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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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220310 IA-VT 2 RV's heading to Montpelier, VT (Friday) ... spending the night at home Alarm wakes us up today Ready to roll at 7 AM local (6 AM home time) We grab breakfast on the way out the door. Yogurt and juice. This place did have 'to-go' containers but anything else would have been too hard to eat in the car. No traffic coming into INDY but once on the beltway the traffic came to a stop. And then stop and go. We finally got to the problem, there had been an accident on the oncoming traffic and the fire department had three lanes blocked. In our direction it was just a gawkers slowdown. The snow is gone so we are back to using the Lebanon to Crawfordsville shortcut. 1st stop is Crawfordsville at the Pilot for fuel. I had hoped to have time to call while we were there but we were in and out quick so BB drove from here and I called. Dispatch - 1st they said they were paying an extra $100 for old trips. I told them I thought it was more than that so I got put on hold. Then it was $200 on the oldest trips so that is what we took. We are heading to VT. BB pulls over at the next exit and we switch drivers so she had book our cars. NOPE - We had checked to make sure we could get cars before we agreed to take this trip but we hadn't made reservations. Now there are no cars near our drop. We will need to re-route and deliver one RV at a time. Different logistics and actually less money but more miles on the RV's. We do get the rental car home and we should make money heading directly home which is our plan. We will deliver Monday and I planned, planned, on working for my 2nd company starting Tuesday. Now that will be delayed. 2nd stop is the rest area near Farmers City. I make a call to the east coast bus dispatcher. I haven't talked to them in four ?? years. They ask if I am OKed for buses, I am. They asked for my driver number to confirm, they did. And I told them I had worked for the other two bus dispatchers. They said call back tomorrow once I am in route. Maybe this will not be a one way trip ... and we will make even more money. The buses are about a half hour, via ferry, from where we pick up the rental car. 3rd stop was the Steak n Shake. Stop two was because too many places do not have their lobbies open anymore for us to be able to use the restrooms. We were not taking any chances. Steak n Shake was not as good today, too dry. Both the bun and the meat. We had wanted Culver's but they didn't open until 10:30 and we were eating 'lunch' at 10 AM. 4th stop was fuel in Davenport. We don't need fuel yet but it is cheaper here than anywhere. It all helps. Speedy just opened a new station with truck islands so Flying J and Loves are matching their low prices. Thank you. $.30 gallon cheaper than anywhere between here and home. 5th stop is fuel (again) in Floyd at the BP this time. Same price as Loves but we have gift cards we want to use. 6th stop was in Forest City to pick up our car. I also dropped off our paperwork, talked to another driver and picked up more log books. New calves. The one farmer that has a few cattle next to his building has a few new calves today, new enough that they were running and kicking up their heals. Between Forest City and the freeway I saw that the car ahead of me hit the shoulder to avoid something in the road. That something was a deer. When talking to BB later she said the deer was still kicking when she went by a couple of minutes ahead of me. Daylight, clear day, open fields for two miles on both sides of the road before you get to trees or brush. BB stopped once more at the Holiday next to the airport. The first pump she went to would not pump. So she tired shutting off the car and a few other things. Then she moved to the next pump, same thing. It wouldn't pump so she called me to see what she was missing. As she is talking to me, someone comes on the PA at the station to tell customers they are out of regular grade fuel. Now she knows, she only needs a couple of gallons but she has to pay $.30 more per gallon or find another station. Neither of us knew where that other station was. 7th stop was the airport to drop the car. Rare, but today there was someone checking in cars. So BB pointed out the crack in the windshield. We had not noticed it the first two days, and we should have an eye for this ??? The person checking pointed out the 'x' near the crack, that means someone has already has put the issue into the system ... so SHOULDN'T be any worries We stopped at Zupas for food before going home. Home for 12+ hours and leaving again. Hope to stay behind the storm or we will shut down. As of now there is an RV in IN coming back to MN. The truck in OH coming back to MN was gone some time