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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 230204 IA-CO 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO ... spending the night at Waukee IA Our room is warm :) We are ready well before breakfast so we head down when they open. Lights are not all on yet. We grab egg patties and sausage links. We were up early enough and quick enough (to start) that we could have left earlier. But ... We leave at 6:30. It is warmer this AM that it was last night. It was to get down to near -0- overnight and may have. But it was almost 20 degrees by the time we left, it did drop to near 10 degrees before warming again. By the time we got to the lot in the afternoon it was 32+ and melting. Didn't get a picture, but we saw about 20 turkey's sleeping in the trees. Later in the day we saw some pheasants eating something (salt?) on the shoulder of the road. There were five live ones, and within a few miles there were another three dead ones. 1st stop is the rest area in Nashua. 2nd stop is the shippers lot to pick up our car and drop off paperwork. No one is picking up RV's when we are there at 9 AM. We move everything in a few minutes and are rolling again. I have been following BB at 65 mph and she drives the rental at 70 mph and stops for food. Usually I have time to stop at the cemetery or sit in the cell lot and wait for her. Today I had stopped in the cell lot long enough to open the back door and BB called. She was done. 3rd stop was MSP to return the rental car. 4th stop was Honey Baked in Burnsville. It takes a little longer than shelf food but usually we are the only customer so it takes about as long as a bathroom visit. Today was no exception. 5th stop was the Kwik Star/Trip, or Kwikkie as I may start calling it, for fuel. Don't want to leave the car on empty when it is this cold. 6th stop is on the other end of town back at the shipper. There may be thirty RV's which doesn't add up because there were no trips left, all paperwork should have been given out. But there was only about 10 packs of paperwork in the file cabinet. No issues, small RV's, we are done in 45 minutes. There is one driver ready to leave when we get there and one more that leaves before us. The second one was heading to Greer ... and he had a half a tank of fuel. That was about as much as we talked. Not sure what is going on with the car dealer on the south end of town. Up on their main lot there is room for maybe 20-30 cars. And other than Covid, that is about what they had there. A few months ago they added about 100 pickups parked in a lower grassy area. Today when we went past, that number has grown from 100 to closer to 300 with room snow plowed out for more. These are mostly pickups so not for RV's. Some are logoed with company names but not a lot of them. 6th stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake. Gas has gone down $.03 since we drove past this AM. BB checked and fuel is cheaper here than anywhere ahead. BB had a half a tank of free fuel. I had a quarter but that dropped and the low fuel light came on two miles down the road. 20 miles down the road and the light was flashing at me. We hadn't been sure we would even have time to pick up today, so we checked hotel prices in town and every town from here to Des Moines. Turns out we could get past Des Moines but there aren't any 'good' hotels between there and Omaha two hours further. 7th stop is the Sleep Inn in Waukee. Rooms are as cheap here as anywhere and they have good food next door. Sometimes. We walk next door to Smoky Joe's inside the Hi-Vee gas station for food. Sometimes they have good food. Other times they are out. :( They were supposed to have chicken wild rice soup today but they were out. Also out of their cheeseburger soup. So we ended up with chicken pot pie soup. That would have been enough but BB also got a salad and I got a sandwich. Now we have breakfast too. When we got to the hotel someone walked out of the hotel right away. I expected they were going to tell us we couldn't park where/how we did. No, just a customer asking questions about the RV's. Other than the birds, a pretty un-eventful day. Clear sky's, mild winter temps, no crazy drivers. One of the drivers I keep in contact with is in WY tonight. Roads are closed near Laramie because of accidents. They got stuck in the back up and realized they were going to run out of driving hours so they made a U-turn on the freeway and headed back to Laramie. So far, the forecast for CO is good the next few days. Load board US - 109 IA - 0 CO - 3 We need to get to North Platte tomorrow if we want to get to Grand Junction Monday night. As of now, we have time to get to Sterling, which is two plus hours past North Platte. And we do not have to stay in Grand Junction Monday night. We just need to deliver sometime on Tuesday. 230205 IA-CO 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO ... spending the night at Sterling CO Breakfast was leftovers. I didn't even look at what the hotel had to offer. Up early again. We could have been going a half hour early but we did manage to get going 15 minutes early. Right as the sun was coming up so I tried to get pictures. At that angle the RV's are too dark to make a good picture. Fuel was cheaper in Underwood at the Cenex and Davenport at the Loves. But BB 'doesn't like them' so we are stopping at the Flying J. 1st stop was the Flying J in Gretna. One cashier and we both needed fuel receipts. BB had used the restroom and was back before I got helped with my receipt. When we pulled on the freeway in Waukee this AM, I pulled in front of an RV and BB pulled in behind them. They were going under 65 mph so BB passed them. We saw them again here at the Flying J and then again in Ogallala and somewhere else. We were pacing pretty close to them. They were vacationers, not transporters. We did see a Renegade RV a couple of times. We also saw a dumptruck, it looked like the placard was from my local company but we never saw it again so I'm not sure. Also saw a box trucks and a few semi-tractors. But no buses, delivery vans, trash or mixer trucks. 