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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues HERE 220529 CA-WI 1 bus to Milwaukee WI ... spending the night at West Des Moines IA Plenty of food for breakfast. We take our luggage to the bus and all checks good so I check out. I come back to the bus and I have an couple of warning lights on so I call tech support ... and wake them up (?) it is 6:30 west coast time. I get the OK to go. As I pull out I notice there is no get up and go. The tranny kicks in a couple of times but mostly it is about 3 mph. So instead of getting on the freeway I go around the block. Finally when I get back near the hotel the tranny mostly runs. but there are now four warning lights flashing. I call tech support again and am told to get a hotel until Monday. So we walk back to the hotel and get our old room back. This hotel did sell out last night so there would be no 'clean rooms' until this afternoon. It crosses my mind to try again. But here we are safe ... and we have the OK to from the shipper to wait for repairs. By noon we decide that we might as well run up and get our personal car as we are only two hours from it. So we rent a car for $75 and call Uber at the cost of another $25 ... plus now I am likely going to be leaving another 100 miles worth of fuel in the bus. Even at 10 mpg that is $50+. First time in a taxi/Uber in two plus years. We could have walked it or taken the bus and it would have taken three plus hours. But it was almost 90 degrees today. As soon as we pick up the car we come back near our hotel to a McCallister's Deli. We get it to go. It is two hours each way and it is now a ways after noon. Today I am no longer counting transporters and see more people towing. There is a good tail wind heading north, it doesn't make as much difference on a car as a bus. Corn and beans are up. A lot of the crops this year were no till. We stop at the Buddy Holly crash site. We have talked about the site a few times but never about stopping there. We have also stopped at the John Denver crash site, unknowingly, so maybe that is our new thing? There were two other families there when we arrived and a third one there when we left. It is about a quarter mile walk from the closest road (do not use Google maps) Cemeteries and crash sites? I have a list of cemeteries where family is buried and no one is buried near Des Moines. I had thought that was something we could do while we wait. When we got to the office there was one of the dispatchers there, it looked like they were doing new paperwork for someone who had broken down. There were also three other drivers ready to head out. Our trip back was a non-stop. As soon as we are back at the hotel, we head out again. BB doesn't want to pick where to eat so I do and we head to Charley's. Five minutes from the food BB looks online, they close in two minutes. And they are inside an inclosed. A few others in the area either were already closed or are closing now. We end up at Firehouse, in the same parking lot as McCallister's. Food was good but not real hot by the time we got back to the hotel. Parking lot is mostly empty tonight at 8 PM but by 10 PM the computer shows only three rooms left. 220530 CA-WI 1 bus to Milwaukee WI ... spending the night at West Des Moines IA Unlike yesterday morning ... there is very little for breakfast. The eggs are gone, the biscuits are gone, no fruit, no pastries, two juices are empty ... I go ask at the front desk if there is more food coming ... I'm thinking it is the weekend and breakfast will run until 10 AM. Later BB talks to the staff at the desk because the washer is not working correctly. The staff tells her how her morning is going ... 'some guy tells staff they are running out of breakfast items, that is when they realize that the breakfast person never came in, and when the staff gets the breakfast out the guy is gone (me?)' When BB tells me this, I realize that today is Monday and breakfast was only going to run until 9 AM ... BB had looked at the breakfast items and some of the items put out had been eaten. What staff does not have is quarters for laundry. When I finally remember that our car is here ... BB remembers the rental car before I finish why I brought it up. When we used to pay cash at the drive-thru we used to throw the extra change in the ash tray. So we may have quarters to do more laundry. But first we need to get the rental to the airport. When we return to the hotel we throw in the next load of laundry and walk to the Steak n Shake next door. My garlic burger had a lot less garlic sauce and the onions were not nearly as grilled as last time but it was still good. Our next excitement is heading to Jason's Deli. There I get a chicken salad sandwich, onion soup and a cookie. Tomorrow we will/may found out more. 220531 CA-WI 1 bus to Milwaukee WI ... spending