 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
.. the trip continues from HERE 220614 NY-IL 1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown) ... spending the night at Albany NY ... it is after midnight and we just checked into the hotel. The bus will be hauled back to the shipper and we are deadheading home in a rental car. (The following was written three days later) We head out of the hotel just before 8 AM, we are only a few miles from the shipper and I wanted to get there after they opened. As we leave, we drive past the bus we saw in the parking lot last night. It is still there. The bus in the other lot is gone, he was the one that was just heading to NYC. There are people ahead of me and the guard is not having a good day, the guard keeps making mistakes as they are trying to get the people the credentials they need to enter the building. This person today does not say anything about coming out to the bus with me. They just sign my paperwork and I sign and take theirs. Bus inspects OK, but when I try to leave it will not move. Actually I found it would not move as we were doing the inspection. When BB checks the break and reverse lights I move the bus a foot or two. Or try to. So I head back into the office and the guard sends a message to someone and I go back to my bus. And wait. I didn't time it but I was going to head back in in five minutes when the first person came to check on the bus. I <> told them what I thought was wrong with it and that seemed to be what they went with. Then a second tech came out and re-loaded the computer system. They have a build mode and a customer mode. The shipper has to install the customer mode so that they know everything works, but then they are supposed to over-write it with the build mode so we can drive them to the shipper. They hadn't. But they assured me that there should not be any more issues :) (I should have stopped and re-started the bus there, I did not. It was running so I ran with it.) 2nd stop was the rest area in Glens Falls. From there I called dispatch to tell them I was up and running and down the road. I had sat at the shipper for almost two hours and had left the bus run, not issues. But when I stopped here the bus timed out in about five minutes and did it's idle shut down. Different mode I suppose. Usually I shut the bus off before trying to re-start but this time because it had 'died' it was still in run mode. I just pushed the starter and it ran. 55 mph. This will take a couple of more hours than I had guessed. Also because it is my first bus and I have already heard about issues, I am running an extra 100 miles to stay on the freeway. So that adds up to about four more hours than at first glance. 3rd stop is the Pattersonville Oasis for food. We had two hours at the shipper this AM instead of 15 minutes and another two and a half hours of drive time so now it is food time. BB doesn't want to drive 55 following me in the rental car so she gives me a head start and ended up catching up to me as I pulled in. NY is redoing all of their oasis, but this is still one of the old ones and out of six food places, Roy Rogers is the only one still open. And by looking at a Roy Rogers map, this is the only store in the state still open. It is still old style fast food, they have about 20 kinds of food they keep on the shelf but if they are out or you want something special, you get fresh food. Pretty much like McD's used to do it except that here the customer grabs it off the shelf and at McD's the staff used to grab it off the shelf. Lunch was a little over done but OK. Not sure why but it took us 45 minutes to eat and get back to the bus. Bus starts but will not drop into gear. So I shut it off and try again, same thing. So I turn the battery off and repeat. A couple of times and then I call the shipper. By the time the shipper called back the bus would either die as soon as it 'woke up,' or within 5-10 seconds of when I started the bus. I talk to three different techs and they all walk me through the same steps as I did before I called them. Finally the fourth tech asked me what was happening and said 'We'll call a tow truck.' By the time I was off the phone I had a text message from dispatch saying that I was to be the person calling the breakdown line and they would call the tow. This started at 2:15, the tow truck finally had the bus loaded and pulled out at 11:45. It was a long ordeal. Something that should not have happened ... the delays. I talked to about 10 people at the breakdown line before someone took it upon themselves to do what should have been done hours before. In the first minutes of the first call. The tow truck guys were great. They had had this flat bed built 15 years ago to haul buses before the shipper decided to have them driven to delivery ... well, now they are starting to build electric buses so they will need to be hauled. But right