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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 220125 NC-IL 1 tree truck to Springfield IL (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Santee SC Breakfast - leftover steak and hotel eggs, plus juice. The stake was still good, the eggs were good too ... not sure if it was how they were made or because they sat in the steak grease :) The juice, my juice from Walmart that had been open for three days was better than the hotel's colored water. We are ready to go, so we hit refresh on the computer for a few hours. Then I call down and get a late checkout so we can do the same thing for a couple of more hours. We did take a 15 minute walk this AM, on the side walk near our hotel. But we couldn't walk very far without crossing a street and at the first street we crossed a school bus was not going to wait for us if we were in the walk or not. So BB ran and I may have felt the breeze ... (no, I did not take his plate number down) Finally at 1 PM we check out. 1st stop is the Chick fil A. Drive thru as we had just left the hotel. Two rows for the drive thru and then we had to merge. When I should have merged, the next guy in the other line was looking at his phone and I was not going to chance it once it was clear he was not paying attention. Later I honked at him because an employee was almost up to his window coming from the front of the car trying to get him to move, to keep traffic moving. We sat in the parking lot and ate. After we ate I looked at the math again and decided we would head to NC. The NC trip is out of route, but it is more paid miles, it doesn't involve a trailer ... and if you include going back to IA to pickup our car later on the other trip, the two are about equal. And it is new. We head north. We have a few hours for dispatch to put more shipments out. They do put out one, but because of where we the deadhead would be equal to the paid miles. The truck is in Tampa going to GA. NC puts out more trips but none that are better than what has been out there for a few days and there are still six of them left. 2nd stop is at the GA welcome center. 3rd stop is for fuel in Hardeeville at Parkers, it seems to be a local chain at a few of the exits. Gas is about a dime cheaper than at the Pilot next door. No stoplights at this exit so it takes a while to get on the street from either direction. While we are here I call dispatch and get a trip from NC to IL. We now have a plan. We should pick up tomorrow about noon and deliver Friday AM. Not sure what we will do after we drop. We can drop auction trucks on Saturday but there has not been anything in our area for the last two days. 4th and final stop is Santee. First we go to the deli because we know they close at 7 PM. It is 6 PM and they are closed. So when I check in at the hotel I ask what hours the deli is open, '... until 7.' Not sure why the closed, they were still in there but the doors were locked and they waved us away. The hotel tonight is the Best Western. BB spent hours (?) looking at hotel reviews. All the Choice hotels had either really bad reviews or were WAY over $100. This place is a one level hotel so we drive to our room and enter directly from the outside. There is a handicap parking spot in front of our room so BB wants to look at the room before we carry our things in. So we go in, it is not a handicap room. So we go and get our things and come back to ... the door ... the locked door. We can see the keys on the bed. Usually I am in charge of the keys but BB wanted to look at the room first so .. We end up walking to the Huddle House and ordering breakfast to go. There was also a Taco Bell and a fish and steak place adjacent to the parking lot so lots of food. Huddle House was good tonight. We both had eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. When we were done eating I went back to the office and was able to print my paperwork for tomorrows trip. This place had three computers in their business center, most places only have one computer. And it worked, so I am set. Load board US - 290 IA - 97 Tomorrow, we have about three hours to get to the shipper. We should be there about noon so we should be able to get five hours with the truck. LOG like 1:00 - Leave Best Western in St Augustine FL 1:15 - St Augustine FL - Chic fil A 3:00 - St Marys GA - Rest area 4:30 - Hardeeville SC - Parkers for gas 6:00 - Santee SC - Best Western 6:30 - Santee SC - Huddle House 220126 NC-IL 1 tree truck to Springfield IL ... spending the night at Cross Lanes WV Breakfast - eggs, sliced sausage, mixed fresh fruit and juice. Plenty to eat. Didn't think about it then but I won't need to stop to eat lunch today. When we walked out of our room to go to breakfast this AM we noticed that the door to the room next to us was wide open. Still open when we came back from breakfast and still open when we checked out. So I commented to the desk clerk when I turned in my keys that the door was open. Seems 'kids' reserved 12 rooms for the night, no adults (?) and they left taking a few things with them. We didn't hear a thing, it was a quiet night for us. Running about 15 minutes late this AM, no real reason. Long walk to breakfast? 