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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210511 CA-WY 2 RV's to CA. 1 to Manteca, 1 to Gilroy (delivered) 1 city bus heading to Laramie WY ... spending the night in Rocklin CA ))) it's midnight, more later ((( 48 hours later. Breakfast. Yogurt and juice. I didn't see the sandwich sign until later. We are inspected and rolling by 8 AM. I had written down the exit to BB's drop but not the route to get there. We've been the road before and I know will know the road numbers when I see them :) It wouldn't be a trip to CA without mentioning the homeless. The camps, the burnt out campsites. This time I saw one encampment that was flying the American flag. As we pull off at BB's exit, there is about 12 feet from the pavement to the sound wall. Someone, or a few someone's have set up camp there. Today one of them was 'cleaning up.' They were sitting there in their bra folding their bedding. Other bedding was around them so I did not see what else the may have been wearing. On the other side of the sound wall is a hotel we have stayed at. When we stayed there, there was enough foliage on the freeway side of the wall that you could not see the homeless. Now the foliage is mostly gone. 1st stop is at the Velaro for BB's final fuel. BB is behind me and the light and misses it, so I am too the station before her. I wait. This station like lots of them out here have old pumps. The screens are getting very hard to read. Which is an issue when you need to put in a set dollar amount. 2nd stop is a mile down the road at the dealer. We are there a half hour early and they do not come right out. Total time to fuel, inspect and do paperwork is an hour so we are still ahead of schedule. 3rd stop is the rental car place in Livermore. This time I sit and wait to make sure we have a car. They do, we are in, luggage transferred and out in 15 minutes. When I left my last fill I had enough range to get to the drop. Later I had enough range to get 50 miles past my drop. I lost that range. First my low fuel light came on, then the range disappeared at 35 miles range. At that point I still had 15 miles to go. I decided it was a good time to stay in the lane with the trucks going 55 mph :) BB had gotten ahead of me at some point but stayed in sight. 4th stop, the fuel station. I made it. Fuel is $4.29 a gallon. We have to put in $20 close to the drop. At that price it doesn't move the gauge much. Small station but I didn't hit anything. 5th stop is the RV drop. I am an hour and a half early. But no one ahead of me. Also no one to check it in, we notice the person who will be checking it in coming back from lunch. We wait outside, then they move the RV where we can't see it so we move inside, then outside. Finally I go and ask and the inspector happens to be standing there ... "another 15 minutes." And it was, pretty close. 5th stop ... finally at 2:30 local, 4:30 our time, we eat 'lunch' at In-n-Out Burger. We go through the driver thru and then park in the outlet mall next door. Opps, I drive in the exit drive ??? I call dispatch and instead of telling him I have dropped, I ask if things look better today? He had said 'not promising' when I called last week. But today he just says I am calling him too early (I know that) and to call back in 20 minutes. That is a lot more promising. 20 minutes later I call back and find out I am heading to the UofW, Cheyenne he thinks. Just look for a cowboy logoed bus in the lot. We look it up and find the UofW is in Laramie not Cheyenne ... and there are no one way cars in Laramie. So we reserve a local car in Laramie so we can run to Cheyenne and pick up our one way home. And only one chain has cars in Cheyenne and our company price is not cheap. Our personal account got us the car for $100 less the the corporate rate. But we have a car. Somewhere we started looking for bus washes and there are not any in Laramie. The may, used to be one in Rawlins at a repair shop but that is over 100 miles away and not a Blue Beacon. If we go through Laramie to Cheyenne, there is a Blue Beacon that is only 40 miles from the drop. Extra miles do not seem to be an issue with these buses. 6th stop - the bus lot. Dispatch is not there yet so we drive the lot, again, and again. No cowboy bus. We do meet a couple of drivers from KS that both drive. He asked our names about five times, I've forgotten theirs now too. Dispatch get there and I get my paperwork with a VIN. There is one all white bus and the VIN matches. It also has a box in it labeled 'WY kit.' Must be the right bus. A quick inspection and we are rolling. BB is standing on the side of the road when I get to the rental, she has already dropped. Traffic is the best we have seen it in a long time for the first few miles. Two hours later we are in Rocklin. 