the night at Milwaukee WI We did get down for breakfast before they closed it this AM, with a few minutes to spare. I do not think they were ready for this past weekend. Today there was no fruit. There were no pastries. But there was bacon and omelettes and juice. My plan was to call the shipper on the west coast by 10 AM, they called at 9:30. They were more concerted about how the bus was working today than what happened over the weekend. So I go out to the bus and find that the only issue was an MIL light ... message information light. So we quickly get ready to walk out the door. But when I get back to the bus, it now has two more warning lights on. I call back and leave a message. Then I take the bus out for another trip around the block to see what other issues I may get. I get a call back while on the street, I have to pull over and put on my four-ways. After some talking, it is decided to take the bus to the shop because of the today's warning lights, not the issues of Sunday. I call the shop and they can check the bus right away but can not work on until later in the week. I head out and get to the shop without any issues. Someone can look at it right away, as soon as they can find their code reader. Once the computer read the code, I should have taken a picture of their computer. Instead I wrote down the four issues. I do not need to check back with the shop unless I need work done. I talk to the shipper again, they go back and forth between me waiting for the shop to look at it. Once the shipper knew where the next shops were, they gave me the OK to go. It is now 11 AM and we are heading out. BB stops once more than I did at a rest area. 2nd stop was the Pizza Hut in the TA / I80 truckstop. This place even has marked 'bus parking.' There are two 'shelf' pizza and we took one. A few miles down the road I see two buses heading west. I assume they are heading to Portland from NY. I know they are neither of the bus companies I drive for ... and they look like our placards. We take the toll road, I-88 and then I-90. 3rd stop is at the Beloit rest area to check my fuel. I have just under a half a tank with 70 miles to go. I will be leaving 40+ gallons of fuel at $5 a gallon. About half of that is because we did not take the bus through Forest City. 4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn near the Milwaukee airport. We do not make a reservation until we are parked in the parking lot. We are not taking any chances. Once we check in, we call the Branded Steer and order food. Then we walk to get our food, there is just the Red Roof between us. BB gets Chili and I get both French Onion soup and a chicken Philly. Load board US - 470 IA - 232/226 Tomorrow, we have four miles to get fuel and then 10 miles to the drop. We do not see anything on our load board that works for us so as of now, we will be heading home. But we will keep watching the board for anything that works. 220601 CA-WI 1 bus to Milwaukee WI (delivered) 1 trash truck to Des Moines IA (Thursday) ... spending the night at Rochester MN Beep ... beep ... beep. I thought I had shut the alarm OFF. At least I remember where the button is. And then I lay there and wait ... in case I hit the snooze button instead. But the alarm stays off. BB mentions later that she slept very little last night. Likely the no-caffeine pop was. Eggs and sausage, juice. OK stuff I will be coming back past the hotel after I fuel so no reason for BB to follow me to the truck stop. Same as last night, I am down to one warning light on. So I head out. Four miles to the truckstop. Two miles down the road I see the odometer bouncing all over the place and the transmission cuts out. I'm loosing speed so I pull to the shoulder and put on my four-way flashers. Even so, someone coming down the entrance ramp blows their horn at me. I put the bus in neutral in hopes that the bus will coast further without the drag of the transmission. But the bus never slows, once it gets to 15 mph it stays. I finally apply the brakes because I do not want to stop on the exit ramp. Once I have the bus stopped, I get out and cut the battery power for a better re-set. That switch is on the street side and it is still rush hour traffic. Watch and move quickly. After a few minutes I turn it back on. Now the bus will not go into gear. But I keep trying. Finally I get it to go into reverse and move but it still will not go forward. Finally it drops into gear and I go the last mile with power one second and coasting the next. Then I get to first stop light it is red. When it turns green the bus goes, the second light is green and there is no oncoming traffic so I can take a left without stopping. By the time I pull in the lot I am back to 3 mph. When I go to put the bus in reverse, the area is blank but I can feel it drop into gear. Because my fuel and DEF tanks are on the 'wrong' side, I