today. Load board US - 575 IA - 338/331 Tomorrow we plan on heading out by 9 AM, getting our RV's by noon and get a 100 plus miles down the road. 1,400 miles total and we would like to be close to the rental car place Monday morning if the weather allows. If not, we sit. 220311 IA-VT 2 RV's heading to Montpelier, VT ... spending the night at Walcott IA Breakfast was ... a leftover half sandwich from last night. Good news. My weight free fall has stopped. Losing weight isn't bad but I had no idea why. I was loosing about two pounds a month for the last four months. When I get back home we will see if it really stopped or if I just ate too much last night. We headed out at 9 AM which was our goal ... then I realized I hadn't seen my I-pass. So I re-looked through a couple of bags before I found it. That took a few extra minutes so we were running a little late. 1st stop was the Fleet Farm for fuel. Today fuel isn't that much cheaper but it is a known, and a quick on and off. We don't see the little calves that I saw yesterday. The pen is small so either they have been moved already or the ALL were hiding in an open field. 2nd stop is the shipper in Forest City. There are a few people there, coming or going. We go in and get our paperwork. The person who gives it to us thanks me for my comments on FaceBook. I kind of hide my face and then have to admit that I am no longer on the group. As we are heading to get our RV's we see someone bringing in two more. At the time I was thinking they were lost, they should have been dropping them at the shipper. Now I am not sure, I did not look that close at them. When we were inspecting our RV's we were parked next to a truck that was bringing in two RV's. Not sure for where or why. Today both RV's pass inspection. We spend more time looking at the insides today than the outsides. The temps are about 10 above with a stiff breeze. Our range says we do not have enough fuel to get to our planned first fuel stop but our gauge says we do. After we drive about 10 miles I stop and call BB to make sure she has enough fuel to make it. She thinks so, and it is a gas unit so we continue. Her low fuel light does come on before we get to the station, I still have a quarter tank. 3rd stop is the Love's in Floyd for fuel and food. We still have gift cards for the BP across the street but this makes it just one stop. We fill and split a GodFather's personal pan pizza from the shelf. Before we head out I call the NY bus dispatcher. They will not know anything until 3 PM. Currently most buses are going to NYC, Portland OR or CGO. Some drivers like the short trips, some like the long. The CGO buses go to those who do not care. They do have drivers in hotels so it will depend on what buses are released. My guess is the drivers who are in the hotel are their regular drivers who want to go to NYC or PTL. I may be in luck. Dispatch does want me to call them back so I take that as a good sign I will get work. As soon as I hang up I realize something she has said, the shipper wants the buses picked up the same day or early morning the next day. We will not be delivering until mid-day Monday. So I call back, that doesn't change anything on her end ... I'm guessing she is short of drivers. 4th stop is the Casey's in Central Point. Plan had been to stop in Cedar Rapids but dispatch wanted a call back at 4:30 and it is already 4:45 when I call. Dispatch still doesn't know anything, no word from the shipper yet. No problem, I will call on Monday after we deliver. BB and I had gone back and forth of where to stop, we had settled on Cedar Rapids ... until we needed to stop at 4:30. We did quick math to see where to stop for the night. We are short daylight to make it past Davenport. Another half hour would have made the difference but we were not thinking about that this AM at home. The hotel in Walcott is a lot cheaper than Davenport and only a half hour difference so we stop there. Also the food is better. Oh yeah. I made one guys day today. I was trying to pass a truck when the truck sped up. As soon as the truck in the right lane sped up the truck behind me got over behind him before I had a chance to get back over. So that truck went past me and a car that had already been there. So I put on my signal in plenty of time to get over, but there was one pickup who was way back when I turned my signal on, but he must have sped up when he saw my signal and came up on me fast. I tried to still get over but he wouldn't let me so I pulled back into the left lane. When he could get past he blew his horn and flew his bird for as long as I could see him. 5th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Walcott. The only thing in the parking lot is a semi tractor in a car spot, no cars. So our usual spot is open. We do notice that there are a lot of travel trailers in the truck