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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 220909 IA-UT 1 Straight truck to Coralville IA (delivered) 2 RV's to Draper UT ... spending the night at Ankeny IA :) I'm still alive :) BB said yesterday that I would get food poisoning if I ate the day out cheese curds. I didn't. I had eaten about a 1/4th of them the night I got them, then another 1/4th for breakfast yesterday (they were in the fridge overnight) then I ate most of the last half of them late yesterday afternoon while driving. Breakfast today - omelette and sausage. Before 8 AM we walk over to get our rental car. Then come back and load our stuff from the hotel and from the truck into it. Opps. When we are heading south on I-380 I can see trucks on a new bridge. But then the freeway re-routes back to the construction lanes. All I see is a sign that says I-80 Des Moines 1 Mile. Then at the last minute I see an exit 0-A and 0-B but I am in the wrong lane. When I get to where the clover leaf used to be, it is gone. Now it is six miles to the next exit. When I get off the freeway/express way, I decide to stay off and take the side streets. Just like yesterday AM, I use almost -0- fuel for the last 30 miles in the AM. So I do not add any more fuel. 1st stop is the drop. As soon as I have the attention of someone at the place, I make sure they know I am not returning a 'rental.' They understand and walk me back to the shop. He knows about the truck. 1st he says where I can park it and then leads me back to the truck, signs my paperwork and drives away. No inspection. (BB is sitting in the car and can hear the workers in the shop talk about the truck as I drive in :) ) 2nd stop is in Evansdale at the Flying J to use the restroom. It is a known, we stopped here yesterday. 3rd stop is in Clear Lake for food at Culvers. I have a malt and 'the smallest burger you have.' I meant the kids burger but it is not listed on their menu. I got a quarter pounder. Too much, 4th stop is at the shipper in Forest City to pickup our car. 5th stop is back at Clear Lake at the Pilot for fuel for the rental car. That is where we switch luggage from one car to the other, under their canopy. It was raining when we were in Forest City. This place is really empty now. First they took out the Denny's years ago. Now in the last few months they took out the Subway. 6th stop is the rental car place in Mason City. Drop and go. 7th stop is back at the shipper in Forest City. It takes us an hour to do our inspections on the small class B vans. The lot looks empty after having 100's of RV's for the last couple of years. 8th stop is the Loves in Ellsworth. Today we decide to fuel with the big trucks so we get our fuel discount without going inside to pay. High speed pumps on a little tank, we over ran fuel on both RV's. What we did was I started the pump, then when I was done, I laid the nozzle down and pulled ahead so BB could fuel. So we do not have an exact dollar amount on each RV for fuel. 9th and final stop was the Sleep Inn in Ankeny. Long time since we have stayed here. It used to be a regular. As soon as we check in, we order from the Outback next door. I order soup. I am still full from lunch. BB orders chicken and a salad, or a chicken salad. Load board US - 163 IA - 24 We are going to try to do 550 miles the next couple of days to make up for a short day today. It looks like we will do couple of almost 150 mile legs, which is fine with me. Plan is to make it to Sidney tomorrow night. Glad we grabbed when we did. Down to 24 RV's out of IA. Only two pairs. The pair to WV there is no way out, close. The other pair is to MI, pretty short. Nothing heading back this way from the west so we will see if anything shows up on Monday. 220910 IA-UT 2 RV's to Draper UT ... spending the night at Sidney NE Breakfast - eggs and sausage. No slow downs for 'rush hour' traffic on a Saturday AM. Glad I went back out last night and got my jacket. It is down in the 50's this AM. I kept my jacket on until noon when the sun came out and had my heat on most of that time. 1st stop was Underwood at the rest area. It's been raining this AM. I kept the cruise on, BB had not. When we got to the sharp curve in Omaha there was a semi rolled over in the oncoming traffic lanes. The van type trailer had something in it that was bagged, but the stuff from those bags that split were now being cleaned up with a front end loader. I'd been following semi's that were going the posted, 65 mph until we got to the curve. Some of them must have gotten spooked. After the accident they stayed at 45 mph until I passed them and I never saw them again. Somewhere after that, there was a semi in the oncoming ditch that had been coming from that way, went into the median, then back up on their freeway and must have cranked it too hard because they ended up in the far side of their ditch going backwards. 