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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 220104 FL-WI 1 Tree truck to Menomonee Falls WI ... spending the night at Forsyth GA Breakfast - Burger King We walk down to breakfast. The first thing I notice is the sign that says breakfast must be eaten in the breakfast area. What breakfast? I saw two kinds of pastries and a pancake machine. So we leave out a little before 7:30 local so we have time to stop at BK. The shipper is about five miles off the freeway. About a mile off the freeway there was a stop light. The truck ahead of me did a 'no-stop' right turn on red. I stop on the red, no one else is moving so I take a right turn. The next thing I notice is the car who got the green was right on my bumper. But we are looking for our turn so I don't pay much attention to him until he passes me as soon as there is no oncoming traffic ... in a no passing zone. And he passes me with one tire in my lane, just inches from my car and pulls in front of me just inches from my bumper. Then he hits the breaks, luckily there was a street right there and I did a quick right turn. And luckily there wasn't another crazy driver coming at me on that street. But part of a block down I did meet a truck and it is basically a one lane street. We had missed our turn, the computer wasn't keeping up on giving us directions. We found our shipper and our truck. 1st stop - Sumterville. It was a fenced field full of trucks but mine was parked right where they had said it would be. Bad news. There is not enough room in the cab for us and our stuff. We would have to bungy cord some of our stuff to the outside. IF it was an automatic it might have worked, but it is a stick. We also look in the locked boxes on the sides of the truck. Full. The only place we didn't look is the bucket :) The front windshield did have a nice sized ding in it but not in my line of sight. I called that into dispatch and got the OK to run with it. ... and the fuel tank is full ... I might make some fuel money on this ... The huge tires for off-roading are on the back of the truck strapped down. There is also an extra guard on the front of the truck that has to be lowered to open the hood. The extra guard I suppose is for going through the brush when they are off-roading. Other than making a phone call and deciding if/how we would fit in the cab it didn't take long at the pickup. Even before we knew this truck was an option we had talked about the plus and minus of BB following me all the way back home. Usually when we do that it is because our rental car is $10, not $100, a day. We head out, as soon as we get to the freeway two check engine lights come on, both yellow so I keep going. Ugh. This thing is gutless. It is an off-road truck and is geared so that it is tacking out 2,100 rpms at 55 mph. And it takes miles to get up to speed. 2nd stop - Pilot in Wildwood. It is the first truckstop I come to 10 miles down the road. As I am pulling off the freeway I am slowing so that my rpms drop below 2,1000. When I do, one of the check engine lights goes off and does not come back on the rest of the day. I call dispatch, they call the shipper, the shipper calls me. After explaining what is happening and what isn't happening I get the OK to run with the one check engine light on. That took 45 minutes out of my day. The rest of the day, the rest of this trip, I will be loosing at least 15 minutes an hour by driving 55 mph vs 70 mph. That is if there are not any hills. I'm dropping to 50 mph just on the 'hills' in FL. Four long hours ... 3rd stop is in Tifton GA at the Pilot for fuel and Subway for lunch. Small place, kind of. Traffic is backed up out onto the highway because someone can't pick which fuel lane to park behind. There is room in all lanes, just pick one. I thought the line was moving so I pulled across oncoming traffic only to have the trucks ahead of me stop. I had to pull along side of the last truck off the street until he finally moved. Opps, this fuel pump shut off before my tank was full. This time it was because I moved the hose and the hose hit the handle. I would have liked to have known what mileage I am getting but I did not want to restart the pump for the last five gallons. There is a line at Subway but our other choice is Stake and Shake. We didn't walk over to see how long that would take. BB is not following me today, if she does decide to run with me she will likely lead. She does not like semi's coming up on her at 75+ mph when she is doing 55 mph. I am big enough that most people don't get that close to me. So far today I had to weight at the first scale, but that was all. The 2nd scale was closed and the 3rd scale I got the bypass. 