 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
220419 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Waukee IA Up about our usual time this AM. Plan was to call in and take two runs to Bozeman today and then do 1 or 2 more trips to Bozeman back to back. We had made the car reservation last night (instead of after the fact like our last trip.) Then I asked BB if she had looked at the weather this AM. She had not ... so she did now. It looks like clear sailing ... to California. The weather en-route has either lessened or delayed. So in a few minutes time we switched from going to MT 2-3 times to going to CA once. (I had hoped to call the bus dispatcher before we left but I was not going to wake him up at 5 AM to ask him a hypothetical question. Today both BB and I have dentist appointments before we head out, so I leave early for my appointment so I have time to call for our trips before I need to be sitting in the chair.' 8 AM - I call dispatch and get two trips to Manteca, we could have taken two the same but we take the two oldest trips. By 11 AM we are both back home and getting ready to go. We pull out about 11:30. 1st stop is for food for BB at the Honey Baked Ham in Burnsville. My meal will be yogurt. My antibiotic that I need to take for the dentist is hitting me harder than it has for years. 2nd stop is in Medford at Kwik Trip for fuel. Gas is the same price here as the Fleet Farm in Owatonna and this place is a little nice and I have a rewards card ... not sure what good the card does but once in a while I get a $.02 discount. Wow, all but 10 RV's are in the ship lot. There had been up to 200 sitting outside the fence. 3rd stop is the shipper in Forest City. A few people leaving out today. After I find my RV I see a guy looking lost trying to find his RV. I stop and talk to him and tell him how the lot is numbered and he finds it within a few minutes. We are in no rush and we do not. It takes us an hour to do our inspections today. The guy I had talked to earlier parks near us to inspect his RV and I talk to him again a little. He usually drives out of IN but the extra pay on the older trips makes it worth it to come here. (This driver thinks there are about 300 RV's, ready but not in our ship lot) We do see a lot of units that look ready on the factory side of the fence. Both BB and I have enough fuel to get to the first Loves, 70 miles down the road. Opps ... big OPPS. I did not put all of my paperwork back into my backpack after looking at it this weekend. I am sitting trying to re-create my work for the last eight days when BB asks if she can help. I tell her she can look up my notes here and hopefully I included enough that I can create a log. Then she ask why I don't just look on my computer ... and then she asks another question ... Duh. Every night I double check my logs but using an online log software. Everything I have is there, and it is legal. I am legal without having it on paper ... WHEW. There is a farm between Forest City and the freeway that has had four four-wheel drive tractors sitting ready for the fields for a month now. Today I had planned on taking a picture of them as I went past but forgot until I was going past. I assume that they will not be lined up like that again until next year. Somewhere early on the road there was a Home Depot truck that past us running on a transporter plate. I wonder where those come out of ... he was heading south. So either MN or northern IA. 4th stop is the Loves in Ellsworth. We are fueling in front but could be fueling with the trucks with these RV's. As we are fueling someone pulls up across from us and we notice he has cardboard signs in his front seat. After he fuels he parks and puts up his cardboard signs. 'All money was stolen. Trying to get home for Easter.' From here we decide to stay in Waukee. There are three nice hotels in Des Moines but this one gets us the farthest. Any further and we would have to go to Omaha. 5th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Waukee. Food is next door from the Hy-Vee Express. I order a chicken salad sandwich on croissant. I ask about the soup being spicy and comment that ketchup is as spicy as I go. They say it is not so I order a cup of that also. When we get back to the room I find I have some type of sliced meat and cheddar cheese on a ketchup. And the sup is so spicy it hurts my lips when I put it in my mouth. I at the sandwich and not the soup. Never did decide what kind of meat it was. Other than the kind you buy at the store in small packages. Someone has been posting on FaceBook that they were shut down because of the wind in NE and then again in WY on I-80. Now, a little after 7 PM, we see that the road in WY has reopened. Looking at the weather for tomorrow we will have a head wind most of the day. IF we wait until Thursday we we will have a tail wind. We have the time, we'll see how bad the wind is. It is not supposed to be real bad. But it will cut into our mileage. Load board US - 598 IA - 301/298 The Loves on I-80 seem to be about 140 miles apart. And my range after the first fuel was 288, so without a head wind, I should be able to come in on fumes. Or I need to stop every 140 miles for fuel. We MAY get as far as Sidney tomorrow, that would be our 500+ daily miles. But if the winds are bad anywhere we will likely shut down early. I did do the math and IF we did the following ... 