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin, same as last night. We check in and go for food. We want close and quick, so no reuben tonight. Or maybe, Arbey's is the closest, it shares a parking lot with the hotel. But the lobby is closed, drive thru only. So we go next door to Jacks / Jack in the Box. Same thing, drive through only. BB is ready for shelf food at the gas station but I convince her to walk to the Taco Bell. Lobby is open. We have food. But all this took time. The days we drop and pick up in the same day get to be long days. But the rest of the trip should be easy. Load board US - 379 IA - 113 MN - 9 WI - 19 210512 CA-WY 1 city bus heading to Laramie WY ... spending the night in Rocklin CA Breakfast. Today I asked for a sandwich from the front desk and BB found an omelette in the fridge. I also had a yogurt. There are big signs saying 'Do not have more than 2 of each item.' I looks like they have work crews that stay and maybe they are filling their lunch boxes? I had noticed last night the fridge was full of yogurt, but this AM my choices were limited. I called for my NV permit before heading out. We guessed we would be to the border in less than two hours. 1st stop was the rest area at Donners Pass. This program doesn't know where that is so I had to enter Soda Springs. When I was pulling in, I noticed the area was mostly full so I had thought of backing into the end car spots. Then I saw a truck opening so I pulled to the far end ... and noticed a semi behind me. So I ended up parking between the cars and waved to the semi driver that there was one opening left on the far end. As I am pulling into my spot there is a dog dragging a long chain, I had to driver over it to get out of the travel lane but I made sure I didn't park on it. When we come out of the rest room an older (than me) guy askes if I have seen his dog. I point to it and tell him I drove over the chain. He says I should have parked on it. The dog got loose and doesn't listen. The old guy doesn't move fast so I head off after the dog who is now sniffing at everything as he heads to the freeway. Another gal asks if it is my dog and I tell her who's dog it is. We keep following it and calling to it but it doesn't look back. Then when it does look back, she stops, yells to it and runs away from the dog. The dog follows, he thinks she wants to pay. The lets the dog catch up to her and grabs the chain. I never would have thought of that. :) We usually stop in Fernley and had planned on stopping today because that is the cheapest fuel. But it will be too early to eat and Winnemucca is another two plus hours beyond making it a late lunch. So we pass on the cheap fuel and stop in Lovelock instead. 2nd stop is the Port O Subs in Lovelock for lunch. They have tables out side and today, out houses out back. 3rd stop is Winnemucca at the Pilot for fuel. I had hoped we would have different stops today after stopping in Lovelock. Battle Mountain? Wells? But fuel is $.30 a gallon more after here. And this is already five cents more than Fernley. When we pull in, only one island is open and that still has a semi in front of it. I pull almost up to the bumper and the hose will reach, as long as I am holding on with both hands. I end up putting in almost 50 gallons and the fuel gauge had only dropped an 1/8 of a tank. So most buses don't have gauges, what good is one that doesn't work? I call my bus dispatcher and tell him I will need to go 40-50 miles past my drop to get a wash. No problem. So now we don't need a local rental to pick up our one way. :) But BB will still need to follow me back to the drop before backtracking and heading home. 4th stop was for a break in Elko at the Sinclear truck stop. I notice an issue with the bus and call the shipper. OK to run. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. And food is NOT the food truck. It is not there and the other three food trucks nearby are sitting there but closed. So we walk to the new Mexican place. Looks open, but the 'Coming Soon' signs are still in the window. So we go to the gas station, it shows it has an Italian Pizza place, a Krispy Chicken and a Subway. Never did see the chicken, the pizza place shared a menu screen with Subway but they said no pizza. They didn't say when or why. The boxes were still stacked behind them and the screen was on showing the prices. So we had Subway. When we get back to our hotel, I decide to listed to a message on my phone. But as I often do, I hit the call button instead of the listen button. I hang up but the person calls back before I have listened to their message. And we talk for about a half hour. By then the sandwich was cold, Subway bread gets real chewy after being heated and let cool. And their steak was real chewy too. Not good. But food. Load board US - 424 IA - 122 MN - 10 WI - 24 There had been a trip from Stockton back to the midwest earlier today ... that would have worked if I didn't already have a bus. Nothing that works for a 3rd leg yet. Big news is the pipeline in the SE. BB listened to our company meeting today while