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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 221130 NC-IN 1 pickup to Fort Wayne IN 1 box truck to Sioux Falls SD (Thursday) ... spending the night at Decatur IN Eggs, sausage, juice. It was enough. Rolling at 6:30 home time. Rain has passed and the sun is just coming up. Another un-eventful day of driving. A couple of slow downs in cities. A few more speed limit signs in the middle of nowhere. The one thing we hadn't thought of when deciding to ditch the 1st rental car was that if we did, BB would be able to watch the load board. The only excitement was before our first stop. BB likes to sort the board so she looks at what is knew today. But sometimes things are put on the loadboard with older dates. Like today. She saw two IN to CA trips with an older date that were not there the last time she did a detailed look. But ... She always needs to do the math before we can call on the trips instead of calling right away (like others) and putting them on hold while we do the math. Yup, they are gone by the time we call. The shipper is 20 miles from where I will be dropping and they were going to a more rural town far enough south that we could take the southern route. ... and have been in CA in time to still do one more bus this month. And ... they were the small class B vans that we both will drive. It would have been just as well if we had not seen those trips. That was the only new trips on the load board that were of any interest to us. 1st stop is for fuel in Newport at Loves. Someone had taken the highway sign down so I missed the 'B' exit and ended up taking the 'A' exit. It was worth it. Gas was a dollar a gallon cheaper than the next time I will fuel. Tried to squeeze too much in and ran some on the ground. But first I did put air in the tires. The low air message/light was on since right after I picked it up. BB sat inside the pickup and told me when the screen showed the correct amount. By this evening all four tires were back below the recommended setting but no warning, yet. 2nd stop was in Corbin. BB listed off a bunch of fast food places. Our choice had been Cook Out but they do not all have in-door seating so we changed our minds. Then before we got to Corbin, I saw a sign for Sonny's BBQ so that is where we ate. Good food. We both had pulled chicken, BB's on a bun and my on garlic toast. Plus either beans or coleslaw. Way better than another fast food meal. 3rd stop was at a rest area near Georgetown KY. From here I called the drop and left a message, they called back and said Friday AM was OK to drop. 4th stop was rest area near Monroe OH. From here I called about the Sioux Falls SD trip. It is now after 3:30 local so the day is winding down for these dispatchers. At this point I just wanted a number to call to see how late we could drop or if we could drop on Saturday. Surprise, this time the info was actually on the paperwork so the dispatcher knew. Back on the road, BB and I talk a little bit and then she calls while I'm driving so I can talk to them. All they ask is for my driver number. We have the trip. From tomorrows drop it is about 65 miles to the next pickup. We will need a rental car for those miles plus to the the airport in South Bend where we will drop the 2nd rental car. And on this trip it will only add five miles to swing in and pickup up our personal car and use that for the last drop of this trip. We had been doing good on fuel. When we pulled out of the fuel station this AM I was about five miles short of the drop, then I got up to about an excess range of 30 miles which held most of the day. Until we turned off the freeway tonight. Right into a now headwind. 5th and final (?) stop was our Quality Inn in Decatur. This is the same town where we have a shipper that ships a lot of RV's. Just not today. Once we checked in, we drove to get enough gas to get to the drop. The first time I swiped my rewards card at Shell it showed I would get a fuel discount. Then I tried to tap my chip and it declined my card and when I swiped my chip I didn't get the discount. Not much on four gallons. Then we stopped at a small restaurant. Very quite tonight. We were one of the last three customers to walk out all at the same time. Then the place was empty, at 6:30 PM. We thought we were going to split a patty melt but then BB decided she wanted a BLT so I got a cup of potato soup and a cup of chili. Chili was too hot, temp wise, when I ate most of it. The soup was good. Cups didn't seem like enough, should have topped it off with a cookie but we didn't see any deserts. Load board US - 278 IA - 82/81 MN - 20 WI - 1 IN - 23 Tomorrow. We have a half hour to the drop but we can't pick up our rental car until 9 AM. So we will be running about an hour later than usual. We should be done in Fort Wayne by 10 AM and in Bristol by about 11 AM and gone by 12 noon. By 1 PM we should be dropping the rental in South Bend. From there we have about four hours left of daylight. If we are lucky we can make it to Davenport. We might push further because if we only make it to Davenport that leaves eight hours for Friday ... so dropping in Sioux Falls about 4 PM. Paperwork says we can drop until 9 PM, sunset is about 5 PM so we likely will just stay Friday night in Sioux Falls. Too early to line up our next work. If southern CA shows up at the right time we can still make it if we head out Saturday ... 