have to back in to fill and BB is not with to tell me where to stop. I get both tanks topped off and go inside to use the restroom, just in case I am on the side of the highway for a few hours. As I sit there I bump the roll of toilet paper off the holder and it rolls out of the stall and across the floor. Luckily there was a second one in the stall. There must have been no one else in the restroom to hand it back under so I replaced it when I left. I call BB to let her know I am rolling. No issues, bus runs at full speed. Eight miles to go to the drop. Now I can not stay in the right lane and this is a five plus lane highway. But no issues. Another thing I think about is there is no way to shut the battery off without shutting the four ways off. Something I would not want to do while sitting in a traffic lane. I try to pace myself so I do not have to stop. But at one intersection I did, and the oncoming traffic gets a green arrow, then red and they keep coming ... I want to get that last two blocks to the drop. I've been here a few times in the last 19 years. So I pull in where they want me to park. Then I start getting my things together. Just as last time, the inspector has seen me pull in and soon walks out. He askes how things went ... and I told him. They will see all the codes. He refers the problem by name, it must have happened before. Then he brings up how many more buses are coming. I am number 10 of 60. I might be coming back again. And I ask about the wash. It seems that having them washed is causing issues with the windows. So their solution was to not wash them. (That won't last long) No work yet so we take the time to send in our paperwork while sitting in the drops parking lot. Still no work so we head in the direction of home. At some point I email one of the dispatchers who hasn't put out his trips yet today. When he does, there is still a short trip in MN. But the math doesn't work because the trip is so short and we will need a hotel. So we decide to head to Rochester and make a decision by then. Our first stop is in Johnson Creek at the BP for fuel and the restroom. From there it will be meal time at Mouston. Log Cabin Deli. Great food as always. Still have not been there on a Thursday to get their lasagna. Next stop is the rest area in MN just before Rochester. From here we decide to get a hotel in Rochester as it is closer to, but not beyond where our major shippers are. Final stop is the Sleep Inn in Rochester. It is 'supposed' to be a nicer hotel than the Comfort Inn but here they are right next door to each other and the Sleep Inn is cheaper. Shortly before the end of the office day, Dodge Center puts out a trash truck going to Des Moines. We are 15 minutes away and a similar trip paid well last time. It is likely a right hand drive, just a guess. My other company gets most of the short trips. ... then the pay for my bus trip shows up in my account. ??? It paid $100 a day better than any other trip we have done in six years. We aren't retired but we are still watching our income. We are also looking at our trip for next week. At first we were looking at doing another East Montpelier VT. But now we have had time to look at other options, and there are other options. And we still have two days until we can commit to our trip but they will not all disappear. I have also contacted the east coast bus dispatcher about possible trips back. No reply yet. The last time we got food from Five West but tonight we got food from Smoak BBQ. Way too much and very good. Maybe next time we will eat at McD's so we do not overeat. Or split one meal. Load board US - 487 IA - 248/243 Tomorrow we will pick up around 8 AM and then it is about four hours to Des Moines. I may or may not have to fuel before the drop. This is CNG so not a lot of options. If there is something in IA we may bring it back to MN. Otherwise we will be off for the weekend. We have an insurance appointment in the AM then a graduation meal in the PM and the actual graduation in the evening ... if it is not SUPPOSED to rain. Right now the forecast over 50% of rain. 220602 MN-IA 1 trash truck to Des Moines IA (delivered) ... spending the night at home Breakfast. Western omelettes, bacon and juice ... and then we threw away last nights leftovers. (We need to get a cooler back in our car) Not sure why but we got out of the hotel later than planned. Got to the dispatch office a little after 8 AM and had to call dispatch ... their building was gone, just a hole in the ground now. Dispatch says my paperwork is 'at the office.' Two miles down the road we are at the office ... the first thing I see is the shuttle driver for my other company so we talk briefly. Then I go in the office, dispatch had said my keys would be in the 'top lock box.' No paperwork so I do not know which keys. We are not supposed to talk to/bother the office staff but instead of calling dispatch again I asked where my paper work might be ... They asked which company ... I tilted my had so the could see the company name and I said ... 