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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 211209 CA-UT 1 Bus to Salt Lake City UT ... spending the night at Livermore CA Breakfast ? (it's been a long day) eggs and sausage. We left out of the Las Vegas hotel at 7:30 local. We didn't think of looking to see the prices of a non-Choice hotel. Some of them have pretty cheap rates online but we don't know what the 'conditions' were. Traffic is still a little heavy but it never seems lite in Las Vegas, day or night. 1st stop is a rest area in Yermo CA. 2nd stop is in Tehachapi for fuel and lunch. I wanted something different. There had been pizza at the gas station across the street from the Flying J so we stopped there. No pizza listed on the building, just Mexican and chicken. We decided to try the Mexican, Bobby Salazar. It was good and huge, a little messy to eat in the car but good food and lots of it. When we were leaving I asked about the pizza. They were still using empty pizza boxes as Christmas decorations and I could still see the pizza oven. They said they dropped the pizza because of Covid, there are new regulations and they did not have enough space to meet the regulations and keep all three. And pizza was the slowest mover for the space it took. Shortly after we left Tehachapi there was a mobile sign that said 'slippery when wet.' And there was a cop with their lights flashing parked next to it. And another cop a mile or two later with its lights on. It got foggy and traffic slowed, some to about 25 mph until we got below the fog. No accidents, that we could see anyways. The computer wanted to take us some back route to I-5 but we took our usual through Bakersfield and Wesco. I had called dispatch from Tehachapi and now called back at 3 pm. We are going back to SLC, that is the best he can do. I had thought of waiting to leave Livermore until Friday but then we are less likely to get between storms in WY. 3rd stop was to be the Avenal rest area but there was a sign just before the prior exit that said the rest area was closed. So we exited and went to the truck stop. Our first 1nine. Now I am trying to figure out what it used to be. The 1nine's are new, they are a private labeled part of the Pilot/Flying network. This one was a nice place. Opps this is not our 1st 1nine, we have stopped at others before and after they became 1nine's so I don't think of them as a 1nine. 4th stop is Livermore at the Chevron to fill the rental before dropping it. Then we go to the shipper, the dispatcher is already there and it is already dark. I talk very briefly to the dispatcher and then to one driver. He makes copies of my placards in hopes they will get him through this trip. I should have suggested he talk to dispatch, he used to carry extras. I had extra's be the driver didn't want to take them. The buses are now in the employee lot, by the time we are ready to go there are two more drivers picking up. They are going to Charlotte NC. That would have been nice, but the 'dedicated bus drivers' get first pick I guess. My bus was brushed up against tree branches so I took a picture of it before I moved it. I don't need someone else's damage blamed on me. When I went be to check out with security, in the distance they looked like both of them were on the ground. It took them a couple of minutes to beep open the gate and when I got closer one was still on the ground with his shoes off. My guess is they were doing their evening prayers. BB got about a five minute head start, tonight at the rental car place there is a pedestrian trying to j-walk right by where I stop so I had to keep an eye on him as well as the traffic. After I picked up BB we finally decided to stay in Livermore and not get to Rocklin tonight. That was a split second decision and I picked the wrong side street. It took a little longer but we got there. On the way there were two semi drivers parked in the middle of the road in different places. Lost I presume. Final, final stop is the Best Western in Livermore. There are three truck spots. A semi tractor is parked in one, it would have fit in a car spot. And a fifth wheel travel trailer with it's slide outs is taking up the other two spots. So we take up five car spots. And then we make a reservation from the parking lot. The person at the desk was doing their share of hacking tonight. Good reason as any for us to keep our masks on. BB wasn't hungry at the hotel so I just ate Pop Tart pieces, they become pieces after a few weeks in the back pack. No food close other than two gas stations. Load board US - 295 IA - 114/113 MN - 2 WI - 10 My paperwork says M-F delivery in SLC. Dispatch said that is wrong. We will find out in the AM. 211210 CA-UT 1 Bus to Salt Lake City UT ... spending the night at Elko NV Breakfast - Was a bag lunch. We had to fill out a check off list last night and then pick up our pre-made bags in the AM. I was wondering how easy it was going to be to get out of the lot as we didn't park in our usual place. Not a problem, there was a 2nd driveway I didn't know about. I thought I had plenty of room but I still hit the curb ... but this was not a test so I didn't fail. At 6 AM, before we ate, I called the MN dispatcher. I