 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
220519 IA-CA 2 RV's to Morgan Hill CA (Friday) ... spending the night at home We've been watching the weather. We want to go west but there has been a band of snow from NM through MT. No way to get around it. The other issue we are having is the RV's we like to drive are not going where we want to go. We do the math on each. Some disappear. More appear. There are enough options that we are not worried about being stranded. We had pretty much settled on doing Manteca because of the distance and rental location. There had been Redwood City RV's with a cheaper rental car but all of those did disappear. Then because we may still be dealing with the wind we decided to go with the RV's we like and go to Morgan Hill. I am just about ready to call ... ' ... is that hail?' We go look outside, it is hailing. Golf ball sized. Almost enough to cover the ground. We got a lot of pictures and some video. Now it is 4:45 and we need to call. We do and we get our trips. Then we decide to head out to get food. There is still hail on the ground. And then we see the dents. There are hail dents on our car, and our whole roof is covered with leaves and branches. Load board (Monday) US - 587 IA - 273/269 Load board (Tuesday) US - 623 IA - 295/291 Load board (Wednesday) US - 632 IA - 296/292 Load board (Thursday) US - 599 IA - 267/263 220520 IA-CA 2 RV's to Morgan Hill CA ... spending the night at Lincoln NE Alarm at 6 AM, leftovers for breakfast, ready to roll about 7:30. 1st stop is a clinic before we head out of town. From here BB drives so I can call the insurance company. That is just to get the ball rolling, others will need to call me back later. And we are going to be on the road the next two plus weeks so we will see how that goes. 2nd stop is Northfield a Flying J for fuel. We do not have enough range to get to the cheaper fuel in Owatonna. 3rd stop is the shipper in Forest City. Some truck has stopped right in front of the office. That means the tail of his trailer leaves us just a few inches on either side to get past him :( We find our RV's but we seem to be in slo mo today. It takes us an hour to do the little RV's. There is one other driver inspecting but I don't see him until we are ready to pull out. The head dispatcher is out helping the drivers load other RV's on to trailers. I'm guessing, guessing the reason he is out there is that they have had issues with damage. Both parking lots are pretty close to full. And there are a lot of RV's that are parked to be hauled out so they are way behind in that area also. Three drivers lined up today to load out. We have less fuel than last time but decide to go where the fuel is cheaper. 4th stop is Williams at the Flying J. Boondocks as it used to be called. Fuel is cheap and the place is crowded. When a guy pulls out of the other side of the pump from me I thought he might hit me but he drove slow and had a foot to spare. They re-built the store a few years ago, they should have also redone the pumps. Very tight to the store and you need to snuggle up to the pump to get a car on each side of the pump. Lunch was the Subway here. We had to park with the big rigs, the car area was full. I've been getting there chicken bacon ranch lately. With shredded chicken if possible. 5th stop was Adair at the rest area. From here we made a hotel reservation. The Comfort Inn would have been a few dollars cheaper but there is <> no food near there. About 10 hotels and no food. Used to be, not sure what happed. There used to be food inside the now Motel 6 and the Travel Lodge. There used to be a food court with 5-6 places and a Perkins. Now there is a McD's. And I called the bus dispatcher. He said it doesn't look good but they are still 90 buses behind so things could change. At least he knows I am on my way. WHAT?!? Sure ... but the wrong Friday. Last Friday we were looking for something, anything to take back heading in our direction. Today there is a trip right in Grand Junction. The same town we dropped in, coming right back to MN. Timing. Before we get to Omaha I see break lights so I start slowing down but not so much that other cars are going to fill the gap. Then a semi goes past ... not slowing down ... and he is almost to the stopped cars. I lay on the horn and hit the shoulder. He locks them up and is able to stop without hitting them or coming over on me. Whew. I can see past the hill and a few cars are moving. But we are almost up to the 'incident' by the time traffic moves over and I can see my lane is closed. People are civil and everyone is able to get over. A few fire trucks, a few police cars. It looks like a U-haul had rolled and landed on its wheels. Someone was doing a lot of talking with their hands as they were talking to the police. An RV had passed us before the accident and then we passed them at the accident. They then followed us through Omaha before passing us again. Other than that I saw a used bucket truck at the rest area that was a transporter. Oh, and lots of Peterbilt's heading into MN, none were sleeper cabs. Lucky that mine was. As we are leaving Omaha I see the flashing lights coming down a side street. One cop ahead of an ambulance and one behind. Then they get on the freeway the ambulance gets over all the way in the left lane but the first police car stays in the center lane. So they are using the two left lanes. Not sure what that was about. It was about two exits before the ambulance exited and by that time both police cars had shut off their lights and were going with the flow of traffic. