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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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211227 MN-MO 1 trash truck to Richwoods MO ... spending the night at Cedar Falls IA No call at 7:30 AM so I assumed the local dispatcher had their trips covered. Some time later I went out to shovel and it was still raining so I went back inside. We don't need a skating rink on our driveway. Finally at 9:30 dispatch called about the St Louis. We took it. Nothing new on the load board or from emails. yet. It will get us south. Now we have a plan so we need to shovel. It shovels pretty easily, the snow now has a crush over it so it is not blowing around. BB was out and helped so it wasn't too bad. I didn't time it, but a good workout. We don't have a time table so we end up getting out of town closer to noon. 1st stop is the office to pick up paperwork. It almost looked like the dispatcher brought along the office paperwork so they could change it if I wanted more money. This drop is 60 miles from the airport out on someone's farm. 2nd stop is a clinic so I can get my lab work done in case we are gone for 2-3 weeks. Gas in Owatonna was $2.69 but we will end up fueling in Dodge Center where it is $.50 a gallon more. 3rd stop is the shipper in Dodge Center. Almost no cars where driveaway drivers can park. This place is self serve and when I grab my key I see this company has seven more trucks waiting to be picked up. We had only seen two Freightliners when we pulled in but it was neither of them. Mine was in the third row and as far as I could see those were the only three that were not cabovers. After trying to start it once, I was able to find the battery shut off inside the cab. Then it started right off. We did see that some of the trucks are plugged in. No issues today. It just takes time to do all the paperwork and get things where they are supposed to be. While I'm doing this BB goes and fuels the car. I have enough fuel for today. I have two tanks and it shows about 1/2 full. There are a few ways to go on this trip. We will take US-218 as soon as we get to it. Straight south out of Dodge Center. There is a road that keeps going south when we get to the freeway but I've never been on it with anything so we stick to the state and US highways. 4th stop is the Loves in Floyd. Originally it was to decide how far we were going to go yet tonight. But I realize I should be putting in anti-gel before I fuel tomorrow so I buy it here. We decide it will still be light when we get to Waterloo so we head out. Actually we have been staying in Cedar Falls, it's 'twin city.' Roads have been mostly clear today, all clear after leaving MN. But this is a rough ride, it is as bad as the cab over trucks, I was expecting a much better ride from a Freightliner. One of the storage area's keeps popping out so I finally just threw it in the dash. I haven't hit my head yet but this seat sits lower. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Cedar Rapids. On one of our last stays we walked next door to the Kwik Star/Trip for food. There is nothing else in the area yet. But tonight we have a car. BB wanted Mexican but we would have to order through a delivery service to order online. So I tried calling a couple of times, no answer. So we drove over. Closed Mondays (today.) Nearby there was also an Oriental place, closed Monday's. So we ended up at Culver's but no treats today. Load board US - 245 IA - 45 MN - 6 WI - 7 MO -0- Tomorrow our plan is to stop for fuel about 10 miles down the road (instead of next door) and then fuel again in Wayland MO. That should get me to my drop. We should have about 7 hours to the drop including stops. From there we are not sure if we will head directly back or stay in the St Louis area. It should stay about 40 degrees warmer than MN. There were not any new RV's added today and no auction trucks at all listed. Nothing very attractive for us right now. It would be nice to keep heading south but we have our car and don't want to drive it any further that we are.
211228 MN-MO 1 trash truck to Richwoods MO (delivered) ... spending the night at Pacific MO Breakfast was the usual of eggs, sausage and yogurt. We pull out about 7:30. The weather station says it is snowing but we don't see it. 1st stop is 10 miles down the road at Flying J in Evansdale. I have two fuel tanks and I am down to 1/4 and I am only able to put in 40 gallons. With this company we still do our check in calls the old way, we call on the phone and talk to a dispatcher. Within a few minutes of getting back on the road after fueling we see the first wisps of snow on the highway. I don't remember where the traffic first slowed but by the time we got to Cedar Rapids we were down to 10 mph for a while. 