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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210611 CA-SC 1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC (delayed or canceled) ... spending the night at Livermore CA Alarm at six, rolling at seven. We did look in the breakfast room but there wasn't any good 'road food,' so we decided to wait until later. One good thing already, 1st day in three that my blood pressure wasn't high on the 1st test. At some point BB decides this is a good time to go to Walmart. ??? So we spend a half hour at Walmart getting a note book and some clothes as we will not have time to wash if we are going to make it to SC and then home by the weekend. Just north of Dunnigan there is a 'homeless' type RV parked at the end of a dead end road up against the freeway. Twice when going past, they have had sheets hanging so that you can't see the entrance to the RV. I doubt that a homeless person is washing their sheets every other day. (And I am not sure why the don't either move the RV away from the freeway or at least turn it so that the door doesn't face the freeway. 1st stop is Dunnigan at Pilot / Wendy's for breakfast. As we pull in, I am looking for a parking spot and BB says 'there is a bus.' It was one of the ones going to Medford so I pulled over and parked next to it without there being a parking spot. I hopped out and the driver slowly opened the window. I said I work for the same company and just dropped two buses. He said his name … I said from FaceBook? I told him my name and his face lit up and he shook my hand again. We talked a lot and fast. He was sitting there trying to find a bus wash. I said the bus didn't need to be washed because it was a short trip. Then when I was just about to get back in the car I asked him about an OR permit. He said he didn't need one because it was a 35 ft bus. I said lets check. It was over 26,000#, he needs a permit. I just saved the guy a $400 fine. He said he had seen my SC bus and had taken a picture of it. So now we knew it would be easily found. Then we went to get food at Wendy's. And we were still in and out in 15 minutes. 2nd stop was in Pleasanton at the Shell for fuel in the rental car. We still have gift cards to use up for Shell. Then 10 miles down the road to the shipper. 3rd stop was Livermore to pick up the bus. This time BB went into the office with me to get her temp checked so she could drive back where the buses are kept. So I asked if the office could buzz me in. Yes, the receptionist is the one that opens the gate, and leaves at 3:30. That is why I haven't gotten anyone to answer the gate buzzer in the last five years. Still learning new things. I call NC about trucks that they have coming back to MO. MO trucks are the closest right now to home. They are non-CDL, but they are the same trucks that I drive that are CDL. The CDL one is rated at 26,001# and the non-CDL is rated at 25,999#. BB does not want to drive one. I didn't ask about the pay. It takes us about a half hour to move all our things and do the inspection. Then BB leaves to drop the rental car and I call for permits. I get my AZ permit for Saturday and NM for Sunday. When I am leaving, after I pass the security gate, I need to drop off my paperwork for this bus before leaving the property. With my paperwork dropped, and my bus in gear, my dispatch calls. 'DO NOT TAKE THAT BUS.' All buses are on hold. I quickly call BB, they are checking the rental car in but haven't completed it. Whew. Dispatch had told me they would know more in two hours. I ask the head shop person where I can park the bus for two hours. He told me where … and then … 'It won't be two hours, it will be sometime next week.' Major issue. Maybe Tuesday??? So I park the bus and call dispatch one more time. Then BB gets there and we try to decide what to do. I had thought we would get downtime but no. I hadn't left the property. Dispatch does have one run to ID but that is a lot of work for a few $$. And we have been running hard the last few days. I call dispatch one more time and tell him no on the ID. Instead we will get a hotel for the weekend. So we would not have needed new clothes, we now have time to wash these. While at the bus company, I saw two buses to SD. I mentioned that to dispatch, I'd be willing to switch. And dispatch said they were 'MORE than happy to give me a SD.' Really, who other than me wants to go to SD? ;) 4th stop - We head to the Cheese Steak Shop. Great food. 5th stop - After sitting in the car for an hour after eating, we head to Walmart. Relaxed fit jeans, it seems to mean that you can SAY you are still wearing the same size jeans but they can stretch to fit 2-3 sizes bigger. I bought a pair last week and they fit OK but as soon as I fill my pockets they are sliding down. Now it is hard to find pants that are not relaxed fit, so I got one pair in a smaller size. Also got three new shirts, plus the underwear this AM and we need another suitcase. At my usual 3:30 PM I call dispatch. Now what he knows is what I told him four hours ago. 