4 AM Weds - leave hotel 600 mile day - we get to Cheyenne 2 AM Thurs - leave hotel 600 mile day - Wells NV 12 AM Friday - leave hotel 500 miles we are at our drop on Friday instead of Monday. ... and it would be legal. Instead we will take our time. 220420 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Sidney NE Hot breakfast items were biscuits and gravy and waffles. I had yogurt. We pull out at our usual 7:30. Somewhere still in IA we hit a patch of rain that was so hard that we had to have the wipers on high and had to slow down. 10 minutes maybe? of coming down at that rate. After one of the rains today the fields were really 'steaming.' Roadside inspections (?) There were three semi's with cops behind them in the rest area closest to Omaha. There were at least another half dozen actually roadside close to that area. After we leave Omaha we see at least another half dozen semi's roadside. And only one car. They had a focus today. When we pull off onto the side street in Omaha to go to the truckstop, there was a semi stopped in the travel lane with a cop behind him. When we left, they were still there but the driver (?) was walking in the direction of Loves with no one in his truck. 1st stop was Loves in west Omaha for fuel. I wasn't sure I could make it to our next stop and we were supposed to be hitting a headwind. I did call dispatch and let them know about my warning light. They asked if it had come on just after I had fueled, it had. Then they said to keep going and keep in touch. So hopefully it goes off in the next three days. 2nd stop was a Loves in Aurora for fuel and food at Arby's. After we fueled there was not an easy place to park and there was someone with a travel trailer that was trying to back into a pull through spot ??? Most all spots were full so I finally pulled into two spots closer to the building and BB parked up against the building. When I paid at one of these Love's today, there was one person ahead of me so I had to wait. When I walked up to the counter after they left, I smelt something. It took a second but I'm guessing it was the prior person. Ripe. It took about 30 seconds for the smell to clear ... I was going to comment to the clerk but there was now a line behind me. After we ordered our food and sat down I saw the person still trying to back into a parking spot??? All they would have had to do was pull ahead, drive around the pumps and pull into a spot ... When we left Aurora, I had a range of 5 miles past the border. That went up to 20 miles past the border. Then the wind must have changed and I was down 20 miles short of the border when I got to Ogallala. I wanted enough to get to the border as I was expecting to loose more range and Sidney is 50 miles short of the border. When hitting a head wind I want lots of extra range. Also when their are not any fuel stops for 100 miles we do not want to be close to 'E.' 3rd stop as the rest area near Cozad. 4th stop was Walmart in Ogallala for fuel for me. BB had enough. First I wait in line for the first pump I get to ... when they pull away I realize that the pumps I was waiting for do not have diesel. So I pull to the other pumps. I see a pickup across from the pumps just sitting there ... no one is at the pumps ... I was going to ask if the person was in line but they were busy doing something in their cab. ... until I got near the pump, then they start yelling at me. So I pulled out (how long would they have sat there with the pumps empty if I hadn't pulled in?) I pull to the other side of the pumps and they do not say anything to me or me to them. I put in three gallons to get me to Sidney. But on my way to Sidney I get behind a semi and must have caught his draft ... my mileage went up by two mpg so I just hung right there for the next 60 miles. We saw two farmers planting today. 75 degrees here. Both planting right in the corn stalks. Nice here during the day right now but still below freezing overnights. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Sidney. The winds were not too bad, yet. First we stopped at the Loves for fuel, then the Comfort Inn, then walked to the Mexican place for food. We did see one bus going to Des Moines? Delaware? Also a lot of other random transporters with semi tractors and straight trucks. We did catch up to one RV that was going 55 mph just as we were pulling off the freeway today. But no one passed us and didn't see any transporters at the rest areas. Load board US - 576 IA - 291/289 BB has been watching the weather and Donners Pass is having a storm today through Friday so no reason to push to get that far. The winds in WY are FORECAST to be right at the 'no go' line tomorrow. We will see what the highway signs say and play it by ear. Last night I had re-done my logs for the last seven days for DOT. Today I remembered that dispatch can not dispatch me if they do not have copies of my logs from the last two weeks. So I needed to re-create a few more days and get them sent in tonight. 220421 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Rawlins WY Breakfast was omelettes and ring sausage. Good food. Headed out at 7:30 our time, 6:30 local. The trucks that were there last night are already gone. Mileage is good this AM, we have a nice tailwind. Nice as in our mileage has increased but it is not effecting our drive. 1st stop is the Port of Entry for our trip permits. The weather is holding so we keep going. 