4th and final stop was at the Comfort Suites in Forsyth. I saw the dual sign for the two motels but I had not looked at the map to see that they were in two different buildings. But once I got into the parking lot I could see BB in the car and I just followed where she went until I got to the very back of the parking lot of the 2nd building that I hadn't seen originally. After we check in we call next door to Shoney's and got food to go. Other than that food there was something in one of the gas stations and a BBQ place that was or wasn't open depending on which site we looked at. When we picked up our food at about 6 PM local there were people at about a half dozen tables in Shoney's. Not sure how many were having their buffet. I asked the person who waited on us about it and they said it is usually slow this time of year. But it is or isn't busy depending on the day. Load board US - 302 IA - 68/64 We have our day mapped out for tomorrow. BB will not be running with me and this is not one of our usual routes so I have written down all of the exit numbers and fuel stops. I would LIKE to run 500 miles tomorrow but that is not likely. Our plan had been to get the rental car back on Friday, but right now it looks like we will be dropping in MLW on Friday. I had also hoped to get some dental work done on Friday, that likely will now be Monday. AND two friends of a person staying at our house tested positive for Covid the last two days. Their only connection to each other is the person staying at our house ... who so far ... is not testing positive. We will likely stay away ... LOG (local) 7:30 - Leave hotel/stop at BK 8:00 - Arrive at Sumterville FL at shipper 8:45 - Leave shipper 9:15 - Arrive at Wildwood FL at Pilot 10:00 - Leave Pilot 2:00 - Arrive at Tifton GA at Pilot / Subway 2:45 - Leave Pilot 5:00 - Arrive at Forsyth GA at Comfort Inn 6:00 - PU food at Shoney's 220105 FL-WI 1 Tree truck to Menomonee Falls WI ... spending the night at Horse Cave KY Breakfast - two yogurts, one I ate, the other I brought with me for later. Later never came. This place did have the full spread but I thought I was going to get going earlier. Pretty much got out at the usual time. BB was planning on leaving an hour later assuming she would catch up to me around noon at lunch. 1st stop was 15 miles down the road for fuel at the TA. Today a 2nd dash light is on and off during the day. The ABS light also came on but I found that if I re-started the truck it would go off. I've been this route enough times that I didn't write down my route, just the exit numbers of where I was planning on stopping. "I don't always go the extra mile, but when I do it's because I missed my exit" ;) Twice today. Trucks are not allowed to go through downtown Atlanta so I knew I was looking for a beltway. The first one I saw was the I-675, as soon as I was on it I knew it was not where I was supposed to be. So I got off at the first exit, and I could see that there was no way to get back onto I-75 north, only back on I-675/I-75 south. That was the first issue. Then I noticed that people coming off the freeway exit were taking a left turn on red, across traffic. The light was not changing, then I was first in line and people were passing me on the right and taking a left on red in front of me. Maybe this isn't the first time this has happened here? I finally took a right on red and went up and turned around. By the time I got back the signal had changed and I had to wait. Now I know where I am supposed to be, as I get closer to the beltway I want to be on I see the airport signs. Not seeing them should have been my first clue I was at the wrong exit before. Even after I am on the beltway I am still kicking myself for not paying more attention. And I spend enough time kicking myself that I miss another turn ... I ended up on I-85 heading south out of ATL. But hey, I've done this one before, I knew which exit to take this time :) Those two Opps cost me about 10 miles and 20 minutes that I didn't want to loose. I am hoping to get closer to 500 miles today ... at 55 mph. 2nd stop is the same Pilot as on the way south in Dalton for a rest break. As slow and sluggish as this truck was on the hills in FL I was expecting to loose a fair amount of time on the hills. Not really. So far I have only down shifted on the big hill just east of Monteagle. That one is steep enough that all trucks must stop at the top heading east and read the sign listing where the run away ramps are. But we are heading west heading up instead of down. 3rd stop was in Monteagle for fuel at the Pilot and food at Wendy's. BB was there and we sat and ate in the car. Going through Nashville I had been noticing the hotel they were tearing down, all that is left is the concreate shell. But I had missed the new La Quinta just a block away. Five floors of rooms above a four story enclosed garage, also right by the stadium. 4th stop was in White House at the Loves for a break, while I was there I put in a couple of gallons of DEF to get me to the drop. I had tried to put in DEF back at Monteagle but my credit card was denied so I left. Then I found out that at Monteagle BB had just fueled the rental car. Sometimes the credit card doesn't like that. But here at Loves I can't even use my personal credit card. Company card or pre-pay inside. Usually if the place makes me pre-pay, I put in enough to get to the next station. Before I leave the station BB and I talk on the phone, she says we have two hours until dark. I have planned on stopping at Horse Cave because that is the cheapest fuel of the trip and I will be close to needing fuel again. She decides that is a good place to spend the night and makes a reservation. 