1st stop is about two hours down the road near Fayetteville two hours down the road. Somewhere on I-95 this AM we were going through road construction, two lanes wide with concrete barriers on both sides, no shoulder. Not sure how I didn't see it sooner but there is a car stopped dead in the right lane. We have a rental car so I don't know where the flashers are so I start pumping my breaks to make them flash. Everyone gets slowed down and merged, no accident when we passed. 2nd stop is at the shipper in Creedmoor. I've been here a few times but the paperwork says my truck is in row 1 of the 'new lot.' I'm not sure where that is so when I see a guy picking up trash in the parking lot, I ask him. Little things help a lot :) Found my truck. It is the same as the others we have gotten out of here. Ford 750. All checks OK and I have enough fuel to get to a truckstop down the road. The local Speedway is no longer on our carriers list of fueling stops. The new lot is out of the way so I need to circle back through the employee lot to drop off my paperwork. BB heads her own way from here and I won't see her again until the hotel tonight. 3rd stop is the Pilot in Mebane for fuel. It was going to be the Petro but the Petro is the next exit after the weigh scale and I was concentrating on the scale and missed it. All trucks had to exit to the scale but the truck ahead of me didn't. Then I saw a officer take off in his pickup and I thought he was going after the truck ... so I was watching that, plus merging back into traffic and forgetting I needed fuel. In Winston-Salem we switch from one four lane to another four lane, I'm looking over my shoulder to merge into traffic and the car is giving me plenty of room. Then I look ahead and breaklights. There is a semi stopped in the left lane bringing everyone to a stop. Here we are able to drive on the shoulder/merge lane and everyone gets around him. Not sure what was going on, by the time I am up to him he is moving again. 4th stop is at the oasis near Camp Creek. I call my drop. They are open 7 AM to 3 PM. We have 500 miles to go tomorrow so not likely we were make it by 3 PM. I also text BB to let her know where I am. This trip I do not even try to use my I-Pass. In the past I have waved it out the window or given it to the toll takers. This time I just pay cash. By the 3rd toll booth, BB has caught up to me and follows me for the last hour to our hotel. I had wanted to be to the hotel between sun set and last light and we made it. Before here, the last hotels were 100 miles back. 5th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Cross Lanes. Big parking lot out back and food next door. Once we are in the room, BB asks if I put in anti-gel. Opps, and it is getting down in the single digits tonight. There is also food a few blocks back, as we were going past that place tonight there was a car coming up to the street at an angle and I didn't think they were watching so I almost came to a complete stop on the street before they looked my way and saw me. BB orders our food online from the car. Then we check in and see that this place has evening soup. (Besides the cookies) So I grabbed a cup. Beef stroganoff soup. It was good, but that plus my meat loaf from Cracker Barrel was too much so I left the potatoes and fried apples for breakfast. Load board US - 327 IA - 103 500 miles left until the drop. We will try to make all of them tomorrow and then deliver 1st thing Friday AM. We would like to find more work for Friday or the weekend but there are not many places we can deliver on the weekend and we have to have the car back Monday AM. Right now we are hoping to break even for this trip. With just one of us driving, taking days off and a not-so cheap rental car it does not pay. More like a mostly paid vacation. LOG 6:45 - Leave Best Western in Santte SC 9:00 - Rowland NC - rest area 11:00 - Creedmore - PU at shipper 12:00 - Mebane NC - Pilot - fuel 3:15 - Camp Creek WV - oasis 5:15 - Cross Lanes WV - Comfort Inn 5:30 - Cross Lanes WV - Cracker Barrell 220127 NC-IL 1 tree truck to Springfield IL ... spending the night at Decatur IL Breakfast was cheesy eggs and fried apples from the hotel, and cheesy hash browns and more fried apples from last night. My truck does not have any frost, likely because of the large overhang. But BB had a lot of frost to scrape. We head out right about 7:30 Great way to start the AM. As I am pulling up to the stoplight, the car ahead of me is taking a left ... so the on coming car also takes a left ... as does every car behind it. I had to stop on a green because they wouldn't yield. Then I pull into traffic and the next un-coming person parks in front of me, partly in the on coming traffic ??? 