'Maybe Monday or Tuesday.' So we book a room at the Quality Inn. We won't earn maximum rewards points if we stay in the same place every night so we likely will switch hotels. If we leave town then dispatch will not pay for the hotels. This time there were too many other things going on to ask more questions. I have asked before if we can stay further away but so far I don't have a mile number. Just that Santa Nella was OK last time. 6th and final stop - Quality Inn in Livermore. Load board US - 346 IA - 120 / 115 MN - 1 WI - 18 At the bus company we saw buses going to Medford OR, Whidbey Island WA, Atlanta CA, Palm Beach FL ... and Sioux Falls. SD. Our take home money will stay about the same with us sitting but our daily rate starts dropping. Spent a lot of time looking at rental cars. It looks like IF we get to the drop on or before Friday, we will have to sit and wait until Saturday to get a local rental car. Then we can shuttle to where I car is and then back to the cars pick up location. And the price is double what we usually pay for a one way per day. 210612 CA 1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC (delayed or canceled) ... spending the night at Pleasanton CA Ate breakfast, hung out at the hotel until check out. 1st stop - Chik-fil-A at Tracy. We couldn't figure out how to get to the drive thru so we went inside to order and sat outside to eat. When we got to the hotel later I had to look at an areal photo to see how to get to it. 2nd stop - Turlock at a cemetery. I had three people I that I asked the office for locations on, one they could not find because I said 'Owen' instead of 'Owens.' We spent about an hour and a half walking in the sun, and 90 degree heat, looking for markers. This location has them marked but they don't use the easy method of where they are. Next time we will re-find the makers and and ID for me where they are. 3rd and final stop - Best Western in Pleasanton. The price had gone up by $50 for where we were and we would not get the same rate of rewards points if we stay two nights in a row. The Best Western in Livermore was sold out as were other hotels we looked at. So we ended up here. A block from where our car was broken into a year and a half ago. I make sure I park right outside the entrance. Not that that made any difference to the thieves when they were where BB got her bag back. We get to our room and as soon as I open the door, it smells like smoke. We go get another room. We didn't want fast food and the closest slow food was the Black Bear. We didn't want to leave our car there while we ate so we got the food to go. I only saw three tables inside, but enough staff for a full house. They did have an outside area but not sure if it was being used, no one was out there. A while after we are done eating, we can still hear the dog in the next room barking. It was barking when we got to the room but we thought maybe someone had just stepped out. Now it has been two hours. We head down to get a 3rd room. Luckily they were not full. As long as we are not working, we should find a hotel with a laundry. This one does not, where we stayed the night before does not. I need to get a mileage number from dispatch so I know how far out of town we can stay when they are paying. We will likely be at the Livermore Best Western Sunday night. Depending on price and rooms. Load board US - 332 IA - 118 - 113 MN - 1 WI - 17 210613 CA 1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC (delayed or canceled) ... spending the night at Livermore CA Went down and got breakfast. On the way back to my room I remembered I had leftovers from last night in the fridge. Ate them instead of what I had gotten from the hotel. Ended up leaving that in the freezer in the room. Hung out in the until check out. Family issues at home again. Headed out to San Francisco via San Jose so we didn't have to pay a toll. Had one driver come over on my as he passed, I had just glanced over at him and saw he was typing something on his phone, then he was in my lane. I blew my horn this time. 1st stop was the Golden Gate National Cemetery within viewing distance of the SFO airport. We had four grave markers there we were looking for. The first couple were on the mound at the entry. We parked and thought we would just walk all the way around the mound. We were almost all the way around when we realized we were on a spiral. We had walked almost all the way to the top and our car was down below. 