I was driving and the company had people from Pilot/Flying J, Loves, TA/Petro and our own fuel guy all talking about it and what to do and how they will keep us updated. It sounds like the truckstops shouldn't have too much of a problem. They have the fuel, they just need to truck it instead of pipe it. And they are working on getting drivers and trucks moved to do that from other parts of the country. Stations without their own trucks are the ones who will be hurt the hardest. I wasn't listening so I don't know if they said how long this is supposed to last. 210513 CA-WY 1 city bus heading to Laramie WY ... spending the night in Laramie WY BB ate the other half of her Subway sandwich from last night. I went down for breakfast and grabbed two yogurt and a water. I really don't need to grab two when they are the bigger cartons of yogurt. Forgot to grab juice, did not go back. They now had cereal and the waffle maker out. No eggs and sausage yet. When I am driving a bus, we grab our first load of luggage when we go down for breakfast. This AM I saw a person ahead of me and was thinking ... I wonder if they are a driver. When we got to the door, they headed towards my bus, then I seen theirs right behind me. So I asked where they were going, Aspin CO. We talked a few minutes. Yesterday AM we had not gotten our advance on this trip right away in the AM. We (BB and I) were watching it and I did get it before I called dispatch. This person had waited until she had her advance to buy her flight back to CA and they went up $100 in that time. This gal lives in FL and hasn't been home since Feb. She also runs for Horizon. We only talked a couple of minutes so I didn't ask what other trips she takes for our company. 1st stop is in Tooele at the Flying J for DEF. Plenty of open fuel islands so I was able to drive in instead of backing in. The tank does not look full when it starts to run on the ground. 2nd stop was Evanston. First was the POE. This officer wanted my exact current weight of the bus, not the GVW. So I had to go back to the bus, drive around and weight and then go back in. I don't remember having to do that in the past. I know with my other company coming into WY from NE I have driven 100's of buses and never driven across their scale. Second stop in Evanston was for fuel. I am supposed to leave 5 inches of fuel in the tank. I have driven 400 miles since I last filled and now have 6 inches. From here I have another 400 miles to go so I will be leaving more fuel than I need but it is very hard to guess. This fuel gauge was close to right when I started it this AM but most of the rest of the day it has been at 15/16ths full. Then we parked and had ... Subway. This place only has one table outside so we ate at the bus. Before we left Evanston I called our settlement department. BB has now send my receipt in three times and they still haven't paid me. While I talked to them, they looked at my paperwork and it is there, correct, so I should be paid soon. Then I called the drop and left a message. Before I got out of the parking lot the drop called back. Didn't really tell me anything I didn't know. But now I know I am going to the correct place and looking at it again, I know the best way to come in. 3rd stop was for the restroom in Green River at Loves. All diesel fuel islands are full. When we go past the Flying J only half are full. We have been avoiding that Flying J even before there was a Loves. Very congested. 4th stop is at the TA in Rawlins. This is the first time I have stopped there with a bus that someone hasn't asked if it was the bus to Denver :) I didn't go in, BB did. Somewhere on this leg there was a cop that passed me with a car with CA plates just a car length or so off his bumper. Before those two got out of site, the cop had the car pulled over. By then they were to far away and too much traffic to see if the car had tried to pass the cop or what happened. 5th and final stop was Laramie. First we go beyond the hotel and stop for Papa Johns and Chesters. They didn't have a Hawaiian ready and I didn't want to wait so I asked if they could but pineapple on the Canadian Bacon pizza. They did. BB wanted Chester's but they didn't have any chicken fingers so she got regular chicken. By the time my pizza was ready, they had fingers ready ... but they hadn't told BB it would only be a minute. This time I remembered to ask for garlic butter. They are out. Until the next truck comes in. Sounded like they were almost out of biscuits at Chesters ... BB's tasted like it had been there a while. Took the blacktop road to the Comfort Inn. Load board US - 419 IA - 123 MN - 12 WI - 20 The rental car place in Cheyenne called and left a message that are car will be at a different location for pickup. At least that makes it sound like we have a car. The rental car place in Laramie called and left a message that they will have cars ... as cars are returned. If we get the car in Cheyenne we will not