1st stop is the Pilot at Nitro. No line today, which made it easy to back out and go to the next pump. The first pump would not ready my fuel card. Wow, US-35 is now done between Nitro and Gallipolis. Four lane all the way now. When I first started doing this job it was two lane all the way. BB said she was all the way past Gallipolis before she realized that she hadn't seen the river like you could from the two lane. Coming into Dayton, there is a car that flies up on my left, hangs there for a few seconds and then passes three lanes of traffic by driving on the shoulder. This area has a concrete barrier next to the shoulder because there is more traffic to the left of us. There is also debris on the shoulder and I thought that car was going to hit some of the wood just right and send it flying. Just a couple miles down the road the right lane comes to a stop. These breaks are like stepping on a pillow, so far they get me stopped but not quickly and there is plenty of cushion. Once I am closer to the why, I see that the exit ramp to get onto my next freeway is closed. They are routing traffic onto the southbound exit and I want to go north. So I revert to my old ways. Prior to BB running with me I used to get on the highway I am on without going through Dayton. So I just stay on the road I am on until it mergers with I-70 west of town. Lots of stop lights and low speed limits but I know it goes where I want to go. When we get to the IN scale, I am one of the few that has to exit and cross the scale. One truck ahead of me and it is sitting on the scale with the scale sign saying 'back up.' So I stayed way back. Finally the trucks behind me are getting close to backing up unto the freeway so I pull ahead so I can no longer see the sign. When the driver pulls ahead off the scale the sign is saying 'proceed to inspection shed.' For me? It stayed that way until I was half way onto the scale. The other truck pulled off the scale and turned to the inspection shed but then stopped there. It was still sitting there when I left. And I sat there a bit before I got the OK to go. While I was having fun at the scale, BB was trying to get the hood open on the car. No washer fluid this AM. She finally gave up and washed the windows at the gas station. 2nd stop is the rest area in Greens Fork IN Local dispatch dispatch has emailed by the time I get here. They want us to do a repeat of our last trip to MO. I reply that I will let them know in the AM. But by the next stop I have had enough time to think about it. No time right now and we have plans for Tuesday. IF anything doesn't go as planned, Tuesday's plans will have to move to Wednesday or Thursday so I do not want to plan anything beyond Tuesday until Tuesday is complete. Kind of why I live by the six hour rule. I do not commit myself ahead of time. From here I realize I can not make it to Crawfordsville without fueling, I will not even be able to make it to Lebanon like I had texted BB a few minutes ago. 3rd stop is the Pilot in Greenfield for fuel and food. At the fuel pumps I pick the wrong line, all islands are full. But one opens up and no one is close so I jump lanes. And then when I am done I back out instead of wait. I'm in a small truck so I decide to park in front with the cars. Not a great idea, no real parking at this location. BB actually went to the Speedway across the street because she couldn't see gas pumps at this station. I do find a place to park and I go inside to get my receipt. Today I need to take a half hour break so my plan was to eat while I was here. GodFather's is the only hot food and they are closed. So I look at the roller food, all that they have are jalapeno hot dogs. Nope, that does not work either. By now most of my half hour has been used up so I head out without eating. There are a few different ways we take going through Indy. Lately we have been going around the north end of town up to Lebanon and taking a two lane highway over to Crawfordsville. But it is snowing off and on and I prefer to stay on the main roads where all the traffic is at least going the same direction. So I decide to take the side streets through town instead. This has it's own issue as roadwork signs say the freeway is closed, but it doesn't say where. BB is following her GPS and doesn't trust that we can get through downtown so she goes all the way around the beltway until she is back to the freeway leaving town. The freeway is open to the exit we need so no issue there. But when I get on the city street I get next to a driver who keeps leaning sideways in their seat. Not sure if they are reaching for something or passing out. Whatever they are doing they are also coming over the white line when they are driving. So as soon as I can I get one lane between me and the. 4th stop was the Pilot in Crawfordsville. Here is where we had planned to stop for me to fuel and us to eat. Now I see that BB has texted me that her wiper fluid isn't working. Somehow BB has gotten a half hour behind me so now I have take two half hour breaks today. When she gets here we buy more washer fluid and pour in a very little bit and it is full. So it looks like it is frozen. From here I call the drop. 8:30 AM tomorrow will work. Before we get to the hotel the temps are close to 30, the washers work :) 5th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Decatur IL McCallister's Deli for food. About half the items on their website say 'not available at this store' including both the sandwich that BB and I wanted. Load board US - 315 IA - 104/102 We will have six hours back to our car. Nothing on the load board that works for us right now without getting an OK for Saturday delivery. Or by picking something up on Sunday for a Monday delivery. LOG 6:30 - Leave Sleep Inn in Cross Lanes WV 11:00 - Greens Fork IN - rest area 12:00 - Greenfield IN - Pilot - Fuel and break 1:30 - Crawfordsville IN - Pilot - break 4:00 - Decatur IL - Sleep Inn 4:30 - Decatur IL - McCallister's Deli 220128 NC-IL 1 tree truck to Springfield IL (delivered) ... spending the night at home Breakfast - No eggs or meat, not even nuke sandwiches were available. So I grabbed two cups of yogurt. When I'm about half done with the first cup I realize that it is warm. Room temperature. So I quit and threw it away. When I checked out, I mentioned it to the person at the front desk. They asked if I had told anyone at the time? Opps. I should have. I should have come down and ask for cold yogurt. I guess I was too busy getting ready. Yesterday when I fueled I had done the math for my mileage. I had used the current mpg. After I fueled I had an excess range of 50 miles more than I needed. Today I leave the hotel with a range of 10 miles more than I need. As I round the cloverleaf close to the drop, I loose the last of the excess range. So I get to the lot a little under on range but still showing at 1/8th of a tank of fuel. 1st stop was the drop. It was in the city lot but I need someone there to sign for it. There is a pickup from another company there, and that was my contact. His prior company had lost the contract, so he jumped ship to the new company. Not sure how he still has the prior company's pickup. Today the temps are not in the 30's and the washer tank is frozen again. I guess we were not able to pour in enough new fluid to make a difference. 2nd stop was for gas at a Shell station in Kickapoo. Fuel is cheaper here than most places in IL, but ... The first pump said 'see cashier,' so I moved on to the next. Gas is $.30 more here than in IA. BB insists that I put in four gallons. She doesn't want to walk in this, or any weather. Again, after fueling, we have 100 miles extra range. Opps. 3rd stop was in Moline at a McCallister's. BB had ordered online. This place was out of different foods than last night. BB liked her sandwich so much last night that she ordered the same thing today. It wasn't quite as good as last night but still good. I ended up with their version of a reuben. They were also out of the chicken salad sandwich and the French Dip would have been too messy to eat and drive. 4th stop was the Loves in Davenport. Fuel is $2.99. This time we get there with an excess range of 88 miles. Nope, didn't need to put in four gallons. I get another call today from the local dispatcher, I let it go to voicemail. Today they have a trip going to International Falls. It could be done in one day ... if nothing goes wrong. To make things even better, the auction dispatcher at the other company has something coming back from Bemidji. So almost a round trip. Good money. But we haven't been home for a few days and most of this would have to be done on Monday. I prefer not leaving the city limits on Monday so we pass. There is also another pickup from NE coming back to MN. But we are running too late to make pickup today. We were watching for anything out of IL and then eastern IA but nothing showed. The closer we get to home on any trip the less likely we are not going to just go home. We must have some kind of bubble around us. Something that keeps good trips from showing up in our area when we are there. There has been trips daily in FL since we left. And today there were four trucks in NC going to CA that BB would drive. Also two going up to WI. Not sure what we would have done with the rental car ... but the trucks were there. Long haul dispatch had also contacted me about a truck in Sauk Center MN going to TN. Sorry, I'm not in MN today ... They also contacted BB. Not sure how she is listed in their computer, she gets a lot of calls on CDL trucks. 5th stop is in Janesville at the Kwik Star for a break and to reply to messages. 6th stop is to pickup our our own car in Forest City. Didn't talk to anyone today, just dropped off my paperwork from the last RV trip. BB took the rental car because it was already warm. But that meant that she needed to stop for fuel before getting home. She stopped at Owattona at the Fleet Farm. 7th stop was at Zupas. We had decided we would each just get our own food somewhere before we got home. I stop at Zupas and get my food. While I was waiting for the cars to clear I was parked behind someone ... I noticed movement by the car so I looked over. BB was just getting out of her car :) 8th and final stop is home. Home for four days. This was a 'paid vacation.' We did make more money than we needed to cover tax type expenses. But if you would also subtract the money we spent for food we did not. But we would be eating food no matter where we were. So we likely will not be doing this kind of trip again soon. Or maybe next week ... depending on how bad we want to get out of town. Right now the only pair of RV's leaving town are going to Louisiana . All other trips keep us above the snow line. Load board US - 286 IA - 98/97 Off now until Wednesday ?? LOG 7:30 - Leave Sleep Inn in Decatur IL 8:30 - Drop - Springfield IL Kickapoo IL - Shell - fuel 11:00 - Moline IL - McCallister's Deli 11:30 - Davenport IA - Loves 1:15 - Janesville IA - Kwik Star 3:15 - Forest City IA - pickup personal car 5:45 - Woodbury MN - Zupas 6:00 - home |
