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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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210630 IA-IA 1 RV heading to Davenport IA ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN There had been a trip from IA to Lincoln NE yesterday but BB didn't want as she didn't think I would be done early enough with my things to get down to IA today. My 'thing' lasts from 8 to about noon. About 1:30 IA adds a trip to Davenport. I tell BB about it but she comes up with six different topics before she realizes I am sitting grinning at her ... "Yes, I'm waiting to see if someone else takes the trip before I call." she said. Then she called and got the trip. We each need to do a trip once every 30 days. Then we get a warning that we have another 30 days to take a trip or be terminated. And actually the termination doesn't happen until after 90 days. And if you are going to be gone over 90 days all we need to do is call a dispatcher and have them place us as 'in-active' in the computer. I think that is good for another six months before someone higher up needs to OK us to be off longer. That is why BB is working and I am driving the shuttle. That and this is something she will drive and I will drive most anything that shows up as long as we are doing short runs. There are a few short runs out of Chicago right now but we would only have time to do one and it is not something I want to drive so we will pass. We decided to head down tonight so we can pick up and deliver the same day. And we MAY be home again tomorrow night if there is no work and it doesn't make it another 14 hour day. Load board US - 368 IA - 133 MN - 3 WI - 11 Today is the last day of the month, IA dumped another 40 RV's on the load board at the end of the day. There is a tree truck out of Albert Lea heading to OH and a straight truck heading to NY out of Mankato. Now the shortest no-tow out of IA is 500 plus miles. We will keep watching for another more local one for Friday. Or we will call my local company on Friday. Then off for the long weekend. 210701 IA-IL 1 RV heading to Davenport IA (delivered) 1 RV heading to Rockford IL ... spending the night at Mason City IA Breakfast is back to normal. Except now they have plastic gloves laying there that no one uses. We pull out about 7:30. Road construction on the side roads. One lane road with a flag man. I stop, I think he is motioning me so I pull up to the middle of the intersection. Then the flagman walks up to me and explains that I can't park there, I need to back up to where I had been. Opps. On the side roads we saw at least a half dozen deer total in the soybeans in different places. Most were fairly close to the road. No temp check when BB picked up her paperwork. Not sure if that was an oversight or the new norm. BB walked and found her RV while I parked the car. We each did part of the inspection / prep so it didn't take as long as doing two. There were a couple of other drivers there but we didn't talk to either of them. BB has enough fuel to get to Waterloo and lunch so we head out. She is in the lead for once, she has the RV. As we pass the hotel in Forest City, there are two RV's that pull in behind us. They take a different route and are getting off the freeway in Clear Lake to get fuel when we are getting on the freeway. So today, their route was faster than ours. 1st stop is in Waterloo / Evansdale at the Flying J for fuel. She guesses she will need three more gallons than what was in the RV at pickup. Not sure how much fuel she left, but she didn't have to fuel again. She parked the RV and got in the car to ride with me. We drove across the street to the Burger King and each got a Whopper Jr. Then drove back to eat in the car at the Flying J. A couple of bites into my sandwich and we see a RV pull in, slowly. It's a transporter and they seem to be unsure about something. They stop at a fuel pump and get out and walk around the RV. Right away I realize what the issue is, they can't find where the fuel cap is. So I walk across the parking lot and part way there I yell 'it's by the door.' So they close their door, not understanding what I meant. :) When I got there, I re-opened the door and showed them where it was. And how this is a diesel so the drivers door has to be open to access the fuel. On a gas, the fuel door opens from the other side so the drivers door can be closed. They thanked me, a few times. This was their third trip and the 1st with an RV. When we left 10 minutes later the person still had not started fueling. We did not go back to see why. 2nd stop was the Flying J in Davenport. Short trip, one stop for the day before final fuel. Today I have my notepad turned on and I am checking it the first and last thing at each stop. When we stop here I see that there are two new RV's added to the load board. I get the OK from BB and call in on the no-tow. We are heading back to Rockford IL tomorrow. Then I have to all dispatch back to see if any locations are closing early tomorrow. None are that they know of. Another 4 PM close and we have an extra 50 miles to go tomorrow. On the Friday of a long weekend. BB thinks I should have asked about picking up yet tonight. I said we can talk later. 