2nd stop was the rest area just south of Cedar Rapids. I was expecting it to be full as slow as traffic was moving I thought people would just want to park here instead of on the freeway. While we are stopped we see that the auction dispatcher has put out 100 trips, way more than usual. Within a minute or so we get an email ... Opps ... those were all flat bed loads, not driveaway. :( But there are driveaway trips also, just not where we are and where we are going to. It was snow pretty hard when we were stopped at the rest area. But BB looked at the radar and it looked like we should be out of it in 60 miles or less so we pulled back into the mess. Where the roads were the worst it had been 29 degrees. I was watching the outside temp on my dash and as the temp went up, I sped up. When the temp got up to 33 degrees I was back up to 45 mph. By then most of the traffic was passing me. But 33 degrees is the air temp, the road temp can be colder. Finally about ten miles from Mount Pleasant the temp was back up to 35 degrees and I sped up to 65 mph and set the cruise. 3rd stop was the Pilot in Mount Pleasant for food. This was not one of our original planned stops. But because of how slow we were driving, making it to Wayland was going to be over our two hour drive time. Plan had been not to eat until we were in Bowling Green, but we were stopped, it was 11 AM so we ate. Arby's. We sat in the car and ate. When we pulled out of the rest area by ABS light came on and had stayed on. When we stopped here I had shut the truck off including the battery to try to clear the code. But when I re-started the truck after our half hour break the light was still on. A half a mile later it was off and stayed off the rest of the trip. 4th stop was Wayland at the Flying J for fuel. I had looked to see how far we had driven since I filled this morning before getting here and at first thought I would not quite fill it and I would be good. Then I decided I would be driving faster so I might use more fuel so better to fill it. The customer is paying for the fuel so it doesn't hurt anyone to leave a little more fuel in it. For some reason the pump shut off before the tanks were full. I wasn't sure why so I used a different card to put the last five gallons in. From here I call the drop, we don't expect any more slow downs so I tell them we should be there in about four hours. I think I am padding the numbers. 5th stop is at a truck stop in Bowling Green. We park in the truck area and walk in to use the restroom. That is as close as we will get to a walk for today. The computer wants to route us the shortest way but I am in a truck and down always trust the computer. I decide to add another 20 miles and stay on the freeway. It is time and fuel but also a nice wide highway. Somewhere back I had looked at the miles from when we exit the freeway to the drop. I remember it being 10 miles. But my fuel gauge is almost down to the 1/4 tank where it needs to be when I deliver so I need to make a second un-planned stop. 6th stop is Mobil station at the exit in St Claire that says they have diesel. I pull in but do not look far enough ahead. I only see one diesel pump but as I get close I realize that the hose will not reach the way I have pulled in. There was a truck parked at an angle in the parking lot. I was able to get past him at an angle but I was too far from the pump. If I try to back in straight I will hit him. He is just parked there, sitting in his truck. And pulling around the pumps won't work because someone is filling their tractor on their trailer so their pickup is all the way up to the cars parked at the curb. I am stuck. After a few minutes I decide I will just back out the way I came in. At that point the truck moves and I am able to fuel. Just because, I put in three gallons. That is more than enough to get me the 10 miles. By the time we leave there is only one car at the pumps. Every pump had been full a few minutes ago when we pulled in. Timing. I had written the major roads down on my clipboard. Two roads so no problem. After we have gone 12 miles I pull down the next road I see and call BB. She has the drop pegged but she is following, not leading me. It was 20 miles to the drop, not 10. I look at my phone and I still have that screen up. But I did not take the time to look when I was fueling. Opps. No where to turn around so I back out onto the highway and head down the road. I had also written the wrong final road to turn on. So I follow BB's reminder and soon we see a huge land fill pile. We are close. 7th stop is the drop in Richwoods. My paperwork says this place is open until 7 PM. I got there at 5 PM. It was still light out but just barely. And it is dark 15 minutes later when we leave. No issues, all paperwork is signed clear. These are some hilly, curvy back roads with almost all parts being no-passing zones. Someone follows me at about 45 mph for those ten miles even though the posted limit is 55 mph. I wasn't going 55 mph in the daylight either. When that person finally got a chance to pass they laid on the horn. Oh well, I was already driving beyond my headlights and one of the shop guys had told me the deer have been really thick lately. 8th stop is back in St Claire for food. That is the closest food, BB is hungry. We stop at a Taco Bell. Our other choices were McD's, BK and Subway. We sit in the car and eat because I ordered taco's. A little to messy to eat in the car. Our choice of hotel in St Claire would be the Super 8, instead we will drive another 20 miles. 