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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 221019 IA-IN 1 RV to Mount Vernon IN ... spending the night at O'Fallon IL Up at 6 AM, breakfast at 6:30 AM (2 yogurt) and on the road at 7 AM. 1st stop - the shipper in Forest City. We get to the office right at 8 AM, they greet us but it's a few minutes before anyone brings us our paperwork. And we get some log books, I have been using my own because we ran out of company logs. No one else in the lot today. This lot is pretty empty. The 'over-flow' lot is getting full. Someone had made a comment on the company FB page about that and their comment got deleted. (Glad I'm not on there anymore) Short walk to the RV, we didn't need to drive to find it. It is a little chilly this AM, we had to scrape the windows off at the hotel this AM. It takes us about 45 minutes to do our/BB's inspection. I did sit in the car part of that time as not to interfere with her routine. 2nd stop if the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel. BB's pump kept shutting off but we knew how big the tank is and how much fuel the gauge showed. Se we kept adding until the gallons were close. Hmmm. The window washer bucket at Pilot was frozen solid, all five gallons of it. Sure didn't seem that cold. After we left the station I turned the radio on to the farm / country station. Somewhere during a farm update the announcer commented that it was colder the night before. Monday morning it was 13 degrees when he was heading to work. That helps explain why the bucket was frozen ... and then close to 80 again by this weekend there. Not much farm work being done this AM, still lots to be done. 3rd stop is for food at Arbey's in Evansdale/Waterloo. As we were walking across the lot, I picked up a six inch nail. They are working on the roof and not being very careful, I guess. I had a French Dip today. It had about 1/4 the meat I remember being on that sandwich. Should have taken a picture. Where you order it shows the meat hanging off the side, today's meat was about the size of a hotdog. (and it was the boss making it, so he should know how much goes on it) As I was pulling in here, my phone rang, it was my local dispatch. When I called them back they said there was an issue with my logs but I couldn't follow what they wanted. 4th stop was the Pilot in Mount Pleasant for fuel. I was only down a 1/4 but we aren't planning of fueling again before BB's drop and fuel in IL/IN is a lot more. While here I looked at my logs and see what I had done. The only issue was that I had only included one day's log, not every day's log. But these are the same logs as we send to the long haul company every week so I just sent them that email and they can print out what they need. Otherwise I did offer to come in on Monday and straighten it out. In Hannibal there is a hotel that had been a Holiday Inn (?) and it has had a lot of names since that, slowly going down hill. For a while there was no sign with a name, just an 'open' sign. Then for the last six months or so it has been closed. Today it has a new sign. Ramada/Baymont. I have never seen those two names paired together on a single hotel before and can't guess the reason why. 5th stop is the Loves in New London for the rest room. From here we decide we are early enough that we can make it to O'Fallon IL instead of O'Fallon MO. Some traffic mid-St Louis but not bad. Much better to have the sun in my mirror than directly in my eyes in rush hour traffic. Even with this much traffic I was able to find the bus garage where I have dropped a couple of buses. For the whole 50 miles through St Louis I was able to see BB, she was leading today. Most of the time there was only a couple of cars between us and then they would pass ... can't drive the speed limit for too many minutes. 6th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in O'Fallon IL. We have stayed here before, now BB says that is not, in itself, a good reason to stay again. We could see the lack up upkeep at the front counter, in the elevator, the halls. The parking lot looks newly done, maybe they are starting to fix it up? This place does have three marked spots for semi' and twice that for pickups with trailers plus lots more parking. The room is OK, so is the price :) But it is the old style with the curved wall sticking into the room from the shower. This place does share the parking lot with an IHOP but we drove across the streets to Stake and (no) Shake. Shake machine is down, so no shakes, and I don't need one. I get my usual garlic burger. BB likes to get their chicken but it wasn't on the menu and she didn't want to ask. So a burger for her too. The only thing of interest new on