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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 211122 IA-MT 2 RV's to Bozeman MT 1 pickup to Shakopee (Tuesday) ... spending the night at Bozeman MT Breakfast ? Denver omelet and sausage and juice. They had a different juice but I tasted it when it didn't look right and it tasted like soapy water. I dumped it. At 6 AM local I call the east coast auction dispatcher. He is trying to remember what went on last Friday, how many of these trucks he gave away. It looks like there was still one in Watford City so he requests it. A while later the update list comes out. After removing mine, there are still two in Watford City going to Shakopee and two going to Maple Grove, also a burb of our city. Within the hour he calls back to tell me I got the trip. Six hours later I finally get the paperwork so I can plan and call the shipper. Nice trips but don't wait until the last minute. By 7 AM we head out the first time. I take my RV and drop BB at the airport. Then I missed my turn, it was listed last on a list of towns (I had to look now :) ) So I ended up on street where I couldn't take a left turn or a U-turn so I just headed into town. I had a general idea of where I was going so no big deal. It added a mile or less and a little slower. 1st 'stop' for me was the Conoco for final fuel in Four Corners. Opps, I overshot it so another $.04 left in the tank. From here it was another few miles to where we were going to stash my RV for an hour while we picked up BB's. 2nd stop was back at the hotel. Still no paperwork for my next trip so we check out and grab BB's RV. My plan had been to drop the rental car at the dealer and then walk to my RV. I remembered that plan when I was about ready to turn into the dealer with my RV. 3rd stop was the drop. By the time I am getting out of my RV, BB is pulling in behind me. I get checked in by the time BB is walking up to the office. BB decides she will walk back and get the rental car while I wait with the RV's. I am still waiting when she gets back. When someone finally does come out, he apologies. They couldn't find their paperwork for these RV's. Both RV's were already sold (My guess is the salesman had the paperwork ??) Once someone started inspecting it took only about 15 minutes and both were done. Their big issue was on my RV, they couldn't get the key to turn. Every time you shut it off, you had to turn the steering wheel to get it to lock and then try the key again, and again. I knew it was an issue but once I knew that I didn't even think about it when I did it. Done, and rolling. When we pull out of the RV dealer we are short about 20 miles range to get to the shipper. I told BB not to worry. She didn't believe the mpg would go up when we were driving 80. It did, instead of being short 20 miles it looked like we would be over 150 miles by the time we fueled. We fueled early because of price. For a little while we were got up to 42 mpg at 80 mph. And this car is a nice ride. Something new on this car. It lets you know when the car ahead of you has moved. So if you are reading your emails. Beep, Beep. Now in addition to the signs suggesting you listen to the radio advisory, there are also highway signs suggesting trucks and high profile vehicles exit the freeway. Few do. We are following a little straight truck and he is lisping so much that we don't pass him until we are past the wind area. Should have gotten a picture, it looked like the next gust was going to take him over. 4th stop is back at Columbus, BB had forgotten to use the restroom at the dealer so we didn't make it two hours in the car before stopping. It was close to lunch so McD's it was. Lobby closed. So we had to first go across the street to the truckstop to use the restroom. Then food. McRib's were on sale, but too messy to eat when I'm driving 80 mph. Big opps, as we are driving through Billings a truck comes down the ramp ahead of us and CRACK. A nice big, old silver dollar sized chip in the window. A half hour down the road and it has over tripled in size. We finally put tape on the window to see if it was still cracking. It is. 5th stop was at the rest area in Hathaway. From there I called the next shipper, they 'pegged the location' for me so I could find it. BB had been looking but she wasn't sure. Good thing as we likely would have ended up a half hour away. Not good when you are already pushing to the max. I asked if 7 PM tonight or 7 AM tomorrow was better and they said tomorrow. I keep forgetting that this town is in the central time zone. It is going to be both early and dark. I could have called them back when I remembered but didn't think of it until much later. In the SD, WY and MT we have seen over 100 of the prong deer but no road kill. Today we see our 3rd and 4th bid deer, but have seen dozens of road kill. Maybe the ones where we can't ID what it was are the prong deer, but the ratio is still not the same as the others. 6th stop was Glendive at the Flying J for fuel. We were not on empty yet but fuel was $.25 cheaper here than in ND. 7th and final stop was the Comfort In in Waford City. Down a dirt road. Our food is the next building ... up a four story hill. So we drove. Missouri Grill, to go. Philly was good but needed some au jus. Stuffed. I'm stuffed. Load board US - 366 IA - 188/185 MN - 7 WI - 6 Plan is to pick up the next trip at 7 AM and drop in MN around 5 PM. Maybe ?? |