think I woke them up, sure sounded like it. They said they would call back when they got to the office. And I also called for my NV permit before I left the hotel. Traffic was light this AM. Traffic slowed to the speed limit in downtown Sacramento for a few minutes but that was it. Must not be many people that 'go to the office' on Friday's anymore. Dispatch called back while I was driving, once, but I was driving so I didn't pick up. 1st stop was in Gold Run at a rest area. By now the trip I wanted was gone from the load board and I get voice mail. After I leave dispatch calls back and we let it go to voicemail. They also send a text, the trip is gone. The trip was from SLC to Omaha. It would have been right on the way. But I only wanted it if I could pick it up Saturday. When dispatch texts back they say the trip won't be ready until Monday. So that one didn't work for us. If we had waited until Monday to pick up the truck we would get caught in the text storm going through WY. And we want to be home before next month. 2nd stop was for food and fuel at the Pilot in Fernley. We usually stop at the Flying J but all they have is a Denny's so rather than stop twice we stop here once. I pick the wrong line, four trucks that came in behind me are fueling before I finally switch islands and fuel. Last time I put in 30 gallons here and 5 in Tooele. Today I put in all 35 here. We'll see how it looks at Tooele. While I am fueling, BB goes in and orders at Wendy's. She is done with her food by the time I am done fueling. We are in and out in a half hour. BB is watching all the weather to decide which way to go back to MN. That will be decided later. From here I get a hold of my drop. I can drop on Saturday ... whew. Dispatch was right. 3rd stop is at Winnemucca for a rest break at the Pilot. This place is empty, as is the Flying J at the next exit. I guess everyone is still stuck in WY. One of the on going debates all day has been how far to get tonight. When we are in Elko we usually stay at the Comfort Inn. But I do not dare try to get in there with a 40 foot bus. The Best Western is supposed to have truck parking but we don't know where, and to get to their main lot you have to go under an 8 foot overhang and my bus in 10-9. So Rodeway would be the best parking but that is a low end hotel. But we kept talking and remembered all the newer hotels on the other side of the freeway. Holiday Inn and others. Much later BB found that we do have a discount through our Farm Bureau membership. It gets it close to the price of the Choice hotel. But we will wait until we are parked in the lot to reserve a room. The areal photos show the hotel still being built. Near a town called Emigrant, there was a tow truck that decided not to go to the next cross over and did a u-turn in the median. And there it sat, both the front and the back touching the ground and no traction. As we are going past the last town before Elko, BB reminds me that it will get down to 11 degrees here tonight. I need to add anti-gel to the fuel. One truck stop left and luckily they have a good supply. 4th and final stop is the Holiday Inn in Elko. I do fit, the bus takes up five spots. The 1st drive is entrance only and up a steep slope so I opt for the 2nd drive. Not a lot of room but enough. Once in, we call for food at Wingers. It is across the street and the only place for quite a few blocks. Good food. I had the chicken alfredo. Load board US - 261 IA - 103 MN - 1 WI - 9 We don't know where we are heading tomorrow after we drop. Maybe nowhere. I-80 is still closed in WY and may be until Sunday so we don't want to go east. If we head north, there is snow coming in Saturday night that we want to beat so we'd have to drive into the night. If we go south, they are warning of avalanches on I-70 in CO. And it would add 100's of miles if we went all the way to I-40 in NM. By the end of the day all of my auction trucks are gone from MT and ND. Just as well, now we just want to get home. No, actually we don't. If there was work heading south I think we would take it :) 211212 MT-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (Monday) ... spending the night at Billings MT Breakfast - I stuck with eggs and sausage, passed on the yogurt. Left out at 8 AM local. Weather forecast was for snow by the time we got to Dubois. They were correct. Traffic slowed to 20 mph below the speed limit, that was pretty much what all the traffic in sight was going. But when I dropped to 55 mph, then they passed me. Every so often it felt like the wheels slipped but no other effects. At one point I had said I might not be using the cruise at all today. Then about 10 minutes later the roads were clear, no snow and soon the sun was peaking through the clouds. First I set the cruise to 70, and within a few miles, back to 80 mph. 1st stop was near an area called Red Rock. It shows as a parking area but it had one 'outhouse.' As often happens, BB asks about a rest area within a mile or so of passing one. Peripheral vision? Our Truck Stop Guide shows a truck stop at exit 26, but there was no exit 26. We looked tonight at the hotel and it should be at exit 56. We looked at cutting across from Dillon to I-90 but it would only save us 15 minutes and we have never been those back roads. I would have like to have stopped at Dillon at 4B's for lunch but it was still before 11 AM. There are two places I like to eat in Montana and I was hoping to get to both of them in one day. BB wanted to eat in Butte, but it wasn't noon yet and I wanted to make it to ... 