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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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220826 IA-CA 2 RV's to Freemont CA ... spending the night at home Load board (Friday) US - 342 IA - 149 We were still stuck in traffic when it was 8 AM. We called on both of our phones, but by the time someone answered one of the ones we wanted was gone and we listened to the last one being taken when we were put on hold (After we got our trips) 150 trips on the load board and the four to where we want to go are the first ones to go. Not sure the attraction. We are going to Freemont CA, leaving on Sunday to deliver on Thursday. The ones we wanted would have paid a little better but anything to this location would be our best paying option. Before we took the trip we reserved two cars. A local for $40 a day and a one way for $70 a day. It's been a long time since we have seen them prices. We'll make money either way but hopefully we get a bus coming back east. Our third option would have been to drop in two different locations but that takes more time. I'm still dealing with my DOT issue. The office will have it corrected by 1 PM, but they can not fax it to my carrier because of 'privacy issues.' So we need to leave the fair by about 2 PM to get to their office and then to the carrier before both close. I had hoped that office would have been open on Saturday but no, and I need to get it done before leaving town for 2-3 weeks. I get it done so all should be happy for another year. When I was at the carrier we saw six buses for NY staged to ship out this weekend plus a couple of semi tractors to be moved. To top the evening off another driver called and we talked on the phone for about an hour. That was after they were asking questions on messenger twice as fast as I could answer them. 220828 IA-CA 2 RV's to Freemont CA ... spending the night at Lincoln NE No alarm but up by 6 AM, out of house by 8 AM. No rush. 1st stop is for fuel at Kwik Trip in Owatonna because my range was dropping too fast. We had planned on stopping in Ellendale where gas was a lot cheaper. Kwik Trip did give me a random $.10 per gallon discount so we got close to the cheaper gas. 2nd stop was the shipper in Forest City. A few others in the lot when we got there, others came while we were there, all were gone before us. We haven't worked for a while so we were missing things from our routine. No issues. Did talk to one, wanted to talk to another ... they had an AZ plate in their window for a while. I was going to ask why they had that ... bus drivers are the only ones I have seen before with those. 3rd stop was the Arby's in Dows for food. I am planning on eating less but their limited time sandwich is the 'Philly cheesestake.' It was good :) BB is using the eLog/electronic log that I use as '2nd check.' She is using it live starting today. So far so good. We part ways. 4th stop for me is the Loves in Ellsworth for fuel for me. BB keeps going. 4th stop for BB is the Kum-n-Go in Alkeny for gas. I didn't look at the time I pasted that exit but I am guessing I was about five mintues behind her for the next two hours. 5th stop for both of us was the rest area in Underwood. 6th stop for me was the Loves in Omaha, BB kept going to the hotel. She does not like the logistics of getting in and out of this station and she wasn't going to be fueling here. I hadn't wanted to but I have just enough fuel to get to the next Loves ... if I don't loose more range. We are bucking a headwind today and not getting good mileage. When I get back in after fueling I see that the tank is not full. The pump had kicked off so I had assumed it was full. Now I'm not going to get to our next planned fuel stop tomorrow. 7th and final stop was the Quality Inn in Lincoln. I follow in a travel trailer transporter and talked to him a little once we were parked. He is heading to CA also. Sacramento near the I-80/I-5 intersection. I had sent BB a text saying 'food,' but that wasn't enough for her to stop at Cracker Barrel. So, because it was close to 100 degrees at 7 PM we walked across the parking lot to Perkins instead of walking the half mile to Cracker Barrel. I think the last time we were here was because it was below zero. ... we both had 55+ breakfasts at Perkins. Last night when I was looking at the mileage to Lincoln I saw that I-80 was closed ... east bound. Never did find why but for that reason I was watching closer today. 1st there was a box truck laying on it's side with the top pealed off. Then there was a semi and a pickup/5th wheel in the center median that had both burn. But those were miles from where it said the road was closed. And neither looked like they would have effected the east bound only traffic. Unless the firefighters came on the east bound lanes and were fighting it from the highway. Load board (weekend) US - 344 IA - 162 CA - nothing heading east. We've done this trip so many times lately that we don't really have to have a plan. We <> know where we are going to be stopping every two hours. We should get as far as Laramie tomorrow, West Wendover on Tuesday and Rocklin on Wednesday. We get a discount on fuel but some stations have fuel cheap enough that they are cheaper than our fleet discount at the majors. We need to watch this close because usually when this happens our fleet makes a huge adjustment and those differences change quickly. 