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211123 ND-MN 1 pickup to Shakopee ... spending the night at Alexandria MN Pffff Alarm at 5 AM central time. I had told the shipper we would be there at 7 AM. Both of us ate too much food last night and neither of us slept well. At one point I woke up wet with sweat which is very, very unusual. So for breakfast both of us had yogurt and grabbed something for later. 1st stop - the shipper. We were expecting a almost vacant lot. Instead this place looks to be going in full swing, stuff and people everywhere. At five minutes to 7, I text my contact to see if he is at the lot yet. Yes he is, but they are having a safety meeting that will last about 15 minutes. I would have been nice to know that last night. We are parked outside the door where it looks like the safety meeting is going on and as soon as it is over I text the person again. He responds each time I text him, for a while. Then an hour goes by without any truck. Then no response to my text. Finally after we have been sitting there two hours I call him. My contact has someone else that handles the actual work and that person was given my information. When I hang up I see someone in the distance answer their phone. They stop what they are doing and head to their truck and motion to another driver to come with them. Within 10 minutes of that phone call I have my truck and all paperwork is signed. If only that could have happened two hours ago. Two long hours ago. Dispatch had asked me yesterday to get a list of all trucks in the lot, that is part of the reason we thought this place was almost empty. While we are waiting for people to come out of their safety meeting we drive around looking for my truck and taking pictures of the numbers on the other trucks. Then I start to realize that these trucks are not ready to ship so I stop. Later when they do go get my truck it is from somewhere else on the lot that we can not see, so my list is worth nothing at the moment. During our two hours we have lots of time to people watch, trucks coming and going. There are trucks here later that were not on the lot when I was looking. Then for a while we were watching the crew load up wagons. And they were putting anything in them that would fit and then lifting the whole wagon onto a flatbed trailer. One wagon had tubing, the next one was getting loaded with wood, tarps, safety cones, whatever they were done with. Somewhere in the background I heard that there next work was in Louisiana. Finally at 9:30 we are ready to go. Good news for the morning was I had over a half a tank of fuel, but only a range of 150 miles. By now I was able to do my pre-trip in the daylight (but another two hours of sleep would have been good) When I left the shipper I hoped I could make it to Dickenson before I put in fuel. Then Bismarck, then Jamestown. I ended up making it all the way to Valley City. 316 miles :) 2nd stop (for me) - Loves for fuel and food in Valley City. It's new, I haven't even seen it before. There are only two cars at the pumps so I go in and first use the restroom, it's been over four hours. My current mpg was still under 10 so I was looking at the current a few times and it seemed to be running from 16 to 18 mpg so I used 20 mpg as to not put in too much fuel. That didn't work. When I left the station I already had a range of 20 miles more than I needed. (by the time I stop tonight it will be 100 miles more than I needed) This AM I had eaten a breakfast bar that I had picked up this AM just to stay awake. It is now 2 PM so I grab a sandwich off the shelf to save time. This is a used truck so I will be eating in it. The sandwich was a chicken salad sandwich. I have had bread and butter sandwiches that had more flavor, not a fan. When I go through Fargo, it is 3 PM right as I cross the I-29. Later I will see that BB texted me at 3:05 from one mile south on I-29 at the Flying J. She says she will be in Alex before 4 PM ... ??? ... that would be 100 mph. 3rd stop - I get to the rest area by Alex before 4:30 and before BB. When I text her, she calls ... she connects her phone to the car so it is handsfree. She is DONE. I had texted her asking if she wanted to stop in St Cloud, 1 hour. Maple Grove, an hour and a half. Or Plymouth which would be two hours. Dropping today is out, even for me. It has been a long day. When BB gets to the rest area a few minutes behind me she tells me she didn't take time to stop eat. She's just been eating snacks that she had in the car. So we head two exists down to Alexandria. 4th stop is Alexandria. Jimmy Johns. We walk up to the door that says 'drive thru only,' but someone walks in ahead of us so I open the door. No, that person was a delivery driver. Drive thru only. So I drive the car and BB looks for hotels. I've been watching the only Choice hotel in town from before it was a Choice Hotel. It had been a Country Inn and Suites and was getting very bad reviews. Now that it is a choice hotel it is not getting any better. 'Run, don't walk, away from here.' 'Rotten.' So we end up staying at the Best Western across the parking lot from the Jimmy Johns. It is 5 PM and we are shutting down. If we hadn't had that two hour delay this AM we would have made it two Plymouth by dark and may have even pushed on to delivery and beyond. But between the sitting waiting and the driving 75 mph it all takes it's toll. Load board US - 453 IA - 234/232 MN - 5 WI - 6 Lots of work on the load board. Lots of work for the auction dispatcher, lots that we would like to do if it would work. But most likely we are off until next Tuesday and then if the weather agrees, we will head back to CA. 211124 ND-MN 1 pickup to Shakopee (delivered) ... spending the night at Worthington MN To bed at 9 PM last night so we were up by 5:30 AM Breakfast was eggs, sausage and cherry yogurt. Rolling at 7 AM. 1st stop is the drop in Shakopee. Mileage wasn't as good as yesterday so I delivered it with a range of 68 miles. My goal is just over 50 miles range because that is when the low fuel light comes on. So I left one gallon more than I wanted. Last night there were over a dozen trips coming out of this shipper in ND and now todays list has -0-. Not sure what happened and neither does dispatch. :( Dispatch had to call me, we are supposed to call them from the drop and I forgot so he had to call me. I've done this too many times and am now slacking off. We had talked about stopping at Honey Baked to pick up food for tomorrow but the temps are too warm for it to ride in the car for 24 hours, even in the trunk. 