9th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Pacific. Load board US - 275 IA - 77/75 MN - 3 WI - 7 No plans for tomorrow, yet. 211229 IA-FL \2 RV's, 1 heading to Ocala, 1 heading to Nokomis (Thursday) ... spending the night at Mason City IA For no reason, we pull out at 7:30 AM as usual. The shortest route is to stay on the back roads until we get to I-64 west of St Louis. I am glad I stayed on the freeway with the truck. The first part of this route was narrow lanes with -0- shoulder beyond the white line. Past the while line was either up or down, it was not a flat or straight road. Then it was four lane for a short ways and then back to narrow, curves and hills. But it keeps us out of STL and we are heading home via four lane the rest of the way. Well, not home, but back to IA. 1st stop is the Loves near New London. Fuel and rest room, BB had wanted to stop at the rest area but I had seen it was closed when we past it on the way down. Going through Hannibal I had noticed that the former Holiday Inn had been repainted. So on the way back I looked closer and they have one little ground level sign that says 'Hannibal Inn.' That is the same name they have been using for the last couple of years. I did see a couple of cars in the lot but the last reviews have not been good. 2nd stop is in Iowa City at the Firehouse Sandwich place. This time we ordered ahead. In SLC we walked out of one because so many people were sitting waiting. In Brainerd we waited a long, long time so this time we planned ahead. Good food, and it was ready when we got there. There was nothing good or much new on the load board today. Finally sometime after eating we see a truck near KC coming to Des Moines. That would have worked if we had seen it two hours earlier. But the math didn't work when we would now have to add four hours wasted plus the out of route hours to get to it. Roads are all clear today, we sail through Cedar Rapids at the posted instead of at 10 mph. I thought we would make it all the way back without stopping at any of the same places, but BB needed a rest room before we would get to the hotel. 3rd stop was Loves in Floyd. It is now 12 degrees, we would have preferred heading south. Another 25 miles to go. 4th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Mason City. We hope there are no issues. One of our co-drivers posted on FB a few weeks ago of getting bed bug bites at this hotel. We have stayed here before and never had issues and the hotels in Clear Lake were either more money or lesser hotels. The first thing we notice is that most of the cars are still covered in snow. The snow was yesterday morning. (the office closes at 5 PM) At 4:45, IA starts putting trips on the load board including FL. BB and I do not agree right away which ones to take. And then I haven't called IA for a while so I have to type in more of there phone number than I could have. Our first choice is gone. Then I have to convince BB that trip is gone, while I have someone on the other end of the phone. OK, we will take two other FL trips. We are heading to FL ! ! BB will drop 160 miles before I do. That is further apart than we like to drop but it is the best we could do this time. Load board US - 301 IA - 90/88 MN - 5 WI - 8 NC - 5 There had been a trip from NC to KC earlier in the day but gone by the time the FL orders showed up for us. There had been two FL trips overnight going to the same place but ... I am not sure what we were waiting for ... and then they were gone. Lots of trips heading west but the weather is bad out west, all over the west. It looks like we are taking the same highway back down to St Louis as we just traveled. 211230 IA-FL 2 RV's, 1 heading to Ocala, 1 heading to Nokomis ... spending the night at Hannibal MO We were not in any rush to get going this AM as it was cold. We hadn't stayed in a ground room for a while and the floor was really cold in our room also. No 'hot' breakfast this AM so I just had yogurt and juice. They also had sandwiches to nuke but we passed. BB hasn't been eating breakfast for a while, trying a different way to cut back. We got going after 8 AM but we were still to early at the first post office we stopped at, they didn't open until 9 AM. So we kept going to Forest City and stopped at the post office there. When we stopped, BB thought that was a good time for me to put last nights food in the truck for the last two miles before we got to the shipper ??? 