now ... These two guys knew exactly what they were doing and what the other person was doing. Very little was said, each person had their job and the seemed to know where / when / what the other person was doing. I was in a parking lot and IF this had been done when I first broke down, the parking lot was empty. But now almost all spots were full and at first they thought the were going to have to tow it to somewhere they could load it. Then one of the wrecker guys went and talked to a truck driver :) when he came back he said he had 'learned a new language, but the driver will move.' I'm guessing it took them about an hour to load the bus. They tried the bus and it started and moved ... opps. But then it died. They were able to move the bus under it's own power about a foot at a time before it died until the bus was half way on the trailer. Then it would no longer go into gear before it died. From there they had to tow it on the flat bed. For quite a while I thought that we would be here all night. Could have been if these two had been on another call. After the fact, it sounds like this company has the rights to this section of tollway. So not sure why the breakdown line had to ask me a million questions, there was only one company they could call. Somewhere after dark BB walked back in to get a box of chicken. Very dry, but it was food. During all of this my phone was loosing charge and I did not expect it to last the night. At times it was even loosing charge when we were charging it in the car. Most of the day, night we had the car running so that the battery could charge, if it would. We wait until the bus is loaded and then follow it out. I had told the bus dispatcher as soon as I knew it was going back to the shipper that I was done. They wanted me to come back for another bus. No. I needed to leave the shipper the latest by 4 PM today. If I headed back I would not get to the shipper until noon the day after I needed to leave ... and I would have a 2nd bus with the same issues as the first. I should never had accepted a bus with such as narrow window of time. While we waited BB had found that the cheapest rental car was back in Albany and then found the cheapest Choice hotel at the next exit. It was after mid-night when we arrived at the hotel. It will likely take me three days to get back on a good sleep schedule. Load board US - 373 IA - 146/144 Tomorrow we pick up our one way car at about 10 AM and then it is a few hours back to Syracuse to drop the local car before heading home. We went with a three day car so we do not need to push it to get home. A two day car from Syracuse would have been the same cost as the three day from Albany. And we would have had to push, push, push after being up most of tonight. Not a good idea. 220615 NY-IL 1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown) ... spending the night at Ashtabula OH We both woke about about 8 AM, dispatch had messaged me about a half hour before to ask if my bus had been picked up. I didn't want to 'beep' them with a message in the middle of the night so I had let them know I would be updating them in the AM. We were not keeping track of time and then it was 9 AM. We quickly went down for breakfast. The area was dark but all of the food was still out so we helped ourselves. The hotel we are staying at is in the middle of a residential area, kind of unique but a nice place. I was surprised that there were other people pulling into the hotel when we were last night after midnight. Today we head out and we have a few miles to go to the airport and it is all on city streets. BB's directions take us into the airport a different way than the street signs but I was not looking at those signs soon enough. We got as far as a 'do not enter' sign and I made a u-turn as did the person behind me. Then BB and I had a discussion on which lane that sign was for. It was one sign in the median, no sign on either shoulder. I dropped BB off at the airport and then went to look for a cell phone lot. I did not find one but I did see a stop sign just past the do not enter sign so I stayed to the right of the sign. That little street led to the rental car return, a parking area and a loading dock. But it became a one way street and I did not want any of those places so I had to go the wrong way down the one way to get back out of there. There should have been a dead end street sign. BB lets me know we have a car and I head out. Shortly after I get on the freeway I meet two of our CA buses. I had forgotten that one was on it's way. I knew from FB that one would be coming to Albany this AM. Not sure where the other one was going but both BB and I saw them. I was not ready for them so I did not get pictures. Other than that there was almost -0- transporters. 