220829 IA-CA 2 RV's to Freemont CA ... spending the night at Laramie WY Alarm at 6 AM Breakfast was ... interesting. The only hot food was gravy. Their main fridge only had butter in it, the milk and yogurt was in a larger, temp fridge that didn't seem to be much cooler than room temp. I had one yogurt and BB had cold cereal. When we got to leave we see another RV from our same shipper but didn't see the driver. We also saw the travel trailer hauler that we talked to last night. He is planning on getting to Rock Springs tonight, about 200 miles further than we are so he will max out his hours AND be driving over 65 mph. Speed limit is up to 80 so I'm guessing it can be done legally. 1st stop is for fuel at the Petro in York. This RV has the large fuel neck so I can fuel with the big rigs I just don't like to. 2nd stop is a rest area near Kearney. 3rd stop is for lunch in North Platte at the Penny's Diner. We had about the same thing we had last night. Breakfast. More of it and much better. 4th stop for BB is the Walmart in Ogallala for fuel. I keep going. When I fueled in York this AM had about 5 miles to spare for making it to Sidney, by the time I got to Ogallala I had 40 miles to spare and when I did get to Sidney I had 60 miles to spare. Mileage is going up today. Back yesterday in IA the ditches were full of water and some fields were flooded. In Nebraska where it hailed it looks like most of the re-plant is doing OK. But west where it was the heat that hurt the crops are still looking bad. One field I could see the ground in places, other places the corn was knee high and burnt. A lot of fields have huge area's that are dried up/burnt up and other parts of the field are green. One place it looked like the farmer had swathed the corn and was going to chop it like hay. And it looks like the farmers are cutting anything that is/was green for hay. 4th stop for me is Loves in Sidney for fuel. I fuel with the big rigs so I don't have to go in to get the pump turned on. Then their pump screen wasn't working so I had to go any in anyways. By the time I was done fueling and pulled around to the car area, BB was there and getting out of her RV. We make our hotel reservations for here as the cell service at the POE is very bad. As we are about to leave, two more RV's pull in to fuel. We don't stop to talk. 5th stop is the Port of Entry for permits. Quick in and out. 6th stop is the Sinclair in Laramie for fuel for both of us. It is cheaper here than at the truckstop with a discount. At noon we had looked at stopping in Gothenburg at the Nebraska Barn & Grill but they are closed Monday's. Now we are in Laramie and we wanted to try Maria's ... and they are closed on Monday's. So we end up back at Papa John's for pizza. And today they have lots of them. One meat each. I ask them to covert one to a Hawaiian pizza but they say they can not. They do not have pineapple, or olives, or ... Then the person tells us that most fast food places no longer carrier olives because of food poisoning. Good story ... but I can not find anything online that confirms that story. We end up with one personal pan pizza and split it. Later we go for a walk. In a field I see some of the same equipment I thought I had taken a picture of a month ago (But I can't find the prior picture.) Interesting because a lot of farmers stick with one brand. This person didn't have two of the same brand. There is less sitting here now than I remember but still no two the same brand. We did see one bus today heading to NY. Left a message with the CA bus dispatcher because he did not pick up. Since then I have been in contact with two other drivers. One just said I'd be going to a hotel. The other driver has been in a hotel since Wednesday waiting. Not sure he is willing to pay me to sit. Load board US - 339 IA - 159 CA - none heading east Should get to Wendover UT tomorrow. 220830 IA-CA 2 RV's to Freemont CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT 6 AM local - breakfast is eggs and sausage. 1st stop is Rawlins at Flying J for our rest stop. WOW! I have been mentioning my carrier on FaceBook since I joined the driveaway groups at the beginning of Covid 2+ years ago ... and today I got my 1st finders fee where someone used my name when they applied ... $500. 2nd stop was Quizno's in Rock Springs for food. 3rd stop was Loves in Green River a few miles down the road. Here I planned on fueling at the truck islands so I would get my rewards points but as I drove past I saw that all pumps were full and trucks waiting. I made a u-turn and fueled in the auto island. All pumps open but no rewards points. 4th stop was Evanston at the rest area. It doesn't say rest area, maybe it never did. It now says State Park. IF we had driven into the main entrance for the State Park I could have gotten a real good picture of the white buffalo. Both were laying near the parking area and closer to the fence than the rest of the herd. 5th stop was the Flying J in Tooele for a break. Usually the RV marked area is almost full, usually of trucks. Today all that is there are two other RV transporters so we parked next to them. Never saw the drivers. 