2nd stop was less than a mile away at the BJ for food. We got the same thing we got last time. We should just get one item. BB's sandwich comes with soup and a side. That would have been plenty for me. ... and then we got a pizookie. A cookie with ice cream on top. A small one and we split it. When we got there, there was a 30 minute wait. And the outside area wasn't opened yet. The plan was if we couldn't eat outside we were leaving. The opened the outside and they sat us in a few minutes. There was a couple a few years older than us that checked in before us and sat near us outside. She did most of the talking ... she reminded me of Roseanne Barr. 3rd stop - San Altos at the Gates to Heaven. Not the real gates, it is another cemetery. The office was closed but they did have a pile of maps. I found the right area of the cemetery and then easily the wall. That wall was only about 10 feet wide and had it's own name. Other walls were 10-100 feet long and had two sides. Everything today was in logical order. At the National Cemetery we just had to know where to start. 4th and final stop was the Best Western back in Livermore. This place has a laundry and tonight they have rooms. And rooms for under $100. We did drive past the buses again tonight. Two more buses that I didn't list last time Auburn AL and Bakersfield CA. No plans for tomorrow yet. 210614 CA-SC 1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC ... spending the night at Santa Nella CA Breakfast was pre-bagged per our check list. Last night the desk clerk had wrote on our lists, apple and orange juice. The AM desk clerk didn't know anything about juice. We each got a muffin sandwich to nuke. I only ate one piece of the muffin and it was still too dry for me. Today we hung out. BB did laundry last night and today we just surfed the net. I mostly labeled my pictures that I have taken over the last couple of months. Checkout was at noon and we got a late check out so we left about 1 PM. Then we went to eat at a Mexican place that had out door seating. We gotten take out from there before a couple of times. Started going because the Mike's Pizza in this strip mall did not have the buffet :) Good food but we could have split the lunch special. I ordered a Mexican drink but when I tasted it I realized it had tea in it. ANY caffeine and I will not sleep tonight. Then we went to Target so BB could pick up a couple of items. Most people are still wearing masks but that is supposed to change in CA tomorrow. Tuesday. When we were done at Target we sat in the car for a little bit and then BB's phone went dead so we needed to run the car to charge it. So we decided to drive past the buses to see if any had moved. We drove past, half way past I get a call from dispatch. Mine is the only bus done today. I already have the paperwork for last week so I can pick it up now. A quick u-turn and one block down the street and I am there. At 1st I forgot to go in and get my temp checked but I remembered before they told me. We were in and out in 30 minutes. Calling for permits was easy. I just told them I needed the same permits as last time with new days. They had to confirm a few things were the same and that was all. BB had to fuel so I waited for her call before leaving the lot. I had hoped we would get further down the road by getting an early start. But the hotels that were not full were another $50 more than where we do stay. Final stop for the day is at the Quality Inn in Santa Nella. Too warm to walk to Anderson's Split Pea Soup. BUT the Mexican food we got from the food truck tonight was too hot, spicy wise. So that may be the last time for this food truck for us. We also picked up food for breakfast at Loves. The hotel breakfast does not start until 6:30 AM and we hope to be gone by then. And it has been a choice of a half dozen pastries. This is the 1st time someone was parked in 'my' spot at the hotel. A street sweeper was parked there. But it was early so I was able to park on the street right in front on the hotel. Two RV's are still parked by the hotel on the street but on 'homeless row' all but one of the RV's are gone. That street has been cleaned up. Load board US - 316 IA - 109 MN - 3 WI - 12 By leaving Monday, we will not make it to SC by Friday unless we drove 600+ miles a day. Plus we are going against three time zones. So we should get to the drop town on Saturday. I will call them mid-week and see if they will take delivery over the weekend. Otherwise I will have another re-start day. Tomorrow we should get to Kingman AZ. The next major town with hotels is another two hours. Maybe later in the week we be able to drive a little over 500 miles without going 600 miles. Now to start watching the NC load board. Tonight there are still trucks going to IN and IN. And we need to decide if we get one car and BB follows me or if we get a local in NC and a one way in IL / IN. IF they have a car when we get there. 210615 CA-SC 1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC ... spending the night at Kingman AZ Alarm woke us both up, BB asked if we should just go back to sleep :) But neither of us sleeps much after being woken up. BB just hadn't slept well, and I ate too much of the spicy Mexican food. BB ate less than half because it was too spicy. I ate the rest and I usually won't touch spicy. And I shouldn't. We had bought breakfast at Loves last night and that is what we ate. When I checked out from the hotel I did go in to see what they did have. A plate full of packaged pastries. But the hotel is cheap, a good price so we accept. 