221201 IN-SD 1 pickup to Fort Wayne IN (delivered) 1 box truck to Sioux Falls SD ... spending the night at North Liberty IA No rush this AM so I had time to shave :) and we ate breakfast. Slim pickin's so it was yogurt and juice. Headed out at 8:15 to get to the airport at 9 AM. Only two turns between our driveway and the airport driveway. 1st stop was the airport. And it was a stop. Dropped BB to pick up the car and then I sat in the cell lot until she pulled around to move our things from one car to the other. Don't want another case of them driving away with our stuff in it and my having to haul it all back by myself. 2nd stop - the drop. Four miles from the airport. The guy walked to the window to look at the pickup and then signed for it. Low tire light was on again this AM. I didn't stop to fill them. From here it was an hour and a half to go 60 miles. All non-freeway, lots of small towns. 3rd stop was in Goshen (not pegged on map) at a Speedway for the rest-rooms. Goshen - Walmart - never seen that before. If you look at Google Maps you can see a shed to the south east of the store. That is a stable for the Amish horses ... 4th stop is the shipper in Bristol. We are not to talk the the shipper, just grab our truck and go. But first we need to find it. It wasn't where they were last time but now they have trucks parked on the front lawn. That is where it was. And it did have the company name on the hood and the drivers door. And the vin matched. First thing I noticed was the windshield was cracked. Then it would not start. So I called dispatch. Before dispatch could call back, someone comes out to see what is going on. (That does not normally happen here) And he asked other questions, who I worked for, who I was, what the issue was ... and then he was gone. Once someone used a battery pack to jump me, I asked if they wanted to have someone move the car behind me or if I should tear up their grass ... he said it was the bosses car so he'd go find out. Turns out the person who had asked me the questions before was the boss. So he was back out, moved his car and then came to talk some more. Introduced himself by name (not title) to both BB and I and the helped me back out. Then found the trucks for the next two drivers that had showed up while I was having issues. ... I'll have to talk to dispatch about that ??? Dispatch did call back about the window. It was that way when the truck came to the shop and they are OK for me to take it if I am OK. I am. There are three cracks but none are in the drivers line of sight. All of this takes time and we have lost any time we gained earlier this AM. (the rest of 'today's' notes are written the following day) One good thing about this truck is it has some fuel, lots of times these new trucks are on fumes. BB looks at fuel prices and there is a Loves about half way between here and the airport. I had not looked to see where the Loves actually was so I was watching. Didn't see any billboards or highway signs but did see their sign. The station is on the left side of the road so I get in the left lane. But it is just past an overpass ... the first one on this road. I don't react quick enough to thinking I may have to get off this road at the overpass. And I didn't want to do that because the first sign I saw said 'To Toll Way' and we needed to go to the airport. Having not looked at the may I didn't know that we were miles from the toll way. So we missed that fuel stop and our hand off place for our luggage. 5th stop is the Exxon/Mobil that BB had planned on stopping at before she returned the rental car. Fuel is $.20 cheaper here than it was at Loves so I fuel here also. Then we pull off to the side to move luggage. 6th stop is the airport to drop off the rental car. This time I pull off into someone's lot to park and wait. And I finally put on my plate and placards. Then BB calls and we are moving again. 7th stop is just a couple of miles down the road at the Pilot for roller food. BB got a shelf sandwich that she wished she hadn't and I got two roller dogs without buns. This truck is used so we are going to eat in it. Toll road. At the exit to the IN toll road there was a semi parked in one lane, the one we were in. Not sure what happened but it was open when we got in line but then we were too close to the semi ahead of us to see it was now closed. CGO traffic was no 'too' bad today. 