5th and final stop is Horse Cave. First for fuel at the Loves. The place is packed, it doesn't help that people are leaving their trucks either before or after the pump and blocking others. Second stop for me was the Holiday Inn for the night, BB was already there. She tells me the only food in town is the Subway at the Loves. No, right across the street from the Loves is an Amish Bakery and Deli, and it was still open when I was at the Loves. Third stop in Horse Cave was for food at the Amish Bakery and Deli. We both got pulled pork on bread and then I got a piece of pineapple pie (?) and some cookies. Lots of baked goods, all looked good. Food was good, another good find. Load board US - 317 IA - 77/70 We have 500 miles to go tomorrow before we can deliver. We did 427 miles today. I would like to be rid of this thing without having to start it in the cold weather. Maybe? One of the people I mentioned who had home test positive for Covid did a clinic test and that showed negative. But now a different grandchild has Covid. LOG (local) 7:30 - leave Comfort Inn in Forsyth GA 8:00 - fuel at the TA in Jackson GA 10:00 - break at the Pilot in Dalton GA 12:00 - fuel at the Pilot in Monteagle TN 12:15 - eat at the Wendy's at the Pilot in Monteagle TN 3:00 - break at the Loves in White House TN 4:30 - fuel at the Loves in Horse Cave KY 4:45 - checkin at the Holiday Inn in Horse Cave KY 5:15 - get food at the Amish Bakery and Deli in Horse Cave KY 220106 FL-WI 1 Tree truck to Menomonee Falls WI (Delivered) ... spending the night at Waukesha WI BB is up at 4:30 ??? I get up when the alarm goes off at 6 AM. Good breakfast but this AM it is grab and go for me. This place has the yogurt where the only label is on the top and hard to read. At first it looked like it was all peach but I finally found two raspberry and grabbed them for later. I could have gotten going even earlier, it is already starting to get light. While I am inspecting I pour in the anti-gel that I should have dumped in last night. The truck did start and no frost on the windows yet. Computer says it is snowing but not here yet. DRIVERS, lack of common courtesy. All of these are from today. 1) There is a stall on the right shoulder so I move over. Most times when I move over I only move over half a lane to stop people from passing between me and the stall. That is what I did this time, but someone still tried to cut between me and the stall, in the half a lane. So I just came back over into the right lane and they stayed right with me until they were completely on the shoulder. They drove there for a bit and then dropped behind me and then passed me. There was no traffic in the left, 3rd lane, so they could have passed me on that side. 2) In Louisville there was only a short notice of which lane I had to be in when the freeway split, I was in the right lane and needed to be in the center lane. There was a truck in that lane so I turned on my signal to get over. At 55 mph the next truck should have been <> 5 truck lengths behind. Nope. He was about a half a truck length behind the first and would not let me over. So I had to slam on my breaks or take the other freeway. I hit the breaks. 3) Next time it was a stalled Greyhound on the shoulder, mostly on the shoulder partly into the right lane. This time I get all the way into the center lane so the trucks behind me can see why I got over. And one of them cuts between me and the bus ... but to get past the bus the truck has to be partly into my lane. 4) I can see cars ahead of me exiting my lane to get around a slow moving truck. I miss guess the speed of the truck and when I try to move over a lane the car in the next lane stays right at my tail. As I come over, they move over enough not to hit me but they will not back off to let me in. It is their lane so I pull back in my lane and hit the breaks. Kind of hard this time as this truck is almost stopped. In this case I was able to pass the truck on the right because there was a merge lane right there. (if I remember the others from today later they will be added) 1st stop was the rest area in Henryville. BB left the hotel a half hour later and still got there before I did. And today I didn't get lost. 2nd stop was in Lebanon at the Flying J for fuel and pizza off the shelf to eat as I drove. I didn't get lost today but BB missed a turn coming into Indy and had to double back. When I get the the Flying J the trucks look like they are backed up three to a lane. So I call BB to see how much I will be saving with our fuel discount or if I should just fuel somewhere else. As I am on the phone a lane opens and I'm fueling. Not sure what the back up on the other pumps was. From here I called the drop. They have Covid so I can just drop the truck in their driveway and leave. Anytime. 3rd stop was supposed to be the rest area but I noticed early on that the signs were showing 'X' for the truck spots open so I was wondering what that meant. It meant the rest area was closed. So 3rd stop was at the Flying J in Hebron at the next exit. When I get there I get a text that BB is already at the same station. Chicago. The 'safe' speed in Chicago construction zone is 10 mph OVER the posted. I was doing less than that, but still over the speed limit and I passed two vehicles in 30 miles of road construction. It was a casket truck followed by someone who couldn't get past him, yet. I guess that driver was no more interested in getting to someone else's funeral than he would be to get to his ... The average speed seemed to be 20 - 30 mph OVER the posted. No major slow downs. I had my I-pass in my window but so far the tolls have