2nd stop was at the Arby's in Grand Island. I'm pulling in to park and I see a sign that says closed ... so I back up. I knew nothing was right behind me but BB had to stop and those behind her had to stop. Drive thru was closed. No problem. If the lobby had been closed we would have had to cross the parking lot and eat at one of the many places in Bosselmans. Arby's has a new sandwich this month, prime rib with garlic. It's a change, I'd get it again. We are doing great of fuel so no need to stop before we get to Ogallala. With some of the RV's we do stop and put in a few gallons in Cozad. 3rd stop is the rest area in Cozad because we do not need fuel. 4th stop is the WalMart in Ogallala. Coming up the ramp, I noticed that one gas station was closed. So I am looking over my shoulder at that station instead of the open ones. Gas was actually the most at WalMart but we stopped there anyway. All fuel pumps are full when we get there so I drive around the pumps twice before waiting for one that looks like it is ready to leave. By the time we are full, we are the only two units there. Timing. Then I need a receipt and realize that the gas building is locked. Closed. BB wanted to use the restroom too. She had also wanted to stop at WalMart for something and then she remembered it was Sunday and the lot was full. She didn't want anything that bad. For a receipt, I just took a picture of the pump. BB would rather stop 15 minutes down the road. 5th stop is the Flying J in Big Springs. No good place to park in the car area so I parked at the RV pumps. All diesel hoses are bagged off so not likely to be in any ones way. Two RV's did pull in, but when the saw the bagged hoses they went across the street. Oh, they were more transporters I didn't mention above. Last night BB had wanted to stop in Ogallala. We would have been stopping at 3 PM, 2 local. I talked her into going another hour if things went well today. So BB makes reservations from here. 6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Sterling. Both of us, as soon as we got on the road after Big Springs, realized we'd still be shutting down at 4 PM but we now already had a reservation. We could have easily made it one more hour to the next town. All food is down town so that would add 5+ miles to the RV. We've done it before but today decided to walk across the street for more shelf food. Burritos or burgers were their hot food. Burritos it was. Not bad. works in a crunch. Did some research tonight and for CO, we do not have to cross the scales or carry chains if we are under 16,000# and we are under 10. There are exceptions but they don't include what we are driving. Tomorrow ... We now have about 350 miles left for tomorrow. Customer requires 24 hour notice and we did not pick up until Saturday. And they are an early close so we'd have to leave at 6 AM to make sure we would make it. We plan on being in town so we can deliver first thing in the AM on Tuesday. Instead of pushing it, we will take our time and stop every hour to look at the load board until we have work. Lots of snow on the ground, on the roads still but today was sunny. Still likely that there will be light snow in the passes tomorrow. 230206 IA-CO 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO ... spending the night at Grand Junction CO Up early, eat eggs, sausage and fruit cup for breakfast. And wait. Just a lite dusting of snow in the forecast ... until today. Ice. Chains are required and the tunnel is closed because of an accident so we have now been sitting in the hotel an extra two hours. Finally the rental dispatcher updates his list. :( Two trucks out of Grand Junction. Both going to CO. We'll wait. While we are waiting this AM, BB calls on the rental car that we returned on Saturday, it still has not been updated as returned. The person she talked to was of no help, not sure they had a clue as to what BB was talking about. They said because we had rented the car for a week, that we would not see the bill for a week ... ??? If someone had been at the lot when BB returned the car she would have had the receipt when she walked out of the lot. Finally at 9 AM we decide to go. If we wait any longer we will run out of daylight hours to get to Grand Junction tonight. I did call the drop to let the know we will (hopefully) be there for delivery tomorrow. Google maps had shown the road from Loveland to Gypsum to be 3/4 slow early in the day. By 9 AM it was only slow 1/4 quarter of that 80 miles. Because we don't have work lined up for tomorrow yet, we are going to be stopping about every hour instead of every two hours. 