1st stop is an hour down the road at Avenal at a rest area. Somewhere along here someone's tire threw a rock and put a chip in my windshield. That doesn't happen often on the buses. Now I have something new to deal with. This bus is doing really good on the hills. The only time I got down below 45 mph is when someone put their blinker on just before I was going to pass them. So I backed off. They never pulled in front of me, or in front of the next truck ... but I had lost speed and couldn't gain it back until I was to the top of the hill. 2nd stop is the Flying J in Tehachapi for food. P J's they call it. It's been around for years and BB just realized it likely stands for Pilot / Flying J's. I hadn't thought about it. We got our usual meatloaf with two sides. BB had asked me earlier in the day to park the bus so there was shade when we ate. So I did. But the temps up here are lower and she had her jacket on and went to stand in the sun as soon as she was done eating. 3rd stop was the rest area near Newberry Springs. Place was full but someone pulled out just as I was parking in the gravel. The driver of the truck next to me waved me in. Then he wanted to talk. But I could not get his accent. Not Mexican. When we came out of the rest room he wanted to talk again. Later he pulled out before I did so I followed him. Followed him a long way until we got to a hill. Then his had was out the window waving me past ... He might have been an interesting person to talk to. Local dispatch called while I was driving. They are looking for me THIS week. I had said next week but they are busy, of course. But I have now had to change working for them from M-F next week to Th-Tues of the following week. With all of the stuff going on at home, we could have just done local work and kept busy. And I am not sure what my garden will look like? 121 degrees when we passed through Needles. I remember an issue we had with a lift truck a few years ago here :) Warmer the next few days. We had noticed it had gotten warmer in the bus and BB asked if I had turned the AC off. Then she looked at the temp. This scale has the signs that say 'Truck OK to bypass.' That is the 1st one I got. Then it quickly changed to 'Truck must enter scale.' :( No big deal, I held my permit up and I got the thumbs up. Neither of us wanted to sit with our windows open at 100+ degrees. 4th and final stop was Kingman AZ. First we stop at the TA. I had planned on getting fuel here. That is my routine. But BB said fuel is $.30 less 100 miles down the road. So I stuck the tank and I don't need fuel. BB thought we were going to walk to Wendy's from the TA. Nope, there is a 10 foot ditch between the two. Black Bear is too much food and takes too long. So Popey's it was. I ordered three chicken sticks and got five. More food than I needed. I also got a cheese cake. Final stop was the Rodeway Inn. Didn't want to but we did. We used to stay here a lot when it was a Quality Inn but it was going down hill so we were not surprised when it was down graded. BB checked everything else in the area. The final straw was when the Best Western room she was looking at disappeared as she tabbed between screens. Now the cheapest room was almost 3x the Rodeway. Same crew working the Rodeway still. He had to ask our name but seemed to still know us. We have stayed here a lot. So far tonight, no issues. It is now a cheap hotel but everything is clean and works. Load board US - 304 IA - 111 / 106 MN - 4 WI - 5 NC - 14 The NC trips include two to be dropped 2-1/2 hours from our house. Not sure they will still be there in a few days. Long runs tend to go fast. As of now, I am planning on getting the windshield fixed on Friday. But I need to talk to them before that. I did the math earlier, it looks like Albuquerque tomorrow night. Then OKC Thursday, Memphis Friday and be in SC on Saturday night. Deliver on Monday, but I need to talk to the drop also. Things change. Plan for this trip Leave IA on Thursday, drop Monday. Pick up bus Monday, drop Friday somewhere in the midwest and be home LAST Saturday. Reality Leave IA on Thursday, breakdown, drop on Tuesday. NO long bus trips. Do short trips on Weds and Thurs. Pick up bus Friday, but it is put on hold before I leave their property. We sit the weekend. Leaving Friday would have still gotten us home by this coming weekend. Fathers day. There are buses heading to within a few hours of where our car is parked. Dispatch would gladly give me one of those, and I could still be home by Saturday or Monday depending the customer. BUT Monday, only one bus is ready and it is going to SC. Leaving Monday we can not make Friday delivery. Most likely it will be Monday delivery. From there we are still 2-3 days from home. Likely be home on Thursday. I was supposed to have worked next week for my local company next week. That is changing. ... the trip continues HERE |
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