the load board today was one from IA to Brainard MN. It would have been nice to have done a shorter one but by the time we saw it, we would have committed to something else. Local dispatch did email me early AM saying they still had the one to Fort Atkinson that they had mentioned before ... and that it was NOT an Autocar. Not sure why they didn't mention it yesterday, we might have done it. Then we would have been back soon enough to do the Brainard. But nothing out of IA is staying on the load board long. There are enough drivers to move 50+ a day, every day when needed. Most of those drivers are watching the board now and grabbing as fast as they can. Load board US - 210 IA - 4/1 MN - 12 WI - 2 We have about two hours to the drop for tomorrow AM, Then we have 650 miles home, not paid. Not sure if we will find anything that we can both pick up and drop by Friday PM. It won't be something going back to MN. If we pick up anything we will not be home until Saturday. There is one RV in IN but we would not get that to the drop until Saturday. I have dropped there before so I may call them and ask if nothing else shows up. Last time something showed up closer to us than the Winamac as soon as we took the Winamac ... we'll see what happens. 221020 IA-IN 1 RV to Mount Vernon IN (delivered) 2 trucks to Rock Island IL (Friday) ... spending the night at Galesburg IL We eat breakfast, what there was. No plates, no forks, apple juice was water, the OJ had gone bad. We pull out at 7:15 AM and headed right into the sun-up. Glad we didn't also have to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. Before we could head out, we had to scrape the frost off the windows. So I also scratched the area where it looked like a rock chip from yesterday. It looked like I was scraping little chips of glass but once I was done it was still ruff and looked like a couple of chips. 1st stop was the rest area in Mt Vernon, IL. Somewhere before the turn off, we meet an oversized load that is taking up both lanes and has a huge escort. Not sure what their plan is, they are heading into three sections where the road is down to one lane. 2nd stop is in the town of Mount Vernon, IN for final fuel for the RV. ... another two miles and we are at the drop. After I take off BB's plate and placards I head back to the car. Before I have time to look at the basics on my phone, BB gets in the car with her paperwork signed. We are ready to go. We pull to the side of the building so that it is easier to take pictures of the paperwork to send in. I hadn't seen it before, but BB sees that I have been paid a 'no pickup fee' for the trip that I couldn't take. Still no trips that work for us. I call a drop in MN and they will not take delivery on Saturday. So that trip is NA for us, and that is the only one right now. We have three options to head home and be closer to work. We finally decide to take the shortest route home ... we could be home by 9 PM tonight. 3rd stop is near Griffin to make a personal phone call. It takes longer than I thought. We could have switched drivers and kept driving, providing there was cell service 4th stop is at the RoadRanger in Grayville. Dan's Pizza, shelf pizza. It was good, sort of. I got two pieces, BB got one. BB ended eating my crusts, so she liked it better than I did. Off freeway for the next few hours. A little after noon, central dispatch puts two trips on the load board out of IL. BB thinks they are wrong and doesn't want me to waste time calling. I think I know the error and want to call. After a few miles we are in a town and stop. 5th stop is at the IGA parking lot in Newton. I get the trips. Each trip is less than 60 miles, it is <> on the way home, and it will almost double our take home for the week. Not sure why they are paying so good, but I'll take it. Now we have a plan. 6th stop is in Montrose at a Phillips 66 for BB to use the restroom. I call the shipper. And I have to call them again with more info. They are open at 7:30 and we will be there close to that time. 7th and final stops are in Galesburg. First at Charley's for Cheese-steaks and lemonaid. Then we headed the side streets to the Best Western. ... it wasn't listed anywhere and the last review was in 2017, but this place has an on-site restaurant. (and we already have food) I'm able to print out my paperwork for tomorrow. Load board US - 183 IA - 4 MN - 4 WI - 3 Tomorrow. Short trips. If each trip takes an hour each way and a half hour on each end for inspection this will take six hours. We would be done at 2 PM and have six hours to home. 8 PM. We try to be off the road by dark. There is also a trip in IA going back to Shakopee. We MAY call on that tomorrow once we are done with the first two trucks.
