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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 211213 MT-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN ... spending the night at Bismarck ND This place has make to order eggs in the AM, but you need to check in at the front desk first. We ordered ours, with sausage or hash browns. As we were waiting another couple walked up to place their order, the cook asked them for their card from the front desk. They didn't have one, so they walked out of the room but not to the front desk. A few minutes later they walked back in and were looking at the other breakfast items. My guess is they were not staying there. They didn't look like a 'down and out' couple. We pull out of the hotel at 7:30, I have texted the shipper but no response. 1st 'stop' in on the ramp for Ballantine to make a phone call to the shipper. I have to leave a message but they call back as I am pulling back onto the freeway. My truck is 33 miles north of town. OK, glad I got a hold of someone. But that will add an hour to the trip, I was expecting IN Miles City. 2nd stop is a rest area about hathaway there, in Hathaway MT. 3rd stop is the shipper. It is only a few miles from Angela but that is now only a side road into somewhere over the hills. As soon as I pull into the yard someone is walking out. My truck is down the hill, there are only two currently parked there. The first thing I see is the windshield, cracked a dozen ways. Then when I get in I see my side window is also cracked. And when I check the fluid's I see that this truck has been jumped, there are scratches on the battery post. It does turn over and start, but almost didn't. All else is good, when I am leaving the paperwork with the office I ask and they tell me that this location will be closed by March. So we may be getting other trips out of here. The next thing I notice going down the road ... NO HEAT. This is going to be a long trip, it should have been flat bedded. When I picked the pickup up it said it was getting 9 mpg. And I had a range of 95 miles. Beach was 115 from Miles City and the truck was 30 miles from there. But in those first 30 miles I gained 45 miles range. I assume I will gain more so I do not fuel. 4th stop is in Miles City for fuel at the Exxon/Pilot for our rental car. I am going to risk it and wait and fuel it Beach where fuel is $.30 a gallon less. From there we park and walk over to 4B's. They are open, we get our soup to go. It takes less than five minutes in and out. When I asked for 'extra crackers' this person took me seriously. Sometimes I get one or two more two packs. I must have gotten a dozen more. And it turned out to be more than I needed. I couldn't put them in the to go cup to start because the cup was full to the top. Great soup, worth the stop. I am at 10,000# so I am legally not running as a DOT vehicle today. I do not see any signs saying that the ND scale is open but there is a truck on the scale and a office talking to him when we went by. That scale is closed 90% of the time so I am not sure what they do when it is open. 5th stop is at the Flying J in Beach. A truckstop open limited hours. I'm guessing no help? I only put in 25 gallons in hopes that my mileage will go up. I gained another 60 miles range after leaving Miles City driving 80 mph. 6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Bismarck. I pull into what used to be the Comfort Inn. No, that is now a Quality Inn. What is now the Quality Inn is the one that used to have the bakery bismarcks for breakfast. I guess we will see if they stay with the building or follow the name when we get breakfast tomorrow. We look online at a lot of places to eat and then we see Schlotzsky's ! That ends that search. We order online and each get a sandwich plus I get soup. (We stop on the way for fuel for the rental car at Shell) When we get to Schlotzsky's, I go in, or try to. Their lobby is locked. So we still need to wait in line at the drive thru behind everyone else that ordered at the speaker. Back at the room BB is opening up her sandwich and ... flip. They had cut it in half and one of those half's flipped, opened and landed meat down on the carpet. And she was the one that was looking at steakhouses because she was hungry. She ended up eating the other half of her sandwich and half of mine. I had half of mine, a cup of soup ... and a piece of lemon meringue pie that I got a 4B's this AM. No heat. It was cold and I was shivering once in a while but I have gloves and a heavy cap. Tomorrow I will put on my long johns and hope that is warm enough. My biggest worry is having no defroster. No problem today but we picked it up at noon. Tomorrow we will be leaving before daylight. Load Board US - 258 IA - 92/91 MN - 1 WI - 3 Tomorrow, rest area, lunch and then I will stop once we are closer to the drop to put in enough fuel to get to the drop without having the low fuel light come on. It will be close to eight hours so hopefully I can keep warmer than today. The only thing that would change our plans now is if something shows up from MN going to IA that we can drop before we bring our car back. As it is, we have enough time to get the car back Wednesday by 1 PM. So that is the plan. 211214 MT-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN (This truck has no heat) Later last night a dog in the room next to us started barking. We let it go for a while and then finally called the front desk. When the dog hadn't quieted down in a half hour we asked to be moved. When we pick up our new keys, the front desk tells us they heard the dog before we called and contacted the owner ... who still hadn't shown up to take care of the issue. We get a new room on the opposite end of the hotel on a different floor. That part was good, having to move after you have been settled in for a few hours and are just about ready for bed is a pain. After we did get into bed it took a while for me to warm up enough to fall asleep. I was still cold from my ride earlier. Then at midnight the alarm goes off. Not an alarm clock but a notification on BB's phone. Someone is missing. I have all those things shut off on my phone but that doesn't do me much good