6th and final stop was the Quality Inn in Wendover UT. Not the nicest place but $60 and clean. Permits? ... what? We need permits for tomorrow? It's been so long since we have been this way that it never crossed my mind. WY did long before we got there, but we are two blocks from the border and I never thought about it once. Luckily it is another two hours before they close so they had 'plenty of time' to get them for us. It's not the weekend so the food truck is not in the lot. We have to walk another block to a different food truck. Lots of food within walking distance but with the temp near 100 degrees we did not want to walk too far. I'm keeping in touch with one of the drivers who is waiting for a bus in CA. They have now been in the hotel for a week, waiting. We likely will not wait. And we may not want to wait around even for a day or two. Temps are going to be 100+ for the next few days. Load board US - 364 IA - 162 We have tomorrow planned out. Still planning on getting to Rocklin. That will leave 120 miles for Thursday AM to delivery. 220831 IA-CA 2 RV's to Freemont CA ... spending the night at Rocklin CA Breakfast - BB had leftovers from the food truck from last night. I got hotel food. Eggs, sausage, nothing special but it is better than the Ho-Ho's and Ding-Dongs they had during the height of Covid. After looking online last night and doing the math, we decided to just fuel here at Maverik instead of using our discount at Loves in Wells. Using the discount will save us <> $.25 and cost us an extra stop. Actually it was likely the same cost, I got a $.03 discount this AM at Maverik. NV inspection station is open, one of the guys ahead of me pulls over to get inspected ... then keeps driving. Sign says 'keep moving unless directed to stop.' Guess he couldn't read. Likely couldn't. When I caught up to him I see he was from Quebec. I can't read their signs either. Some times I miss going up there, but not often :) 1st stop (after Wendover) is in Elko at the Sinclair. Lots of coach buses, their fuel pumps must be down. Their shop is just a few blocks from the station and we see the buses all the time but this is the first time we have seen buses at the station. Using coach buses to get employee's to the job site is big business out here. Lots of cops on the highway as usual near Elko. 2nd stop is Winnemucca at the Maverik for fuel. It is cheaper here again than using our discount at the big truck stops. Here I only get a $.02 discount but BB and I are parked next to each other so she uses my card also. And we get our food here ... we were planning on using the bathrooms but the sign said 'closed - flooded.' So we bought food here and drop a couple of miles to Loves to use their rest room. Not sure why we didn't buy food here instead. We didn't buy our food here so we stood outside and ate in <> 100 degree heat. Chicken nuggets for me, club sandwich for BB. 3rd stop was Fernley for fuel, final hopefully. Flying J. 1st pump I try, I can not get to work. And I noticed the person ahead of me could not get their receipt and finally gave up. I gave up before fueling and moved. BUT because of the issue I only put in enough fuel to get to my drop ... on 'E.' I had planned on putting in enough to have a range of 50 miles when I drop. So I go back and fuel a 2nd time at the same station but at a different pump. At this pump I have to go in and get my receipt. AND those three gallons I put in only added 4 mpg each instead of the 12 mpg on the first fill. More on that later ... Reno/Sparks had some kind of festival going on, but keep my eyes on the road. Right after we crossed into CA we were meeting emergency vehicles ... when we checked into our hotel two hours later it was on the news that there was an accident in that area. Not sure if it was on our side or one coming traffic. No one manning the fruit inspection stations today at the border. 4th stop is Gold Run at the rest area. ... opps. When I put in fuel in Fernley the first time I was a few miles under range to get to my drop. So I added three more gallon and that got me just over. When will I remember? I now have an excess range of 100+ miles. I should have left it with <> enough fuel to get to the drop and the range will go up as I head down hill ... From here we make reservations. BB is not sure what happened, but she remembers the price being less earlier in the day and it was less again after we checked in. 5th stop was the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. As soon as we check in we walk for food. I had wanted a sandwich but they now close at 6 PM ??? and we would have gotten there just minutes before they locked the doors. And it is <> 100 degrees and there is closer food. So we went to Arby's. Cheesestake again. And a small lemonade, mostly ice. But good on a day like today. Load board US - 360 IA - 159 CA - 6 - all going from CA to CA The rental dispatcher did have trucks today going from IA to MN, ND to MN, IA to IA and more. Been messaging with a gal who was waiting for a week for a bus. Finally last night I said she needed to tell the dispatcher that she needed to get home to go on vacation. She did and got a truck out of town instead of a bus so she is on her way. But still no buses, so if they are still building <> 10 a day and not shipping any they are getting close to 100 waiting for parts. We will need to decide what to do. I hate to sit but we make more money sitting without an income than paying for a rental car home. And we have three weeks this time before we need to leave the area. Or maybe we get a truck tomorrow? There are both local moves and rental local moves so that could keep us busy tomorrow and Friday but then we are looking at a three day weekend of heat. Too hot to do anything and the beaches will be packed. And if the company is going to pay our hotel they want us in the area. .. the trip continues HERE |