'today' ... she knows me from my other company better I think. She had moved my paperwork to the lower box because the key boxes were getting to full. They do not seem to be too happy with the paperwork being left in the box so we will see how long that lasts. Our bus dispatcher puts the paperwork in each bus. Before I get to my truck someone is calling for me across the parking lot. One of the drivers for my other company, I have never seen them before but maybe they saw me talking to the now gone shuttle driver. This driver can't get their headlights to go on. I looked and told them to watch as I flipped the lights on and off. They were working, some of the new headlights are very hard to see with the sunlight shining on them. They also wanted to know where their cigarette lighter was ... sorry, not one on this truck. And they also wanted to know how to get to the freeway ... first trip maybe? So now I have talked to three people this AM and haven't gotten to my truck yet. Good think I have all day to get 200 miles. I was told this truck was used, and it was. 212,000 miles. And it was a CNG ... I wasn't told it was a right hand drive but I that I had assumed. It also has two warning lights on. Dispatch gives me the OK to go as is. It looks like a full tank of fuel but I decide to 'never pass a CNG station' and stop in Austin at the Kwik trip. I add 17 gallons. When we leave the shipper heading this way, we have about 30 miles of two lane highway before getting to the freeway. There is another way that is all four-lane but that route does not have CNG. Going down the two lane I ran at 55 mph as that is as fast as the truck wanted to go. But one time it did go faster so I knew it was not governed at 55 mph. Once on the freeway it would not go over 55 mph. ... Going past Con-Tech in Dodge Center I see that they now do trash trucks also ... Pac-Tech. Did not know they had gotten into that also. The people who own this company had also started McNeilus. When they sold McNeilus they had a non-compete clause ... for a few years. After fueling in Austin and back on the freeway I still can not get the truck to go over 55 mph. Then I see that I am running in 5th, of 6, gear. That is going to burn up my fuel before I get to the next station ... I slow, the tranny drops into 6th ... I slowly speed up and at some point get up to 65 mph. But every hill, every overpass, every slow truck ... I have to get my speed up to 55 mph, back off quickly so that it drops into 6th and then slowly speed up. All this while the back-up type alarm is going off in my cab. A day later my ears still hurt. No ... other stops. This trip is less than 200 miles. Next stop is for final fuel. A CNG station in north Des Moines. I did make it here with plenty of fuel but I'm glad I did stop the first time. From here the last seven miles are on city streets. The fuel station is one block off of US-69 and the drop is about six blocks off US-69 ... and the alarm does not go off if I stay under 47 mph :) I've been to this drop before so I know the routine. I find my contact in the office and they will be out in a couple of minutes. Long enough for me to get my things together. They sign and I am on my way. About an hour ago I had gotten a call, now I return the call and have my 'work' cut out for me for Friday. I had also gotten a call and email about more driving work ... dispatch can see that I am in Des Moines and they want me to head to OH next. Nope. Somehow what dispatch wants never seems to work for ME. It is 2 PM and we need to eat. There was food closer, if I had taken the shortest route. I thought I knew my way out of here but ended up adding a few miles before BB turned on the GPS. Culvers in Ankeny will be our food. It has been a while. ... not impressed, my malt was grainy instead of smooth and no blueberries on the bottom when I was done. At some places there are a couple of spoonful's of blueberries that will not go up the straw. Rueben was good. BB was not happy with her 'scoop of the day' either. Our next stop is the rest area at the MN border. Then a Holiday in Lakeville for fuel. Before we get home we stop at a 'Herbert and Erbert's.' They are out of my sandwich ... again. So I get one ham and cheese for today and one for tomorrow. Nothing special but it is food. Once home, I head out to cut the grass and BB comes out to pick up sticks. After a while she stops me, she has lost her glasses ... so we walk the yard again and again but no luck. Later when our grand-daughter gets home she goes out, it is now dark, with her flash light and finds them in two minutes. The glass reflects from the flashlight ... (off until Monday) Load board US - 444 IA - 239/235 |