when she doesn't. I often don't get back to sleep right away but I must have. Breakfast - They had four kinds of bakery pastries, but not the ones I was looking for so I passed. I had the usual eggs and sausage. It was still dark when we left the hotel. I had gone out later last night and opened two windows in hopes that that would keep the windows from frosting over, it didn't. I can dress for the cold temps but the windows frosting over would be an issue. We got them mostly cleared before we left the hotel. Not an easy drive the few blocks to the gas station. I put in 20 gallons in hopes that that MAY be the last fuel I add. When I was done fueling I could see that the defroster was actually working. The frost had loosened up a little in two spots directly over the vents. Each were about the size of serving dishes but that helped a lot. Once we got out on the freeway the windows pretty much cleared off and stayed clear the rest of the day. Still no heat but I could see. 1st stop was the rest area near Valley City/Tower. That was our plan, 150 miles. But that was too far for our first stop for BB so she had stopped somewhere else earlier. I was in the lead and she just turned off, so when I got to this rest area I just waited inside for her where it was only slightly warmer. The temps most of the day were about 32 degrees and the sun was only out part of the time. I had thought the sun would warm the cab of the truck and maybe it did, but not much. I had put on longjohns and extra clothes this morning so I wasn't freezing freezing. I'd shiver once in a while but I'm sure I've been colder. My nose got cold once in a while, I had thought I was carrying a scarf but didn't find it. 2nd stop was in Alexandria for fuel at Holiday. More on that later. We had agreed ahead of time to meet at Jimmy Johns after we were done fueling. I headed over and the line for the drive thru was backed up out onto the street. And the doors were locked last time we were here a couple of weeks ago. So once BB is done fueling we head over to Arby's, order inside and then eat in the car. I have eaten in these used trucks before but today it would have been with my mittens on and the food would have gotten cold rather quickly. Fuel. My plan was to add enough fuel so I would have a range of 200 miles. 150 miles to Shakopee and 50 miles so the low fuel light wasn't on. I even added two extra gallons to get it over 200 miles so I was sure I would not have to stop again. I thought I was getting 12 mph so that is the math I used. My range went up to 194, close but no extra range. By the time my truck had idled while we ate, my range was down to 175 miles. I haven't left a truck yet with the low fuel light on but I am ready to be done with this truck so I just might. When I pull into the drop in Shakopee I have a range of ... 125 miles. We lost the head wind and the temp got warmer. So math says my mileage tripled for the last leg of the trip. 3rd stop - the drop in Shakopee. The lot is full, they didn't tell me where to park it so I just parked in the same general area as before. Dropped before 4 PM, it was still daylight. Glad to be out of this one. NOW I say I will leave the next one that doesn't have heat, but I've had a few before. As soon as I am dropped I call my mechanic to get an oil change that is overdue. "Sometime next year." Nope, can't wait that long so it will have to be done at an oil change shop. Then I call my local dispatcher to let them know we are available local until Christmas. Our first thought was to get to Owatonna yet tonight, but the hotel in Albert Lea was $25 cheaper so Albert Lea it is. 4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Albert Lea. We had looked at other places but we ended up walking next door to the Petro for food. This place used to have a buffet, but once Covid hit they have a lot of the same food but you point and they dish it up for you. BB had ribs and I had meatloaf. (and a lemon bar) Load board US - 272 IA - 74/72 MN -0- WI - 2 We need to have the car back to MSP by 1 PM, shouldn't be a problem. After that we are off until dispatch calls, or we see something good local. We expect to work at least a couple of days while in town. 211215 MT-MN 1 Pickup to Shakopee MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home 16 days on the road and we made it home tonight ... None of the good bacon sausage this AM, just the usual kind. We were done and ready to go at 8 AM. No frost on the windows this AM, 51 degrees and fog. Lots of fog, visibility was down to only a few car lengths at times. 1st stop is our shipping lot in Forest City. We drop off last weeks paperwork and get everything moved from one car to the other. Only one driver getting ready to leave. Our 2nd lot is almost full, that should put the number of RV's up closer to 200 but that is not what is showing on the load board. 2nd stop was in Owatonna for gas at the Fleet Farm. $2.69. While fueling I looked for work. There is a short one in our metro but BB wants to head home before the wind hits. Right now we are one penny a day under our average pay per day per trip. This would have put us over instead of being under. 3rd stop was the airport to pick up BB after she dropped the rental car. 4th stop was to pick up food at Buca's. We got enough for the next two meals so we do not have to go back out tonight. 5th and final stop was home. The driveway is mostly clear and the snow is mostly gone from the temps and rain. Tornado warnings for our area so I managed to get both cars in the garage. This may be the 1st time in 5-10 years and I still have a ton of stuff in my garage. It is now just stacked six feet high in no particular order. IA dispatch did call, they had a hot round trip going to MI but we are home. No more overnights until after Christmas. Both of these trips today would have paid good. Load board US - 262 IA - 68/64 MN -0- WI - 4 People are posting on FaceBook of trucks being blown over in KS and IA. Roads are closed again in WY, chains required again on Donners Pass. 78 mph winds in MN at Rochester. It is a good night to be home. I will call sometime tomorrow to remind local dispatch that I am available Friday and next week. |