8th stop was the rest area near Minooka. I call and leave a message with my drop, I never do hear back. 9th stop is for fuel (again) at the Flying J in Davenport. Two transporters are also fueling but we don't talk. I'm guessing at how much fuel to add. I had put in 25 gallons at South Bend and now 10 gallons here. It wasn't full either time and there is no fuel info on the dash. It is already past sunset but we keep going another hour so we are not up against the clock and against sunset tomorrow night. 10th stop was the Arby's in North Liberty. BB goes in as I do not want to shut the truck off after having to have it jump started this AM. She ends up getting comped a malt for having to wait for her food. 11th stop is a couple of blocks away at the Sleep Inn. BB is concerned about someone wanting to break into a 'FedEx' truck. The back box part isn't locked and I don't have a padlock so there isn't any 'breaking in' to that part. We do park under a light ... Load board US - 277 IA - 58/56 MN - 25 WI - 6 IN - 27 All the MN work is gone from the rental dealer so now we need to look at other options. IA only put a couple of RV's out today and no pairs. Some of the IN trips are gone now too. It was too early to call for weekend work today anyway. Tomorrow we can call if we see something. MN has lots of work but that means only me driving and BB chasing. Chasing on a weekend trip puts too many miles on our car and then we can't grab something leaving the area if it shows up. 221202 IN-SD 1 box truck to Sioux Falls SD (delivered) 2 RV's to Boise ID (Saturday) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN After breakfast we are ready to roll. 6:45 AM. It is just getting light. I do head out before we are packed to make sure the truck starts this AM. It does. It did hesitate for a fraction of a second ... long enough for my heart to sink ... before firing up. I don't shut it off the rest of the day. 1st stop is just over an hour down the road at Janesville at a Kwik Trip for the restroom. BB watches trips come and go, but nothing we call on. One trip out of Fort Wayne shows up ... two days too late. 2nd stop is for fuel at the Pilot In Clear Lake. Hadn't thought I would need any more and not sure how much more. I don't like leaving too much and I keep second guessing myself as I am fueling. I should need 20 gallons from here but I still have some in the tank. So I end up putting in about 12 gallons. I can always stop again. 3rd stop is our shippers lot in Forest City to pick up our personal car. The RV's that were in the employee lot are still there. And there seems to be way over the 50 RV's that are listed on the load board. We don't talk to anyone, we just throw our stuff from the truck into the car and go. 4th stop is the Kwik Star/Trip in Blue Earth. It is still early but it is the last 'fast' / shelf food before the freeway. BB stops also. I grab my rib sandwich and eat on the go. Sign at the SD scale says trucks over 10,000# must weigh and I am under that. But I have a permit and know of people who have had issues here so I cross the scale. I hold up my permit but still get flagged around. By the time I grab what they will want to see and open my door ... they are standing there. That often means they want to see my log book :) before I can change anything. Not this time. They just walked out so I didn't have to walk in. All they wanted to see was a closer look at my permit. And wish me a good day. Whew ... no comment about my windshield. 5th stop is the drop. I still had my 1/8th of a tank of fuel when I headed past the last fuel station. But it dropped just a hair by the drop. Brand new building. 100 (?) dock doors. I don't see an office so I go inside. The 'office' is a temp fenced in area with a gate for a door. Only two people in the building and one that seems to know what is going on. This is a drivers truck and they are contractors so he has to call to get permission to sign for the truck. Not sure who I left the message with because the person who's truck it is wasn't expecting the truck for two more weeks. It is 2 PM and the truck is dropped. Can't send in paperwork yet because we are waiting on the toll amount from the IN toll road. No work in Sioux Falls so we head east. Wow. Earlier this week there was 20+ rental trucks just out of MN. Tonight there are five in the whole US. We keep watching the load board. It is now have of what it was last night. Our first choice had been Boise, ID then Fife, WA. 3rd choice would be MI and fourth would be a single truck from Brooklyn Park to IN. With that one BB could ride with and we could drop our car at our house leaving town. The Boise RV's and the Brooklyn Park truck disappeared. That makes our choices easier. I keep hoping IA will add all those RV's that are just sitting there. Finally at 4:30 I call to see if they will be in the office Saturday so we can call in then. Both because I have hopes that they will add more trips after close of day and it will give