3rd stop was the drop in Davenport. Not sure why today, but someone walking through the RV lot asked for a buck and I gave them one. Not something I usually do. I helped BB get her stuff off and out of the RV while she checked in at the drop. 15 minutes and we were signed for and rolling home ... or back to the RV lot for the next one. It is now later and we are doing the math. We would get back to Forest City around 7 PM, done with the inspection by 8 PM and still have to find a hotel. We'll be there when the open at 8 AM instead. 4th stop - this one is on the way back. BB sees that DQ has a new flavor that she wants to try but none of the DQ's on our route are easy off, easy on. So we end up at the Culvers in Iowa City instead. Drive thru for treats. Scoop of the day for her, blue berry malt for me. 5th stop was the rest area by Cedar Rapids. Only about 20 miles down the road but ... when nature calls ... We had some 'interesting' conversations today and one of them caused me to miss the exit for fuel. I didn't realize it for another 20 miles and by them we had about a 30 mile fuel range. 6th stop was the Kwik Star / Kwik Trip in Janesville IA for fuel The Best Western in Clear Lake is the closest motel to the RV lot that we usually stay at. It was $150+ tonight so that didn't happen. 7th and final stop was at the Quality Inn in Mason City about five miles from the Best Western. For a lot less money. But 1st we stopped to pick up the food that BB had called in. Yes, BB actually called in a food order. Italian. She game them my name but when he repeated it back it sounded like 'Jill.' And when I got to pick up the order, the person looked at all the waiting orders once and then went back and grabbed ours. When he set it by the cashier, he said something to the cashier and gave him a poke. My guess is it was written down as 'Jill.' But I never saw the order. When we check in at the hotel, they ask if we want to get upgraded to a jacuzzi room. We said sure, but we won't be using the jacuzzi. So that asked if we wanted a jacuzzi suite where the jacuzzi does not work. Great, we took it. Interesting room, there is a window from the main area looking into the jacuzzi area with the shades on the main area side of the window. And just past the jacuzzi is the toilet. So anyone in the main area can flip open the shades and see what someone might have thought was private. It wasn't dark yet and there were sidewalks to walk on so we went for a walk. Opps, didn't take a picture. We were only a couple of blocks from a short 'river walk.' In larger towns this would be filled with the homeless but not here. I knew we should be close to the Southbridge shopping mall but couldn't picture it. Until we saw it. This is a mall that was build in the center of town on city streets. At one time it had a JCPenny's and a Yonkers (Herbergers) plus another maybe 100 smaller stores. Last time we were here we walked inside because of the weather. The food court was down to one store and it seemed like maybe another 10-20 stores were still open but the major's had closed. At that time it looked like they were going to do 'something' with the JCPennys. Now they have replaced the JCPennys with the office of City Parks, new building, still attached to the mall. And they claim to still have 20 open stores. Another small town mall that has really taken a hit is the one in Waterloo. They used to have 3-4 anchors. They are all closed. And they are down to about 30 stores. But they still have stores like Reu21, Buckle and the major shoe stores. The parking lot is surprisingly full when we go past. The Coral Ridge Mall in Iowa City seems to be doing great. Or at least good. It still has a JCPennys and a Dillards plus a wing with Target and Best Buy. When Sears closed, they knocked that wing down and rebuilt the same size area with stores opening to the outside instead of the inside. From the freeway they all stores seem to be full and so is the parking lot. Load board US - 376 IA - 120 / 119 MN - 4 WI - 14 We are about 30 miles from Forest City and plan on being there at or before 8 AM when they open. We have 300 miles tomorrow instead of the 250 miles today. We have a lot of two lane miles tomorrow compared to the few we had today. And the close time is the same. From the drop we are about five hours from home. Five hours, not taking in to account that it will be Friday on a holiday weekend ... and going past Wisconsin Dells. Then off for the weekend. |
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