1st stop is in Wiggins at a rest area. We just stop and look at our computers to see if there is work. BB does use the restroom but I'm still trying to figure out my notepad with out having to download apps. Nothing new. There are now four huge dairies between NE and Denver on I-76. -0- when I started 20 years ago. The one I can remember watching them put it in. One of the first things there was the feed piles. Even before the buildings were up. 2nd stop was in Wheat Ridge for fuel at the TA/Shell. Plan was to eat there. But the Country Pride is closed and they do not have any indoor seating for their shelf food so we would have had to sit at the tables outside. It was 40 degree's by now and we have done it. But today we knew/thought we would have time so we had looked at other food. First suggestion was Smash burger but we were not that hungry. A few miles past Smash burger was a mall. Big enough that it likely had four anchors in its hay day but I can't find any info on it. It is now <> an indoor outlet mall. Busy, 8 of 9 vendors in the food court were open. Mostly big name. Very few storefronts vacant. We ended up at Charlie's, they had a line waiting to order and waiting for food the almost hour we were there. OK, not real speedy. But good food. Not often we take an hour to eat. At the TA it would have been 15 minutes. The mall was the CO Mills mall in Lakewood. Right before we get to Loveland (ski area,) we meet three snow plows in formation. And I realize I don't remember when we met the last car. And there are no cars behind them either. Not sure how they manage that. By the time we get to the other end of the Loveland tunnel cars are entering so traffic is moving again. The oncoming backup was a few miles long and three lanes wide. ... and coming out of the tunnel on the west side it is snowing. I'm down to 45 mph coming down the hill and I loose everyone including BB. Real fine snow, the kind that makes the roads slick. Info about the tunnel "With a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. The tunnel is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway System. " 3rd stop was Frisco at a scenic overlook. Just long enough to check the loadboard. Still nothing. This wasn't the scenic area I wanted, that was closer to Copper Mountain. BB had picked a rest area, but I had looked at a map and that was across the freeway and was going to burn time. And a good thing we didn't do the rest area, it was closed. We were in and out of the snow a few times. Enough snow to kick the cruise off because we couldn't tell if it was going to be slick, but not enough snow to really leave tracks. 4th stop was Eagle. This is where we were going to eat today if we had left on time. Instead we stop at a Kum n Go to use the rest room. This was going to be our fuel stop if we needed more fuel, but after loosing range coming out of Denver we have re-gained it in the last hour. I need to use the rest room, but it is a one-holer for the guys and has a line. Once BB and the next female are done, I decide to drive across the freeway to the rest area. We've been there before but I miss the signs if there were any. So we end up spending a half hour in this town also. We had planned on stopping again to look at the load board before Grand Junction. but because we are running late, the east coast dispatchers are gone. So we make our hotel reservation from here. Hotels are under $100 in Grand Junction. Earlier I had looked in case we didn't make it all the way today. Our usual hotels are just over $100 in the ski area's. I wanted to make sure they were not $500 and they were not. Maybe on the weekends? 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Junction City. Half the price as the other Choice hotels within a mile. All are near the airport. Across the parking lot is the Freddie's. I'm OK with that and BB has found something she'll eat there also. There now is a truck in town going to Denver and two in Denver going to CA. BUT ... BB looked and the trucks going to CA are 'day cab' style and very little room for luggage. We've spent a lot of time talking about it tonight. We've also mentioned staying in town a day but CO has another storm coming in and we want to stay ahead of that. Load board US - 89 IA -0- CO - 3 We are still talking about tomorrow. Grand Junction is now short of rental cars so that may effect what we do. Weather may also effect what we do. 'Chain law' was still in effect but the tires on our RV's made us OK to go. Tomorrow we need to make sure we have a rental car that passes the 'Chain law' test. Plan is to drop by 9 AM and be back in Denver before dark. 230207 CO-WI 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO (delivered) 1 step van to Burlington WI ... spending the night at Wheat Ridge CO 6 AM local ... we call the rental dispatcher on the east coast. "Sorry, that trip from Grand Junction can not be picked up until tomorrow" No thanks, we pass. And shortly after that, the two trips out of Denver heading to CA are gone. So it looks like a rental car all the way home, for now. Breakfast was real plates. We didn't want that, so we found some paper bowls and used those for our eggs and sausage so we could take it back to our room. Just before 8 AM local we both get in my RV and head up to the airport to drop off BB. I head to the drop. 1st stop was the TA for fuel. Signs on all of the pumps say pumps are running slow. I used to think of a slow pump being it would take three minutes instead of two. But after it took BB a half hour to get two gallons I decided I would fuel somewhere else. 2nd stop was the Pilot for fuel. Final fuel. Then I headed back to the TA to stage it for later. 3rd stop is at the TA, BB is there by the time I get back. I park and get in the rental car. And head back to the hotel. 