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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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221028 IA-CA 1 boom truck to Hopkins MN (failed) 1 trash truck to Dodge Center MN (delivered) 2 RV's to Gilroy CA ... spending the night at Clear Lake IA I thought we had everything planned out last night. But by this AM we decided not to take the NY runs and wait for something better. And we decided not to do the two rental trips that we had planned on committing to yesterday. Instead we will do the shortest rental trip that keeps us closest to home. At 7 AM I call that dispatcher. They answer and say they are busy and won't be able to get things lined up until 'later in the AM.' This is two days in a row with this dispatcher so I quickly say. DON"T line the trip up. They can call me when they have time and I will decide then if we are still interested. So now we are hanging. And looking at options. Before 8 AM I get a call from the local dispatcher at the other company. Can we run a truck to Hopkins this right away this AM. Sure. We aren't doing anything. All dressed up and no where to go. Actually we were not ready to go so it did take a few minutes to get out of the house. Within a few minutes the local dispatcher calls back. Can you also do a Dodge Center trip. Sure. Why not. So when the rental dispatcher calls back ... sorry. Plans have changed ... We get to the office parking lot ... the first thing I notice is that someone has knocked down the reflectors by the driveway. Big, tall steel posts. Then when we get to the truck I start checking the fluids and BB does a walk around. Flat tire. Hmmmm (I forgot to take a picture of that truck) I won't get any pay for a show up because I had to come to pick up my paperwork for the other truck. Just a few minutes lost. So we are off to Sauk Rapids. I didn't even look at the firs truck paperwork to know what I might have gotten paid. It likely would have only added a half hour to the trip. It was almost right on the way. When we get down to 60 miles range on our gas we look at fuel stops. We have a few gift cards left so we plan on stopping there. Then BB sees on GasBuddy that gas is $.30 cheaper 10 miles down the road. So we will go to Kwik Trip in St Cloud instead. As we are turning right into the Kwik Trip, there is a semi on it's side in the on coming traffic. Flat road. Clear day. My guess is they came across the highway to fast from the Kwik Trip and lost it making the turn. It had just happened. The fire truck and ambulance came after we were fueling. I walked closer to take a picture and then walking back across the parking lot I was looking at my phone. I looked up and I had walked right in front of a car ... the driver was looking at me throwing up his hands. (it is a parking lot, people kind of have the right of way but I should have been paying attention. Luckily he was) From there it was about two miles to the shipper. Small place. The first person I saw walked me to the person who would sign. They then walked me to my truck. Newer truck. 25,000 miles. Heading back to the shipper. So the issues are with the trash truck part and not the engine/chassis part. Nothing that should effect me. No issues other than I left my tape somewhere that I tape my stuff to the windows. But we have extra in the car. By the time we get back to the Kwik trip there are two tow trucks trying to right the semi and the road is totally closed. It has only been a half hour. We are directed off onto city streets for a couple of blocks where we get back onto Hwy 10 at a stop light. Delay was minimal. I lost BB in that mess but she caught up to me once we got back on the freeway at Clearwater. She followed me to the first rest area where she got off. I didn't see her again until the drop. She would stop once more at the Kwik Trip in Owatonna for shelf food. By the time we picked up this truck we realized that the Lime Springs truck we had tried to call on this AM would work out good now. My drop is less than an hour from there. But by then the truck was gone. The two in western MN were still there but they are not a good match. No fuel needed so for me it is a non-stop three hour drive to the drop. It is a Mack truck so not a bad ride. Still a cabover but not bad. I get to the drop and have the paperwork signed and park the truck. And call dispatch and tell them I am delivered ... and ask if they need the hard copies now, or someday. Some day is good. It was just before that phone call that BB told me we are going to Gilroy CA. When she stopped at the rest area, she checked the load board. Nothing. When she came out of the restroom she checked again ... BINGO. She called right away and got them. She had texted me but I never looked at my text because I was driving and then once here, I was busy. It is now 2 PM and I haven't