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Lincoln. As soon as we check in we order food from the Cracker Barrell. Then we walk the half mile to get our food and carry it back. Chains are still required as of tonight in CO. Not sure what the status is in WY but it is supposed to be clear by the time we get there tomorrow night. We will be OK if we get to Sidney but we have time to get to Laramie or Rawlins which would put us past the problem area. My mileage is already up to 15 mpg. After a 1,000 miles on the last trip it finally got up to 14 mpg for the last few miles. Same type RV. Load board US - 541 IA - 256/250 220521 IA-CA 2 RV's to Morgan Hill CA ... spending the night at Laramie WY Biscuits and gravy was the hot food here. I stuck with yogurt, I got side tracked and forgot to grab juice. ... ahhh. Last night I realized I forgot the power cord for my phone so this AM I stopped at the front desk to see if they had a collection of them, they did not. But that was enough to throw me off of my routine. I did spend some time going through my stuff looking for a 2nd cord. I found the one I bought when my backpack was stolen, wrong size ... then I found my old phone, wrong size. Then I realized that I likely did not have a spare. My 2nd cord is plugged into a wall at home for when we are home. 1st stop was the TA/Shell in Alda. Today fuel is cheaper at Shell with our discount. A couple there with a moving van that started asking us questions about the RV's. Somehow I put 24.5 gallons in a 24 tank and it was not even showing empty. Had lost the range so I knew I was getting low. 2nd stop was the Loves / McD's in North Platte for food ... and a new power cord for my phone. 3rd stop was for fuel in Sidney at the Loves. We didn't need fuel again yet but we are buying where fuel is cheaper. And the price is going up each time we stop heading west. 4th stop was the Port of Entry near Burns. Mostly a quick in and out. 5th stop is at Buford, population 1, for fuel. It will be the last fuel we see under $4. I asked the clerk if the population was still '1' and he said yes and walked away. :) 6th and final stop is Laramie. 1st we stop at the Big D / Papa John's for food. They were just taking the first round of pizza's out of the oven so we waited until they had them on the shelf, all dozen plus of them. I picked a Canadian bacon and had them put black olives and pineapple on mine. Then we headed to the Comfort Inn. After we ate we went for a rare walk. The temps are in the 40's. The were down in the 30's coming across the pass by Buford. We can see it snowing in the distance but here it is sunny and most of the snow has melted. Less had melted in the higher elevations. Fuel mileage went from 15, to 14.9 and back up to 15.1. BB is up to 15.4 mpg but that may change tomorrow when we hit a stronger headwind in the afternoon. Looking ahead at the fuel costs, $4+, $5+ then $6+ by Monday in California. We have come in way under the first two days so we should still do OK. Transporters - We only saw one today. We met a city bus heading to Delaware, that may have what I saw in Omaha yesterday also. But yesterday I saw it too late and traffic was to heavy. But I knew it was out of place. Also yesterday I saw a cement truck transporter on the side of the road, when I went by I could hear one of his alarms going off. Something was not secured. Been there, done that. For me it must have been the weekend and I just bought ear plugs :) Really nothing exciting today on the highway. A couple of more things from yesterday. Closer to Des Moines in I-80 we had noticed a couple of irrigation circles blown over when we came back from Grand Junction last week. Yesterday I noticed three. All three had fallen so they were partially on the interstate right-of-way. And the only one in a crop field looked like it had happened since the corn was planted, (now the corn was coming up) and someone had taken a four wheeler out to look at the damage, something we hadn't seen last week. And there was the place the police had someone pulled over. What was different about this one was that it looked like a couple of middle class 30 something females with a pre-school child standing with them. And the cops were going through their luggage ... Load board US - 524 IA - 243/237 Tonight there is a garbage truck from Las Vegas back to MN. NOT sure I want to ride in one of those for 1,000+ miles ... I start complaining at 500 miles. And depending which brand it is, BB will still have to drive the rental car back because there is no where for the luggage ... inside. Tomorrow we should make it to Wendover, then can not cross the NV border until we have a permit Monday AM. 220522 IA-CA 2 RV's to Morgan Hill CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT Breakfast - eggs, sausage and yogurt. Even with doing a 'street walk' last night to stay in shape, two flights of stairs was enough for us this AM. 7,000 feet ? have anything to do with it? We pull out close to 8:30 / 7:30 local. There was a bus in the parking lot, by the sign in the window, it was running on the manufacturer authority not a transporter. 