need the Laramie and will cancel it. Plan is to drive the hour tomorrow to Cheyenne to the wash. It is supposed to be raining tomorrow so hopefully not more than an hour at the wash. Then drop BB and the rental car place, there is now where for a bus to park. So we will meet up at the rest area before Laramie to transfer luggage (and measure fuel.) So we hope to be out of Laramie by noon or 2 PM. I have done a round trip to Denver with trucks a few times in three days so we should be able to make it home in a day and a half. If so, we will be home Saturday night. No plans for a next trip out yet. Before we left, we had talked about heading SE on our 2nd trip but now there is the fuel shortage. There are RV's heading that way and trucks coming back to OH/MI. There are also more RV's heading to CA/NV. There are two heading to Gilroy where I dropped this last one. But still no rental cars. We would need to spot one RV in Livermore, pick up the rental car, drop the 1st RV in Gilroy and then shuttle back to get the 2nd one. Pay wise it may be the best deal. Maybe when we are home I can get a couple of more seeds in the garden. 210514 CA-WY 1 city bus heading to Laramie WY (delivered) ... spending the night in Grand Island NE (I had started this earlier when I was at the truck wash using the Quality Inn WiFi. I lost the WiFi and everything I wrote earlier) Both BB and I picked up sandwiches to nuke and brought them back to the room. Glad I didn't take any yogurt, the sandwich plus the left over pizza was enough. Neither of us had slept well so the alarm went off and we did not get up right away. We were still able to get ready by 8 AM. Then BB called about our car in Cheyenne to make sure they had one before we left Laramie. They had it and we could pick it up any time. They were also able to cancel the Laramie one on the same phone call. The Cheyenne Airport is closed until July 2021, that may be why we were able to get a car. Otherwise they would just be sitting for another two months. Those calls take a few minutes so it is 8:15 when we pull out. 1st stop is the Blue Beacon in Cheyenne. 10 trucks ahead of me when we pull in, one pickup behind me when we pull out. Timing. With two wash bays open it took us an hour and 15 from the time we got to their lot until we left. This is where I thought I was starting to write todays events :( 2nd 'stop' was dropping BB off at the rental car place. I had looked at one route and she was guiding me in via another route. Got me confused. Ended up just being two different sides to a square. 3rd stop was the Lincoln head rest area between Buford and Laramie. I wanted to 'stick the tank' for fuel before I delivered it. I left almost 3 inches extra, my guess is that came to about leaving $50 worth of extra fuel in this bus. And this was where BB was going to meet me to transfer our stuff before we got to the drop. She got there before I was doing getting ready for her and forgot to take one last picture of the bus on the mountain top. From here I followed BB mostly because she had parked in front of me. I found out later she did not have her GPS on. Shouldn't have needed it. Once we got to Laramie, we should have been able to take the 1st exit, follow it to 15th, take a right to the building. Not today. As soon as we get on 15th it says 'Detour.' My contact had told me about the road construction but said we could get through to their building ... from the other way. BB goes past the detour sign and within two blocks the road is closed. Luckily it was not busy on campus today so I was able to get the bus through anywhere BB drove. We did end up back on the detour. The roads I had planned on coming in on were also closed so glad I had looked at the map closely. When we got close, I got on the road that would come past their door. Once I was on their block I put on the four way flashers and called my contact. He told me where to park and he would send someone out to check me in. I never did see my contact. 4th stop - my drop in Laramie. I was only there a few minutes and someone came past and asked if I was being helped. I said someone was on their way. Then we talked, he was a bus driver. Was. This was his last day and he was heading home. When the mechanic came to see me, he shook hands with the driver and the driver left. No issues, quick sign off. He looked at the basic's and I tore the plastic off. As soon as I got to the car, BB scanned my paperwork and sent it in. We usually do that in the evening, not sure why we did it now. Next stop, also in Laramie. Food. It was maybe two miles from my drop, and as I waited in line I saw that I had already been paid. And paid correctly. Food was Wendy's. I wanted Freddy's two doors down but BB did not like her last sandwich there so Wendy's it was. I will have to wait for my custard. We could have made a 2nd stop but I want to get home Saturday night so I am trying to limit the number of stops. BB, not so much. Speed limit from her to Omaha is mostly 75 mph with about 30 miles of 80 mph. Goes faster than 65 mph and DOT stops. 