eaten so we stop at the Kwik Trip here and I get a two piece chicken meal. Good by greasy, to eat while driving. Before we left the drop I called the next shipper to see if we could pick up today. BB had told them tomorrow because she didn't know how the day would go. We can pick them up so we will. Otherwise we would drive 2 hours home tonight and then 2 more hours back tomorrow just to get where we are now. We get to Forest City about 4 PM. We get our paperwork and find our RV's and then we find other drivers. We end up talking to three of them. The first one we likely talked to for 15 minutes or more. He had the same issue with a truck as I had out of Miles City last year. No heat, sub zero weather ... he ran out of gas. I had broken windows. The other two drivers had questions and mostly said the 'hi, where are you going' thing. We got out of there after 5 PM. With these little ones we could have been in and out in 30 minutes. We have checked on hotels and the cheapest hotel is here in Clear Lake. About 2/3rds of what they are further down the road. What we don't realize until later is saving that $50 tonight may likely cost us another nights hotel before we drop. :( No we will need to do a few 12 hour days or change our drop date. Final stop is the Best Western in Clear Lake. We then walk inside ... until we got lost, then outside to get to the attached Bennigan's. We did see our head dispatcher but he was there with others and we did not talk to him. Our food was good but ... BB's fish was raw on one end and the staff saw her picking at it and asked. So BB told them. And before BB could think it through, they took the remaining food and make a whole new meal for her. It took a while. BB wished she had just said no. BB was almost full and could have just taken the last of the fish back to the room and nuked it for breakfast. Food was good, very good. Back at our room we planned tomorrow. We will see how the next couple of days go. At 500 miles we deliver on Wednesday. If we can make a few more miles each day we will deliver as planned on Tuesday.
221029 IA-CA 2 RV's to Gilroy CA ... spending the night at Sidney NE 635 miles today - long day. We woke up in the in the AM and Donners Pass now has a forecast for snow so we want to beat it. We both had leftovers so we did not even stop to see what they had for breakfast. We pull out at 7:15 and our first stop is two blocks away. 1st stop - Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel. The pump didn't give me a receipt so I went inside to get one. As long as I was in there, I asked how soon they were getting new fast food. Sounds like something had been lined up but it fell through, now they are hoping to get a PJ Fresh which is sort of a large deli of a few hot foods. Once we were talking I mentioned I remember when Denny's was here ... he remembered when Denny's was here ... before it was a Pilot. 2nd stop was the rest area in Ankeny. 3rd stop was the Pilot in Council Bluffs for fuel and food. Food was Arbey's. They no longer have the onions and peppers for the cheesesteak sandwich, and they don't have turkey, so BB and I split a Rueben. Coming into Council Bluffs from the east ... Menards is finally putting up their store where the mall used to be. And the highway is working on something in that area, not sure what yet. 4th stop was the Loves in Aurora for a break. No place to park with the cars so we parked with the trucks. And this time we didn't say where we would meet when we were done so I am waiting inside and BB is waiting outside. 5th stop is the rest area in Cozad. We see one school bus pull in that is a transport. We seen him again at our next stop. 6th stop is the WalMart in Ogallala for fuel. As I often do, I take a picture of the units. When I go inside for me receipt, they ask why I was taking a picture. That turned into a longer conversation. We still have enough daylight to get to Sidney so we make a run for it. 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Sidney. We then walk next door to Taco John's and Loves for food. Neither of us are fans on TJ but it is the closest hot food and and it is after 7 PM. Breakfast is not until 7 AM tomorrow, 8 AM our time so we buy extra food for breakfast. One of the things I buy is 'Green Goodness,; it's a drink that I thought was green because of kiwi. Looking at what else is in the drink, it is more likely from something I prefer not to eat. Plus it has tea which I try to stay away from. I'll still drink it, but over a couple of days. Lots of math again on the ups and downs of pushing it as far as we can go. We did see one city bus in transit. The way the sun was shining on it, I thought it was white and didn't look when it got closer. BB said it was going to Davenport. :) That would be nice. Nice money when they come right back to the midwest. One of trucks that was passing me ... I hadn't seen when he pulled out to pass so I don't know how long it was taking him. But for whatever reason, I backed off on my speed to let him pass. The semi behind him was right on his bumper ... six feet or so. And by the time the first truck go over, the 2nd one was already beside him. Next thing I see is break lights ... and again. It looked like the 2nd truck had passed the 1st at good speed, got in front of him and hit the breaks. Break check. Within a couple of minutes that 2nd truck was at full speed and long gone. Times like this I wish I had a dash cam. Send it to someone's insurance company. 