221021 IL-IL 2 trucks to Rock Island IL ... spending the night at home Breakfast ... didn't start until 7 AM. We were down a little after and the doors were still locked. I knocked and someone opened. It was the usual, eggs, sausage, yogurt ... We weren't as quick getting going as I thought we might be. Then I had to wait for someone to check IN at 7:30 and they didn't want to pay the extra for an early check in. So it too a bit. Then we had to wait for a train so it was well after 7:30 when we got to the shipper. 1st stop, the shipper in Galesburg. There was someone to help me right away. I couldn't really tell what was going on there. I only saw one person, heard the voice of one other. A dozen trucks lined up in the back. I get my paperwork and found the truck, based on the truck number on the keys. We checked it out. Windshield damage, a little body damage ... and very, very dirty inside. I guess three years of spilling stuff and the dirt it collects. (I didn't even dare set my phone down in either truck) The first trip we took the freeway, it was longer but fewer turns so I didn't have to write anything down. But this did run me through the scale. 2nd stop was the drop. The first person I talked too had to find someone else who had to call someone else. Then the second person did inspect the truck and tell me where to park it. Once I parked it, they did sign for it. Then I had to call in to get dispatched, should have done that at the shipper. And get a release number once I was delivered. Before we got back to the shipper the second time, I had already been paid. On the way back with the car, we took the shorter, suggested route. No issues. 3rd stop was the same shipper in Galesburg again. This time I knew the routine so it went faster. They wanted me to take some road atlases so I ended up taking three, they might have had a stack of 20 sitting there and the wanted me to take more. The second truck was not as dirty from spills, but it was coated with (likely) dog hair. And the passenger seat was laying on it's back on the floor ??? But no mechanical issues on either truck and they both had over a quarter tank of fuel at pick up and delivery so I did not have to purchase any. This trip we took the shorter route with the truck also, saved time and I didn't have to cross the scale. 4th stop was the same drop. This time I knew where to park and who to look for. I wasn't timing it but it seemed to go faster. I also found out that the shipping location had gone out of business. So I could have taken more of the road atlases they'll likely throw them away. There is work, but it would mean arranging for a Saturday delivery. And we are done early enough to make it home tonight if we leave now ... But we didn't. BB decided she wanted to eat at a McCallisters Deli so we followed the directions. First we got to a 'swinging (?) bridge.' The kind that spins crossways in the river to let boats pass on one or two sides. This time we were waiting for a barge and this looked like it was also a loch situation. Interesting bridge, the car deck was 11 feet high and ran under the rail road tracks. And this was all the steel grid type which is open to the water. One of the drivers got out and walked over to watch the barge pass. We weren't going anywhere, might as well. Then we got to a place where there was one lane traffic and our lane had the stop sign. But the guy behind me still blew his horn at me, then backed up and went around me onto some cross street that I had left a gap for. Still the same back route ... someone passes me and another car where the center is supposed to be used for a turn lane. After they passed us, I realized that they had done this ... in a school zone ... with kids around. Zoom, zoom. 5th stop was the McCallisters in Bettendorf. And our food was not fast there either. An hour plus, plus we were still in the Quad Cities instead of an hour down the road. ... oh, and McCallister's didn't have my sandwich today, and I didn't get soup because I was driving :( This may be the first time I was forced to order something else. 6th stop was the Pilot near Cedar Rapids for fuel. It would have been cheaper in the Quad Cities but we were both eating and didn't think about it. Then. It's five PM and the IA load board ends at 25. That is the first time since the first part of September that there have been that many. Actually there were two days since then where it was over 25, but didn't stay there. In September it had dropped from 150 to that and below. By now we have been paid for all trips. We made almost as much for a few hours work today as we did for the prior four days. We don't need to work anymore this month and likely won't. 7th stop is the MN rest area on I-35 near IA. 8th and final stop is home. Load board US - 186 IA - 25 MN - 3 WI - 2 Full week next week, actually have to write it down. As of now we are free to head out on Thursday afternoon and be gone until Thursday of Thanksgiving. Hopefully there is work, long trips, by then. Winds are already too high to run through WY so we will have to watch that as we pick a trip.
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