2nd stop was in Three Forks at the Wheat Montana Deli. I got a reuben. There were other good items on the menu but most were not easy to eat while I drive. This place had lots of help, a lot more than the location in Missoula that we stop at. This AM when we got up Google maps was showing that I-90 was closed near Livingston. Not a big deal, they just route us through town and then back on to the freeway. It is now almost eight hours later and the freeway is still closed when we get there. But this backup is 'only' a little more than a mile of single lane traffic waiting to exit the freeway. Not sure how long that mile took ?? less than an hour ?? Then when the signs said 'exit freeway 1,000 feet,' I noticed the overhead signs changed. They were opening the freeway, we just had to wait for them to lift the gates and removed the cones. We were guessing it would have been another hour going through town. (West bound was still going through town when we passed that end of the detour) 3rd stop was a Connoco in Big Timber for fuel. We didn't have enough to make it to Billings. 4th stop was Billings. The better choice hotels got bad reviews so we ended up at the Quality Inn instead of being right across the street from this 4B's. It is not even 3 PM local yet but we want to stay here in case we can't find work. If no work, taking I-90 instead of I-94 will save us three hours. Once we check in we go for a half hour walk. Before we go back to our room we get in the car and head to the 4B's. We are almost there when I remember that Billings is Mountain time and it is not even four o'clock. By that time we can see the building so we stop ... they close at 3 PM on Sundays. Not again. This happened one of our last trips this way also. About half way to the 4B's I wanted to go the route I knew but BB had Siri on so I followed her directions. Very good thing I did. It wanted me to turn on the 1st street we came to, I wanted to go to the 2nd. As I was slowing down to take a left on the 1st street we came to, a car blew through their stop sign at about 50 mph. Had I gone straight I may not have been watching the side traffic, or not seen it in time. Coming back from the 4B's we went 'my way' and ended up going past MRL. I had no idea where in town they were, but BB and I had talked about them on our walk as they are a shipper that Company #1 gets trips from. Less than two miles from our hotel. We head back to our hotel, we were both in the mood for soup, a light meal after our big sandwiches at noon. When I get to the hotel I message the auction dispatcher. There is a truck in MT that is on our load board and not on the other updates so I am not sure if it is really there. I am not expecting an answer before Monday AM but maybe he will call before he starts taking calls on Monday. We still want soup so we head to Panera, BB gets soup and a sandwich. I just get soup, no sandwich. But I do also get a smoothie, and a cookie, two cookies because they gave me one when I paid an another one was in my bag :) Back at the hotel I gat a call from the auction dispatcher ... on a Sunday night. He is SO glad I texted him. The reason the trip is still on the load board and not on the other updates is that a driver backed out of the trip and the dispatcher would have to tell the shipper Monday AM that they don't have a driver. Now they do, and I don't need to wait four hours to find out if I get the trip. I have the trip. One phone call. Hope this works out as well as it looks. This trip was looking like it was going to be at the bottom of our money makers. Now it looks like it will be our average trip. We are about two hours from the truck so that should work out good. We can call the shipper at 8 AM and give them some time to get to the lot if they are not already on site. Most of the shippers we deal with are closing down operations and are not always staffed. 700 miles from shipper to drop so we should be delivering on Tuesday AM. At some point we need to go down and get our car from IA. This rental car needs to be back at 1 PM or we get charged another day. So depending on when we are going past the airport will decided if we use it to get to IA or drop it and get to IA another way another day. After that the plan is to work for the local company, or at least give them first option if they have work. WY - As of 8 PM tonight the road are finally open. They closed Wednesday or Thursday. One driver that was posting on FaceBook had said he got as far as Rock Springs and the road was closed again. He wasn't sure why it was closed but it had taken him eight hours to go 200 miles and he was done for the night. He had been in Laramie since Thursday and is expecting to be sitting in Reno waiting for Donners Pass to re-open when he gets there. NOT the route to be on this December. .. the trip continues HERE
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