not shown up. We have to submit them with our paperwork or we will not get paid even if we submit them later. My truck has the long over hang on top because of the lift bucket so the toll readers haven't ever seen my I-pass, but I keep trying. I get the bypass on my final scale. There have been three weigh scales a day open and it was only at the first one that I had to weigh. Other than that I would either get the bypass message on the highway or get the first arrow to take the bypass once I had exited the freeway. I'm always glad to get the bypass but this time I am also wondering about how the tires are loaded on my truck. They are not centered which may have meant I was over width. The two tie down straps they used stayed tight. But there was something rubbing on one of them and it started cutting into it so I had to use tape to tie it away from the strap. 4th stop is at the Kwik Trip in Pleasant Prairie for fuel. I'm guessing I will need another 10 gallons. It is cold here. This was one of our two hour breaks so I fueled here instead of waiting until closer to the drop. I have written down the final turns to my drop but once I get off the freeway it is dark and I can not see any street signs. So after a couple of miles I pull into a parking lot and talk to BB. We still have one more traffic light before we turn. 5th stop, the drop, his house. I call when I am in the yard to make sure I have the right place. I do. ... but when I try to take my placards off the tape won't come off. BB tried to help me but we finally just left some of the tape on the truck. Painters tape. No more, we will use something else. 6th stop is the drive thru at Culvers, BB is hungry. Too hungry to wait to get food from the two nicer places next door to the hotel. 7th and final stop. The Comfort Inn in Waukesha. When we walk in there is a customer on their phone. They tell us they have been waiting an hour for someone to come to the desk and have been on the phone with Choice customer service trying to reach someone. That isn't working. So I try something else. I see on the wall who owns the hotel. I Google that name, nothing the first time. But I keep trying. Finally I see a unique name, so I Google the persons name. I get LinkedIn but that is of no help so I Google the name for a phone number. Bingo. I call the number and ask if I have the right name. I do. Then I ask if they are associated with this hotel. Their tone chances completely. Like ... who are you and how did you get my home number ... He does ask who I am, I give my first name and tell him that there is no desk staff at this location and others have been here an hour waiting. He says he'll handle it and hangs up. By the time I can tell the others waiting what just happened on the phone the desk staff walks in ... 'can I help you?' The person who has been waiting is not happy, another person in their party is at the hotel next door getting ready to check in there because they were tired of waiting. This person wants answers and details. We had only been there a few minutes, eating our Culvers so no big deal for us. ... when I do get waited on, yes, the person I had called called the person at the desk on their cell phone. Seems the hotel phone had a dead battery so they could not hear when someone was calling the desk ... but why be gone from the front desk for an HOUR during major check in time. It still doesn't add up. Once we are unloading our stuff from the car into the hotel I see something that doesn't look right. I have a pouch that I carry some paperwork in, this one is the same style but a different size. In the dark I grabbed paperwork from the truck that is not mine. I will need to return it to the customer before we leave town tomorrow. Time lost, but it could be worse. Load board US - 318 IA - 71/65 We have no plans for the weekend yet. We still have a rental car and I still want to get to the dentist before leaving town. AND the person living with us who didn't test positive for Covid on Monday but her two friends did ... now has a temp of 100+. So Covid or no, we don't want to head home. LOG 6:30 - Inspection and leave Holiday Inn in Horse Cave KY 8:45 - Henryville IN - break 11:00 - Lebanon IN - Flying J - fuel and shelf food 1:30 - Hebron IN - break 4:00 - Pleasant Prairie WI - fuel 5:00 - Menomonie Falls WI - drop at customers house 5:30 - Waukesha WI - Culver's 6:15 - Waukesha WI - Comfort Inn 220107 FL-WI 1 Tree truck to Menomonee Falls WI (Delivered) ... spending the night at Bloomington MN Breakfast, eggs, no sausage but the do have biscuits and gravy. Plus yogurt and juice. BB and I got talking this AM about last night. Someone had said they had been waiting an hour because no one was at the front desk of the hotel. When I called the boss, someone came to the desk in a couple of minutes. That person said they had been outside clearing the ice build up. Mmmm ... both BB and I had noticed, but didn't say anything to the desk clerk. She was wearing thin 'slippers,' no jacket, cap, gloves. And she didn't look like she had just changed (in that less than two minutes.) She also didn't look the least bit cold, when we walked in with jackets, caps, gloves we were still cold by the time we got to the desk and much later. The story does not add up. We left the hotel about 7:30, about sun up. 1st stop was back at last nights drop. The