2nd stop is Aurora at Loves. Here we fuel in front and use two pumps. Busy place, I had seen where the empty pumps were from the street and took a different entrance. The person I followed off the freeway was still waiting for a pump when we were done. When I asked the fuel desk to turn on two pumps they said they could not do that ... to which I said "This is the first station in two years that would not do that" ... That was about the time he saw that I had a company card and turned both of them on. This place 'could not put them on one transaction.' We had Arby's. BB was done eating in 15 minutes and if I had thrown the rest of my sandwich we could have been back on the road then. Transporters ... one of ours past us. We met a small 'super sucker' truck as we were leaving Aurora Loves. A semi fire truck parked next to us at a rest area, but he was gone before we got back to our RV's. And there was a four door pickup chassis that seemed to be stopping every 50 miles either on the side of the road, gas station or rest area. Plus a few other RV's. Not city buses. 3rd stop was Brady at the rest area. From here BB made the reservation for the hotel. We would have time to get to Cheyenne but no reason to. 4th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Sidney. But first we go to the Loves to fuel. Usually this place is a ghost town but tonight there isn't a single pump that has an opening on two sides. So BB parks behind me and I fuel first and then she pulls ahead and fuels. Doing that is saving $1.25. Not sure how long we will keep doing that. Then we go across the street to the hotel and check in. I ask about cookies but they say their oven is being replaced. Once we check in, we call the Mexican place across the freeway. I now always ask the city location, every since I called in an order to Denver and tried to pick it up in Sidney. This time BB and I split an order. And we cleaned up the platter, and were full. We are not doing quite as good on fuel as the last trips, we had a head wind for a while and maybe fuel prices have changed more since Monday that on prior trips. It is still light when we are done eating and is not in the 100's so we go for a walk. Forecast is to be in the 30's in the AM :) Walking down the street, BB says "It looks like you forgot ... I forgot to shut the windows of my RV." ... and she forgot to lock it. Glad we took that walk. Just around the building, the only sidewalk is in front of our building and there are trucks on the rest of the roads. Loadboard (weekend) US - 153 IA - 23 Today was only 4 stops, tomorrow will likely be 7. Once we get to Wyoming we either stop every 100 miles or every 200, so 100 it is. We will fill, top off, once more and then add fuel in UT if we need more to get to the drop. Nothing added to the load boards over the weekend so nothing to even look at for options. 220911 IA-UT 2 RV's to Draper UT ... spending the night at Sandy UT Breakfast - Western omelettes and ring bacon/sausage (?) The person ahead of me took the last omelette so I went to the front desk to make sure they were making more, they were. Good, but a lot of food for breakfast. We rolled out about 7:30 local. Temp was 39 degree's when BB got up. No frost but lots of dew on the windows. We need to start parking when the sun will hit the windshields when it comes up. But soon we will be rolling before sun up. :( 1st stop of the Port of Entry in WY. This time the person asked me a lot of questions. I guess she wasn't assuming anything. They were all on topic. Usually they only ask if it is an RV, and I need $20. 2nd stop was the Loves in Laramie for 'final fill' of fuel. There was a person standing next to a very old Nisan pickup camper, 40 years old or so. He was waving his empty fuel can at everyone that drove past. One of our drivers stopped and talked to BB as she was heading into the store. I was fueling and didn't talk to him. There was also someone from another company camped in the parking lot here with their RV. We fueled in the auto islands today both times. Fuel would have been cheaper at a different station in the truck islands but the difference was about $1. I get enough of the trucks blowing their horns at me on the highways. 