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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 221107 CA-IA 1 Bus to Ames IA ... spending the night at Omaha NE Breakfast is eggs and sausage, and some juice. We aren't in a huge rush to get going this AM, we are watching the wind speeds in NE today. Just north of the freeway gusts are up to 80+ mph. But it should stay north of the freeway. We pull out at our usual 7:30. The sun is just hitting the tops of the snow covered mountains. 1st stop is the rest area in Pine Bluffs for the restrooms. While there I call the drop but they do not pick up. I leave a message, they do not call back. It does get windy. We see a 2nd travel trailer in the median that is barely ID'ed as a travel trailer. I don't feel thrown around and don't see any other trucks that are but there is a constant wind. We didn't get a picture, but a couple of places the tumbleweeds were blowing thick across the highway ... like 20-30 between me and the car ahead of me at any one time. 2nd stop is the TA in Ogallala for the restroom. We had thought of eating at this stop but it is only 10 AM here. As long as we are stopped, we buy a couple of bottles of water. The place was empty so I just pulled through one of the fuel islands and parked for the couple of minutes. 3rd stop was in Lexington. We parked at Arby's, but their lobby was closed. So we walked across the street to Runza. I like them because they are different. BUT we have tried them many times and they are nothing special. Hadn't found anything I/we liked. But today it was within walking distance. Today they had a special, a Philly. It was good, just their 'runza' bun is different and kind of pasty. BB had a chicken sandwich. 4th stop was the Petro in York for fuel and DEF. I did the math, we will see if I put in the correct amount of fuel for delivery. 5th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Omaha. The sun was just setting. We are <> past the downtown area so we should be going against the traffic in the AM. Once we are checked in, we go down to the inhouse restaurant and order one Philly (Hmm that is also what I had for lunch) We are run 911. Load board US - 98 IA - 1 MN - 0 WI - 0 The load board is way down. Not too likely we will find work to head out with tomorrow. Tomorrow we have about two hours to the bus wash. Another hour to wash and a few more miles to the drop. So we should be dropped by about noon or a little after. By 3 PM we should have picked up our car and dropped the rental. Then ... ? 221108 CA-IA 1 Bus to Ames IA (delivered) ... spending the night at home No stairs. Being on the ninth floor we rode the elevator every time. Breakfast was eggs and sausage for me. The event area was setting up as a polling place today. Not sure how that works in IA. Lots of political signs on the front lawn of a 'polling place.' WHAT !?!?! When I start the bus this AM it shows I have 1/4 tank of fuel and when I parked it last night it was showing 3/4 ??? We had parked in the back of the building and by the time I drove to the front it hadn't changed so I did a u-turn and drove to the back again looking for a flat surface. Finally found one along side of the building that we hadn't been on. As I got out, BB looked again at the gauge and it was finally coming up. Whew. But that cost us an extra few minutes. It took a few extra minutes to get a hotel receipt this AM also, because the person was new and the computer showed we had already checked out. Someone else had to come and do it and they were more interested in their phone conversation in another language than they were with me ... 1st stop was the Blue Beacon in Altoona for a bus wash. Two trucks ahead of me in each line. I picked one and the next person picked the other. The other line moved almost right away :( But then ours moved. Both trucks ahead of me must have just needed washouts because we were in and out in under 30 minutes. BB stood inside the bus to hold the doors shut :) otherwise the pressure from the hoses just blows the front doors open once the bus is shut off. (She did get a little wet) 2nd stop was the Kum and Go in Ames for DEF. I stuck the tank and I did not need any more fuel. So the 'E' and the low fuel light that came on a few minutes ago was just a scare. I call the drop to tell them I can be early but they do not pick up. So I call the front desk "Are you at the Kum and Go?" They can see me on their tracking software, but didn't know when the computer first started tracking me. "Come on in, we'll be waiting." Plan was stop at the rental place and move our stuff near the car but it was all a no-parking area so I just dropped BB off and headed to the drop. As soon as I pulled in, my contact was walking to the bus. He got on and drove it into the building to be inspected. By the time I get my plate off the bus and get back inside, there are six other people in the bus ... stepping over the suitcases and other things we had just left every which way. :( :( Not the kind of first impression I wanted to leave. It took me a while to get all of my / our things picked up and unloaded ... and once they signed off ... THEY helped me carry all of our stuff to the door. There was not an employee door except out the front from the shop. So we are carrying two suitcases and four other bags in one trip. From now on we will have a plan and a back up plan to get our things out of the bus before the drop ... unless we are up against a clock. That kind of rubbed me wrong for a while ... frustrated. While I was talking to my contact he said that the shipper had said they were closing down for two weeks and the Ames person should not go to CA. Then a few days later they said the buses were ready to ship and could Ames send someone out. Ames couldn't on short notice so CA sent one bus, my bus, to be checked out before the other buses are released to ship. Kind of what the person in CA said, but not really. (Forgot to mention to the crew to look at the video for when I saw the fireball) Still in Ames we stop at the Jimmy Johns and ate inside. Once were were done eating and driving we started doing the math and realized that because we stayed and ate we were going to have that much more time driving in the dark tonight ... if we go home. We do a lot of math on a lot of trips. And those trips come and go and we don't call on them. 2 from Council Bluffs back past Des Moines. RV to IL, trash truck to MO, something to OH. Two of nothing else. 3rd stop was to pick up our car at Forest City. We also dropped off our paperwork. 100's of RV's in the lot. Less than 10 on the load board. So we continue to hit re-fresh until they release them. Two more people in training today at the office. 4th stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake for rental car fuel. 5th stop is the rental car place in Mason City. 6th stop is the Honey Baked in Burnsville ... about 10 minutes before close time. Then home. Load board US - 153 IA - 9/7 MN - 5 WI - 2 That one 10 day trip has paid our months bills. But it is quarter end so we will head back out as soon as there is work. Likely tomorrow. But we do need to do laundry and it is easier at home. And I could do a re-set of my hours. We can only work 70 hours in 8 days and I could get close to that if we had run right out and ran hard. |