2nd stop will be in Syracuse, first at the Sunoco for fuel and then across the street to the rental car place. BB stopped once at a rest area so she is still behind me. As I am getting things ready at the car place I get a text message from BB saying she is here ??? So I send a message with just (?) Then she calls, she is in the right parking lot but at the wrong building :) We are, should be, in a rush but we want something other than another BK so BB finds a deli a mile away. A mile into down town. One way streets and only street parking and we drove past and then away. Second she finds a Charlie's in a mall. I'm thinking strip mall. As usual the computer routes us on all the back streets. 3rd stop is still in Syracuse, Destiny USA Mall. It is about half the size of the Mall of America. No quick in and out. We finally find the food court and the Charlies. Out of about 20 fast food places in the court, only the former Popeyes is empty. But there are other area's that are empty but new stores are still coming. We didn't time it but that cost us about an hour over getting a Whopper from next door to the rental car place. We now have our 'heading home car.' We are still going to make a little money on this trip over just flying/driving out to see family for the weekend. 4th stop is the rest area/oasis near Le Roy. About every other rest area is closed and the ones that are open have most of the places closed. And there are signs saying they the new oasis will have one or more of eight major brands. Same places we try to avoid. I wish they would have a major brand and then a local or region brand. Mix it up for those that want to try something different. We hit Buffalo about rush hour. Slows us a little. 5th stop is Ripley at the Loves for fuel. When we were here last week we had commented that the place was so new it did not have grass. Today it does and they are watering it with a huge water truck. 6th and final stop is a Sleep Inn in Ashtabula . All the signs are very faded, parking lines in the lot are worn, screens are loose on the windows. Not long for as a Sleep Inn, unless it is too far off the main route for anyone at corporate to care. Inside it is still nice, but it is one of the old ones. The only thing we have noticed tonight is that there is no hot water in the sink. It is shut off vs never getting warm. We haven't tried the shower yet. Still fighting with my cell phone. It had finally charged last night in the car, but today it would not charge in either car. We finally found a setting that said the phone was set to 'data transfer only' when it was plugged into the car and it would not allow us to change it. Never seen that before. Load board US - 425 IA - 168/166 We plan on getting going our usual time and we should get in 600+ miles tomorrow. That will get us into IA and get us home mid-afternoon on Friday. Too late to do any local work. But we will call on Friday to line up work. 220616 NY-IL 1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown) ... spending the night at North Liberty IA I woke about a half hour before the alarm went off, BB woke up five minutes before the alarm went off. We both slept much better than the prior night. We head down for breakfast but they do not have the usual hot food and not much else. We end up taking a couple of pieces of fruit and a couple of cartons of juice. We will get food at our next stop. Today we decide to take the outer ring around Cleveland. Not much for slow downs even during a rush hour. 1st stop is just after we get on the toll road at Amherst at Panera. Just beware ... if you get the egg, bacon and cheese croissant, the yokes on you :( (Panera uses 'eggs over easy' on their sandwiches. I wasn't thinking of that) 2nd stop was at the Loves in Edon. The price of gas had gone up but still under $5. While there, I saw and talked to a transporter. He was in a small box truck towing his personal car. As we were talking I noticed his 'electronic license plate.' I thought it doubled as an 'E-ZPass,' he thought it was a permanent where all updates would be taken care of online. We were both wrong. "An electronic license plate (also referred to as a digital display license plate) is vehicle-mounted identification device that emits a radio signal for tracking and digital monitoring purposes." My first thought had been that we could make it to Rax in Joliet. But the timing isn't going to work this time. We decide to stop earlier. 3rd stop was the rest area in Rolling Prairie at Sbaro's. BUT, first we see a transit bus like the one I was driving. No one around so we went in and got our food. We each get a piece of pizza. What we wanted, they did not have today. When we went back outside we could see someone inside the bus, by the time I threw my pizza in the car and started walking that way the bus was moving. I waved for him to stop and he did. He opened the door and I went inside to talk ... and I told him the issue I had ... and he said 'like me now?' I hadn't realized the reason he had stopped was because the bus had died. He was having the same issue as I did before I got towed. He filled me in on a lot of the 'how to's.' He's been driving for years and thought he was going to get this thing running again. (I'm not so sure) We said our goodbye's. 4th stop is the rest area in Minooka. 