truck was still un-locked so I threw the plastic pouch in the passenger door and we headed out. 30+ minutes lost. (added later) Actually the 2nd stop was back at the Culvers parking lot. I called to get a dentist appointment. That took a little longer as Google would not show me there was anyone in the building where my dentist is so I had to look it up by name instead of using a map. The dentist did have openings for Monday but in case we find weekend work we will need Monday to get home. So I made my appt for Tuesday AM. 2nd stop was at Lake Mills, less than an hour down the road. BB has not slept well the last few nights and has been up early, now she is not feeling well and wants me to ask her each time we are getting to a rest area if she needs to stop. Most places the rest area's are 30 miles apart. This could be a long day. It should be about noon when we get to La Crosse so BB was looking for deli's in La Crosse. Not much there, Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's are listed as deli's. Then I realize where we are right now. A couple of miles from Mauston. We will just grab our food here for later ... or eat it now. When we get off the freeway our street is closed. A semi is blocking the lanes of traffic and is over the curb into on coming traffic. It's a small town, not much traffic. We take a right turn and then cut through parking lots until we can get back on the street. 3rd stop is the Log Cabin Deli in Mauston. Good food. Today's special was the Cuban so BB got that. I want to get here on a Thursday. Lasagna. No stopping every half hour after all. No terrible drivers either. Saw a few cars that didn't look until after they were changing lanes and then didn't but no accidents. 4th stop is St Charles for fuel at Loves. It is cold. The temp doesn't get above -0- until sometime the afternoon. My phone says it was -17 this AM at home. Tonight someone posted on FB the wind chills in ND. -59 in one place, lots of places lower than -50. And there is a 'hot' RV that needs to go to Minot. Maybe not something we will do right now. 5th stop is the shipper in Forest City to pick up our car. As long as we were there we also picked up our new legals for driving. They didn't seem happy that we were not also picking up. Not sure what is going on. Our load board shows about 70 trips. I did a rough estimate and I think the lot holds about 400-450. The lot is about 3/4 full, so there is about 300 RV's ready to ship. Or so it looks to me. BB stops in Northwood on the way back so that she will return the car on 3/4 for fuel. The same as she picked it up. When the weather was warmer she had been getting about 50 mpg. But that dropped once the temps dropped. When she drops at the airport there is no one to check her rental car in so she does not get a receipt. I was driving slow so I went straight to the airport when I got there. She wasn't ready so I circled once. And I saw our car coming out of the ramp heading to the shop. But as of three hours later they still have not 'received' our car so we do not yet have a receipt online. We have had that happen before. Finally a week later they call and ask how long we are keeping the car ... poor record keeping. Wow, this area has changed. I used to bring trucks and buses down here to a repair shop. It was all commercial businesses then. Now it is new hotels, new offices and flat land. 6th and final stop is the Cambria by the airport and Mall of America. It is close and it has laundry. We aren't going home right now, that someone is still feeling just as sick but their temp is gone. This place has a restaurant so we are set. The parking lot is full. Maybe we should have looked elsewhere. They still had rooms but the parking lot is packed. They must let people use their parking lot for a park and fly. Somehow we did find an empty spot almost by the main door. Lots of people coming and going, using the elevator, checking in, checking out. Just lots and lots of people. I'm sure none of them are sick, right? We are on the fifth floor, we do use the stairs some but also use the elevator some. We need to get all of our clothes in to be washed before we head out again. As soon as we are checked in we head down for food. They are out of most items on the menu so we each get a cheese burger. We even ask how big it is and it doesn't register. We each got an 8 oz burger. If he had said half pound we would have split it. Too much food but we each ate ours plus the fries/rings. When BB goes to do the wash she finds out it is ... free. But she isn't up for staying up all night so only one load tonight. We did not line up any work for tomorrow as BB wants to know how she feels before lining up work. So that means only the RV's. The auction trucks would have been lined up today. And the auction trucks is what she had done all the math on. Load board US - 271 IA - 70/64 LOG (like) 7:30 - leave Comfort Inn in Waukesha WI 8:00 - drop paperwork at last nights drop in Menomonie Falls WI 9:00 - Lake Mills WI - rest area 11:00 - Mauston WI - Log Cabin Deli 1:00 - St Charles MN - Loves for fuel 3:00 - Forest City IA - pickup our car 5:00 - MSP - drop rental car 5:30 - Bloomington MN - Cambria Hotel - get food from onsite hotel. Below is a picture of a smilair truck with the off road tires mounted on it.
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