4th stop is back at the TA where I now stage the rental car and pickup my RV to take it the last two blocks to the dealer. 5th stop is the dealer. By the time I find the correct person, BB is there with her RV. Some one is out to start inspecting mine before BB is out of hers. I had to quickly grab my backpack so they could take it and wash it. We sit inside and start watching the load board. As soon as we open the board we see a trip ... and we are so excited that we trip over our thoughts and words :) There is a truck IN Grand Junction heading back to WI. I call right away and put the truck on hold while we talk about it. One of the issues is weight. If the truck is over 16,000# we need chains. I even call the CO DOT to make sure. But the dispatcher 'guessed' it was about 9,000# and the person I was picking up from thought it was about 11,000#. So no issues, right? Another issue was it is a step van, UPS delivery kind. Except this is a tool truck. But most of them only have one good seat. The other seat is a 'flip seat' that is usually fabric wrapped around wood and that person has their feet dangling over the step area. 1,000+ miles . 1st the owner couldn't find the truck keys, then they couldn't find the keys for what was blocking in 'my truck.' Lots of calls back and forth before I decide to take it. Finally, after over two hours, the dealer is done inspecting my RV. We've had locations that are done in 15 minutes. So I call the owner of my next truck and let them know it may be a while yet. They still need to inspect the 2nd RV. I'm done, so I walk back and get the car. I had thought I would do that right away and then we saw the trip on the loadboard and have been busy ever since. 6th stop is the Loves for getting my paperwork printed and for food. First I find the email address and forward my trip paperwork. Then I go to Hardee's/Carl's Jr and order food. BB's was easy. Then I ordered chicken sticks, they hadn't made any yet today so there would be a 10 minute wait. So I ordered a ham and cheese, sorry they don't make them anymore ... so I said, I'll just have the smallest cheese burger you have. I ended up with a 'kids cheeseburger.' 7th stop was back at the dealer and BB and I ate in the car. By the time BB was done eating and went back in to the dealer, her paperwork was done and we were free to go. 8th stop was the shipper of the 2nd truck. It was in a residential area about 10 miles across town. We talked a bit to the owner before they left us to do our thing. Then I noticed that the check engine light was on and the back up alarm wasn't working. I call him back to the truck. The light has been on since he got the truck new, 10 miles from the dealer. Back up alarm is sticky, it worked for him and for me since, but not when BB and I were inspecting. I had to call dispatch and they had to call the buyer about the check engine light. In about two minutes they called back, go. 9th stop was back at the Loves for fuel and scale. The low fuel light was flashing and fuel at the TA was $10 cheaper but by now we were watching the time. Once I fueled, I scaled. I wanted to know for sure the weight. :( It is 1,000# over what is needed for chains. At first we talk about options. Then BB leaves to return the car to the airport. Oh, this step van has two good seats so BB will be riding with me. The bad news is the person who handled returning the car in Grand Junction did something wrong so now she needs to deal with that. Our car from last week still has not been returned in their system so BB took the time waiting for me to deal with that. Today she got someone who could/would and did something about it. But before one problem was cleared, another was taking it's place. While we were waiting at Loves in the parking lot, another tool truck guy comes over to talk. He knows the driver I picked this unit up from and has a slightly different story. I finally decide to go and get chains/tire socks. they do sell them here at Loves. Likely cheaper at WalMart if they have them. Not cheap, almost $300. For something I will never use because we can't install them. And ... they did not have the correct size so I bought what they did have. The law is that we 'must carry.' But we are driving a different truck every week, I'm not going to carry eight sizes of chains with me at all times just so I can show the officer that I have the correct ones for that day. After picking BB up at the airport, finally, at 2 PM local, we are ready to go. Truck does 65 mph with no issues. Ride is not too bad. Mirrors aren't great, too much reflection off the sides of the van. 10th stop is the rest area in Glenwood Canyon. Just a few miles before last light ... I realized that I ... I ... had been driving without my lights on. Running lights were on so I had some headlights but no dash lights or tail lights. Opps. 11th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Wheat Ridge. It is last light. We walk two blocks to get food at the Taco Bell. For some reason everything around here has six foot high spiked fences. Load board US - 105 IA -0- WI - 3 MN We have two days to get the next 1,000 miles. We plan on dropping Friday. What happens after that is much talked about. IA still has no work. Going home from the drop is either one very long day or an extra hotel and rental car day. It will be the weekend so can't pick up extra work. We'll see, things can and do change. .. the trip continues HERE |