1st stop - Post Office in Forest City. As I was moving food someone pulled up behind us and got ahead of me to the counter. What could have been a few seconds became five minutes as the patron and the counter help caught up on their latest medical issues. Still in Forest City we get to the lot. The computer showed 88 last night. My guess is there is closer to 200. We don't see any other drivers when we get there but in the hour it takes us to inspect our RV's we see another four drivers. We only talked to one, he was heading to Spokane, later I notice that the driver has Idaho plates on his tow car. So he is heading in the home direction. Dispatch gave us some paperwork for the new year but none of the stickers to go with it so I went back in to ask. Then we got started talking a bit. Both of the people in the office used to drive so they know the road and the stories. We both have enough fuel so we decide not to stop at the closer, cheaper fuel but drive until closer to noon and eliminate one stop today. That choice likely cost us $5 in the cost of fuel. 2nd stop was for fuel and food at Loves in Floyd. I pull into an island where a pickup is facing me. No one fueling that truck, no one around. As I'm standing there fueling I realize that they just parked there. Their fuel door is on the side NOT facing the pump. Then they come back to their truck and wait for ME to back out so they do not have to. I guess for some people, life is all about them. My pump was a pain, it would stop after a few gallons, then act like it was full until I re-started it a few times and then it would do the same thing over again. I knew about how much I needed so I kept at it. Then it didn't give me a receipt but I wanted to move my RV first. Then we went in and picked a pizza off the shelf at Godfathers. We split one personal pan pizza. It had started misting this AM at 22 degree's and BB fell way behind so I slowed down and kept my speed down until we got to the truckstop. After fueling and eating it was still misting so I was still driving slow until BB passed me. She does that sometimes :) She led until we got down almost to Waterloo. Then someone passed us that looked like they were dragging their bike on the back of their travel trailer. So I passed BB and tried to catch up but they were going a bit faster than us already. But we had to do a cloverleaf to stay on the highway and as soon as I was sure the cloverleaf wasn't icy I kicked it down. I had been flashing my lights at them and then when I got closer I started blowing my horn. I was along side of him blowing my horn and he is just looking at his phone. Finally I was enough ahead of him and waving my arm and he finally saw me. But he still did not slow down until I backed off and pulled to the shoulder behind him. Then he pulled over, but he still didn't get out of his pickup until I was past his travel trailer and almost up to his door. I told him he was dragging his bike ... he followed me back to the rear, saw it and I said goodbye. ))) my good deed for the day ((( 3rd stop was the rest area just south of Cedar Rapids. While we are there I get a call from the office. I don't pick up, instead I call them back. Seems I gave them some extra paperwork this AM when I turned in my logs. Opps. I told them they could throw it away, it is just extra forms that I would cross out old info if I needed that form. Weather is much better than heading south last week, but it is still raining and the temp is still under 32 degrees. We are almost to the next stop before the temp gets to 33 degrees and I set the cruise again. It is still misting. 4th stop is Wayland MO for fuel at the Flying J. We are still at a half a tank, but neither of us have internet to check fuel prices ahead so we fuel. We also can not make a hotel reservation so we will need to make an extra stop. 5th stop - Taylor at a Phillips 66 truck stop. We do not get out of the vehicle, BB just makes the reservation and we head out again. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Hannibal MO. There is a Sleep Inn a block away for another $30 but we have always stayed at the Quality Inn. It has a conference area so it has lots of truck parking. It also had a in-house bar before Covid. Not sure when/if that will re-open. Our room is likely twice the size of last night hotel for about the same price. This place shares their parking lot with Fiddlestiks. Good food. But tonight we eat our leftovers from last night. Temps have been below freezing most of the day so the food should have stayed cold enough. We also have a cookie. SOME hotels are back to having evening cookies when we check in, but not many. Load board US - 272 IA - 61/60 MN - 3 WI - 8 Nothing new from the auction dispatcher for anywhere in the country. Nothing new out of IA ??? Very little new anywhere for the country until Monday/Tuesday now. Tomorrow we are planning on getting to TN. Because it is New Years Eve we have already made a reservation. It should be in the 70's when we get there. BB is in no hurry to get to FL, it is supposed to be in the 80's on Sunday and then cooler on Monday. I like to head up to NC when we are down in the SE but it is 700 miles deadheading from my drop. I'd be fine if we hung out in the southeast here from a while. Temps are supposed to get UP to 5 degrees in IA one of the next few days. We're gone. :) LOG 8:30 - Leave hotel in Mason City IA 9:15 - Pretrip at Forest City IA at shipper 11:30 - Fuel at Loves in Floyd IA, and eat at Godfathers 2:00 - Break at rest area near Cedar Rapids IA 4:00 - Fuel at Flying J in Wayland MO 5:00 - Post trip at Quality Inn in Hannibal MO .. the trip continues HERE |