5th stop is at the Speedway in Davenport. Today they are the cheapest, again under $5. ... grrr. I can not open the fuel door with the car running. I was hoping to leave the AC running, it is 98 degrees today. Also this car will not go in gear unless the driver has their seatbelt on. Based on miles and cost of hotel, we decide to stop in North Liberty and get our food before we get there, BB orders food online. 6th stop, we get there two minutes before our food is supposed to be ready. We 'check in,' and they bring our food to the car almost right away. Oh, we are at the Cheddar's in Coralville. 7th and final stop is at the Sleep Inn in North Liberty for the night. We have about six hours to travel tomorrow. Load board US - 418 IA - 157/155 MN - 21 Tomorrow I need to call the NY bus dispatcher again to find out how and what paperwork to fill out. And I need to call my local dispatcher about work for the next two weeks. 220617 NY-IL 1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown) ... spending the night at home 'Limited breakfast' still. So I had yogurt and juice. We hit the road a little after 7:30. 1st stop was the Flying J in Waterloo so that I could make phone calls. First I call my local dispatch to let them know I will be in town and able to work on Monday. Then I call the NY bus dispatcher to find out how to do my paperwork for my last bus. I also find out that the last thing the dispatcher heard was the driver I saw yesterday was going to get towed from the rest area. Heading up US-218 I had noticed a semi getting over where it wouldn't have needed to so I was keeping an eye on it. Then I realized that a car ahead of him was all over it's lane. The semi did make it past as did others. I tried to time their weaves so that they should be on the shoulder when I went past but they ended up in our lane. I hit the rumble strips and laid on the horn as I went past. They didn't hit but kept up the weave. After I went past I noticed that the 1st truck I had notice passing them had slowed so that he was staying right ahead of them. Not sure why, but I would like to think that he had called the cops. Yesterday we had seen a similar van doing the same thing. That time we just followed them for miles. Finally on one corner they kept going strait until they were completely in the other lane, then jerked back into the correct lane before I could pass them. We did finally pass them to see what their condition was. An elderly lady with both hands on the wheel. She followed us into the rest area and by the time we were coming back out of the building she was getting out of her van, she called over and asked if the building was air conditioned. (It is) She had all her windows up so I hope she had AC, it was about 98 at that time of the day. 2nd stop was the BP in Floyd. We still have gift cards from months ago. I thought I had a Shell, but instead I find a Speedy that I could have used yesterday. Work on the road by this station is happening. Two supports for the overpass have been poured since we were here 10 days ago. 3rd stop is in Forest City to pick up our car and drop off paperwork. Five flat beds picking up RV's plus at least that many more drivers taking one each. Saw two of the shuttle drivers brining in drivers and also saw a trash truck pull in with two drivers. The second driver will be picking up an RV, both were heading to Anaheim. https://whsiowa.org/event/steam-threshing-festival Steam Threshing Festival is being held this weekend in Forest City at Heritage Park. This year they are featuring the Hart-Parr and Olivers. From the road it looked like they had a good crowd by noon on Friday. But we were pushing to get home. 4th stop for me was the Fort Snelling Cemetery while I waited for BB to drop the rental car. Busy day. I'm not used to them having all of the gates open so I took my usual long way out when BB called that she was ready. As if we do not get enough driving ... 5th stop was at the Honey Baked Ham in Burnsville, the opposite direction from home. Somewhere between there and home I get a call from the local dispatcher, they want me to go to ... Hopkins on Monday. That is about an hour trip. Hope they can keep my busier than that when I set aside two weeks for them. It is a little cooler today, yesterday was up to 98 degrees. Today it is only in the 80's but still too warm for me to go out and mow. My tolls still have not all shown up so I will wait until Monday to send in my paperwork for my bus. They are paying pretty good for the down time so we should be above our 'minimum' for our daily pay. Load board US - 376 IA - 159/156 MN - 18 |