2nd stop is the rest area in Northwood. 3rd stop is the lot in Forest City. There are a few RV's sitting in the employee lot waiting to be brought to our lot. Plus there are about 200 in our lot based on the load board. We quickly move our stuff from the rental car to our car and BB heads to the Sioux Falls Airport. I drop off our paperwork and make a phone call before leaving. Sioux Falls airport, our rental car from Bozeman was $900 less than dropping at our home terminal in St Paul. It does add six hours and one hotel to our trip but otherwise we would not have done this trip. 4th stop was the rest area near Blue Earth just after we get on the freeway. I tried a different way that is five minutes and a half a mile shorter. OK with the car but I think with the RV's we will stick to the more traveled roads. 5th stop was the Loves in Sioux Falls for fuel before BB drops the rental car at the airport. The pumps are running very slowly. As we are pumping I notice someone using the windshield squeegee on the side of their car. A few minutes later I realize why. The pumps are running so slowly that they do not shut off when the tank is full so gas runs down the side of the car. (As it did with our rental) I also fuel there as it is cheaper than anywhere before I will need fuel. $3.09. But when I leave I see the next station down the street is $2.99 ... and their pumps might have worked better also. When BB drops she has to tell them about the chip in the windshield and at some point I will have to tell my insurance company. They should cover it no charge. When she is done, BB lets me know she's ready to be picked up ... and then says 'no.' She has left the rental agreement on the counter at the rental car company. She goes back in and they are not very helpful. Finally when BB doesn't walk away the have to open up the 'to be shredded' box and get her agreement out ... and our fuel receipts we need for taxes. But we got them. Still in town we stop at Arby's for BB, she is hungry but it is only a little after 3 PM so I don't eat. Our plan ... last week ... was to be back home today so BB could get food ready for tomorrow. As of now that would be a late night and then lots of quick work in the AM. Texts and emails have been going back and forth and now BB is off the hook for any food. And after four long days we are ready to shut down 'early' like we normally do. We end up staying in Worthington which leaves quite a few miles for the AM but it is the nicest, (and most costly) hotel for the next couple of hours. Then next nicest is two more hours down the road and most of that time would be in the dark, but the room would have been half as much. There are a couple of other 'lesser' motels between these two, but here is good. 6th and final stop is in Worthington at the Comfort Inn for the night. But first we stop at this Arby's for food for me and then across the street to the DQ, there isn't a Culvers in town. The Arby's brisket is good. I looked at the Ground Round but I don't know their current menu and we just wanted to get off the road. Ahh ... maybe the reason this hotel is twice as much is because they offer free drinks in the evening. Free is rarely free. Load board US - 475 IA - 257/253 MN - 7 WI - 5 We are done for the next couple of days, likely through Monday. At one point early this AM the load board was down 30 trips, so lots of trips getting loaded on the board and lots coming off the board. Not likely all 250+ are going to be gone by Monday AM when we can call in for Tuesday work. We are looking at heading west again. Weather looks like it will be good. Lots of trips heading that way. Rental car prices are back down. (after what we made on our trips this week, we would only have to work a couple of days next month and we would be good.) 211125 ND-MN 1 pickup to Shakopee (delivered) ... spending the night at home Thanksgiving Day, we had hoped to be home before this but here we are will three plus hours left to go this AM. I haven't found the traffic deaths from last night but I feel much safer driving home in the daylight. And not much traffic for the start of the trip. 1st stop is the rest area near Owatonna. 2nd and final stop is home. We have one hour before we are to leave for our Thanksgiving meal. We were supposed to bring a sweet potato casserole. We didn't have time to make it from scratch so someone else was going to buy one online, first from Honey Baked then from a grocer. It seems Honey Baked does not allow their sides to be bought online and the grocer was out. That was yesterday. Today we ask someone to go to the store to see if there is anything in the freezer section at a different chain, there wasn't. So they ended up getting sweet potato tots and marshmallows. Edible but not the same. A Thanksgiving to remember :) Tried something different and it was not a hit. Nothing exciting on the few hours home. We ended up making good money but I will need to call my insurance on the rock chip. So far the agent has said all the rental cars are not an issue. We will need to decide on Sunday if we are ready to call in on Monday and leave on Tuesday. |
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