2nd stop is the Sinclair in Laramie for fuel. It is cheaper here than anywhere else even with a discount. This time I saw a sign advertising the Sinclair and it listed the food at both locations so they must both be part of the same company. I choose which station based on who has the most room for us to pull into the pumps. Today it is the 'BluTaco' location. We still have a tail wind and my mileage is still doing very well. Even when we head past Battle Mountain the winds are not bad, that is one of the worst area's in WY ... Normally. Then about 20 miles before Rawlins my cruise kicks off, from there to Rawlins I am holding on with both hands. Right before Rawlins we see our first highway sign that says anything. Most have been shut off. This one says 'Winds 40+ mph.' 3rd stop is in Rawlins for Subway at the TA. Long line for food. BB spends the time looking at the weather. After we eat we sit and talk about if we should go, +/-. Finally after an hour we decide to head out. We get to the next exit and I pull off to ask BB how many miles we have to go before the wind dies down a little. I had gotten up to 50 mph in those two miles. Once I am stopped on the exit ramp I see my canopy catch the wind a little ... and we are stopped. That would do some damage if we added another 60 mph to it. So instead of asking BB how far, it was we are not going now. Once at the hotel, we look at the weather again. It is not supposed to die down until 6 PM and then it is about two hours to Rock Springs. That would be 9 PM our time and we have to be off the road at 8:30 because of driving hours. (And there is only one Ma-Pa hotel between the two towns. 1 PM local we check into the Comfort Inn in Rawlins. Nice sunny day but the RV's are a rockin. Gusts at 51 mph one time we looked, we are to shut down at 35 mph As of now, Donners Pass is shut down west bound and chains required both directions (once WB opens again) IF we do not get shut down again, we can still make it near our drop Saturday night. We did call and make appointments for Monday AM. Later we call for pizza delivery from Pizza Hut. It was quick and good. I had posted on FaceBook that we had shut down because of the weather. Someone else posted they had gone through here a couple of hours later. We had an RV, they had a boom truck. No problem for them. Load board US - 616 IA - 294/293 220422 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Elko NV Up at 5 AM local time, leaving by 6 AM. Breakfast was one piece each of last nights pizza. (When I went to check out the clerk did not say a signal word to me) I said I needed a receipt and they gave it to me ... It was just getting light when we headed out, we could have gotten going a little earlier and still been in daylight. The wind is gone for the rest of WY, we may hit some once we get to UT. 1st stop is the Loves in Green River for fuel. 2nd stop is the rest area in Evanston for a break. We had 'planned' on eating here but it is only about 10 AM because of how early we got going. The rest area is right next to a park and I am not sure if the buffalo are part of the park or not but there is a paved sidewalk next to their fence. And there is two white buffalo in the herd. By looking online it looks like they were born a couple of years ago. It looks like they 'only occur in approximately one out of every 10 million births.' On one of the plaques at the rest area it said that Salt Lake does not have an outlet, and that the river running near the rest area is the longest river that does not eventually dump into an ocean. Mileage was good this AM and still good after Green River. Mileage range went up by another 20 miles before dropping 60 miles. Then it held its own coming down the long descend into Salt Lake City. Coming down the last descend into Salt Lake City, there was a tow truck in the oncoming traffic that had the car on the hook like a fish. The car was hanging straight up and down. 3rd stop was the Arby's in Tooele. They no longer carry roast chicken, that is BB's go to sandwich. We will see if that is nation wide or just a local thing. We did hit a few batches of rain today, not that stopped us but some had the wipers on high. The reservoir east of SLC is coming back and there was water where there often is not near Salt Lake. When I left out of Tooele I had twice as much range as I needed which is what I had hoped. There are almost no stations for the next 100 miles. But with the rain and the headwind I was loosing two miles range for every one mile I drove for the first 50 miles. If that had kept up I would have gotten to my fuel with about 10 miles range. As it was I had closer to 50 miles range and the low fuel light had come on. 4th stop was the Sinclair east of Wendover. They have a $75 limit so I had to start the pump again. While inside I saw that their 'Indian restaurant' will re-open May 1 with 24 hour service. We pulled out of the station when our trip permits started, we timed that pretty closes. We are less than five miles from the border. Both ID and UT have high wind warnings but not NV so we keep going. The wind has turned to coming out of the north so I am less concerned about the wind catching my awnings. But I am concerned enough that we do not reserve a run until we are in the parking lot. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Elko. Scale was closed today. We get to the hotel at 3:15 local. But it would be another two hours to the next 'nice' hotel and we have already been on the road nine hours. Another nine hours tomorrow and we will be within blocks of our drop. Load board US - 537 IA - 237/236 220423 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Manteca CA We don't leave quite as early as yesterday so we have time for breakfast today. As soon as we walk out of the room we can smell the bacon. Bacon and real scrambled eggs is what I had. BB had an egg wrap. No apple juice so I had a little cranberry juice in my OJ. We pull out at 6:30 local. Still no cars at the WinGate across the street, I just checked their website and it is 'call for availability.' No cars at the ma-pa next door either. This place was maybe a third full last night which is more than other times we have stayed here. Another change in this town is the Red Lion casino is now the Maverick. We've never stayed there but have eaten there a couple of times in the old days at their buffet. The highway patrol was out as usual near Elko but this AM they were just sitting in the median instead of having pulled over a transporter. 1st stop is at the Battle Mountain Shell station for fuel. Diesel is $.30+ less than the other stations in town. We used to stop here before Covid and then it seemed the place closed down so we found other places to stop. The Maverik is near the Port O Subs and now there is a new Golden Gate with a Krispy Chicken (Most have Port O Subs) This fuel stop ... may ... get us to delivery. 2nd stop is the Meverik in Winnemucca for fuel. We both top off our tanks again, another three gallons. This still leaves me with a range of 10 miles short of my drop. But we have lost the wind so maybe. We are lucky to have traveled when we did, where we did. I-80 is now open again in WY, but I-90 is closed until further notice. That would have been our route to MT. 3rd stop was the Loves in Fernley for the Arby's (again) Lots of snow over Donners Pass, I was surprised to see that the ski area's were not running. I did see a few skier tracks in the fresh snow. No one at the booths at the inspection area. That may have been the first time I have seen that. 4th stop is at the rest area in Gold Run. Traffic is not bad up the mountains and not bad in Sacramento. Clear sailing. We had looked for places to stop for fuel but there is not anything for truck stops so if needed, we will just need to pull off at any convenience store. But we do not need more fuel. My low fuel light comes on with a range of 95 miles to 'E.' I get to the hotel with a range of 77 miles and BB has a range of over 100 miles. Leaving some extra fuel but better than stopping in a small station and getting damage. And we are making $$$ on the fuel. The unit BB has has gone from breaking even under the old pricing to making huge money now. If I had taken the other unit like that instead of taking the oldest until we would could have paid for another couple of nights hotels. Heading east, I do not miss seeing all the homeless. We even saw a couple (and their dog) setting up their area in front of a closed Shopko in Elko when we were on our walk. Here in CA they are everywhere ... todays noted person was the one standing near his roadside camp, with his pants at his knees relieving himself into the weeds. Coming down the exit ramp here in Manteca there had been lush foliage between the 'sound fence' and the pavement. Then on a couple of trips we could see that people were living in the foliage (One time there was a gal sitting in her sleeping back with just her bra on as we drove past) Now the area is down to dirt and the homeless are gone. 5th and final stop is the Best Western in Manteca for the next two nights. Shortly after we check in we walk next door to the Chik-fil-A. Load board US - 533 IA - 238/237 220424 IA-CA 2 RV's heading to Manteca CA ... spending the night at Manteca CA Not much for excitement today. We had gone to bed last night at 9:30 central (7:30 local) and I didn't wake up until 6:30 local. BB had gotten up for a while after being in bed because the people at the pool were so loud. Two people working the breakfast area. But they still were out of biscuits, the juice machine was out of OJ and the first yogurt I grabbed was out dated. But the bacon was good ... Before it got to warm we went for a walk. We have walked this area before, it is mostly a good neighborhood once we get away from the business area. As we walk past the Motel 6 there is someone typing his carts together but that was it for the homeless this AM. At noon we walked to a Mr Pickle sandwich shop. They did have a chicken salad sandwich but not the croissants, so I get a cheesesteak instead. But I had to sub half the items they had listed on their menu to get it so I could eat it. (It came with a lot of 'hot' items) Later in the afternoon we walked across the street to Taco Katrina food truck that was in the gas station parking lot. BB and I each got a chicken quesadilla and I also got a beef taco. Turns out the quesadilla was twice as much as either of us could eat and the taco was so hot that I only took one bite. So now we have food for breakfast tomorrow. From the gas station we could see a few homeless sitting in the shade next to the station. Across the parking lot there were one or two people with four carts getting settled in for the night. We have now done our reset so we are good to run 14 hour days next week :) .. the trip continues HERE |