1st stop is the Walmart in Rawlins for fuel. This Walmart is quiet at 9 in the morning. Just past Sinclair there are two wind sockets. The first one showed the wind out of the west, the second showed the wind was out of the east. Both were limp now. 2nd stop is at the Loves in Green River for fuel and food. We are only saving two cents by fueling here, we could have just waiting and combined both fuel stops into the next one. Food here is Carl Jr's. I get the chicken sticks, without realizing it I had ordered off the kids menu, so I have them change it. Then later I am looking at the price and it looks like the kids meal was the better deal. After we fuel we have a range of over 400 miles. But then we hit a head wind that makes that drop. 3rd stop was the Flying J in Evanston. Small station but we are able to fuel quickly. On the way down the hill to SLC I see a carcass. I can't ID what it is, but it is not not a horse or a deer. First time that I can remember that the scale from WY is closed. Before we get to SLC we see another carcass, we both agree on this one, it is a young elk. 4th stop is the Flying J in Tooele for a break. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover, food is from the food truck in the parking lot. No one there where we get there or walk out to it later. I had to peak in the window and say 'Hi' to get someone's attention. Lots of construction trucks in the parking lot today, we did not get our usual spot. We did a short 'street walk' after we were done eating. We did see one bucket truck today heading east. Maybe two more smaller ones, neither of us got a good look at the name/placard on the sides. TOMORROW AM we have to call for permits and get them in hand before we can move. We are about two blocks from the state line. We will fill one more time and then calculate to see how much more fuel we will need. We will likely spend the night in Rocklin, over 500 miles. 220523 IA-CA 2 RV's to Morgan Hill CA ... spending the night at Rocklin CA Breakfast - Eggs and yogurt. There was hash browns but I didn't have any. We were up at our usual time so we were done with breakfast before we could call for our permits. We called, and now we wait to get them. The permit is only for 24 hours so we do not like to order them ahead of time. Friday we thought we may still be having issues with the wind. Thursday we even told dispatch that we may not be able to make delivery on Tuesday because of the weather ... A trash truck from NV to MN that we had looked at is gone. But I do see there is a truck in OR going to MD. 2,600 miles ... 600 miles from our drop and ?? to the closest rental car return. It is in the middle of no where up by Bend which is in the middle of no where. After an hour we get our permits ... mine is wrong so I call the company but get someone else. After they finally understand that I was sent someone else's permit, not mine permit done wrong, they re-take down my info. Within a few minutes I get 'my' permit but it is wrong also, before I can call them they are calling me ... they know it is wrong. This permit is for a bus I moved months ago, the buses have a unique VIN so both they and I know that it was from a bus. Finally two hours from my first call I have my correct permit, now we can leave. When I go to check out the person asks if everything was good. I said yes and so is the food truck food. "Yah, I know. I have looked online and they are getting better reviews than we are." :) We pull out at 10:30 central time. Early on today I re-set trip B ... as we start down a hill. 63 mpg, then 99 mpg. After that it kept going down. On today's trip the mileage stayed between 19-20 mpg. Not sure what my total trip mpg, 16 mpg maybe? 1st stop is the now One9, former Pilot, in Carlin for fuel. This will be the last fuel we buy that is under the national average. Because we are running so late we decide to eat here also. Subway. And before we leave I call the drop. They would like to see us at 8 AM, I said that was not going to happen so we will be there at 1 PM. Both of us, so that changes how we are going to work getting our rental car. 2nd stop is at the Loves in Winnemucca for a break. 3rd stop is for 'final?' fuel at the Flying J in Fernley. We do the math at 15 mpg for the extra gallons even though we have been getting up to 20 mpg. 4th stop is at the rest area in Gold Run. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. It has been a long day. We walk across the parking lot to Arby's for food. We often walk to Sourdough for sandwiches but they closed an hour before we got here. Load board US - 500 IA - 253/246 150 miles to the drop tomorrow. Then? We'll see then. .. the trip continues HERE |