221030 IA-CA 2 RV's to Gilroy CA ... spending the night at Wendover UT Very long day. From before dawn to after dark. Tomorrow we need to get past Donner's Pass. That will be a 500 mile day instead of a 650 mile day. We had purchased enough food to have some for breakfast as they place does not start their breakfast on weekends until 7 AM and we were planning on leaving at 6 AM. Still dark when we roll out. Cold, but no frost. We want to make a little better time today so once it gets light we are going to drive 'a little' faster today. When we get to the WY Port of Entry it is closed/blocked. We pull off a the next exit and decide that we are good to keep going until we get to the Port in Laramie. As soon as we are back on the highway I start thinking that we maybe should have called the next port. I did last night this happened and they just said come on. They didn't say they they were giving me legal permission to keep coming. 2nd stop is the Port of Entry in Laramie. It is also closed. Now I call one of the other ports to see what to do. Opps ... I should have done that from Burns. They say I have driven illegal for the last 100 miles. They also say that the Burns POE is open. They don't spend too much time on that, they say then can send me a form and they will work on our permits ... when they have time. We are sitting in a parking lot of a closed building so we head to Pilot to fuel and then Loves because they are easier to deal with when getting faxes. We fill out our form and BB email's them back. I have to call again because they did not put a email address on what they sent me. The email it came from is blocked for incoming. The person I talked to said Burns POE was open so BB (who normally will not make any calls) calls the Burns Port and they are open. Inside. Road/entry is closed for construction. It is likely that they have little to do so I am about to call the location we are working with to see if they want Burns to do it. The phone rings and the people we are working with needs payment and we are ready to go. 1 Hour. Wasted. There went the hour that we got up early for. And an extra $6 for taxes and fees because we couldn't buy it in person. 3rd stop is Rawlins at the Flying J this time. BB is tired of the Subway at the TA having such a long line and being out of some many items for the sandwiches. We end up with meatloaf like we get at PJ Fresh. Just billed differently. Snow on the ground here and into UT. 4th stop is the Loves in Green River for the rest room. One transporter parked there but we didn't talk to them. 5th stop is the Flying J in Evanston. Today we have to wait for a pump like we often do. Small fuel islands but the last of the cheaper fuel. 6th stop is the Flying J in Tooele. We had planned on fueling but when we got there, BB just wanted to use the restroom and get out of there. We did make a reservation for our hotel in Wendover. It will be well after dark. 7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. Not the nicest place but it is clean and cheap. And has plenty of parking. As soon as we check in we walk to the food truck. We couldn't see it from our hotel but it is on the way to Subway. 7:30 at night and there is still a line. No sign as to when they close. They asked which salsa I wanted for my quesadilla, I said mild. Luckily they put it on the side. I take one small dip of it and I could taste my food for the next 15 minutes, We did see a few transporters. Saw the school bus again from yesterday, if it was the same one. One RV passed us going the 75-80 mph speed limit. Lots of truck traffic. Lots of jockeying for position. So sometimes we just back off a few miles to let the congestion pass. When we shut down we had less than an hour more that we could drive and less than an hour of on duty. Pushing it. Tomorrow. We will need to call for permits before we can leave in the AM, hopefully that does not take too long. Then by noon, we need to call the drop and get an appointment for delivery tomorrow. And we are planning on getting 500 miles. The snow at Donner's is supposed to start after we pass through and snow for two days. So that will delay any plans on heading right back to the midwest. .. the trip continues HERE
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