parking area. When we get out of our RV's we feel why, we have had a stiff tailwind today. BB tries to order food online from Grandma's next door. She can't do my chicken sandwich so I order my Philly instead. Then she can't do her sandwich so she goes with a chicken sandwich instead. When we go to get our food we are freezing before we are halfway there and coming back we will be walking into the wind. Our food is ready so it is a quick in and out. As soon as we are out of the building BB says the bag feels light, like it is empty. When we get back to the room, the containers are not empty, but they do not include any of our sides. And BB's guacamole and chicken sandwich is missing the guacamole. My Philly is good but way too much seasoning. Next time we will be checking our bag before we leave. Load board US - 536 IA - 332/326 Yesterday there had been an RV in IN that would have worked with the CGO bus trip. Get a local rental car in CGO, go back to IN and pick up the RV and drop the rental. But that is gone. Now there is a tanker truck in MA coming back to MN or a 'tractor' in OH coming back. We will see what Monday brings. We have tomorrow planned. We know where the cheap fuel is and where our last fuel stop should be. Once we get to CGO before noon we will be on toll roads until late Sunday. We have added more money to our toll pass account. LOG 9:15 - St Paul MN - leave 10:15 - Owattona MN - Fleet Farm - fuel 11:45 - Forest City IA - PU RV's 12:30 - Forest City IA - leave 1:30 - Floyd IA - Loves/Godfather's - fuel and food 3:45 - Center Point IA - Casey's - break 5:30 - Walcott IA - Comfort Inn 6:30 - Walcott IA - Grandma's OUCH - I just realized that either I did not do a safety meeting or the computer did not accept it. Either way I am out $200-$300. 220312 IA-VT 2 RV's heading to Montpelier, VT ... spending the night at Painsville OH Time change Will writeup later Lake Erie, Ekko driver, Evening food (it is now six days later. My mind might be a little foggy on the details) We leave out of Walcott at 7 AM. Breakfast is a no-name nuke sandwich. There is also one juice working. There are no pastries set out or anything else, makes for a quick meal. When I check out I let the clerk know that 'near where the semi was parked' in the car area, there is now a large pool of oil. 1st stop is in Davenport at the Loves about 10 miles down the road. Last cheap fuel. I do not remember why we did not fuel at the Speedway again this trip. 2nd stop is in Ottawa at the Road Ranger for a rest stop. Chicago traffic was not bad for a ... Saturday (?) As we are leaving Chicago there are a lot of cops in the on coming traffic, but no wreckers or fire trucks. They seem to have surrounded a car. My guess is either a high speed chase or an abduction. I did see someone holding a child among the police cars. We just had a gawkers slowdown. The other side of the freeway had four of six lanes blocked so a nice long back up. 3rd stop was in Rolling Prairie oasis for Sbarro. We both had baked ziti. We ate indoors. 4th stop was at the Loves in Edon for fuel. One exit between the IN and OH toll roads and now there is a Loves here. There had been another truckstop at this exit years ago and it closed down. For years there had also been a Subway and a Burger King, not sure if they were still here when Loves opened but they are not here now. We did see one of our drivers and talked to him a few seconds. He wasn't sure we were driveaway because he couldn't see our plates in our front windows. He is going to PA. 5th stop is in Amhurst at a rest area right before we get to Cleveland. We are early enough that we will try to make it past Cleveland and stay at a hotel on the east side. We did not want to go through Cleveland but every route that we looked at, Google would change before we are done looking at the directions. We finally took the route we know. I-90 through downtown. Right before we head inland past Cleveland we are right up against Lake Erie. Today I can see the waves hitting the rocks. The rocks look like they are 20 feet high and the waves are splashing another 10 feet over the top. Not much time to look and no time for pictures. 