5th stop was at the rest area near Sidney. From there I called my barber, he is working. He is booked until next Friday. We only plan on being home Monday so I passed ... again. 6th stop was the WalMart in Ogallala for fuel. It is the cheapest we will find. We were only down to half a tank but we don't want to pass on cheap fuel. From here we may, or may not, make it home before fueling. 7th stop was near Brady for a rest stop. BB hadn't taken the time to run in when we were at Walmart, so an extra stop. 8th stop was in Lexington at Arby's for food. It is 7 PM and this was the best non burger place in town. Unless we wanted Runza but neither of us has acquired a taste for them yet. 9th stop is the Quality Inn in Grand Island for the night. Load board US - 394 IA - 128 MN - 12 WI - 19 There is one straight truck in Omaha going to St Paul, but that would be a Saturday pickup, Sunday delivery and mean leaving our car in IA. No, we want Sunday and Monday off before heading out again somewhere. Forecast is for good weather so I should get my garden in. 210515 CA-WY 1 city bus heading to Laramie WY (delivered) ... spending the night at home Hot breakfast. But none of the cold stuff, other than milk and juice. Eggs, sausage and pancakes. Gloves not required to use the service utensils. Could have been warmer. When we were walking past the front desk they were talking about 'keeping an eye on the other motels prices.' As to not loose their customers too them and not under cut themselves if they don't need to. Rolling by 8 AM. GasBuddy says the cheapest gas is in Des Moines but we will be getting close to 'E.' So instead we find the cheapest gas in Omaha. Last week it was in Council Bluffs, this week it is the Loves in Omaha. NOW we have enough fuel to get to the airport. Yesterday we were at 37 mpg, today it stayed around 40 mpg. Running 70 mph in IA makes for better mileage than the 80 mph we were doing in WY. We had talked about being home a couple of days before heading out again, but what day we leave effects how close we are to the weekend and if we will have to sit over the weekend somewhere. There are good trips heading back west but that could keep us out either against the three day weekend or over the long weekend. At first we were looking at a NC trip but then decided on a SC trip because we know the routine. And it is better centered if we would have had to return the rental car to where we picked it up. So while we are stopped for fuel at Loves, I call and get two Greer RV's. For some reason they said they were paying an extra $150 on the one I am moving. I didn't ask the why, just said thank you. BB will get extra because hers is a no-tow. We now plan on leaving Monday and delivering Wednesday. Hopefully we can pick up a few miles from there yet Wednesday and deliver on Friday. Right now there are two heading west from there. One to AL and the other to AR. We drive right past one to drop the other. Not likely those two will still be there, hopefully something better :) 2nd stop was Culvers in West Des Moines. Finally get my blueberry malt. Other than two mini cinnis, that is the only sweets I had the whole trip. No cookies. Last week on the way out we stopped in Williams at the Flying J for fuel. And someone was taking down the Flying J sign. Today the new one is up. Still a Flying J. Just the new style sign with the sun instead of the old sign with the plane. 3rd stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake for the rest room. Saw one of our drivers that used to work in the office for a few weeks. He was heading to TX. One other RV in the Pilot lot but didn't see the driver. 4th stop is at the lot to pick up our car. There are still RV's in the employee lot but our over flow lot is getting empty. As it should, we are down to 120+ on the loadboard. Two weeks left of the month, left of their quarter and they haven't started re-filling the lot yet. One of these days they are going to dump another 200 on the load board. Or at least on the lot. It just took us a couple of minutes to move our stuff from one car to the other. No drivers to talk to today. 5th stop was at MSP to drop the car. Being the weekend there was actually staff at the rental return. 6th stop was for food and then home for the weekend. Load board US - 377 IA - 127 MN - 8 WI - 13 Even with 1,000 miles dead heading home and a $400 rental car we still did really good. Biggest factors were having a local car on the other end instead of a one way and having no down time between leg one and leg two. By the looks of the load board we took the only two RV's off the IA board today. When we get home from this trip we may stay in town until after Memorial Day. Either work for the local company or not work at all. Or do some of the local work on the long haul board, anything that does not include a rental car. |
