop 5th stop - Underwood rest area for a rest stop. Now that I am logging the rest stops as 'off duty,' they no longer cut into the hours I can drive in a day. 6th and final stop Ankeny at the Sleep Inn for the night First 650 mile day in a long, long time. The parking lot is fuller than usual. Lots of large trucks and other cars parking in random spots so there are not five open spots in a row. We end up parking against the building where the police usually park. But no cops tonight. We had ordered online but couldn't pay or select a pick up time. So as soon as our bags are in the room we walk across the street to pick up our food at the Outback. I get two cups of soup and BB gets an appetizer. Load board US - 505 IA - 253 MN - 12 WI - 11 By running late, we will be able to make delivery tomorrow. 210413 CA-MN 1 Bus to Farmington MN (delivered) ... spending the night in home 2 RV's to North Canton OH (tomorrow) Breakfast was a nuked sandwich, yogurt and juice. At 7:30 AM we are ready to go. I do my pre-trip and add the last half gallon of water to the bus. But when I try to start the bus ... nothing. This isn't my first bus so I just walk to the back and start the bus. No issue. From there it is two hours to pick up our car. This is our first north south highway and the wind is really rocking us around. 1st stop is the storage lot in Forest City. Instead of fewer buses in the employee lot as overflow there are more. 250 RV's in our lot and still more in waiting. It has been over a month of 200+ on the load board daily. I still have not heard back from my dispatcher so I call the truck wash in Lakeville to see if they are still in business. The phone is no longer in service. So I call a nearby Holiday Gas Station. They know the story and give me the new number. Yes, they are open so I have a place to wash if needed. Then I call dispatch ... from the lot. They have a lot of trips that they are still paying extra for the older trips. I took down the names of the towns where there were two RV's going between 700 and 1,000 miles. We'll do the math later. 2nd stop is the Holiday Station for fuel. I had hoped I won't need to add any more, but the gauge dropped below 1/4 near Forest City. When I get to the station I first call dispatch, I am now five miles from the drop and need to know if the bus needs to be washed. Then I fuel, 20 gallons. That gets the gauge over 1/4 again. By now I hear back from the dispatch, no wash. One more call to the shipper. The check engine light that was on all day yesterday and still this AM ... went off 20 miles before the fuel stop. Now the only warning on it that the engine door isn't shut. It is shut, but the computer things not. That is why the bus wouldn't start from the front is my guess. 3rd stop is the drop. The first person I see is one of the people on my list to talk to. He does a quick walk around then asked if I had any issues ... not now. Turns out these buses were leased. One of the owners of the bank that leased them is also part owner of this bus company. Keeping the money in the family I guess. In less than 15 minutes I have my signature and am gone. BB is starved. So we head to the closest food. Freddies in Farmington. Mine was great. They forgot the hot sauce on BB's sandwich so we had to go back. She got a new sandwich with hot sauce, very little. Then home. I had three calls to make. My barber ... a recording says he is in the hospital. About my van ... it is still in the 'to do' lot. So no reason to call about my rototiller, I have no way to move it. We 'finally' look at all trips on the load board. The math doesn't work for any of the trips dispatch wants moved. The worst were the RV's going to MD, cars are $600 a day. The SC/NC runs look good but we would have to leave today to make it work. We need a few hours off. We decide on two RV's going to OH. A car back is $200 for two days. Right now there is nothing coming back to MN, WI or IA from that area. Plan is to be back on Monday or before. Load board US - 523 IA - 254 MN - 11 WI - 14 |