6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Painsville right across from the hospital. Not cheap, but nice. And out of downtown. Icy everywhere. We are staying right behind the storm. We had talked about walking to McDonalds across the parking lot but that would have taken two old people a while, walking on ice. So we decided to drive. ... The lobby is closed at McDonalds, drive thru only and our RV will not fit. ... Chipotle, we can see that the line inside is from the door to the counter, we drive past. ... we end up at Subway. I thought we would go back the way we came but we can not take a left turn onto that street. So I decided to make a u-turn in a parking lot, someone is blowing their horn at me before I do, not sure what I did wrong that time. After I make my u-turn I realize that where I wanted to turn will not let me cross the main street, That street is right turn only. So back past the Subway. That trip to next door turned into a much longer trip in both time and miles. Load board US - 523 IA - 326/320 LOG 7:00 - Walcott IA - Leave Comfort Inn 7:30 - Davenport IA - Loves - fuel 9:00 - Ottawa IL - Road Ranger - rest break 11:30 - Rolling Prairie IN - Sbarro's 1:30 - Edon OH - Loves - fuel 4:00 - Amhurst OH - oasis - rest break 5:15 - Painsville OH - Comfort Inn 6:30 - Painsville OH - Subway 220313 IA-VT 2 RV's heading to Montpelier, VT ... spending the night at Rutland VT Rough morning. Not only are we in a new time zone we are back on daylight savings. A two hour time difference getting up from yesterday. Two hours earlier. 71 miles to go Breakfast was bacon and eggs. This place also had Malt-oMeal, we don't see that often (or ever?) Ice, everywhere. Slipped an inch once but that was all, but it does keep one thinking. 1st stop is 40 miles down the road at a Shell station for fuel. Brand new, not on images on the computer. Truckers like their big parking but no one is at their diesel pumps. And at the Lover across the street every diesel island is full and Loves posted price is more. Today we have gift cards to use, and we have a discount / rewards card that saves us three cents so that makes their fuel cheaper for us. It is cold. Temps are just over the single digits. My fingers are froze just swiping the card and hitting the keys. There is an old 'Dixie' truck stop sign that looks as clear as when they would have put it up. It was already closed when I started taking trips this way in 2003. This AM roads are still wet in places and still are hard packed in the left lane in a few places. Don't want to be driving on this after dark, glad we shut down when we did. Lost in my own thoughts I wasn't really looking for things this AM. But I was looking around near North East and saw the lake. Lake Erie. The elevation and geography is such that you can see the lake for a couple of miles. Open water out, froze over closer in. 2nd stop was at a rest area/oasis in Angola for a break. The sign and memory says this oasis just had a McDonald's. Now it also has a Cinnibon's, Subway and another restaurant. 3rd stop was for food in Scottsville at a rest area/oasis. Arbey's is what the signs and the website said was open. But Tim Horton's was also open. Open but out of half their food. There are a few things we like there and it would be a change but the only food they had today were a few breakfast sandwiches and we already had breakfast. 4th stop was at a rest area/oasis in Oneida for fuel at a Sunoco. We didn't need fuel yet but we would need it before we got off the toll road so rather than have an extra stop we fueled here. I put in less than I needed hoping I would gain more range. BB put in more than she needed after running on 'E' a couple of trips ago. 5th stop was at a rest area near Clifton Park. We are off the toll road so it is not an oasis. It is still early enough that we can make it to Rutland but not Burlington. One of the few things nice about going east is there are more places the speed limit is 65 mph so we do not feel like we are going to get run off the road. I/we thought we were taking a different road than usual when we got off of the freeway today. 6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Ruthland Food was 5 guys. More later (five days later) I know where the hotel is and then I see the entrance sign so I head that way ... and make a u-turn. The main entrance is under a walk way, we find another way it. This place is called the Trolley. I hope that is not because it has train tracks on two sides of the hotel. We get parked and check in. Another old hotel. As soon as we drop our things in our room, we walk across the street to the Mickey D's. The lobby closes at 7 PM and we are there at 7:10. Back we go to the hotel. There are two other places within walking distance. The one we get a discount at has food we might want ... if it was $40 a plate. The other one is a bar and we don't see a menu so we finally decide to order online from Five Guys. Between deciding, ordering, eating we are easily using up 1-1/2 to two hours of our off time. That is why I have gotten so far behind on doing the write ups. We don't decide until tomorrow if I will be traveling with BB or we will go our own ways in the AM. LOG 7:00 - Painsville OH - Comfort Inn - leave 8:00 - Conneaut OH - Shell - fuel 9:45 - Angola NY - oasis - rest break 11:30 - Scottsville NY - Arbey's 1:45 - Oneida NY - Sunoco - fuel 3:45 - Clifton Park NY - rest area 5:30 - Rutland VT - Comfort Inn 6:45 - Rutland VT - Five Guys .. the trip continues from HERE |