3rd stop was the TA/Subway in Rawlins. A bus had passed us a few miles before the exit and when we pulled in here the people were just getting off. We expected a long line at either the rest room or Subway. Luckily most went for the sit down Country Pride Restaurant. There were three people ahead of us in line a Subway and it still took a while. Seemed only one person had been out front helping people and they had to go find the others when the line formed. They were out of a lot of stuff today. Turkey, that was what BB wanted. Also out of peppers, mayo, cookies and a few other things. Weather was nice so we ate outside by our RV's. Someone walked over and asked the price and a few other questions while we ate. Traffic/Trucks were thick today. I don't often look over at drivers unless I know they are a transporter ... but I happened to notice one truck driver waved at me as he went by, twice. Also had a trucker blow his horn at me ... I was in the left lane, closely following another truck up a hill. The trucker on the right blew his horn at me. Then pulled in behind me as soon as there was a couple of feet between his bumper and mine. There was room in front of where he had been so I pulled into the left lane ... and so did he ??? He followed me a ways before passing. When he got about three truck lengths ahead of me he stayed there for the next half hour or so. Not sure why he didn't want me passing him. Later there was another trucker who blew his horn at me, he was in the left lane, I was in the right. I'd been in the left for a while and he'd been in the right lane a while Not sure what happened when we were coming down one of the big hills, I was in the middle lane and there were slow trucks in the right lane ... one of those trucks hits the shoulder up against the concrete wall. It looked like the driver ahead of him had locked his breaks up and the 2nd driver couldn't stop fast enough. I stayed away from those two. 4th stop was in Green River at the Loves for more fuel. BB wants to put in four more gallons. I hadn't planned on putting in any but do put in two gallons. Right now my range just about gets me there and last time I gained 50 miles range from here to the drop. 5th stop is at the rest area in Evanston. The white buffalo are laying in almost the same spots as last time. UT scale is closed, for us. The line of trucks must have gotten to long so the close it until the line is gone. That saved us a fraction of a gallon of fuel, slowing down, idling and speeding up. 6th and final stop is the Best Western in Sandy. Last time BB had looked at the reviews for the Choice hotels and decided to stay here instead. Since then she has looked at the hotels we stay at often and they also get those kinds of reviews :) The mall food places closed before we got here. We had thought about going back to the Greek place, but we had both seen signs for a place across the street. That would be a four minute walk instead of a 15 minute walk. Legend's, we split a patty melt and BB got veggies and I got potato soup. Very, very good soup. I might just get a bowl of soup next time we are here. Today when we were coming down the hill from Evanston to Salt Lake, there was a pickup pulling a boat that had passed me, and then pulled in front of me and onto the shoulder. No problem for me, I just had to slow down a little. But before they got stopped, it threw up a rock and put a chip in BB's windshield. No out of pocket $ but still a downer. Tomorrow ... We will drop off before noon. Our east coast dispatchers start two hours before our time zone so at 6 AM local we should be looking at the load board. Plan B is just to head home in the rental car. 220912 IA-UT 2 RV's to Draper UT (delivered) ... spending the night at Laramie WY Mmmm - we can smell the bacon when we walk out of our room and we are on the 3rd floor on the opposite end of the building. Before we get a chance to see anything else (we look at FaceBook first) we see someone eating Dunkin Donuts courtesy of our company. Then we see it on our company website ... free food all week. We didn't get going until 9:30 local. BB had made the car reservation for 10 AM in case we had stayed a 100+ miles out of town. And that gets us in behind the deliveries of those that park in the lot overnight. BB heads to the rental place and I head to the drop. 1st stop (for me) is for fuel at a grocery store for final fuel. 2nd stop is the drop. No one ahead of me. No one around, so I have to call the number listed on the gate. Someone is there within minutes. Someone different, they give me the OK to leave my RV so we can go get the 2nd RV. BB gets there a few minutes later with the rental car and we head back to pick up her RV. Back at the RV lot, the inspector is just finishing up when BB pulls in. Once she is parked we head inside the building this time to wait. It takes about an hour each here. 3rd stop is for food at the In-n-Out. We did talk about going somewhere different but didn't. We did get fries this time, it's been a while. No work from anywhere today. Not in UT, CO or along the way. I even called my local dispatcher and the closest thing they had to me was heading to OR. The only thing they had heading to MN was in PA. That didn't help so we are heading home. We will still make enough that we could be done for the month. But I have committed to working local next week. 4th stop was the rest area in Lyman. Almost missed it, I thought it was a road side rest area and it was at the exit. 5th stop was the Loves in Wamsutter for the rest room. Not much excitement today on the highway. We did see a couple of transporters. Later in the day we passed seven cattle trucks loaded with sheep. 