us 12 more hours to look at the latest weather. They will be open on Saturday but their will not be any new loads. After I say which ones we want, we are told that everything is on hold until later in the day on Monday. Nothing is leaving. I rarely take what they say without a comment so I did tell them we will find work, if not with you ... somewhere else. (in a nice way) After telling us we are 'special' and my telling them there is more than one meaning to that word :) ... Finally they put me on hold and then come back and transfer me to the terminal manager. He knows us well. He explains the situation and we get two trips to Boise. Now we have a plan. AND by leaving tomorrow we should still have enough time to do a bus on a return trip. 6th stop is the rest area near Adrian. 7th stop is the Quality Inn in Albert Lea. This adds about 30 miles to our trip. The shortest route would have been staying in Blue Earth and taking back roads from there. But by morning it will be cold, icy and winding. High wind warnings overnight to night. This place has an attached restaurant so that is where we eat. Philly with au jus. No soup to my liking so it is fries with tarter sauce. Tonight was all you can eat fish but BB didn't go that route either. Load board US - 257 IA - 37/36 MN - 16 WI - 5 IN - 24 Tomorrow - out of the hotel by daylight. Do our inspection in the near -0- weather and then hopefully get to Grand Island by dark. We should be able to deliver by Tuesday and be to either SLC or Livermore by Wednesday. 221203 IA-ID 2 RV's to Boise ID ... spending the night at Grand Island NE The hotel we stayed at here is both a Quality Inn and an EconoLodge. The beds seem to be from the EconoLodge side. Visually the bed was very sunk in the middle which means we slept in the middle. At one point BB tried not to and bumped her head on the night stand. Not a good nights sleep. Breakfast was also closer to the EconoLodge standards. I had yogurt and a cup of fruit, mixed fruit. I sucked the juice off the fruit first and something didn't taste right. So I ready the fine print. Included peaches, so that was the end of that. We had been up at 5 AM but breakfast was not until 6:30 AM ... and the inhouse restaurant opens at 7 AM. We might do that sometime when we have more time. 6 degrees this AM. Car starts and we pull out. 1st stop is the shipper in Forest City. We get there at 8 AM, one dispatcher is there, we do not hear the phones ringing. It does take us a full hour to do our inspections this AM, sometimes the smaller ones take less time but not when you need to warm up the hands and fingers. 2nd stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel. My RV showed over 2/3rds full when I picked it up and close to that when I fueled ... and I was still able to put in 12 gallons in a 24 gallon tank. Pump ran so slow that it took 20 minutes to get that much fuel and then was running so slow that it didn't kick the pump off when it was full so I ran a bit on the ground. I was standing right there and heard it gurgle so I put my ear down closer and BB said it was running on the ground. Opps. Coming around the edge of Des Moines ... suddenly the traffic is stopped ahead of me. I lock them up and swerve to not hit the car ahead of me. I was not following close, luckily, so I don't know if I had glanced at a billboard or what but that is as close as I have had in years. 3rd stop was the HyVee / Smokin Joe's in West Des Moines. It's a little cafe at the end of the end of their gas station. I had a chicken salad croissant and cheeseburger soup. Too much food. Good food. Sunny today, no traffic issues. There had been a little snow overnight, maybe mostly blowing snow. 4th stop was for fuel at the Flying J in Gretna. Here BB puts in more fuel than I do again. She may not have gotten a good fill the first stop. We usually get within a few tenths of a gallon of each other. By now we know how far we can get before dark. We make our plans. 5th stop is the Arbey's in Grand Island. The last few times we have wandered the truckstop across the street and ended up getting shelf food. They do have a Subway, Little Cezar's, Krisky Chicken and a sit down place at the truckstop. 6th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Grand Island a mile from food. Arby's used to be next door to the hotel but they moved a year or so ago so now there is no food here. The in house restaurant has been closed since Covid. The wind assist did kick the cruise off a few times today, that was the only excitement. Load board US - 249 IA - 34/33 MN - 16 WI - 8 BB is watching the WY weather. It is likely that we will not get a full day of driving tomorrow. We may need to shut down in either Cheyenne or Laramie until Monday. Load board - the trip out of UT is gone. There are new trips out of MN that would have worked for us. Always changing. .. the trip continues HERE
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