6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Laramie. But first we head to McCallisters Deli. We have been stopping at Papa Johns, Chester's or Blue Taco's but IF there is anyone working at all they are out of menu items. We always find something at McCallisters. There were no Dunkin's in Salt Lake City and the one in Laramie closes at 3 PM. But we have no looked and should be able to get something once a day for the rest of the week. The long haul company is having daily phone meetings this week. We were at the drop this AM but the rest of the week we may listen in on the calls. My local company also has 'gift's' this week. One year it was a free shirt so that is worth stopping in for, it is only 15 miles from my house. Load board US - 164 IA - 14 If no work shows up tomorrow, we may get to Omaha? Des Moines? We can cover a lot of miles at 75-80 mph. Des Moines is less than 700 miles, so less than 10 hours. 220913 IA-UT 2 RV's to Draper UT (delivered) ... spending the night at Council Bluffs IA Yogurt for breakfast. We pull out at 8:30 local. 1st stop is still in town. Cheap gas at a convenience store here in Laramie. Busy place but people get in and out quickly. 2nd stop the Loves in Sidney for the rest room. The east bound rest area is still under construction. It is a complete over haul, not sure if it will be a rest area when it re-opens. No signage yet. 3rd stop is in North Platte at the Dunkin's for our free food from our carrier. We each get a sandwich and a donut. It is driver appreciation week this week. We missed the call for their daily meeting yesterday because we were delivering. Today we were still in WY and we lost the call so missed most of it. A few hours later they had another call. This one we took. The first 11 minutes were commercials for the companies that donated to the cause ... at which point we hung up. So not sure if there was a point to the 2nd call or not. Sights ... We were just about to Cheyenne when a coyote came up to the road and stood on the shoulder, before turning around and running away from the highway. Wish I would have gotten pictures of the corn fields near exit 101/western NE. Not even enough to make a windrow, it would have to be chopped standing. We did see someone picking corn. It's been years, but this was in a seed corn field so that is likely the way they still do it. Platte River is just about dry in some places. No weeds growing in the river bed and the ground was still wet so it was easy to see how wide the river usually is. On the way west, BB and I both noticed a 'chuck wagon' along side of a 'covered wagon' with a horse nearby. BB saw another wagon that I didn't see, I saw a person fixing a fence that she didn't see. There are still cowboys riding the range that we see once in a while. 4th stop is in Wood River at the Pilot for fuel. Next cheap fuel is in north Des Moines tomorrow. No trips out of UT, CO, NE, WY today on the load board. There was one from Grand Jct to Casper. Last time we did this trip we did go through Grand Jct after taking a walk near SLC where we saw the moose. IF, if we had done that routine this trip we would have been in Grand Jct today. Oh well, no work heading how this trip. 5th and final stop is a Comfort Inn in Council Bluff's. It is the cheapest and furthest before Des Moines another hour away. This time BB had not looked at reviews. Our review is that next time we look it will have skipped the down grade to Quality Inn and gone directly to EcnoLodge, the lowest of the Choice brands. This place is not being taken care of. Our room smells like it was soaked with bleach and then closed up. Not sure what they were trying to hide. We called in a food order at Tish's. In the past we have eaten at either Stake and Lube or a BBQ place. But BB found this place online and it was closer than the others. Tonight we split a chicken Philly and rings. Both were very good. Load board US - 140 IA - 12 (9 Canada) If we get out of here by 8 AM tomorrow we should be able to make it to Forest City around noon for food from their driver appreciation week event. Then home by mid-afternoon. Now BB wants to get her passport again so she can fly if she wants/needs to. So we may end up doing that on Thursday or Friday instead of working. .. the trip continues HERE |
